So you have to get on a tender to get into Belize City from the ship. We thought heading out an hour before the tour, that we would have enough time. However, it took over 45 minutes to fill our tender and it is an approximate ride of 20 minutes to the port. So we missed the start of the tour. Fortunately, a representative of the tour met us in front of the port. He called ahead and had the van pull over. He then had a "taxi" or "Uber" take us to the awaiting van, about 5 minutes away. There we met our tour guide, Kenton. We were provided a bag of fresh fruit (watermelon, mango and pineapple). It seems that mango are all over Belize City. I have never had a vine ripened mango, the taste was awesome and deep orange of the fruit, we were not use to. We were in a van, with two other couples. Kenton took us around the city, showing us the ultra class, the middle class and the poor class of his city. He took enormous pride in his city and wanted us to see it from all angles, it was interesting. Kenton had advised us, if there was any reason we wanted to stop and take a photo of anything and/or of ourselves, to let him know and he would pull over, which at one point we all took him on his offer. He even help take pictures.
Our first stop was a Rum factory. It was a small little place. Kenton showed us around and explained the history of manufacturing Rum through the years in Belize. There was a free tasting of some of the prepared and unprepared products. My wife fell in love the locally produced Cashew Wine and White Rum, which are not available in the States. After the factory, we were given Chicken Tamales wrapped in a banana leaf (which my Spanish barber gave her approval of, in it's preparation) on a small Styrofoam tray, while we continued our tour. The food was great! Thankfully we had the bags the fruit came in, as there was nowhere to throw the garbage in.
Our next stop was a local ice cream shop. I very much thank Kenton for saving me from falling into a hole cut out in the sidewalk, as I exited the van. You had your normal well known flavors. We both choose the flavors that came from local fruits. Although they were two different fruits, they both had a light vanilla taste to them, interesting.
After this, there was some more touring then back to the port.
It was about a 90 minutes tour and we learned a lot of Belize City from Kenton, and had a great time. Thank you to Belizean Bits & Bites Food Tastings and City Tour in Belize and Kenton.
Side Note: The weather in Belize City is like Florida, where we are from, hot and humid!
Thankfully the van had air conditioning.
And if you are ever in Belize City and order a chicken meal, make sure it is a chicken with wings and not a tail, Thank You Kenton! There are iguanas everywhere, wink, wink!