A bit late writing this blog entry but for completeness here it is !

Belize was always a transition country for us as it rather cheekly put itself inbetween Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras. However it was an interesting experience and was good (in hidesight) to drop off the travellers trail for a while and see some less visited and tourist orientated places.

The day crossing from Mexico to Belize was a culture shock.

In Mexico the roads and buses are excellent, So we were on our 1st class bus from Tulum to the border town, jumped off and had to get a taxi across town to the Belize bus terminal.

We drove only a few blocks but the difference is quite amazing. All of a sudden we were in a dusty chaotic bus ´station´ with loads of old USA school buses looking like they need some repair work done. These are the famous Chicken Buses that we became more familiar with as we progressed through Central America.

So off we go in little comfort, with music blasting out (for some reason we were treated to Wham, A-ha and other 80´s classics)

After a fairly easy border crossing we arrived in the town of Corozal, then progressed to Orange Walk, then San Ignacio via Belize City, each one we will never forget, and not nessecarly for good reasons!

Observations of travel in Belize:

1) The country consists of only 307,000 residents. But within this small amount of people there are around 12 or more different races of people. The variety is quite staggering and they all seem to get on well.

2) The food was nothing to write home about, mainly fried chicken with beans, or dodgy chinese food. Not a patch on Mexico

3) The local (and what appears to be the only) beer in Belize is Belikin, which was rather tasty indeed.

4) The country prides itself on being extremely friendly however we sometimes found them too friendly. Lots of people shout across the street to you and want to talk, even if Dave and Emily are in deep coversation or having a meal in a restaurant, which can be somewhat un-nerving especially at night and if it is a gang of drunk men (which was quite common)

5) One notable experience regarding friendly locals occured when Dave walked through the towns public park. This park was full of people all chatting away but one bloke on the other side started shouting ´Hey man, hey, hey.....´. Dave didn´t realise he was talking to him (why would he?) so instantly this bloke shouted at the top of his voice and very aggressively ´HEY MAN, DONT WALK THROUGH MY PARK WITHOUT SAYING HELLO... THATS JUST RUUUUDE´ Whereby Dave had to apologise. Maybe its just us, but surely its rude to shout at a stranger minding his own businesss in a busy public park?!

6) We ended up on our first night with two hangers on, these two men saw us when we arrived in town and then when walking past the resturant we were eating at, then took it upon themselves to come in and sit at our table. After alot of talking (and not much eating as a result) they wanted us to give them money for drugs. We of course said no but they kept persisting. Eventually we told them we were going so they followed us to our hotel and said they will come back in a few hours to pick us up and then we can all do drugs together......That night we stayed in the hotel bar out of view!

7) So corozal and Orange Walk (which most of the above refers to) were dodgy but interesting in their own way. When we got the bus further South we noticed the landscape changing from non discrip grasslands to lovely hills, mountains, streams, waterfalls etc. We had arrived in the lovely town of San Ignacio which was a welcome change and helped to redeem this country in our eyes.

8) San Ignacio being all very nice, was made all the more nicer by us meeting our guesthouse owner who had a striking resemblance to Mr. Miyagi (from The Karate Kid) and then meeting the amazing Carlos the Caveman who took us on an awesome cave trek (see photo of us all together)

9) The Belizean currentcy is the Belizean Dollar, however we were very surprised to find a young looking Queen on the notes. The Belizeans love their connection to the UK and even though they seem to be more aligned to the USA, they do enjoy the English link (Belize was a UK territory until independance in 1981) So we were many many miles from home, but still had the Queen on our bank notes. Very nice.

10) Annoyingly though, they quote all prices in Dollars but if your not careful they are actually quoting US Dollars, not Belize Dollars. Generally things cost twice as much if quoted in US Dollars, so you always have to ask ´US or Belize´ to not get stitched up!

So all in all Belize was interesting but we were, in all honesty not that sad to move on..

Next stop, Guatemala.......