From the Pacific to the Caribbean - Mexico to Belize

After literally melting ourselves in the intense heat of Mexico’s Pacific coast we headed east on a 12 hour bus journey across the mountains up to a beautiful old colonial styled town, 2100 metres up called ‘San Cristobal De Las Casas’. The climate here was pretty much perfect - sunny with a fresh breeze during the day, & something actually resembling mildly cold in the evenings - after the heat of Puerto Escondido this was a welcome relief.

One of the things that is definitely a theme in Mexico is their love of really loud music, played through completely knackered speakers with more emphasis on the distortion than the music…San Cristobal was no exception on this front - & whilst it does have a certain innocent charm in some instances, Pink Floyd played at full volume through speakers that really should’ve been binned several years previous whilst you’re eating breakfast first thing in the morning is enough to test anyone’s patience!

San Cristobal was a really cool place, very laid back, full of indigenous tribes of people all selling their handy crafts in the daily markets, beautiful architecture surrounded by stunning mountain scenery - we had some fun sampling a few of the local Tequila’s in a bar that had saddles with stirrups as bar stools - very funny!

After spending a few really nice days in San Cristobal we jumped on another 13 hour bus ride heading East towards the Yucatan Peninsula - quite a stunning drive across the mountains, passing one of the largest Mexican Mayan ruin sites called Palenque. The trip was made a little more interesting by the addition of a couple of military check stops - one group of military doctors getting on the bus checking people out for swine flu symptoms (thankfully there was no one on our bus that qualified), & later army check stop checking for drugs - again, no one qualified on our bus so we all moved on, arriving at the Mexico/Belize border at around 1am, only to find that there was no transport available on the Belizean side of the border save for a dodgy Belizean immigration official who offered us a ride into the nearest town for $30USD - due to the fact it was less than 10 miles away we decided out of principle we wouldn’t take him up on his kind offer…so we waited 6 hours for the first bus to turn up at 7am…Still, we befriended a Belizean military medical officer who was posted there to check people out for Swine flu on entry into the country (which consisted of a few questions - have you got a sore throat? Have you got a headache? Body aches? Fever? - answer no to all of the above & you’re through…) - he was bored out of his mind as apart from us there was literally no one else crossing the border that night, so he was filling us in on all the do’s & don’ts of various places in Belize & Guatemala.

When the bus finally arrived (an old hand-me-down disused American school bus) - we headed to a town called Orange Walk - & found ourselves back in the same intense heat again that we thought we had escaped in Mexico. From here we took a really cool jungle river boat tour up a crocodile infested river, surrounded by vultures, iguana’s, monkeys (we had 2 monkeys actually get in our boat with us) & a whole host of other wildlife - 2 hours up river to an ancient Mayan ruin site called Lamanai in the middle of the jungle. With the full on wide brimmed hats we were all sporting it all felt very Indiana Jones, there was hardly anyone else at Lamanai due to most tourists being scared off by the swine flu threat (even though Belize has had no reported cases so far), so we pretty much only shared the site with the howler monkeys that were chilling out in the trees above us. Really good day.

We then moved on to Belize City where we spent a night - didn’t bump into Ross Kemp filming a series of his ‘Gangs’ program thankfully - then caught a boat out to the Cayes to spend a couple of days chilling out on Caye Caulker, a beautiful Caribbean island that is just a mile or so away from the Belizean barrier reef which stretches for about 180 miles, second only in size to the Australian barrier reef. We took a really nice sail boat ride out with an old local guy called Juni - who actually built his own boat, for a snorkelling trip around the reef where we swam with nurse sharks, sting rays, turtles & a multitude of other beautiful marine life. Another really great day.

We then headed south towards the Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary, in amongst the area where there are a large population of Jaguars (the animals, not the cars…). We stayed in an old fishing village called Hopkins that was home to the Garifuna people of African descent - renowned for their tribal drumming style music & laid back approach to life. They certainly lived up to their reputation on both fronts - there was a constant rhythm pulsing through the town day & night & the people were so laid back that the local bus that took the people of Hopkins onto the next town literally stopped every 20 metres to pick up passengers & carried out a tour of the entire town to ensure that they gave every household in the town the opportunity to be picked up from directly outside their own front door, because walking to one or two designated spots was all a little bit too much like hard work. Can‘t imagine that going on in Blighty somehow!

We took a combination of buses, hitching rides & taxis from Hopkins to the Cockscomb wildlife park, where unsurprisingly we didn’t see any Jaguars - I mean, who in their right mind would be out strolling around the jungle in the mid day sun when there is a shaded palm that you could be resting under….what is it they say about mad dog & English men?!? However it was all made worthwhile by a really refreshing swim in a waterfall in the middle of the jungle, & happening upon an old plane wreck in the jungle covered by vines & general overgrowth.

We spent one final night in Hopkins in our ramshackle beach front accommodation that we found we were sharing with a variety of insect life - including some enormous cockroaches & army ants. Claire & Leanne quickly drew up a ‘Memorandum of Responsibilities’ & designated me the responsible group member to deal with Cockroaches & spiders, Claire has committed to dealing with any encounters with rats & mice we may have, whilst Leanne has taken on the task of addressing any situations we may have with large mammals including jaguars and sharks, & also possibly helping out with some ant duties…something tells me I got the raw end of that particular deal!

We got another rickety old bus ride east to west across Belize & are currently sat in a town called San Ignacio on the Belize / Guatemala border, from where today we head into Guatemala - first stop in Guatemala is the ancient Mayan city of Tikal. On the whole Belize has been really good, if somewhat overpriced - largely due to the fact that it is quite a popular American holiday destination, & while they are willing to pay the price, people will charge the price. Considering Belize is an ex-British colony as well there is a remarkable lack of any sign of British influence, i.e. no architectural evidence, no real infrastructure to speak of - the only evidence is a good education system that is in place here, & the fact that most people speak English, as well as Spanish & Creole. Bye for now!