Days 59 & 60 - 17th November & 18th November 2005

I woke up on Thursday with the intention of sitting on the beach all day, then using the internet during the early part of the evening before catching an overnight bus to Chetumal, through Belize to Flores in Guatemala. The plan began well, I caught the 9am shuttle to the beach had a swim and sat down to read for a while.

About an hour an a half later the weather had gotten worse (windy and increasingly overcast). When it began to rain I made the decision to get off the beach and catch a bus to Chetumal earlier, use the internet to catch up on the blog, and maybe catch an overnight bus from there. I did the majority of that, apart from the overnight bus. The first (and only) bus to Flores didn’t leave until 6am so I had to spend my last night in Mexico in Chetumal.

It was an early morning for me on Friday, I got up at 4:30am & got a taxi to the bus station just to make sure I didn’t miss the bus. Within 10 minutes of the bus leaving we were crossing the Mexican/Belize border, where I had to pay a mysterious US$20 fee to exit. Don’t ask me why, it seems they just wanted money. As I didn’t have much choice in the matter, I begrudgingly paid up and the bus entered Belize.

I decided not to stop in Belize, but as the bus passed through Belize City I wouldn’t have minded staying for a few days as it looked ramshackle but interesting. The houses were completely falling apart and looked as though they had been trhough one too many hurricanes.

As I had decided not to stop, I was only to be in Belize for the time it took to drive across the country, or at least I should have been. We had a crash about 30km from the Guatemalan border and were held up for a few hours while the police got involved and took statements from the driver etc.

When we reached the Belize/Guatemala border everyone had to pay US$15 for the priveledge of being in the country, regardless of the fact we were only there a few hours. Then the Guatemalan border officials asked/demanded a nominal fee (for themselves I might add). Although it wasn’t much money (Q10 (Q13=GBP1)) I had pretty much had my fill of borders and especially border officails for the day. At least I got some nice new stamps in my passport.

A couple of hours later I arrived in Flores and checked into the cheapest room I have had yet (Q25). This was in a nice big dorm with hot showers and above all, it was clean. After using the shower and having some much needed dinner, there wasn´t much I felt like doing except crashing out. So much for partying!

I have highlighted my route through Mexico in my Lonely Planet guide, and for anyone interested, this is where I went during my time in the country..