After one night in Placencia we had to be up early to catch the 6am bus to our final stop in Belize, San Ignacio as it was the only direct non stopping service a day. We caught the bus but it ended up being a local bus which meant massive overcrowding (3 people sharing 2 seats meant a seriously numb bum at the end), it stopping EVERYWHERE and having to change buses at the capital Belmopan! The buses are actually ex school buses from the USA (basically when they're not road worthy in the states they're handed over!). Although not the comfiest journey of our lives it was incredibly scenic and I found myself listening to music whilst staring out the window for 4 hours as we drove past miles of banana, coconut and orange trees, crossed beautiful rivers and were surrounded by lush mountains. The weather was a constant flow of rain, thick cloud and then bright sunshine....we were definitely heading inland and into the rainforest!

We arrived into the bustling market town of San Ignacio (in the mid west of Belize) which hugs the Macal river, dumped our bags at our cute guesthouse and then went to a great diner serving all day Belizean breakfasts called Pops (Pops is the guy who runs the joint and looks exactly like Father Christmas!). A chilled out day walking around the town was followed that evening with some incredible chilli margaritas (see we can mix it up!) in a lovely bar in town. We sat at the bar and chatted to the barman and heard all about his country which was fascinating. Belize has a tiny population of only 350,000 people so when we told him the city (not country) we lived in at home had a population of over 8 million his eyes nearly popped out of his head! Although huge population differences, we discovered both Belize and the UK (London especially) are made up of so many different cultures, nationalities and religions which we all agreed we loved about the places we lived. We had noticed in Belize and especially San Ignacio how many Chinese people there were. Apparently the Belizean government were selling citizenship for a number of years and due to not having restrictions on the number of children you can have in Belize this was of great appeal to the Chinese who wanted more than their restricted 2 children. I found it really interesting that everyone labelled what they and other people were e.g. Indian, Afro Caribbean, Chinese, Mayan, Mexican, French, English.....Coolie even being an everyday and not derogatory term in the country (our barman of Indian and Jamaican descent called himself this). This seemed strange at first and like they were labelling and not accepting each other, but what became apparent over the next 2 days was this was about pride, history and heritage, and there is absolutely no racism whatsoever in the country (honestly non existent which was so refreshing).

Next day we were up early for a full day of adventure. First up was zip lining which was a lot of fun (we missed you this time Dad and Fi!). We then went Cave Tubing which basically involves hiking for about 30 minutes through the rainforest before jumping on a rubber ring and tubing down the Caves Branch River through spectacular underground cave systems that have been formed over 8 million years, and which the ancient Mayans regarded as a sacred underworld and home to many powerful gods. One of the caves we went through was just under 1km in length and although we had head torches we switched them off quite often just to be in the pitch dark. Was a little scary but absolutely breathtaking experience.

Final night in San Ignacio and we headed to a local institution which makes amazing Indian Belizean fusion food using the meat from the owners farm. Keith ordered the spiciest dish he's ever eaten which if you know how much Keith can handle spice will give you a pretty good idea as to how hot this vindaloo was! The restaurant was rammed and we ended up sitting outside at a bar which looks into the restaurant through a large window. Basically for me as a massive people watcher this was the best seat in the house as far as I was concerned! We got chatting to the couple next to us who lived on the island next to where we'd stayed in north Belize and had moved there 2 years ago from the USA. Marcos was from San Ignacio though and grown up in the town before moving to the States in his 20s. We chatted over dinner and wine, again finding out so much about this great country. It was so interesting to hear about the British influence here. Belize has been independent for 33 years (6 days before I was born!) but is still part of the commonwealth and apparently whenever anything goes wrong in the country they call on the UK and according to Marcus and Karen we always come running to their side (which I was pleased to hear!). The UK have gifted bridges to San Ignacio and inspired road infrastructure design such as roundabouts and sleeping policemen! The Queen (a very young attractive looking one!) still features on their bank notes and the elder generation especially show huge respect and appreciation for the monarchy. Marcus told of when the Queen visited last in 1994 and it was a huge deal to the country, as was also the case when Harry visited in 2012 (although apparently the older generation were not happy with his Vegas antics the weeks prior.....but the younger generation who are not royalists loved it!). All in all between the food, people watching and company we had an incredible last evening in Belize.

The next day we waved goodbye to San Ignacio and Belize and headed to the border to cross into Guatemala. On the other side we jumped in a taxi with a Canadian couple but I'll let Keith fill you in on that trip with the next entry as I need a drink just thinking about it so going to sign off!

¡Chao!
SM