Bev & Terry's Travels in Mexico: Just Some More Gringos in Belize

It's hard to know even where to start so we decided to break this trip report up between segments....

GETTING THERE WAS HALF THE FUN

Corozal

We were scheduled to leave out at 9:00pm on Tuesday night from the CAME bus station going from Merida to Corozal Belize. Sure enough...at 9pm the bus pulled out of the terminal with about 20-25 Mexicans onboard, a handful of Asians, and 2 Gringoes. We both had our backpacks, some snacks for the road, an adventurous spirit, and were pretty pumped up. We willed ourselves to get some sleep on the trip. About 2:00am the bus stopped at the Mexico/Belize border crossing....just a few miles from Chetumal, Mx. We had to get off the bus and go through customs to exit Mexico...we bribed the customs agent with 400 pesos so we could keep our tourist visa and not get a new one when we re-entered....that would have cost us about 800 pesos...pretty good deal...everyone happy...got back on the bus, crossed the border, stopped, had to get off the bus again and get all our luggage (2 backpacks, haha), and clear Belize Customs & Immigration....no problems & no bribes here....got back on the bus and went about 10 miles to Corozal...this was at about 3:00am...the driver stops the bus at this intersection and hollers out: "COROZAL!" We thought some of the 20+ people on the bus would be getting out with us...wrong...just the 2 Gringoes on board. We got off the bus and were standing looking at the bus station in Corozal...we had pictured it staying open 24 hours...with restrooms....coffee....but nope, it was closed and vacant...felt a small pang of panic but we sat down at some benches out front and tried to take a nap. Along came this guy that looked like he was ready to take our money and cut us into little chunks for fish bait...haha...he tried to make some "friendly" conversation, but Terry cut him off and told him we were waiting on someone and they would be arriving any minute. Terry was trying to tell him to get lost before he and his imaginary friend had to kick his ass...it worked and he left! The bus station finally opened up around what we thought was 4:00am but we quickly learned that it was only 3:00am there...Belize no recognize daylight savings...got more sleep on these nice soft "hardwood" benches...there were a couple of black Belizean guys there and they where looking out for us...they even found a country/western music radio station to play for us while we slept...haha. one of them finally woke us up around 5:00am and said there was some fresh coffee and tamales around the corner and that we better get to water taxi early because it can get crowded and told us how to get there...so we did...talked to several people along the way and listened to their stories...very kewl!

Corozal Water Taxi

The boat WAS very crowded but we had got there early and sat in the very back where we knew we would have a comfy ride...threw our backpacks down by some milk crates that where in front of us and somewhere along the trip Terry felt his backpack kinda moving around and saw some funny looking feet sticking out of one of the milk crates...there where chickens in the crates....haha. it took us about 2 hours to get over to San Pedro, Ambergris Caye where Larry & JoJo where there waiting on us in the golf cart...that was neat. They came in the day before and already rented a golf cart and had done quite a bit of looking around....they showed us around a little...we stopped and got a couple of beers then we headed to Pedro's Inn where we checked in, changed into swim suits and off we went. Our hotel was nothing to really speak of...just a bed, A/C, hot shower and TV.

Pedro's

We probably spent about 2 waking hours in the room and that was in the mornings waiting on the coffee to get ready. L & J's hotel was much nicer...they had an ocean view room where you could just walk out the back door onto the veranda, then down a couple of steps right out onto the beach and into the Caribbean sea...really convenient..they had a full kitchen and refrig...so we loaded it up with beer and rum....haha. We were pretty jet lagged so we just spent the afternoon laying around on THEIR beach sleeping, visiting and drinking beer....sounds familiar...lol. Went our for a seafood dinner at the Reef.

After that we forgot what day it was.

PLANNING AN UNCONVENTIONAL FISHING TRIP

The next morning we went to J&L's hotel for breakfast. While the four of us were having a scrumptious breakfast and discussing some of the things that were definites on our list of things to do while in Belize the conversation turned to fishing. A gentleman sitting next to us by the name of Doyle overheard us and said he wasn't really a fishing guide and neither was his friend, but his friend the bartender was a local and knew the waters well, and they would be happy to take the four of us out, and pretty much let us decide what we wanted to fish for and where. Hmmmmmmm.....do we venture off the path again? Of course. We made plans to meet Doyle and Oli at the Banana Beach dock the next morning at 8am. We spent the rest of the day just hanging out and we truly did get some R&R in. Larry fished from the docks while the rest of us watched. We had our first taste of pupusas and some unbelievable seafood burritos at a little place downtown called Warugama's.....or something like that. Also met a beautiful young couple, Freddy and Jess, from Round Rock, Tx. I just knew they were going to be friends of Kate's! She really needs to meet them.

Freddy and Jess from Round Rock, Tx

AN UNCONVENTIONAL FISHING TRIP

The next day we met up with the bartender/fishing guide we met...just as planned. Oli was the sweetest, most patient bartender/fishing guide ever. Terry and Larry caught some barracudas and all of us caught some snappers...We were thrilled with the amount of time we spent trolling for barracudas, then finished off the trip anchored and fishing for snapper until we used up all the bait. We gave some of the fish to the guys, and took some of the fish to a restaurant for dinner where they cooked it up 4 different ways...wow...best fish we could ever remember eating.

Bartender/fishing guide Oli & Terry

Oli & Larry

YOU-WHO...WHERE ARE YOU?

You-Who....where are you?

Each morning Terry and I would get up and go for a walk, get a cup of coffee, then start our day. On our second morning in San Pedro, we stepped out of Pedro's Hotel and the cutest little mutt dog that looked to have at least some retriever/lab or something in him, immediately started walking with us...I mean, like he went walking with us every day. He stayed right next to us until we got down to the beachfront then he ventured out somewhat. He took a little side trip into one of the nicer hotel open-air dining areas so we called him to come back. At the spur of the moment we named him "You-Who". You-Who was cool...he went into the water to take his morning dump as if he knew it wasn't cool to poop in the white beach sand. You-Who followed us down the beach and into one of the streets of San Pedro. He kept walking with us until we came across about 5-6 unsavory dog characters. That's when You-Who got a little skiddish. He turned back and we turned around once to see him following behind us, but about a half-block away. That was the last we saw of You-Who. Well, until a couple of days later when we were at the beach at Joanne and Larry's hotel...which was at least a mile farther south from our hotel and not on our regular beach walk path at all. You-Who comes running up to our lounge chairs just as happy to see us as if he had good sense!!! He hung around long enough to let us know he was ok then off he went. Joanne spotted You-Who again a couple of days later while she was out walking.
Like I always say....it's a small world.
CAYE CAULKER

One day we took a water taxi over to Caye Caulker and spent the day over there sight seeing and swimming in the "Split"...I say swimming, more like sitting drinking beer and margaritas in the water. Caye Caulker is very small and quaint and somewhat of an old hippie/young backpackers' haven. The room and board is cheaper....and the best word to describe it is "QUAINT". Terry: "While we were waiting to get on the water taxi to go back to San Pedro, Larry and I got into a basketball game with two little boys, maybe about 8 and 11 years old...that was really funny...2 old white men about half cocked, but we held our own..thank goodness the taxi finally came...lol.

IT'S A SMALL WORLD
While cruising the south end of the island in the golf cart one afternoon we stopped off at a place called Joe's Cantina. It had a Texas motif and we were curious. We met Joe and talked with him for quite a while. He has made Belize his home for several years now, but had lived in League City and worked for Dow in his previous life.

This was the same afternoon Joanne had a little too many panty rippas and the saying became: "Well, butter my butt and call me biscuit!!!"

One night we ended up at a bar called Wayo's....it was like a Texas Family Reunion. We met several people from Texas. Terry realized that he had met two of the guys some years back while hanging with his ol' friend Kyle in Brenham, and J&L found out that one of them was a neighbor to some of their friends. They had also mentioned fishing with Kelly out of POC. They invited us to come to a bar named Fido's the following night to hear Dennis Wolfe...he wrote "Just Another Gringo in Belize" for Jerry Jeff Walker. We also got a look at JJW's house on San Pedro while cruising down south in the golf cart. Joanne told Dennis Wolfe about our celebration of 25 years of wedding bliss...almost....and he congratulated us over the mic and asked us if we wanted to hear a song...Terry said "Lady In Red"....he said they didn't know it, but that didn't stop him from playing and singing it...he did so perfectly, everyone got out and danced with us....was a very touching moment! We bought a couple of his CD's from him and talked with them for awhile...

We also were approached by a couple that asked us if we lived at Harborwalk. Both of us had a deer in the headlights look, I'm sure. They were in Belize chartering a sailboat. They had spent some time at HW on a sailboat across from us on D-dock. Each of us had a dim recollection of meeting and talking with them in the past. I was very surprised to think they could recognize us since we were so far away from our normal surroundings. ...I think there is a lesson to be learned here somewhere...

ADIOS...ALMOST

$40/night view from Ruby's

You know us, on the day we where supposed to leave, we checked out of Pedro's and instead of going and getting on the water taxi and going home, we checked into a little hotel right on the beach in the middle of San Pedro called Ruby's...this place has some history....again, very quaint and we fell in love with Ruby's...we upgraded big time, I'm talking splurged...got the ocean front 3rd floor penthouse suit with a three speed fan and running hot water for a whooping $40US/night...haha...this is where we will go if we go back...a super kewl place...much more personality than Pedro's....haha...of course it was $5 more per night so what do you expect?

JUST CRUISING

We spent a couple of days in the trip somewhere cruising the island. One day we made the trip south, and one day we made the trip to the north of San Pedro. This made for some interesting pub crawling, and stopping in the middle of nowhere to grab a beer or two. One of our favorite bars while pub crawling north was a bar called Palapa's.

Terry feeding the tarpon @ Sunset Grill

ADIOS
Next morning we got up early and caught the water taxi back to Chetumal, Mexico...much better way to go than the Corozal taxi...took about 80 minutes...got a bus ticket back to Merida and about 6 hrs later we were sitting in our rent house! It was nice to see parts of Mexico we had not seen before since this return trip put us traveling during the day.

Water Taxi dock in Chetumal, MX

The people and food in San Pedro were to die for. English with a sprinkling of Spanish and Creole is the official language of Belize. This means you can't understand their English nor their Spanish when you overhear them talking to one another. There were probably an equal amount of Blacks and Mexican/Mayan mixes on the island. We also saw quite a few people in traditional dress from the Far East. We had been told previously while in Corozal that Belize is a starting point for traveling north and eventually going to the US.

It seems each place we go, we later dream about a certain food we ate. In Belize I would have to say it was the pupusas. Joanne and I have plans to get together and make pupusas as we fell in love with them.