San Ignacio, Belize - Burns Ave is Main Street San Ignacio, site of such travelers' institutions as Eva's Restaurant and Hannah's. The former is the place to meet up with other travelers and get the lowdown on expat gossip. The latter is the place for Hannah's spicy ginger rum shrimp and a cold Belikin beer.
Burns Ave is lined with tour operators and souvenir shops, testament to the fact that San Ignacio is an excellent base from which to make excursions into the Cayo District -- as I have been doing for the past few days.
Cayo is kind of the Wild West of Belize. Covered with jungle, woven through with rivers and dotted with Mayan ruins, it is a no-brainer for hikers, canoers, birders, archaeologists, sperlunkers and other explorers. At the end of the day, many of them make their way back to San Ignacio to rest up for tomorrow's adventure.
But San Ignacio is not one of these towns that exist only for the tourists. It has a very positive local vibe, with a bustling market and a steady influx of immigrants. Residents are mestizos, Mayan and Garifuna, as well as a bunch of free-spirited expatriots from Europe and North America. They are easygoing and outgoing.
Sure, they might try to make a buck off you. But there is no hard sell. And they are just as likely to engage you in a discussion about an upcoming election, the spiritual benefits of practicing Buddhism or the best way to catch minnows for fishing bat -- all conversations I had yesterday.
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