Having cruised by and visited some of these countries a couple of times now, I thought it was a good idea to learn the names and locations of the seven Central America countries.
I already had a pretty good idea on where Mexico is, and how it lords over the smaller countries just below it. (The way that Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula juts out like it does gives new meaning to the phrase “cock of the walk.” With places like Cancun and Cozumel situated on the end of that peninsula, the metaphor is complete since both of those places exist mostly to screw tourists out of every dollar that they can. Cozumel is like the Times Square of tourist hells and reminds me of a bad acid trip I once experienced. Cancun I’ve never visited but from what I have heard it’s Ocean City on steroids and that’s enough for me to try and avoid it.)
As for the seven Central America countries located below Mexico, they always seemed like a jumbled up mess of tiny little countries to me. Hell, we have parking lots in the United States bigger than the size of some of these so called countries.
I went looking for a mnemonic to assist me in learning their names and found – My Great Big Elephant Has No Chronic Pain. Go ahead, check it out and it does the trick. Too, a good feature of this little learning shortcut is that it also helps you locate the countries geographically going from north to south.
Overall though, the nicest of the Central Americas that I have visited is Belize.
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| From https://www.facebook.com/search/str/oasis%20fitness%20gym%20cafe/keywords_top |
Among the Central America countries, Belize is unique in that it was a British controlled territory. Somewhere in the historical dance between the Spanish and the Brits trying to rule the world, Belize fell into the Brits’ hands and was actually known as British Honduras. It remained as such until 1973 when it gained its independence and became Belize.
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| Gary and Friend |
Local boy Gary McKay has retired in Belize and is currently building a resort complex there. Due to only being there a short time, Pam and I weren’t able to catch up with him this time around but that makes for a good reason to schedule a return trip to a great place.
Here is an excerpt from Gary’s FB page along with a link to his Oasis Gym and Café site:
Kind of makes me want to retire down there too and maybe open up a Buzzy’s Country Store. Here’s a Buzzy-ish sort of place that I spotted in the northern part of Belize. However, it needs a better front porch to be a country store though, don’t you think?
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| Belizian Buzzy’s? |