Did anyone else know that there was a Caribbean Island masquerading as a country in Central America? I sure didn't until I got to Belize.
After haggling with a tour bus driver at Tikal for 20 minutes over a price, he finally agreed to take us the remaining 100 km down a dusty, bumpy, sort-of-kind-of paved road to the border of Guatemala and Belize. And following the customary bribe to exit any Spanish speaking country in the area, I was cheerfully met on the other side of the border with, "Hello, and welcome to Belize." Upon recovering from my shock and having confirmed that, indeed, all the signs were in English, I smiled. I'm so glad I spent money on those Spanish lessons in Guatemala.
There are a lot of things to enjoy about Belize: the largest barrier reef in the world outside of Australia, ancient Mayan ruins in dense jungles and lovely beaches. However, hands down, the best part of Belize for me was the people. They were happy, friendly, cheerful and had this sort of Caribbean vibe of slow, nonchalantness about them. Apparently, way back when, the country was purchased by Great Britain for payment the Brits never delivered on. The Brits did, however, drop off boatloads of ex-slaves from Jamaica to colonize the area, leaving a distinctly Caribbean (and English speaking) flavor to the place.
Example number one of why I like the people so much: while we were hiking the 3 km from the border to the nearest bus station, a plain white truck pulled up next to us and rolled down it's window. Inside sat three middle-aged ladies returning from a trip in Guatemala who were simply appalled at us hiking down the road in that kind of heat. Therefore they insisted on giving us a ride to a bus station much further down the road than we originally aimed for, shortening our trip quite a bit.
There are lots of friendly missionaries in the area, too. After our bus broke down in the middle of nowhere Belize and left us stranded on the side of the road, we were picked up inside of 15 minutes by this lovely couple on their way to deliver a wheelchair to a family that they had met on a mission trip previously. They were also nice enough to drop us off in the tiny seaside town of Hopkins where we were taken care of in the most wonderfully motherly fashion by Rosie, the owner/operator/cook of her seaside hostel.
There in Belize, it was the low season for tourism, so we got the royal treatment from Rosie, seeing as we were the only guests. She made the most wonderful seafood from the local catches of the day and her kids gave delightful shows on how to drum in the local Garafuna style while they were bored and waiting for bed. It was so nice there, that when we decided to leave for a different city along the coast we just couldn't manage to wiggle ourselves out of the seaside hammocks in time to make the bus. Which turned out to be a good thing, since it was the end of the week and Rosie wanted to go out on the town. She very kindly took us along to the best (only?) place in town for nightlife and happily introduced us to their best drink. A few hours later after stumbling our way home, we decided that we would sadly have to move on if we wanted to stay on course for Panama by December.
So we got up early Sunday morning, packed our backpacks, and hitchhiked our way out to the main road and waited for the bus to come and take us to a ferry to Honduras. And we waited....and waited...and waited some more.... Turns out that the bus driver had been up late the night before as well, and was just a few hours behind schedule. These things are common here, as I was told.
Also, in case you were ever thinking of taking a ferry with me--don't. I have the worst luck with them. This time I managed to board a tiny ferry going from Belize to Guatemala that got caught in a rainstorm, soaking and jarring everyone thoroughly as it slammed into the increasingly frequent waves. It was so bad, that the onward ferry to Honduras was cancelled. Fortunately, Belize was the land of friendly missionaries, this time of the Methodist variety. This family of five had the same problem as us, but had actually planned ahead. They had a van with a driver waiting at the docks. And since we were heading towards the same city, they let us tag along.
Which was wonderful!
Except that Honduras was most certainly not. Have you ever walked into a bar where the music suddenly stops, every eye swings your way and you feel as if you really shouldn't be there and definitely aren't welcome? This was Honduras. It wasn't a nice place. After several countries in a row of smiling faces and welcoming people, the people of Honduras created a stark contrast. Part of traveling safely is knowing when you are in a bad situation and it's time to leave. Fast. So we skedaddled out on the next bus in the morning towards El Salvador. (And just so you know that I'm not giving a country a bad name, I have since confirmed that many travelers have felt similarly about their experiences in Honduras)
I have no idea what happened to the people of Honduras, because EVERY country bordering it is full of wonderful people, El Salvador perhaps being the best of them all. I cannot count the number of times that some random person in El Salvador was more than willing to help us out, even going so far as to walk in the dark for 15 minutes to help us find our hostel--wanting nothing more than a friendly conversation. They really are wonderful people. Too bad the country was so small.
Since we had hiked a couple of volcanoes rather recently, and were headed on to world class beaches in Nicaragua, we very unfortunately only stayed a few days. We did manage to spend some time at a lovely mountain lake, enjoyed the "route of flowers", a hike to a waterfall and some delicious food (papusas are amazing!). But the country was small and we were very eager to head to Nicaragua where everything is cheaper and the adventures are grand.
Next up: Attacked by monkeys!
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