Belize City

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On our return to Belize City we played it safe and checked into a hotel called Chateau Caribbean. Now it sounds grand and looks very colonial from the outside but it was in need of a bit of paint inside but it was a great place to stay - a room almost as big as our flat and probably the biggest we will see this trip so on the blog is a photo of half of it before we trashed it and turned it into a laundry room.

Belize City is one rough place and certainly you only go there if a) you are on a cruise ship or b) you need to catch a bus across land or a ferry out to the islands. After turning up early for our bus to Guatamala we then heard we had a 3 hr delay as the bus had not been allowed to cross the border as none of the tourists on board had the right visas. No big deal so we asked for advice on where to go as we knew it was mega dodgy and the guy we spoke to said go to the cruise village as if we go elsewhere we risk mugging. Why not we though - the cruise village we had seen from the water and it looked kind of cute so after a short walk and much hassle from locals touting their goods we went through the security area where we had to part with our passports to be let in. Oh my god - once we were in I can safely say it has convinced me that I am definitely 20 years too young for a cruise. It was like flipping disney in there for day trippers from ships with a million shops and a million middle aged americans spending 5 times the going rate for a t-shirt / rum cake etc.

We sought the comfort of a bar called the Wet Lizard and as we munched on some final Belizean pies we heard the most bizarre conversation. Clearly this group of americans had jumped off the shuttle boats and straight into the bar but the discussion was basically a debate on which country they may be in. Honestly this disney zone was covered with every type of souvenir you could possibly want all plastered with Belize and these guys needed to get a map out! One thought they were in Mexico and finally they narrowed it down to Belize - of course we felt no urge to help them along... The bar was covered in grafitti sp we added our names and maybe in 20 years time we will come back to find them again, maybe not!

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Photos

Chateau Caribbean
Our room before we trashed it and turned it into a mobile laundry

Chateau Caribbean
Somewhere safe for the night in Belize City

View from the Cruise Village
Locals coming in on their boat - behind us disney for cruise day trippers...