We left Belize on Tuesday morning, June 26th. We knew that our goal was to get back to Guatemala, Livingston to be exact, by the time the day was over. We had researched it on the internet and hadn´t been able to find any useful information. We had asked people how we could make it work. We were told it couldn´t be done. But the problem here is that no one really knows what is going on, and everyone has their own opinions of when things leave/arrive and such. So we decided to press on. And we had a miraculous (though very long!) day! It went something like this:
6:30 AM - Caught the first water taxi leaving Caye Caulker. 45 minute boat ride.
7:15 AM - Took a taxi for a (very short) ride through Belize City to the bus station. Scariest place we went on our entire trip.
8:15 AM - Caught a bus that went all the way down the coast of Belize. A six hour bus ride. On a school bus. It was so long.
2:45 - Arrived in Punto Gorda, Belize. A town where there is nothing. Were told that no boats would be leaving until the next morning. So we pressed on! Found out that there was one last boat leaving that day at
4:00! Lept for joy! Such a happy moment! Bought a cold soda and waited to go through customs. Got a marriage offer from a 70 year old man. Declined.
4:10 - Left on the last boat of the day. There was only one other man on our boat, and the two sons of the captain. It was a wonderful ride, such a great change from the bus! I fell in love with boat rides on this trip! The 14 year old captain´s son was very flirtatios and asked for a picture with me. Yep, from a 70 year old man to a 14 year old boy. Average the ages and you still get 42 ...
5:25 - Arrived in Puerto Barrios, another town with almost nothing, just a port! Kept our fingers crossed for a boat to Livingston so we wouldn´t need to spend the night. Went through customs and found we could catch the last boat of the night! Hooray!
6:00 - Left Puerto Barrios on the last boat of the day! Enjoyed a SPECTACULAR sunset over the ocean as we go!
It was such a long day, and a miracle that it all worked out! It made it so that we could do everything on our trip that we were hoping to, which was amazing! The hotel we stayed in was NOT my favorite. I didn´t sleep much, and had paint chips fallning on my face the whole night. By the time the morning rolled around, I was ready to get going!
We had heard that there was a boat ride from Livingston to Rio Dulce, and that it was spectacular. We booked our boat and wandered around Livingston while we waited for 9:30 to come around.
Favorite quote of the day came from Krista. We had the following conversation:
Krista: Let´s go take a picture by the lake!
Katie: You mean the big one over there?
Krista: Yep!
Katie: Okay, let´s go take a picture by the OCEAN!
Love that girl!
The boat ride did not disappoint, and was well worth the trip! We went through stunning canyons,
Across a beautiful lake (I´m not sure it was a lake, but whatever it was, it was lovely!)
Stopped at some hot springs,
Went through an area FILLED with lily pads,
Visited a ´´bird island´´. This picture doesn´t show it well, but there were birds EVERYWHERE!
And finally saw a castle the Spanish built. It was an incredible ride!
After we got off our boat we found a hotel and battled the extreme heat and humidity by drinking strawberry smoothies (yep, from a bag. That´s how it works when you ask for it to go. And it is delicious!)
It was a crazy couple of days, but we ended up exactly where we wanted to be in the end!
2 comments:
Busy busy busy! Miraculous & fun! Glad it all worked out how you hoped. Smoothies from a bag is kind of weird though... ;)
Wow, that is crazy! I'm surprised you made it!!!! I'm super glad that you did though.
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