Belized

The race to complete the border paperwork was on. Our only problem was getting to the insurance office before it closed at 6pm and the office was a couple of hundred metres inside Belize, which meant we had to get everyone and the bikes through before we could get to the office. With the number of people in line in front of us, that was not going to happen. A word in the right border guard’s ear and we were allowed to run down to the insurance office for the paperwork as long as we came straight back by a particular way.

Once we had everything in place we were underway two hours later. By now it was dark and starting to rain. The golden rule of motorcycle travel was broken and we had to ride in the dark so as to get to San Ignacio to find accommodation. Taking our time, we rode past people walking in the dark, cyclists riding into the oncoming traffic and cars with no lights. It was deliberately slow travel but we soon found somewhere to stay and with a burger and beer in the belly it was off to bed.

Next day we headed for Belize City. With daylight came the view of a new country. Belize being an ex British colony, everyone spoke English, which was hard to get to grips with as we kept answering in Spanish. The language is Creole. You can pick out some words, but it is near impossible to understand any of it. A large portion of the population are of African slave decent, so are very much into reggae music, Bob Marley and the Rasta religion. We were not sure if we were in Belize or Jamaica at times as everyone is called "Marn" this and "Marn" that. “Hay marn, you want a taxi marn?” “Good rate, marn.” “Take you where you want, marn.” It was all very colourful and it was also good to recognise good western music again.

The country side is different too. English sounding road names, with a slight Creole twist. Snood Way Lane, Rumbles Road to name a couple and for the first time we started seeing “Don’t Be A Litterbug” signs, not that they made much impact. The houses are small English clapboard caddy shacks, in various states of repair and we were back to travelling on coarse gravel chip tar seal, as we have at home, instead of smooth tar or concrete. The countryside is poor, with very high unemployment and people scratching out a living selling anything they can, no state aid for the population here.

We stopped at Belize Zoo where injured animals of the wild are looked after. Met a Kiwi guy from the Auckland Zoo who was doing volunteer work there on his holiday. He is the one with the snake around his neck. It was an easy place to spend a couple of easy hours poking your way around.

As a new capital was developed inland away from the hurricane prone coast, Belize City has been left to overcome the ravages of hurricanes, but hindered by a lack of money for further development. The ride into the city was a good reminder of safe driving as they had you ride right through the middle of the cemetery, a bit strange. We found a hotel in Belize City on the water front and watched the cruise-liners sail in to disgorge their load of travellers. The main reason we stayed here was we wanted to visit one of the offshore cays and do some snorkelling on the reef. So the next day we headed out to sea and the island of Cay Caulker, not knowing what to expect. Soon we had a guide to ourselves for the day and off we went out to the reef entrance. Three dives in three different places and we had swum with a multitude of different fish. Sea turtles, Conger Eels, Sting Rays, Manta Rays, Groper, Nurse Sharks, other unnameable large fish and a variety of smaller colourful reef fish. Sorry no underwater photos. Annette had her first snorkel experience and is now looking for more. It was a magnificent way to spend the day but soon it was over and we headed back to Belize City slightly redder than we arrived. We can certainly see why these off shore islands are a large attraction for overseas travellers. Hopefully global warming wont destroy them, as they are only a metre above sea level at the most.

We were soon riding to the small country town of Orange Walk. Here was the jumping off point for a three hour jungle riverboat ride to the Mayan ruins of Lamanai, on the way seeing spider monkeys, crocs, turtles and other water fowl. These ruins are smaller and unrestored compared to others, but they have one of the largest facial carvings of all the Mayan ruins in the Americas. We were lucky to get to see it as it is being reburied to stop it’s demise due to the weather. A fibreglass replica is soon to be put in its place. On the boat ride back we passed the Mennonite community of Ship Landing. Strange place to be, just to get away from it all. But now the local tour operators use them as a sort of freak tourist attraction in themselves.

Once again we took to the road and with various routes we were soon at the border ready to enter Mexico. With Joanne on a countdown to fly home from Cancun we had some miles to make. So it was we entered Mexico and our first ever bike luggage inspection. All clear, and we were soon in the land of fast motorways and big American road signs, not to mention big American trucks and big Americans full stop.