Belize - crossing the border

As the ferry from Puerto Barrios in Guatemala wouldn't take the car, we had to make it to Belize in another way. That meant driving around, and see parts of Guatemala that were supposed to be for later.

No worries, we did this, and crossed the border the smoothest way so far. And entered a different world. We left Latin America and entered the Caribbean. The language was now English, along with a long list of other languages as Creole, Chinese, various Indian languages and a few Mayan. Spanish is also spoken. The population of Belize is about 400,000. Yep, not even half a million. The capital city is Belmopan, with all its 25,000 inhabitants and as many cars. The biggest city, Belize City, which is famous for being dangerous with areas best avoided, has 64,000.

Suddenly there were no particular security installations around people's houses, they were simply on a lawn with a lot of open space around.

The roads are very good, just as the custom official at the border assured us. There is no reason to worry too much about security, or at least no different from any other place. We drove to Belmopan and planned to stay two nights. It ended up three as both of us got a stomach upset, probably from breakfast cheese the last day in Guatemala.

We had wanted to enter with the ferry between Puerto Barrios and Punta Gorda, so that we could drive through the whole county. Now we drove south all the way to Punta Gorda, spent a night there and then set out to see the whole country. There is only one road, and there is nothing much to see along it, but if we hadn't gone we wouldn't have known.

The next day we went back north, and stopped by Hopkins which the people in Belmopan had recommended as a nice resort place. It needs more development to be nice, so we decided to carry on to Belize City.

The road was good but the scenery was very monotonous and in parts a bit sad. The whole ride took about four hours. Staying in Best Western Hotel in Belize City set us back about USD175 a night without breakfast. The range of places where we stay is wide!