68 hours of Belize

April 28-30, 2016

My time in Belize was short lived. I spent a total of 68 hours there, spread between parts of 4 days. I was running short on time before my flight home, and was way more stoked on the things I was looking at to do in Mexico, so I decided to push on through Belize with just one real stop.

To get there from Honduras I took a bus across the border into Guatemala, another bus to the nearest port town, Puerto Barrios, and from there a boat to Punta Gorda in Belize. That also meant I logged another day crossing two international borders in one day, the other time being Honduras which I crossed to get to El Salvador.

The boat ride

From Punta Gorda I stamped through immigration and managed to chase down the noon bus as it made a loop through the city before leaving on the road north. I got off two hours later at the crossroads to Hopkins and hitch hiked into town. It was a beach town, though the beach was only about 3 feet of sand before the water started. I had a shower and some food and made a big pile of dirty clothes to wash.

The next day I bused and hitched my way into the Cockscomb Jaguar Reserve a couple miles down the road.

It gets its name from the jaguar population, but you're unlikely to actually see one. I went for the hiking instead.

Up the trail I went, gaining elevation and sweat.

Resting benches were needed, the trail got pretty steep

I had part of my yogurt and peanut butter lunch at the top and enjoyed the view.

From the top a small trail went down the back side of the hill. 15 minutes down the trail was a lovely waterfall and swimming hole, which I took advantage of.

The stream that went downhill from the waterfall pool.

The pool was cool enough that I could still feel the temperature after swimming for a little while. I got so much better at the cold water thing! It also had small fish in it that would nibble if you stayed still for too long.

On my way back out I stopped at a plane wreck just off the main road out of the reserve. It was just as advertised. A plane used for monitoring jaguars with collars went down in a rain and thunderstorm while taking off from a landing strip nearby.

The plane was pretty cool, all covered in moss and leaves, slowly being reclaimed by the forest.

And of course I had to take a selfie

I hitched with the same tour group back out to the main road, and caught a bus back to town. A shower, some food, I folded my clean laundry from the washing machine, and bed.

The next day I got a ride north with Andy, another guy staying at the hostel. He was headed in his rental car up to Belmopan, which was much more enticing than a 7am bus to get out of town.

We stopped for a moment at the beach so he could take some footage with his drone. The kids around were thrilled.

A third guy heading north caught a ride too, and we had a nice ride. We stopped at the best ice cream place in Belize, and also to visit a friend of Andy's. The old guy was quite the character, building a giant tower on his property with the intent to turn it into a bar that would get tourists with the view. It did have a great view of the valley.

My view from the back seat. Yes, that's the size of the main highway through Belize.

Typical house along the side of the road.

From Belmopan (capital city, about the size and feel of Leavenworth) I caught a bus to Belize City (not the capital, but the size and feel of one) and then to Corozal right before the border. It was about 7pm then so I found a hotel and spent the night rather than trying to navigate the border to Mexico in the dark.

The crossing the next morning was quick and easy and shortly I was in Chetumal, ready for my next adventure.

Welcome to Mexico! My last land border crossing for a while.

Another note about Belize is the official language is English. However there's lots of influence from the native Garifuna language and Criol, so its heavily accented usually and I could still only understand a quarter of what people were saying. It was unsettling after 9 months of Spanish to be speaking English again, but still not be able to understand what was supposed to be my native language. I was happy to escape into Mexico where I could understand everything much easier.