Would you Belize it, yerr man we are in Belize. I need to stop speaking Spanish and get with the local lingo.

From Flores it was another 4am rise to catch the bus to get us to the border before the queues. The early morning mist cast a beautiful viel over the surrounding wetlands.

By 8am we were at the border and 10 minutes later through - by god that was easy. However the bus took 30 minutes to reappear. It was one of the nicer borders we have crossed. There was even a sign indicating that they want you to flush the toilet paper after it has been used (Guatemala can be different).

The countryside has that caribean feel to it, bright wooden houses on slilts dotted either side of a smooth road. The typical signs painted on walls, and hanging down in towns at first glance looked the same as in Guatemala but had been magically transformed into English.

We were dropped off in Belize city next to the port for the islands, most people avoid Belize city itself. The port was quite attractive it had a Venice feel to it with wooden poles to moor your boat. We had some time to kill so I got a coffee and had a chat with the locals about the weather (it was raining). The taxi driver said in a yerr man way that we will get two days of rain (more about this later).

The boat took us out of the rain clouds and into sunshine. The water went turquiose, it felt good. We got to the tiny Caye Caulker island without any hitches and walked down the white sandy street next to the beach and the Caribean sea. We were looking for somewhere cheap to stay. We heard a shout "have you just got here", I pointed to our rucksacks and said "yep" to this middle aged western woman. She soon added well most people are leaving due to the hurricane on direct course for Belize. The thought of paying for a boat to go back was not appealing and we had some time to decide what to do. With the suggestion to check it out on the Internet I bid her farewell and carried on our search for a place.

We found a cheap but really nice place that had a wide balcony on the beach (blog picture is the view we have). On the far end of the balcony was a couple of guys that looked like storm spotters and they had a laptop. I don't know if they were spotters but they didn't take long to bring up the official hurricane prediction web site and explained what all the charts meant. The hurricane was off Honduras and was currently a category 1 (5 being the strongest). It was predicted to hit Belize city at 1am Monday. Hurricanes can change course but the fact that it still had to cross a lot of very warm sea meant it could easily intensify.

The owner from where we were staying then came up to see what we were going to do about the hurricane. They were removing everything from the downstairs rooms, however when asked said they were staying put.

Some rumours about a hurricane shelter from some Aussie girls we met on the boat got me out for a walkabout and a chat with the locals. I took the camera to ensure that I have at least some pictures before the storm. I headed to one of many wooden jetties in the hope of getting maybe the last pictures of where we were staying. The clear water was lovely and warm, I even kept my shoes off for walking down the sandy main street afterwards.

I spotted this old local looking guy with white hair. He confirmed that the shelter was on the mainland and added that the school is where the locals go to be safe. He and the numerous locals all said there was nothing to be worried about. The locals however appear to be almost as mad and as layed back as those in Vanuatu. We even had a guy cycling past shouting something about a hurricane party. Another raster guy would cycle up and down singing poetry, I love this place already.

After a siesta, we headed out for something to eat. Of course the conversation around the sports bar was about the hurricane. The local barmaid said that they previously had a category 3 and was not worried if it didn't get higher than this (and no one died then). She said that the last boat out would be 10am tomorrow. However from what I have heard about Belize city I am not sure If I would rather take my chances with the hurricane.

The plan is to check on the hurricane early tomorrow, and make a decision - do we stay or do we go?