The Midnight Bus to Belize

Traveling the Hummingbird Highway via James Bus Line

After being in Merida for a couple of weeks, we had taken several beach days to Progreso, gotten some errands behind us, painted on the wall, pondered on the mirador, and talked about taking a trip.
We decided to go even farther south. Somewhere we hadn't been before. We'd go to Placencia in southern Belize. It has a nice ring to it. Bought two ADO bus tickets in Merida for the run from Merida to Belize City. The bus runs 4 times per week down to Belize City, leaving at 11pm. I know that isn't midnight but it just sounds better to say "the midnight bus"...and it's close enough. We bought the tickets on a Monday and the next bus leaving was on Wednesday night. Booked it!
On Wednesday, Terry and I both stayed up reading, doing yoga (me), and packing. Since we generally go to sleep early it was a chore for us to stay up past 10, but we wanted to be able to sleep on the 8 or so hour bus ride. Otherwise, it is a long trip! And, we had more bus tripping to get to our final destination.
There were only 5 other people on the bus which included 4 Belizeans going home, an Asian guy, and us. Oh, and the riding bus driver that hopped off the bus just outside Merida to get in the baggage compartment for a snooze to Belize. I told Terry later I swear I heard him knocking on the bus trying to say he was ready to get out of there, but we never stopped for that.  The only other time we stopped was when the bus driver stopped, got off the bus and asked somebody for directions. That was somewhere outside of Orange Walk after we'd crossed the border. And we almost stopped when the bus driver passed up a turn and had to put the bus in reverse to make the turn to the right. I've learned and I always wear warm, comfortable clothes since the buses are like refrigerators. And this run is nice because everybody can take up as much room as they need to stretch out and get comfy. Terry can always sleep like a baby. For me, it usually takes a while but I slept more on this trip than most. We've taken this bus to Belize City twice before. Oh, and we did stop two other times. Once to exit Mexico and the other time to enter Belize, when I had to give up my banana. I'm pretty sure the Customs lady ate it after I left! Each time we have crossed the border the exit procedures are different. We have finally given up on trying to get them to stamp our tourist card with 'doble entrada' so we don't have to pay fees over and over, but it only worked for us on the first trip to Belize. No such luck since! This time we asked for a receipt, thinking that would get us something. But all it did was get us a walk over to another building where they put in our passport numbers and pulled up our information and printed the receipt. We still beat the much fuller Cancun bus out of Mexico which meant going through Customs in Belize went quick. And we were out of there.
The sun started rising somewhere between Corozal and Belize City and by the time we got to BC, things were hopping and the town was awake. 
We didn't really know which bus we were going to take out of Belize City to get to Placencia, nor what time we would leave out of Belize City, but we knew none of our options would be as luxurious as ADO. From what we gathered, the James Bus Line and Richie's Bus Service are much the same. Both lines cover the southern areas of Belize. They are all older model Bluebird school buses, but just painted different colors, and none have A/C and both carry lots of people on them. We wanted to take Richie's since I wanted to tell Kate and Richy that we rode on Richie's but as luck would have it - we literally got off the ADO bus in Belize City and there was one other bus inside the terminal with people boarding. When we asked the conductor he said the bus was going through Independence/Mango Creek with a final destination of Punta Gorda. I think that might be in Guatemala but since we weren't going there I can't even be sure of that. This bus would get us close enough to Placencia to take a water taxi over the bay to Placencia town, which is on the far end of this little split of land that is like a finger off the Caribbean coast of Belize....a peninsula (duh!) So, Bingo! We both hopped on. Terry and I took the last two seats, sitting at opposite ends of the bus, and within a couple of minutes we rolled out of there for what would be a 4 hour bus trip to Independence/Mango Creek. The Belizean female I sat with was reluctant to let me in to my window seat. The conductor came back to the back and told her to move her stuff. When I crawled in I realized why the seat had remained vacant. I was sitting on the rear wheel hump seat which meant my knees were up in my face. I only had to ride like that for the hour or so trip down to our first stop - Balmopan. My butt cheeks were aching! I kept thinking to myself: Thank goodness Terry took the first seat. It wasn't as cramped and he wasn't having to eat his knees. I told him later I was daydreaming that he went up to the bus driver and asked to be let off the bus and hollered at me to follow. I was concerned he was feeling claustrophobic on this rather warm and very cramped bus. Funny thing was, when we got to Balmopan and quite a few people exited the bus, we both jumped up before the new passengers got on to change seats. Little did I know but he had been seated on the front wheel hump seat and eating his knees too!!! But, we were on our way to beautiful Placencia so both of us were willing to make a few sacrifices to get there. And I don't think either of us was prepared for what was next. Upon leaving Balmopan headed towards our next stop at Dangriga, we took the most scenic part of the trip on the Hummingbird Highway. It was lush, green mountains covered with green palm trees and other tropical vegetation followed by valleys of rows and rows of citrus trees. We saw an organic ginger farm, banana farms, and national park land. It was truly beautiful and can almost make me forget the 18-wheeler we saw lying on its side where it failed to slow down enough to make the bend while coming down off a mountain. It was waiting for emergency help to arrive but had plenty of people trying to help. I did notice afterward, people on the bus seemed to grip the back-seat rails a little tighter. These non-first class buses stop for anybody to enter/exit anywhere....as in top of a mountain, side of a mountain, rounding a mountain and anywhere in between. We made it to Dangriga, about 2 hours from Balmopan, where we had enough time to take a potty break. We have learned when to drink fluids and when not to drink fluids when it comes to bus riding. This wasn't a morning for hydrating! We wouldn't even get a cup of coffee. I'm just glad the bathroom attendant let me in the bathroom even though she refused my Mexican 10 peso coin. Then, I learned later she took Terry's 10 peso coin! 
 The last leg of our journey took us to Independence. The bus station was on the edge of town and when we asked the attendant, he told us it was about 3 miles to the Mango Creek water taxi. We gave in immediately and hailed a taxi and, sure enough, not only was it a good 3 miles but it was down a dirt road which we never would have turned down if we had walked. As luck would have it, again, we arrived just in time to get on the next water taxi at 11am. We had gained an hour upon entering Belize. The water taxi goes down the Mango River through very thick mangroves but the river is probably 200 or so yards wide. It was a pleasant and short trip. Even though we were travel weary, we were exited to step foot on the ground in Placencia town and walk the short distance to the city center and find a place to have a Belikin and a rum punch and let the rest of the adventure unfold. 

Terry at DeTatch

View in front of us