We’ve made it!

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Well, first impressions of this place - it is incredibly breathtaking. I honestly don’t think I have sat and look at one lot of scenery for so long and not felt like I had taken enough in.
We arrived into Belize City at 12pm local time and headed off to the water taxi to take us to San Pedro and onwards to Sarteneja in the Corozal district where we are now. It was beautiful down by the dock, the boat coming in and out, children jumping off buildings into the refreshing water, me and Chad in jeans from near freezing Kentucky weather swallowing as much water as possible.
The boat was crowded on the near 1.5hr trip to the island of San Pedro, but we scored a great spot near an exit with the cool sea breeze cooling us down and wind blowing through our hair. The local people are a mix of Mayan Spanish and African/Caribbean and are incredibly friendly, approachable and thankfully speak English so we can get by without issue.
We had a quick dash across San Pedro island as the boat arrived at 2.55pm and our next boat was leaving at 3pm from the other side of the island, and was the last departure of the day. Fortunately we made it and met some kind folk from El Paso and a man from Vancouver who had just brought some land in Sarteneja. He was also kind enough to give us a lift to the backpackers when we arrived since we had no idea where we were heading.
After checking in and smothering ourselves in much needed bug spray we headed out to get some dinner and see the small town. Sarteneja is a small fishing village in the north of Belize. Population ranges from 1000 - 3500 depending on who you talk too. We had dinner at a little restaurant out of a man;s house by the water. Chad had some delicious snapper and has already eyed up the conch for next time. The local Belizean beer, Beliken, also went down very very nicely. We had a great chat with Ritchie the owner about the area, history and Belize itself. He’s invitied us along to the local New Year celebrations (Christmas celebrations went onto 5am, so we better get some practice in) on thursday with much food, beer and dancing. Should be a good time.
The backpackers we’re at is Backpackers Paradise, a super no-frills place just outside of town. There are 4 cabanas, literally a wooden building, mosquito netting and a double bed. There are fruit trees for our selection, and a little restaurant onsite, which is apparently good as the local’s also come here. The bugs do love it out here, but hopefully we can combat that well. But it’s cheap and that’s what we’re after and we can consider it good business research for the future for us.

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