Blogs from Ambergris Caye, Belize Barrier Reef, Belize, Central America Caribbean - page 5

Today we got up and packed up all our stuff. We got a ride into town from Theo. She dropped us off right by the bus stop and told us about a small bakery to try if we wanted some snacks for the bus ride. We picked up a couple of pastries and waited about 5 minutes for the bus to show up. It was an express bus to Belize City which was a much faster ride than the one we took going into San Ignacio. It only took about 2 hours to get to Belize City, and made only a few stops as opposed to stopping every 10 feet or so. When we got to the bus station we took a taxi to the water taxi station. We bought our tickets for all our water ... read more

Its hard to imagine how exactly things will work out when I move to Belize in May. Sure, Ive been there five or six times in the last two or three years, but Ive never stayed longer than 3 weeks at a time... and Ive never been on the island longer than 10 days or so. Im so lucky that I know people living there that I can ask for advice before I go ahead and make any uninformed decisions. If it wasnt for the knowledge of others, I probably would have found an apartment online and wound up in a dump with a dead beat landlord when I get down there. My emotions about the move are all over the place - some days I cannot wait to get out of PA and away from ... read more

Wow! Wow! Wow! is all I can say!! Absolutely loving where we are, on the island of Ambergris, in the town of San Pedro in the Belize Barrier Reef. The Barrier Reef here is the 2nd largest in the world after the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. We arrived here on the 7am ferry from Corozal after staying there for our first night in Belize. It's exactly what I imagined a tropical paradise to be like; crystal clear blue-green waters, white sand, coconut trees everywhere. But it's much more than that, it's the great food, relaxed, laidback atmosphere and most importantly the great friendly people. Everyone is so helpful and friendly and we seem to know half the people on the island after only 3 days; just stopping to say hello to someone here, waying at ... read more

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, ... read more

Another day another bus journey and border crossing. Fortunately the journey from Tikal to Belize was only 5 hours and the bus was relatively empty. We had the first two seats which always gets you some extra leg room and we were both very comfortable. The border stop was a bit of a pain as we ended us joining the wrong queue and then at the back of the right queue. It is frustrating at times especially when you a bit tectchy from the heat. We checked out of Guatemala after a long wait and then headed off to get stamped into Belize. We could not see our bus but figured it was waiting the other side. The lady stamped us into Belize (hoorah we got a stamp) and we trudged back to teh bus with ... read more