After such a long time in Mexico, Belize was a bit of a shock to the system. More Caribbean than Latin American. The first thing to adjust to was the language…their first language is English, all be it a heavily accented Caribbean English, so suddenly we didn’t need to speak Spanish anymore which felt very odd. We also noticed how expensive everything was; how much cleaner and tidier everywhere seemed; the huge amount of weed on offer and being heavily participated in by the locals; that the buildings were mainly attractive wooden slatted colonial affairs on stilts; and of course the dramatic change in scale- we crossed the country in a day and a half.
Bikes on boats is a new thing for us but it seems to be fairly accepted…our bikes had pride of place either side of the driver on our way to the islands. Our first stop was the island of Caye Caulker…small and Caribbean, bustling with backpackers and as much rum as you can drink. Unfortunately there were no beaches but we managed to while away the hours in hammocks and paddling about in the canoes offered free at the hostel.
Next we crossed to the mainland and Belize City, not somewhere we really wanted to hang around too long, so stayed the night out of necessity and left the next day for a first proper ride in nearly 3 weeks. We set off early to cover the 60miles, but not early enough it would seem as it was already scorchingly hot and we ended up cycling at the hottest part of the day…temperatures soaring to 39degrees. It was not a tough route as it was mainly flat but there was no shade or cooling breeze and I soon melted, it was proving very hard for me to adjust to the heat after the luxury of an air conditioned van. It turned out to be one of my hardest days on the bike purely due to the heat and by the time we arrived at Lower Dover I was ready to collapse. Lower Dover is an ecolodge run by an American couple in 99acres of jungle, surrounded by rivers on three sides and as we approached up the steep dirt track we were greeted by a pack of large fierce dogs, luckily closely followed by the owner. There was no space at the inn, but the owner took sympathy on us, registered my red face and fatigued expression and allowed us to camp, she then let us join them for dinner free of charge. Having a readable face is not always a disadvantage. We spent a day here to recover and very much enjoyed napping in the hammocks (a common theme), swimming in the River Belize and doing very little else.
I was rather apprehensive about riding after the tough day from the city, but we only needed to cover 10miles to reach San Ignacio, we were there by 9am and had the whole day to relax again. Life’s not all hard! And that’s Belize done…the next day we headed for the Guatemalan border, back into the thrusts of Latin America and another new country.
Out for a Spin 