Into Belize

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April 17, Friday

Packed up and on the way to the Belize border. We rolled up to the Mexican authorities, and had to stop and pay 200 more pesos. I'm not sure if that was to get out of the country, or to allow us to return since he did stamp my paperwork "dos entradas" and told us we wouldn't have to pay anything on our return. Across the river we were hailed to the side of the road at the "Auto Insurance" shack. Belize requires you to buy their own liability insurance, $20 USD or $40 Belize Dollars (bz). Turns out that the Belize dollar is mandated as twice that of the US dollar. At least it's easy to figure out the exchange rate. Also interesting is that US money is completely accepted in Belize, in fact they like it better, because apparently there is a bit of a black market in exchange rates, at a much better deal for the Belizians than what the official rate is. We met a guy named Eddie who knew Henry Mensas, the "taxi driver" mentioned to us by Carla, one of Carmen's friends, who turned out to be the taxi company owner. For a "price" he agreed to show us where to find him. I figured since the guy didn't ask for money up front, I could trust him so we agreed to a price. He hopped on a bus to Corozal Town, and we continued to immigration and customs, first having to stop at the de-lousing station where a guy with a hose sprayed Bear's tires. I'm not sure if Bear appreciated that or not. Next we had our passports scrutinized and stamped, the bike checked over, insurance verified, and eventually 30 to 40 minutes later, allowed to continue into Belize proper with the admonition that it would cost us $18 USD each to get back of the country. The road to Corozal Town was like a secondary county road in a poor county in the US, occasional potholes, but not too bad overall. Once in town, we met up with Eddie, who jumped in a taxi and led us to Henry Mensas. Henry told us the boat to San Pedro, on Ambergris Caye left at 3:00, and since it was still pre-noon we had several hours to kill in Corozal Town. We rode back into town, walked up and down the street, stopped in a shop and asked where we could find some coffee. R & D's restaurant turned out to be a great little place, Rick, the owner has pictures up on the walls of most of his out of town customers, and the coffee and the watermelon juice were both excellent. Rick talked to us at length, and dissuaded us from entering Guatamala. We had been thinking about exiting Belize west of San Ignacio and riding through Guatamala on the way back into Mexico, but I'd been doing a little checking and things were looking very questionable. Rick explained that there were feuding lawless groups and "lawless" military and police even, and they did not hesitate to shoot strangers - or each other - in cold blood, as they drove along the road, then take whatever they felt was of value. He informed us " I'm a full blooded Belizian, and I'm afraid to go into Guatamala" so we've made the obvious decision to return to Mexico at the same spot we left it. At 2:00 we parked Bear behind Henry's house, covered it, packed some things into my duffle bag, and got a ride in one of Henry's taxi's to the boat dock. On to the boat, and a 2 hour ride across the way to San Pedro, Ambergris Caye (pronounced - key - ). Once there, we hopped in a taxi and they took us to the Banana Bay Hotel, which turned out to be too expensive, and the only room they had was only available for one night anyway. Next stop was Coconut Caribean Hotel, which was a better price, and we got the room for two nights. We took a shower, took a walk, had some supper at the connected restaurant, listened to an amazingly good blues band, and hit the sack.

April 18, Saturday

Up fairly early (for us) and out for a walk in search of coffee. I had found a place on the internet last night, but we didn't find it after much walking, so we returned to the hotel for coffee and breakfast. A walk downtown followed, with much stopping in shops, and much purchasing of stickers, clothing and jewelry. Then back to the hotel to hook up with the guys taking us out for snorkeling on the reef. The barrier reef that actually starts near Pensacola FL USA, continues past Belize in an almost unbroken state, and is the second longest reef in the world, next to the one in Australia. We hopped off the boat in 3 feet of water, amid turtles, nurse sharks, barracuda and a myriad of smaller colorful fish all playing in amongst the governmentally protected coral reef. The second stop had me over the side while the skipper threw chum in the water, and I got to truly swim with the sharks, manta rays and huge groupers and jacks ! After viewing some startlingly amazing coral formations, we all re-embarked and headed back to shore. Wow. Another quick shower, and a taxi ride downtown, more shopping and then supper at Sunset Grill where they hand feed the huge, almost tame, Tarpons. This was the second best dinner of the trip. We both had snapper, Deb's was baked and mine grilled with white wine, basil, cream sauce and mozzarella cheese. Key lime pie and coffee for desert made this a night, and a day, to remember for sure. Tomorrow we hop on a little airplane, fly back to Corozal Town, pick up Bear and head south to Palencia, Belize.

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Comments

[mcdog]

Ambergris, jewel in the sun
We were on Ambergris Caye for a few weeks a couple of years ago. Had a great time, even considered buying a business there but got the impression that tourism was not really thriving on the island at the time. We left a few posts on http://baldparrot.com