After a trip back to Texas to visit family and a couple of weeks to get back in our groove....I'm back feeling like writing!
We got up the other morning and took the bus down to Progreso. A trip to Progreso always adjusts our attitudes. It was on that day we decided to take a trip down south. We weren't sure where we were going but here's how it started out.
We headed to ADO to buy a couple of bus tickets and were surprised when the cashier showed us the option of seats available. All seats on the bus leaving at 11pm for Belize City were open. We took our usual seat nos. 11 and 12, headed home to pack, and wait for 10:30 to roll around. At exactly 11pm the bus pulled out of the terminal. Terry and I were on it, and two other women...and a second bus driver. Now we've seen this before and have never been sure what exactly happens, but on the outskirts of Merida, the bus driver opened the door and the second driver exited the bus....in the middle of nowhere. We heard the luggage compartment open and we assumed he had taken out his luggage and it was "hasta luego". Terry did his usual fall asleep quickly, and for me I toss and turn for several hours before going to sleep.
Somewhere around Bacalar the bus pulls over and the bus driver exited the bus. The bus driver we thought had gotten off the bus earlier reappeared and started driving on towards the Mexico-Belize border! Did he go to sleep in the luggage compartment? Does he have a little sleeping compartment down there like on an 18-wheeler? Mysteries to explore and find the answers to on our next trip. When we stopped to exit Mexico at the border we had the misfortune of pulling up right behind a bus from Cancun filled with Europeans...all of whom insisted they shouldn't have to pay the exit fee. We left them at the counter with the Aduanas holding a rule book at least 6" thick. As for us, we paid some pesos and the four of us got back on our bus. We got off the bus a second time when entering Belize and things went quickly there. Terry and I had made a similar trip down to Belize, but we had gotten off the bus in Corozal at 3 in the morning (that's 2am Corozal, Bz time). It was a long, dark wait for the bus station to open up. So we had decided this time to travel on to Belize City and arrive in broad daylight. Well, the other 2 ladies got off the bus in Corozal. Eight hours after boarding the bus, we pulled into the bus station in Belize City. "We being Terry, me and the disappearing/reappearing bus driver. We felt so special!
Then it was on, via taxi, (no walking the streets of Belize City for us!) to the water taxi terminal...and a decision was to be made as to where we would be going.
More to come!
