Into the Maya Mountains!!!

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I started out in Tulum, just to hang out at the excellent Weary Traveler hostel and get a headstart on crossing the border to Belize the following morning. I ended up crossing with an Australian guy headed to the Cayes, and we ran into a few problems at the border. There should have been no problem -- we left Mexico legally and as the holders of US and UK passports we should have crossed just fine. Unfortunately the man in charge at our time of crossing chose to stop us simply in hopes of us offering to pay to let us into Belize. I refuse to do this, and when asking to speak to his boss he flipped out and among other things threatened to detain me. Honestly, it was hard not to laugh at first, because the man was making ridiculous claims about my Mexican visa and wore dark aviator sunglasses and waved his gun around. Because I guess I kiiiiiiiiind of got an attitude, I mean my tone was totally civil and I was most polite, but I was confidently shooting down each ridiculous point he made, and told him outright in front of everyone else waiting in line I wasn't paying my way through, he told me to leave and if I came back in he'd have me detained for some bs reason. ANYWAY we waited outside the immigration office, being stuck between borders, for about two hours. Finally we saw the boss come in....the taxi drivers showed us his car... and we went straight to his office and after some questions were told we should have had no problem and he gave us our visas. Well, duh, but our visas were for very short periods -- only two weeks.

So we caught another bus and ended up staying in Belize City for the night at the Seaside Guesthouse. It was a pleasant little place... I think only $14 USD a night for a bed in the dorms. Lunch was about $5-6... can't say I like Caribbean style food...stewed pork does not beat salbutes and tacos and empanadas. Belize City itself is smallish for being a capital city.. still too big for my liking. Even the nicest government buildings in town were not impressive to me at all. No one goes out after 10 pm, so me and the guys staying at the guesthouse then played way too many card games that night. I'm rummied out!!

Anyway I headed out sola to San Ignacio, which is about 10 minutes from the border with Guatemala. I really like San Ignacio... it's small, kinda funky, and the expatriate crowd here is SO MUCH cooler than the expats in Mexico. They aren't money/property hungry snobs... they're hardy and seem content to retire in a country that tries hard not to let them make money of any sort. Most are eager to give you their two cents on Belizean business and politics... this goes for locals too. Anyway, I've seen very few backpackers here...but met many volunteers, peace corps people, and English teachers. There's hardly anything to do during the week except hang out at Eva's Restaurant and chit chat. I'm staying here at the Tropicool Hotel on Burns Avenue.... it's 23 BZ dollars, so $12.50 USD. An average lunch here is about $5 or 6 USD. For being so noticeably poorer than Mexico, Belize is awfully expensive. Even the cheap, crowded, uncomfortable school buses used to get from town to town are expensive... It cost $7.50 USD to go from Belize City to San Ignacio. In Mexico that distance would have been about $3.50 and on a nice luxury bus. Oh well, I don't care about the discomfort.

Tomorrow I'm touring the caves Actun Tunichil Muknal through mayawalk tours. It's impossible to see any of the caves in this area without a guide. It is supposed to be great -- pictures will follow!!! I'll be crossing into Guate at Benque Viejo del Carmen (Belize) / Melchor de Menos (Guatemala). There's an Aussie meeting up with me tomorrow and we plan on heading to Flores Guatemala on SATURDAY. Flores is the hub for the TIKAL ruins.

Much love to all of you and I enjoy hearing back through this or by email!! I hope everyone is doing well and not freezing back home!! It's good to be in the Maya Mountains here...

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