After soaking up the sun and ensuring Dani had had her fill of cheap seafood it was time to leave Belize and head to Mexico. Having done the research earlier, we knew it was going to be cheaper (and longer) to head back to Belize City and then take the bus from there to Chetumal (the first town in Mexico) rather than take the quicker but much more expensive ferry that went via San Pedro directly to Chetumal and only took 90 minutes. We jumped on the 7.30am ferry to Belize City (having had one last Jenny Special fry jack) and were soon back on the mainland and heading to the bus station. At the bus station the only person who seemed to know about buses to Mexico was the man at the ADO store who wanted to book us on the very expensive 11am bus to Chetumal and as it was only 9am this didn’t really appeal. I had read a blog that said the Chetumal bus left from the furthest gate in the station so that’s where we planted ourselves. It was lucky that I had read this because at 9.10am up pulled a bus to Chetumal (14 BZD/$7 USD/9.20 AUD) and people were stampeding to get on it, as the next bus wasn’t for another hour. Quickly seeing the stampede we used our backpacks to block people and secure our places on the bus as everyone tried to scramble in front of us (we had officially adjusted to the Latin American way of just pushing instead of the British ‘form an orderly queue’ mentality). Once on we settled into the journey that we believed should only take a few hours in total, however we didn’t even arrive at the border until just after midday. The Belizean border was quick and efficient and after paying our $20 USD (40 BZD/$26.35 AUD) exit fee we jumped back on the bus to head to the Mexican border. Upon arrival, we alighted with our bags and headed inside the building, only to discover there was only one customs officer working and an annoyingly long queue of people snaked around the room. By the time we got through immigration, nearly an hour after arriving, our bus had left. It turned out that this was not common practice as there were enough Belizeans on board, who had clearly done this journey before, were irritated as the bus is definitely supposed to wait for all of us to clear immigration and then continue on to Chetumal. After having our bags scanned (not something we are used to having to do at a land border) we were told that we would have to wait for the next bus to come through. Dreading the thought of having the wait for the bus that was scheduled for an hour later than ours and having to wait for its passengers to clear customs we were pleasantly surprised when a bus pulled up 15 minutes later to take us to our final stop for the day. Figuring we would be pulling up to a real bus station we hadn’t worried when we missed the opportunity to change money at the Belizean border nor when there were no money changers at the Mexican border. Going into a relatively developed country and a big enough city we figured ATMs would be plentiful and easily accessible. When we pulled up to a glorified car park with a snack shack in the middle of what appeared to be the middle of nowhere we started to feel mild concern regarding our lack of useful money. We asked if anyone would change money for us or if there was an ATM nearby…everyone said no and told us that the nearest ATM was a taxi-ride away but not to worry as it would be very cheap. This would have been a fine solution had the source of the need for an ATM in the first place been a total lack of appropriate money! They also said that the best chance for accommodation was about 2km away and if we couldn’t take a taxi we’d have to walk. Knowing that we had to return to the same car park in the morning to take the colectivo to Tulum we didn’t really want to end up so far away. Both of us tiring and starting to despair we made the decision that I would do a quick scout around to see if there was any accommodation near by. Only 2 minutes down the road I found what felt like a little oasis…Posada Costa Azul. It was a roadside hotel and not only did they have rooms (550MX/$37.56 AUD/28.95 USD for a double room with aircon and ensuite) they also said they’d accept American dollars (and it turned out also card). Running back to Dani with my discovery it wasn’t long before we were settled into our room and able to go out and find an ATM without bags. We set off to find the Walmart that was on my map as we had been told at the bus station that this was where the closest ATM was. Only about 100m into our walk, just past the gas station on the main road visible from the bus station was an ATM. How had no one at the bus station known about this ATM?! Knowledge of this would have prevented huge amounts of stress and a concerning spike in my wife’s blood pressure! Money swiftly procured, we continued our journey on to Walmart (as we hadn’t seen a western supermarket in months) to get some food and stock up on some of those comfort items we hadn’t seen in a while! It’s odd the things you realise you miss when you’ve been on the road for a long time. After a really good night’s sleep we got up the next morning and crossed the road back to the bus station. It was here we needed to take our first colectivo to Carillo (90 MX/$6.15 AUD/4.75 USD) and we were on our way within 10 minutes of arriving. In Carillo we were dropped off in a different location to where the colectivos to Tulum were leaving from. Once out of the minivan we were ushered into a taxi to take us to the other station. Surprisingly, it seemed that a taxi to the right station was included in the cost of the colectivo as none of us (including the Mexican passengers) paid the taxi driver when we were dropped off. It was a quick transition and we were soon on our way to Tulum (65 MX/$4.45 AUD/3.45 USD), which was to be our final destination for the next 4 days. Pulling into Tulum I’m not sure it was what either of us had been expecting. A total gringo town on the surface, but everyone was friendly and we had been travelling for 2 days so it would certainly do. Dani set off to find us somewhere to stay and came back quickly with a room for 400MX ($27.30 AUD/21.05 USD) at Hostel Riviera Maya which felt like an amazing deal considering it had a private bathroom and it was definitely peak season so there weren’t a lot of cheap deals to be had. Our first priority on arriving in Tulum was to find some good local food. We have both been looking forward to trying authentic Mexican food since we had started planning the Central American part of this trip and our time was finally here. After checking out a few places we stumbled across a BBQ chicken place that had some amazing looking food for Dani, so she ordered a plate and what arrived was huge. A massive plate of rice, beans, ¼ of a BBQ chicken, salad and the biggest stack of tortillas we’d ever seen. It all looked so good I ended up ordering a vegetarian version. This feast set us back a whole 75 MX ($5.10 AUD/3.95 USD), we were astounded! We had 2 activities that we wanted to do while we were in Tulum. One was to visit the ruins, which are the only Mayan ruins in Mexico located on a waterfront. We found out that you could catch one of the colectivos heading towards Playa del Carmen for 20 MX ($1.35 AUD/1.05 USD) and that they would drop you on the main road about 800m from the ruins, which was by far the cheapest way to get there (we decided to walk back to town but you can flag one of these down in reverse to get back and they will flash their lights at you and stop if they have space in the van). The ruins (70 MX/$4.80 AUD/3.70 USD) are gorgeous and very different to others in the area due to the beachside setting, but make sure you get there early because it becomes quite unpleasant when all the tour groups start arriving around 10.30am. Having spent a good 2 hours wandering around we decided we would walk back to town via the beach…this turned out to be a stupid move as not only was it VERY long but it also put us out in the midday sun walking back with no shade and thus very little reprieve from the heat. This meant that by the time we arrived at the supermarket (about 2.5km away from our hostel) we were knackered but they did have cold drinks and aircon, which was enough to give us the boost we needed to complete the journey back to our hotel. The second activity we had penciled in was a cooking course. Desperate to be able to take the secrets of Mexican cuisine away with us we eagerly signed up to the amazing sounding class run by Rivera Kitchen, despite it being quite expensive ($75 USD/97.20 AUD). We met at the owner’s son’s house in Tulum centre where we were picked up in a taxi and driven to her house about a 15-minute drive out of town. It definitely felt like a good home-style cooking class to begin with as we were warmly welcomed by Lily who asked us all about our previous Mexican food experiences and then told about the menu for the day. There were 4 other people doing the class that day and everyone seemed friendly. Unfortunately, we soon realised that almost all of the cooking was done by Lily and her son (throughout the duration of the 3 1/2hr class we chopped a tomato each, pressed some tortillas and rolled some flautas). Don’t get me wrong we had a really wonderful time getting to know the others in the class, drinking good beer and eventually eating the food that had been prepared but neither of us left feeling like we had a better grasp on Mexican cuisine than we had arrived with (although we do have recipes now) and for the cost of the course this was a real shame. Our last stop on this short visit to Mexico was in Cancun from where we would catch our flight to Cuba. Having checked out the ADO bus we realised it would be just as quick and cost a hell of a lot less to catch a collectivo to Playa del Carmen (40 MX/$2.75 AUD/2.10 USD) and then another colectivo to Cancun (40 MX/$2.75 AUD/2.10 USD). This was a really easy process as the Playa colectivos stop right next to the Cancun colectivos and the Cancun colectivos terminate opposite the ADO bus station. Having read that Cancun was a bit seedy and full of resorts we had decided to arrive the day before our flight and stay near the bus station, as we needed to take a really early ADO bus to the airport (78MX/$5.15AUD/$4.10USD). It turned out that we both kind of liked Cancun and outside of Zona Hotelera it really wasn’t that bad. We spent the afternoon wandering around and picking up last minute bits for Cuba (all about the preparation needed in our next blog) before stumbling upon a great food market near our hostel. This place had every Mexican street food snack you could have ever wanted and all really cheap, so knowing that we had almost 3 weeks in Cuba ahead of us we decided to gorge ourselves on tasty treats before we went. We rolled back to our hostel (Moloch Hostel: 240 MX/16.40 AUD/12.65 USD per night in an 8 bed female dorm) and into our room ready for our next adventure.
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Arriving in Belize was simple and quick. San Ignacio is only 12km from the border so it was a short bus ride to the centre of town once we’d been dropped off at the bus station. Belize is a lot more expensive than its neighbours so is often avoided on the Gringo Trail through Central America. With the awareness of it’s comparative expense in mind, I was expecting a lot more development in Belize than was there. While it certainly didn’t feel like a developing country, it definitely wasn’t the affluent former British colony that we had been expecting. Right from the minute we crossed the border we could feel the warm Caribbean vibe, which pervaded throughout the country. The people were friendly and helpful, everyone we encountered wore a big and genuine smile and there was an aura of relaxation in the air that instantly drew you in and delightfully slowed you down. This was quite a contrast to what we had felt and just left behind in Guatemala. Dani found us an amazing guesthouse (PacZ) just 2 streets back from the main road. Connected to the Martha Hotel it’s a 4-bedroom home that has been converted into a guesthouse. Contrary to what we had been led to believe it was also really cheap for a double room (25 BZD/$12.50 USD/16.50 AUD). Having settled in, we went in search of food. We stumbled across Mickey’s that had all the local specialties, which would become our staple diet over the next 2 weeks. We ordered a fry jack (a deep fried light dough pocket stuffed with either beans, cheese, eggs, chicken or a combination of all of the above), a journey/Johnny cake (an American biscuit/savoury scone made with coconut milk and filled with beans and cheese) and 2 burritos all for the princely sum of 7.75 BZD ($3.87 USD/5.10 AUD). The thing we were fast discovering about Belize was that it wasn’t that expensive to be in, but if you wanted to do a lot of the tours/excursions you we’re going to have to triple your budget. After enquiring about a trip to some nearby caves and discovering that a half-day trip would cost a minum $60 USDpp (120 BZD/ 77.80 AUD) we decided to stick to the self-guided and independent cheaper activities. One novelty activity we did on our first day was the $5USD ($10 BZD/6.50 AUD) tasting session of Marie Sharps hot sauce, which is Belize’s most prized export and you will find on the table of every restaurant in the country (at the same location in San Ignacio town they also offer a $15 USD/30 BZD/19.45 AUD rum tasting session). Being a hot sauce lover I was looking forward to tasting Belize’s supposed best. After making our way through a large selection of the products I was nervous to admit I didn’t think much of her sauces. I did like the green habanero made with cactus fruit, the 2 pepper jellies and a really good mango chutney but considering how many were on offer that wasn’t a lot. The next morning, and our first full day in Belize, we had chosen to walk to the ruins at the top of the hill on the outskirts of San Ignacio. Not widely known about, Cahal Pech (10 BZD/$5 USD/6.50 AUD) is a small site of Mayan ruins that have been well preserved and are a nice way to spend a half day in San Ignacio. If you are exclusively visiting Belize though, I would recommend doing the day trip to Tikal in Guatemala from San Ignacio as it’s totally worth it and the Belize exit fee is not payable for just the day trip. The one last thing on our to do list in San Ignacio was Hot Mama’s hot sauce factory, which is about 10km down the main highway towards Belmopan. You can get there by jumping on one of the Belmopan/Belize City buses (2 BZD/$1 USD/1.30 AUD) and asking to be let off at the factory (all the drivers/conductors seemed to know where we were talking about). Having been let down by Marie Sharps I wasn’t sure I what to expect from Belize’s second favourite. As advised on the website, we had emailed in advance to let them know we were coming for the tour (15 BZD/7.50 USD/9.85 AUD) and had received a reply, so were a little unnerved when upon our arrival, the woman at the counter told us she had no knowledge of our booking and not only that, but the woman who had just got on the bus we had exited happened to be the only guide they had and she was going home sick. Luckily for us this meant that the manager took it upon himself to show us around instead. He was clearly very passionate about his job and product, which in turn gave us an enthusiasm for it too. By the time we got round to the tasting we were excited and you know what, we weren’t disappointed. Hot Mama’s has the best hot sauces I’ve ever tasted. They aren’t just pepper sauce with no flavor nor are they just multiple versions of the same sauce. Each has its own unique taste and sometimes when combined with another sauce creates a perfect harmony that will make you want to sing (if you have the chance try the mustard hot sauce with the barbecue…you will not regret it). The sauces were so good that we stocked up on extras to take with us. We both found that the Hot Mama’s experience was a lot better value than the Marie Sharps experience in San Ignacio (we can’t speak for her factory tour in Dangriga as we chose not to do this). From this point forward we were firm members of the Hot Mama’s hot sauce camp! We had really enjoyed our three days in San Ignacio and could have easily stayed for a few more, but we were on a bit of a time limit now having booked flights to Cuba for Christmas so we decided to head down to Placencia next. This meant going from San Ignacio to Belmopan (4 BZD/$2 USD/2.65 AUD) first, changing onto a bus to Dangriga (7 BZD/3.50 USD/4.60 AUD) and then finally one more bus to Placencia (8 BZD/$4 USD/5.25 AUD). This journey was relatively painless and took around 6 hours including wait times, which considering we were crossing the entire country and had just come from Guatemala seemed pretty astounding! On arrival in Placencia we had the misfortune of realizing that the annual marathon was taking place that weekend and almost all of the accommodation within our price range was booked out. After 2 hours of trawling around I finally stumbled upon Omar’s Guesthouse and Restaurant that had rooms for 50 BZD ($25 USD/33 AUD). This was double what we had been paying in San Ignacio for a room that was not even in the same category of comfort but it was the best deal we could get and pretty much our only remaining option! I wouldn’t recommend it, unless like us you can’t find anywhere else to stay (Omar’s wife is horrible and there are plenty of other options available for a couple of dollars more that are far nicer…provided they aren’t all booked out). Irritated, tired and hungry we went out in search of food and found Carmen’s which is one of the only cheap local snack shacks in Placencia and is super tasty and reasonably priced. It turned out that was the only thing in Placencia that was…after checking out the cost of tours and having spent double on sub-optimal accommodation we realized that other than a very beautiful beach there was really very little there, so we decided to move on to Hopkins after 2 nights. One good thing that we did discover was that there is a direct bus to Hopkins (7 BZD/$3.50 USD/4.60 AUD) every day at 10.30am and having been told yet again by Omar’s wife that check out was at 11am (we were informed of this fact three times during our one full day in Placencia) it was perfectly timed. The bus to Hopkins takes around an hour and a half and drops you off in the ‘centre’ of the town. Hopkins is divided into north and south and although there is technically a centre you won’t find much there as most things are clustered at either end. Doing our usual one with bags/one searching for guesthouse game, turned out to almost be as fruitless as in Placencia when Dani returned after a 35 minute search in the southern direction having found nothing and thus having to head off towards the north. After almost an hour waiting for her to return I was starting to get worried when she suddenly pulled up in an old 4x4 with a slightly crazed looking ex-New Yorker and told me to get in. It turns out this lovely but odd woman was the owner of Kizmet Inn (66 BZD/$33 USD/43.50 AUD for a double room with ensuite right on the beach) right down the far end of the northern side of town and she was going to drive us back to the guesthouse after she had checked out the brand new supermarket that had opened that day at the far end of the south side (it turned out that this was the most exciting thing that had happened to Hopkins for some time). This supermarket although brand new and huge appeared to stock exactly the same things and look pretty much exactly the same as all other supermarkets in Belize (more like converted warehouses with dusty shelves full of…stuff) but it was all anyone was talking about when we went to dinner later that night. Slightly confused by the description of Hopkins in the Lonely Planet (it describes it as a great village to discover Garifuna cutlture) as we were still trying to find the village part we set off to explore. It wasn’t until we returned that evening and got talking to the owner of our guesthouse that we learnt a little more about Hopkins. She described it as a “drinking village with a small fishing problem” and that had already appeared painfully apparent. All we had really seen in Hopkins were people sitting around drinking rum in varying levels of intoxication, which was sad because it seemed as though Hopkins and its people had a lot more to offer. It was this that prompted us to sign up for the cultural tour (which also included a cooking class) to learn more. This course was fantastic and run by a great father and daughter team whose main objective was to help to preserve the traditions of the Garifuna culture in Hopkins through education and participation. For $55 USD (110 BZD/$72.45 AUD per person) you get a half-day experience that is so much more than just a cooking class. You start with a historical and cultural explanation of the Garifuna people and their traditions. Following this, you get to don items of traditional Garifuna dress before starting the food-orientated portion of the day. This begins with a laddered ascent of a coconut tree in order to acquire your own young coconut for use later. Next, you are provided with an old coconut, which you are shown how to husk and split in order to be grated and then turned it into coconut milk for cooking later. After the efforts of husking and splitting the coconut you are rewarded with your previously self-foraged young coconut sliced open and heavily topped up with local rum (at this point it is approximately 10.30am). The final stage of the cooking section is to prepare from scratch a traditional Garifuna dish called Hudut, which of course you get enjoy for lunch afterwards. The day is finished off with a drumming lesson during which you are taught the different drumbeats and what they mean as well as how and when they are used. It was well worth the money and hopefully what Mel hopes to achieve by using tourism to help the younger generations understand how important preserving their culture is works! Having learnt a great deal that day and really enjoyed our time in Hopkins, we felt we were ready to leave. We enquired as to exactly how this was going to be done in the easiest way possible and were informed (by aforementioned slightly nutty guesthouse owner) that the bus that went to Dangriga (our first stops of another multi-stage) came right up to the northern end of town a mere 100m or so from Kismet Inn. Not entirely trusting of this information but not wanting to show lack of faith we left our abode the next morning to wait at the instructed location. Unusual for Belize, the bus that was due at 7am, was running late that morning and didn’t arrive until 7.30am, but sure enough it did arrive and we were on our way to Dangriga (5 BZD/$2.50 USD/3.30 AUD). Having informed the driver that we wanted to go all the way to Belize City he made sure we made the connection just outside of Dangriga instead of having to go all the way in and needing to wait (12 BZD/$6 USD/7.90 AUD). Once in Belize City we chose to do the 20minute walk to the port for the ferry, much to the surprise of the taxi drivers who were still nice enough to give us the directions despite not using their services. Our last stop on our Belize tour was to be the famous Caye Caulker ($12.60 USD/16.60 AUD per person each way on the ferry if you buy a return in advance). Not sure what to expect from this supposed backpacker haven island, it was a pleasant surprise when we arrived to discover that although it was clearly a tourist island, it still had a great vibe. Knowing that it wasn’t going to be a cheap place to stay we were actually really shocked to find a number of places that had rooms for 50 BZD ($25 USD/33 AUD). We chose to stay at Hostel Juan (previously known as Juan in a Million), which even had an ensuite bathroom and was really quiet at night. We had found out that our friend David was also on the island so we arranged to meet him at the hostel for a drink that night. Not only were they a great hostel but their 2 for 1 cocktail deal for 5 BZD ($2.50 USD/3.30 AUD) during happy hour was the best deal in town and the cocktails were certainly not light on the rum!! The only thing I had my heart set on in Caye Caulker was a snorkeling trip where you had a good chance of at very least spotting and potentially swimming with manatees. We had a strong recommendation for Reef Friendly Tours from our friend Megan. This is one of the only truly ecofriendly tour companies in Caye Caulker that do not chum the water (feed the fish for the benefit of tourists). As this is really bad for the natural order and behavior of the fish we were determined to take this tour company. When we were signing up we were told that it was actually the end of manatee season and subsequently that the likelihood of spotting them was slim. In fact they had not seen any for a few days, which was a sign that they had migrated closer to the coast for the winter. With this in mind we booked their tour anyway ($65 USD/130 BZD/85.60 AUD) and oh am I glad we did. The tour started off fantastically when our guide decided he was going to look for manatees before setting off to any of the prearranged stops. Now, one of the perks of picking this company is they set off a good 2 hours earlier than most other companies which meant that a lot of the stops are quieter than they are later in the day. It wasn’t long before he spotted what we had all been hoping for…a big grey lump floating on the surface of the water. Quickly diving in, we set off to see this beautiful sea creature as it slept beneath the surface. We were actually lucky enough to see 2 while we were down there, which is unusual as they are usually solitary creatures. After 15 minutes we hopped back into the boat and headed off to the next (and first official) stop. The day was sensational and not only were we treated to manatees but we were also lucky enough to see multiple types of ray (including our new favourite the eagle ray), a loggerhead turtle, moray eel, tropical fish, stunning coral and we even got to swim with large schools of nurse sharks. It was well worth the money and has gone down as one of the highlights of the trip so far. The other days we had on Caye Caulker were spent relaxing on the beach and wandering up and down the 3 sandy roads. It really is a beautiful island just to chill out on and exactly what we needed before then next leg of our trip. We ate breakfast every day at Jenny’s snack shack, which is outside the Drifted Coconut Hostel (previously Dirty McNasty’s) and can highly recommend both her burritos and her fry jacks (especially the Jenny Special). Caye Caulker is also the home of cheap lobster meals and many places offer a lobster with rice, vegetables and garlic bread for 20-30 BZD ($10-15 USD/12.95-19.45 AUD) and as this is the cheapest you’re going to see for a while take advantage! Overall, we absolutely loved Belize and were really surprised by how much this strange nation captured us. Much more Caribbean than Latin American it’s strange blend of cultures, creole language and laidback vibe had captured us from the moment we arrived. I would encourage backpackers not to skip through this wonderful country and give it a chance to show you it’s treasures beyond the heavily touristed spot of Caye Caulker. LGBT: Dani and I found Belize to be really relaxed when it came to us as a couple. The reputation of gay rights in former British colonies in the Carribean is fairly appalling and Belize has followed this trend until recently. It was illegal to be gay until 2016 and there is actually still a law in place (it has never been enforced) that bans foreign homosexuals from entering the country. Belize held its first pride event in 2017 and it is working to change the attitudes and a recent study found that Belize was one of the most tollerant countries in the Carribean. I feel that the laws/lawmakers have not caught up with the attitudes of the majority of the population as far as the Carribean goes Belize is a pretty safe country to be gay in. Budget Time $$$As mentioned at the start, contrary to what we were expecting, Belize was not as prohibitively expensive as we had been expecting and prepared for. Having said that, it was still more expensive than any other destination we had visited in Central America by a fairly decent amount. We did come in reasonably under our $50USDpp daily budget in the end, but that was going no frills on almost all transport, food and accommodation options throughout the country in order to allow ourselves to spend on the entertainment experiences we were interested in. While we opted out of doing some of the majorly expensive tours, we did do everything we really wanted to do while we were in Belize including a hot sauce factory tour, visit to a ruins site, cultural/cooking course and a snorkeling excursion. This is not a country to visit if you really have to stick to a small budget, but if you can justify a couple of weeks of a slightly steeper spend this is a country that unquestionably makes the extra expense feel worth it!
What it actually cost: $1219.12 Entertainment: $362.21 Accommodation: $301.35 Food: $233.76 Transport: $156.73 Drinks: $79.10 Miscellaneous: $61.92 Souvenirs: $23.95 This works out at $50.79 AUD per person per day |
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