Belize via Mexico

---

4 other girls and myself decided to meet up in Belize for some scuba diving. My sister and I, to save money, flew from FL to Cancun first, where we met our friend Sarah at the airport (flying in from Hawaii). We then bussed it to Belize. I am telling our itinerary here, in case this could help someone else planning to take a similar trip.

Wednesday (in Mexico):
Our flight from FL to Cancun was $255 whereas flights to Belize were well into the $600's. At the cancun airport we went to Terminal 2, where the ADO bus stop was. It cost 40 pesos per person (about $4US) to get to the main terminal in the center of Cancun. From there we took a bus to Chichen Itza... I believe it was less than $20.

Chichen Itza is probably one of the best sites to see Mayan ruins. It is one of the new 7 wonders of the world, and definitely worth seeing if you decide to back pack a bit through Mexico.

We encountered a bit of some challenges. For one, my Spanish wasn't excellent and no one spoke English in the center terminal. Secondly, there were no direct buses to Chichen Itza. They leave once daily at around noon. It was already 5pm by the time we got to the main bus terminal. We took a "second class" bus to Piste. Piste is the city just outside Chichen Itza (approximately 2km or so). By second class I mean, there still was nice comfy seats and air conditioner, (which I found to be TOO COLD), but there was no bathroom and it made many stops. It took us about 6 hours to get to Piste. If we caught the bus the next day it is 3 hours... but between us, I didnt feel safe finding a place in the center of Cancun (its not even close to the hotel strip sorta setting)...From Piste we took a $7US cab to our hotel at Hacienda Chichen. We paid $180 a night for the 3 of us.

Hacienda Chichen is where the archeologists stayed when they were discovering the mayan ruins and was on a nature preserve itself. The site was beautiful and the ruins were in walking distance. There was one path we took that led us right into the back entrance. The downfalls of this place were, obviously the price, and that there were alot of bugs in the room since it was surrounded by tropical plants/flowers/etc.

A cheaper alternative would be to stay in Piste and just take a $7US cab to the ruins.

Another alternative is to take the bus from the airport to Playa del Carmen (I dont know the prices or times), stay overnight there, and continue to chichen itza the next morning. There are cheap hostels and hotels, and the place is vivacious. We stopped here on the way home and I felt like I was on Collins in South Beach Miami. There is a bus that goes to Chichen Itza from there,and to my knowledge, I believe its only 2 hours away.

Thursday (in Mexico):
We spent the day touring Chichen Itza Ruins... The entrance fee is approximately $12 US...It is an all day event with such magnificent sights. When it got too hot, we walked back to our hotel and swam a bit in the pool, went into Piste to get some local food, and then made our way back to the Ruins for the night show. Basically what the night show is, is various lights flashed on the pyraminds while they tell the history of the place in Spanish. We were lost and just looking at the lights, but would have liked to know what they were saying. Some people rented translation headsets, but we didnt know about these.

Friday (Mexico to Belize):
We had the hotel arrange for a cab to pick us up at 630 and take us to Vallaolid (not sure if this is the exact spelling)... it was about 45 minutes away from Chichen Itza, and is a main bus terminal. It costed about $20US to get there. We then purchased a bus ticket to Chetumal (which is the border of Mexico and Belize) which cost about $12-15 US. Went through Customs and was then in Corozol (the Belizian border). From there we had to take a Belize taxi for $15 US to the Thunderbolt Water Taxi.

The taxi standard rate is $20, but it is about 4 miles away... so we bartered down to 15.

** Important note to mention: Once we arrived in Belize, the time went back one hour from Mexican time**

There is 2 ferries to Ambergris Caye... one at 7am and the second at 3pm. We caught the 3 pm water taxi and it took 2 hours to get to Ambergris Caye.

Once you get off the water taxi, DO NOT get a cab! The width of the island is only 3 blocks and there are maps on every corner. If you are staying out by the resorts then you will need a taxi bc they are about 18 miles away. However, we had no reservations anywhere, so we just started walking trying to find a place.

We found "Holiday San Pedro" hotel. And it was PERFECT for us. It was cheap (less than $30 per person), super clean, on the beach, with NO BUGS! ... and it was safe. In fact, this whole island was safe in my opinion. I emailed my friends who were flying into Belize city, then meeting us (they took the Thunderbolt water taxi from there to Ambergris Caye),the name of our hotel, and they met us there the next days.

Saturday/Sunday (in Belize)
these were chill days for us. We basically explored the island a bit, kayaked, swam, beached it, went to Fido's (pronounced Fee-doh's) and listened to some live music. The water is the clearest I have ever seen, however, dont expect long white sandy beaches. The beaches are nice, but they dont stretch for miles on end like you would picture they do in the bahamas.

**sidenote: you MUST try a Pupusa when you are in Belize... very cheap local food which is so delicious!

Monday (Belize)
Went diving all day. Dove the Blue Hole, Lighthouse reef, and aquarium reef. The total cost, which included the $40 blue hole park fee, boat ride, lunch, equipment rental, tax and free rum punch on the ride back was $233. Be prepared to swim with lots of bullsharks in the blue hole!!

There are dive shops everywhere in ambergris caye, but we stayed with aqua divers located just down the beach from our hotel. They had the best prices, and we got along really well with the dive masters. They also have a profressional underwater photographer that dove with us taking pictures, that you can later purchase.

**side note: you will read about advertisements about swimming with whale sharks everywhere in belize, but there is only once place to see them... in placencia, belize. And its only during certain seasons, so make sure you do your homework if this is something you really want to do**

Tuesday (Belize)
The group split up on Tues. 3 of the girls went out for 2 more local dives. The cost for that was $65. This included, the 2 dives and equipment. The reason why the blue hole and other 2 dives we did yesterday were more expensive was because it is a longer boat ride away. While they were doing that, my friend Meghan and I decided to snorkel. We paid $30 each for snorkel equipment, park fee, and a boat ride to shark and sting ray alley and hal chen. This was one of my favorite parts of the trip. This snorkelling area is about 10 ft deep and is loaded with sea life. There were so many nurse sharks (herbivores) and sting rays. We saw 3 turtles, barracudas, large green moray eels, and of course many different species of fish.

2 of the other girls went back for a night dive, while the rest of us shopped for souvenirs, etc. On the night dive they saw 2 1/2 foot lobsters, octopus, sharks, and a squid.

Wed (belize)
we all rented bikes for 12US for 24 hours and tried to bike the whole island. That didnt work out according to plan as we didnt expect a downfall of rain and the paved road to end shortly after the foot bridge. We biked to a resort called journey's end and had lunch, and enjoyed the beach a bit there. We then decided to bike back on the beach, which actually was not as hard as i thought it would be.

Thurs(belize to mexico)
Since our flight left on Friday, we had to head back to Cancun on Thurs. There is only one ferry back to Corozol and it leaves at 3pm. We had breakfast on the beach at Estelles (which is Ah.Maze.Ing) and relaxed. Once in Mexico, we took a bus to playa del carmen this time. It was approximately 4-5 hours. We stayed at a hostel (a private room with 2 double beds) for $45.

Friday (mexico)
walked around and shopped a bit for the morning. The took a cab to cancun airport. The cost of the taxi was $40 and took a little more than an hour to get to.

Saturday (back home in the States)
just reminiscing about how much fun we had 😊

---

Photos

Spotted Sting Ray
While having breakfast on the beach in Belize

Comments

[James]

Very Helpful...
Thank you James