Three very tanned Spanish guys...
After sorting out the van we started driving around the wierd country that is Belize.
We left the apparently crime-ridden Belize City and headed down the cost until we ended up in a tiny town called Hopkins.
Having never been to Jamaica I don´t know what it looks like but I am sure it is just like this.
The coast is a single long beach broken by wooden peers and shacks built onto the beach.
The population is an incredible mix of garifuna, spanish and native american. We found a small shack on the beach that was being rented out by night and settled down with the sound of the waves softly crashing beneath the floor of the hut.
This is where we stayed for the night, we spent quite some time chatting with the family that was renting the room and then ravished a plate of fish, banana and rice with great satisfaction.
Finally we went to sleep and prepared for the next day´s trip to Guatemala.
Having never been to Jamaica I don´t know what it looks like but I am sure it is just like this.
The coast is a single long beach broken by wooden peers and shacks built onto the beach.
The population is an incredible mix of garifuna, spanish and native american. We found a small shack on the beach that was being rented out by night and settled down with the sound of the waves softly crashing beneath the floor of the hut.
This is where we stayed for the night, we spent quite some time chatting with the family that was renting the room and then ravished a plate of fish, banana and rice with great satisfaction.
Finally we went to sleep and prepared for the next day´s trip to Guatemala.
We got up early the next day and set out for Guatemala. The jurney was quite incredible as Guatemala is one of only two borders and roads out of the country of Belize.
What is found between these two places though can hardly be considered as a border.
Its more of a patchwork of shacks and people that are more worried in getting you to pay taxes than in actually making sure that they want to let you into their country. Matter of fact they really don´t care who you are, there have no way to check if you´re a multi felon, so they just look at you, stamp your passport and let you through.
Before you do that though, you need to get out of Belize, which for some reason seems to not want tourist to leave and forces them to pay an exit tax...
This is either to stop locals from shopping in the much cheaper Guatemala, or to buy that extension to the west wing of some politian´s villa...
So after fumigating the car, paying entry tax, paying exit tax, paying car tax, paying air breathing tax etc etc we finally set out on what must have been the most wonderful and aweful road man ever conceived.
Calling it road is a bit optimistic, its really a 100km strech of mud which runs from Belize to Santa Elena and which is stomping ground of quite a large amount of local fauna.
Matter of fact we found on the road whilst driving: people, cows, dogs, sheep, pigs, boars, peacocks, a kind of ferret and we finally run over a bat which got stuck in a window wiper.
We were also told that this road was quite dangerous for assaults, so we kept out head and acceleratior foot down and tried to make it as quickly as possible, although it still took over two hours.
One suspicious scene was that of a man carrying what looked like a large bloody amputated human leg, but we didn´t stop to ask to for direction so it may just have been a game of the mind!
What is found between these two places though can hardly be considered as a border.
Its more of a patchwork of shacks and people that are more worried in getting you to pay taxes than in actually making sure that they want to let you into their country. Matter of fact they really don´t care who you are, there have no way to check if you´re a multi felon, so they just look at you, stamp your passport and let you through.
Before you do that though, you need to get out of Belize, which for some reason seems to not want tourist to leave and forces them to pay an exit tax...
This is either to stop locals from shopping in the much cheaper Guatemala, or to buy that extension to the west wing of some politian´s villa...
So after fumigating the car, paying entry tax, paying exit tax, paying car tax, paying air breathing tax etc etc we finally set out on what must have been the most wonderful and aweful road man ever conceived.
Calling it road is a bit optimistic, its really a 100km strech of mud which runs from Belize to Santa Elena and which is stomping ground of quite a large amount of local fauna.
Matter of fact we found on the road whilst driving: people, cows, dogs, sheep, pigs, boars, peacocks, a kind of ferret and we finally run over a bat which got stuck in a window wiper.
We were also told that this road was quite dangerous for assaults, so we kept out head and acceleratior foot down and tried to make it as quickly as possible, although it still took over two hours.
One suspicious scene was that of a man carrying what looked like a large bloody amputated human leg, but we didn´t stop to ask to for direction so it may just have been a game of the mind!
Flores
And finally we made it to Flores, the island in the middle of the lace which Santa Elena is built on. We were drivin around looking for a hotel when we were approached by a Dutch guy on a scooter that told us he was working in a youth hostel, and what a youth hostel it was!
Los Amigos (http://www.amigoshostel.com/) is a must stay hostel for anyone travelling though here, in fact its so good we ended up staying several days of which a couple just spent playing table games and reading. Were were also joined by Teresa, addition no 5 to this section of the jurney and element no 4 of the spanish inquisition. Looks like I still have to hold my own against an ever growing crowd!
Next stop: Tikal, the lost Mayan city
Los Amigos (http://www.amigoshostel.com/) is a must stay hostel for anyone travelling though here, in fact its so good we ended up staying several days of which a couple just spent playing table games and reading. Were were also joined by Teresa, addition no 5 to this section of the jurney and element no 4 of the spanish inquisition. Looks like I still have to hold my own against an ever growing crowd!
Next stop: Tikal, the lost Mayan city
Teresa, Natxo & a pale guy in ¨Los Amigos¨
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