Sterling and I went through the mountains of Hondorus and Guatamala as quickly as we could. We put in several 9 hour days driving into the evening which we hate to do but we were pushing ahead to meet Cindy. The driving is awful going through very rugged, pot-holed, but through beautiful mountains.
These countries are about the size of some of our states, taking only 6-8 hours to cross. We pushed on through Hondorus and Guatamala at the smallest, easiest border crossing we’ve yet to encounter. No lines, no fuss, one tiny little women came and checked our VIN number and on we went.
The first night in Guatamala we came upon a bus accident on a rural country road, of all things. A full commuter bus, early in the evening, missed a right hand curve in the road and fell right over onto it’s left side. My goodness, it was firmly pinned by several trees which had saved the situation but there was luggage and people every-where. It was one of those scenes in your life you don’t easily forget - we were among the first people to arrive just before the first ambulance. The driver was looking pretty shocked and the police were stuck like glue on him and l luckily there didn’t seem to be any serious tragic moments. Bumps, bruises and it appeared the vast majority of people were ok and on their feet. On we go.
So we got up the next morning on our quest to meet Cindy in Belize and as we were going along we came upon these young men playing with a 6‘ boa constrictor snake. Sterling got right out and enjoyed the entire process teasing it with a plastic cup. I filmed the entire thing - it was quite interesting to watch from a safe distance! (the photos and video are posted on my Cathy Sykes FB page).
We drove and drove through the most beautiful mountain range. Hondorus especially has lots of lush jungle landscapes that change from palm trees into pine trees and red clay or limestone landslides. Instead of moving the giant rocks that fall, they paint them white so you don’t miss them. We crawled through all sorts of small villages that consist of nothing much more then a church and a few houses, sometimes a school. Every 50 miles or so we’d find a bigger town with a center courtyard, restaurants etc. It’s all starting to blur together.
So we arrived in Belize 2 hours late and in the darkest corner near the Security Station was the slight profile of Cindy, patiently waiting knowing we would show up eventually. The airport closed at 6:00 and things were dark. Being the last person there she was easy to find, I scooped her up and stayed at the first decent motel we came to which was a Best Western. We woke to find ourselves in a beautiful resort and moved on.
We spent the day doing laundry, acclimating ourselves to Belize City, locating the ATM, the Toyota dealership for some brake work etc. We found a nice modest, older hotel that suited us fine for $55. It was kind of funky and had interesting antique bottles and weird art on the walls, with a beautiful hibiscus that covered trellis and porch.
We woke the next day, dropped off the Peace Mobil for it’s brake job. After a big breakfast we boarded a small commuter ferry and went to a small island off Belize called Caye Caulker where we then caught another smaller boat with just seven of us and took off to the Barrier Reef, which is the second largest reef in the western hemisphere. What a fabulous experience snorkeling is. It’s such a privilege to enter into their world. I love floating still over the reef and watching all the life teaming below. Our first stop was a 45 minute swim in what the natives call Coral Gardens. There were huge purple coral fans and probably 25 species of fish from barracuda’s, morea eel to lion fish.
Our second stop was a place they call shark alley where we got to swim with the sharks and sting-rays which were also huge. When we first arrived and the sharks came to check us out, I said no way but then Cindy and Sterling jumped right in and I decided to follow along. Talk about under-stated peer pressure. It was cool but I’ll admit, I was the last one in the water and the first one out.
After a fruit and water break our third stop was a very shallow area where we could touch in most spots and wasn’t real deep reefs but very spread out. It was another 30 minutes or so of exploration. The colors were different because of the shallower water.
When we walked along the dirt road in Caye Caulker we were heckled by artists not wanting us to take photos. They kept trying to charge us $2.00 Belize which is $1.00 US each. It was very unsettling. The begging in Belize is awful, but we did find a very nice cab driver who took us to order pizza before returning us to our room at Mopan Hotel. We crashed early after such an exciting couple of days. It was wonderful to talk and touch Cindy. It’s the one and only thing I miss about Wolfeboro in the Winter.
We had two more days to spend together, Saturday and Sunday. Many people had told us Placencia was a wonderful town. Some people said it was 2 hrs. and some said it was 4 hrs. We didn’t care, we had two days, so we headed south once again to this pretty peninsula which sticks out in the incredible aqua Caribbean Sea. We found a nice place on the beach with a restaurant and settled in for the night. After dinner and a drink at the local Reggae bar, we dropped into bed by 8:30. Sterling has been staying in the Peace Mobil so Cindy and I could have our space and it’s a good thing he did. We got broken into by two local drunks just before dawn. Luckily Sterl said WTF and they moved on only after breaking one of our screen windows, leaving a large metal pipe on Sterling’s bed and throwing his backpack onto the roof after they found out nothing was in it.
It was Cindy’s day to leave so we started working our way back to the airport. We had learned of an antiques stop near the airport so we allowed an extra hour to stop but it got sucked up when we got a flat tire. UG! Sterling was a champ and got our spare out and got it put on. Making the airport exactly on time. We sadly dropped off Cindy and went back downtown to the Mopan Hotel and stayed outside on the street back in our rig. January 16th and we’re back at the Toyota dealer trying to figure out the best plan to get us home safely with brakes and tires.
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