Road to Belize Saturday 19^th September

We left the campsite at Tulum before dawn and without breakfast as we wanted to get on the road and would have breakfast en route. We hadn’t gone far when we saw an Oxxo. 

Oxxo is a chain of convenience stores throughout Mexico and have a close business deal with Pemex the national oil company so that most Pemex petrol stations have an Oxxo. They are often open 24 hours and sell coffee. Since there are several coffeeholics within the group, it was an easy decision to stop for a coffee. Suitably refreshed we were back on the road. Having became familiar with Oxxo, this was to be our last visit as we were heading for the Mexican – Belize border.

We stopped for lunch next to the Bastila de San Joaquen in Bacalar. As we were due to be hotels for the next few days all the fresh food would have to be thrown away if it wasn’t eaten but we packed it up and found a local who was delighted to accept an unexpected windfall.

 

It was also my last chance to add to my collection of different coloured bochos and got a chance to take pictures of two.

 

We reached the Mexican border and leaving was relatively straight forward. Most of us had already paid our exit fee but there was a bank nearby to take payment for the three of us who had flown into DF without pre paying the fee.
 

Next was the Belize border which was more of a challenge. The passengers could fill in the necessary forms and carry their baggage through customs. The bus was a different kettle of fish. As it was a commercial vehicle it needed a permit and the office was closed at weekends. Since Monday was independence day it was a bank holiday and therefore it would be Tuesday before we would be able to get a permit.
 

Therefore Betsy would have to be parked in a secure compound until them and we would have to carry everything we needed for the next three days and hire mini buses to get us to Belize City. Welcome to Belize.
 

It was great to be in a country where everyone speaks English (Belize was a colony formerly known as British Honduras until it gained independence 21^st September 1981 and is now a member of the Commonwealth).

The mini buses took us from the northern border all the way down the country around Orange Walk, passing mainly sugar fields in this flat area, past Crooked Tree and through Ladyville to Belize City stopping en route for a break. Signs in English and a preying mantis.

 

In Belize City we drove straight to the docks and boarded a water taxi that was to take us north to Caye Caulker, a small island along the Meso America barrier reef, the second largest in the world after the Barrier Reef in Australia.

The first island or caye that we passed was St George’s Caye, the scene of a battle between the British Navy and the Spanish fought between 3^rd to 10^th September 1798 in order to preserve the colony as part of the British Empire. We passed several others until we arrived at Caye Caulker.

The Belize flag.

 

Caye Caulker is an island and special as it has a very laid back atmosphere and has been hosting tourists since tourism began. The population of Belize is 327,000 but it hosts two million tourists a year. Caye Caulker is not very big, five miles long and not more than a mile across at its widest point. There are no cars on the island, just bicycles and electric golf carts.

 

We signed into the hotel and found a restaurant to eat lobster. The food was nice enough when it came but the service was poor. We waited a long time for the food and it came in dribs and drabs.We all ordered drinks at the same time but some didn’t arrive until we had nearly finished our food. They will not be getting a thumbs up on Trip Advisor.
Rum is a local national drink so we had a few and marked our spot at the Split Bar. A hurricane came through Belize and it so powerful that it cut the island in two and hence the small channel between the two halves is called the Split.

The Split was created by Hurricane Hattie in 1961 but this only created a channel a few inches deep. It was widened and deepened by hand to allow small craft to cross between the east and west sides without having to go around the whole island. Natural erosion has since widened and deepened the Split to over twenty feet deep allowing larger vessels to use it.

 

We left our own little reminder of our visit at the Split Bar.