When we got up this morning we noticed that the clock in the hotel lounge was showing 9:00am whilst ours was still on 10:00am so that gave us a good feeling for sleeping late. Apparently Belize is one hour behind on Mexico because they don’t follow the summer time. Good for us! 🙂 We immediately headed down south to Belize City hoping that the highway was in a better state than yesterday’s roads. It didn’t let us down. For 20km straight we got clean paved roads. It was only when we took the exit for ‘Altun Ha’ that we had to drive back on dirt roads.
When we got to the location indicated on our navigation, we couldn’t see any side roads leading to an ancient Mayan complex so we kept driving forward until we reached a crossing. Finally after 15km we saw a sign pointing to the left. We arrived at a little hut and assumed this was the site entrance but there was nobody there and the garden was completely flooded and taken over by nature. Patrick even saw a big tarantula which he didn’t mention to Marijke until they had walked passed it. We also saw big grass hoppers. They had a green colour so they should be the friendly type, or at least that’s what they say on National Geographic. When continuing on the same road we noticed that the official site was actually further down the road but we didn’t really feel like going anymore so we headed for Belize City instead.
Belize City was a huge disappointment. The roads were a nightmare again and all the restaurants and shops were closed because it’s Sunday. So we turned to eating banana chips for lunch (again). It tastes lovely but it doesn’t fill you up for very long…
Since there was nothing to do or see in this area we decided to drive towards our camp site ‘The Tropical Education Centre’. As the owner wasn’t around we went to visit the nearby zoo. Finally we could see something beautiful in Belize without being harassed by drunk people or blood-sucking mosquitoes. We saw all types of animals: different kinds of parrots, owls, pumas, jaguars, foxes, weird chickens, eagles, crocodiles, monkeys, boars, tapirs, deers and even snakes and spiders.
We then heard that the camp ground wasn’t available so we continued down the road to find a different location to sleep. We were lucky as a bit further ahead there was a camp site called ‘Monkey Bay’ which didn’t mind taking us in for the night (even when they didn’t have any official room left – a group of circa 30 students was staying here too). It’s a beautiful camp ground with all the right facilities and beautiful plants. Even with that many people it felt like we have our own shower and toilet blocks. They have star fruit, mango, passion fruit, avocado, … all hanging on their trees.
Hopefully the evening will cool down a little. It looks promising at this moment in time. The temperature is manageable, we can hear crickets and frogs in the distance and the sky is dark but open and filled with stars.
Something life can get you down,
I want to live like animals, careless and free
I want to run through the jungle, the wind in my hair and the sand at my feet.
Keep Calm and Drive South 