Orange Walk
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| a road of my own |
Safely back with Big Yellow, I drive the edges of Belize City to get the road north. Belize City, from what little I saw, is not a place to hang out for vey long. See ya, B.C., kiss my...! The next hour and a half is more flat, straight roads going through sugarcane country.
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| the field behind Victor's |
On the east side of Orange Walk is a campground called Victor's. It's in a country setting and the place is basically a rundown farmhouse with a shabby restaurant and shabby cabanas in the back where the field is, which is where I park. Sonya is the owner and she shows me around; I get to use one of the cabana bathrooms. She walks me to the restaurant and orders me the house specialty, a roast pork dish that is pretty good. One of her granddaughters, maybe 8 years old, joins us and she sings a song for me in Spanish. Very cute.
Around 6pm I'm at my tent when the first cabana customers show up. Turns out Sonya - this sweet little grandmother - rents these rooms out by the hour. And I'm supposed to use one of those bathrooms? Heavy on the 'ick' factor, I elect to
not use the shower for my 2 nights here. Sonya is otherwise kind enough to call one of the local tour operators to pick me up in the morning to go to the Mayan ruin of Lamanai, the only reason to spend any time here.
Lamanai
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| this be Juice |
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| the New River |
Though I'm basically over the Mayan rock thing, Lamanai is different because you get to take a 1-1/2 hour boat ride down the New River to get there. This is a beautiful jungle river with some monkeys, crocs, iguanas and birds along the way. I share the small motorboat with a family of 4 from Seattle, and our captain is Hugo, also known as 'Juice'.
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atop the High Temple,
do I need a haircut? |
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| the view down |
When we arrive at the Lamanai dock another, larger boat with maybe 20 Air Force people on it pulls in to join us on the tour. They also have our lunch. No surprise, it's stewed chicken, rice and beans. The tour takes about 2-1/2 hours and it's a pretty interesting site. We climb the big High Temple which rises above the treetops and affords great views in all directions. I like this ruin site, maybe it won't be my last one, afterall.
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| boat tugging sugar barges |
They serve us some rum punch before taking the ride back. Juice gets us to Orange Walk and drops us off at the riverside restaurant that also has a few rooms. The Seattle family is staying here and they say the rooms are quite nice. The owner says I could have camped on his large lawn, next to the river, for the same price as I'm paying at Victor's. I wish I could remember the name because it is far superior and has an attractive restaurant. Anyway, if I'm ever in Orange Walk again this is where I'll stay.
B13 = Mexico
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| the bridge back to Mexico |
Only one hour through more sugarcane and a few clean towns (Belize really does have the cleanest roads in all of Central America) and I'm at B13, a few miles north of the town of Corozal. Once again, everything for Belize is in one building and it takes maybe 15 minutes to process myself and the car out. They also collect about $19 as a fee for my being in their country. See my previous post for the Belize map.
Over a bridge and I'm back in Mexico. After 161 days and some 6200 miles I leave Central America. I feel a little relieved that I was able to pull this off without a single incident, but a little triste (sad) that the trip is winding down. Without much time to reflect, I enter Mexican Immigration to have my passport stamped and then over to the Aduana next door for the FJ. I have copies of all my paperwork, but the man wants a copy of a single piece of paper that Immigration gave me. There's a copy machine somewhere "over there". I end up walking 3 blocks into the adjacent town before finding the little tienda where a woman in the back will make a copy for 20 cents. A completely stupid set-up but this is my last border before the U.S. so, no problema. $36 to pay for a new vehicle stamp and another 180 days in-country if I want it.
Now, where's all that good food at?
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