For Mom, Love Steve

It was time to leave the island and Belize, but instead of making one long day of travel I decided to stop at the town of San Ignacio. San Ignacio is another pretty basic town except that it is a hub for adventure tours. There are a lot of rivers, caves, ruins, and villages in the surrounding hillsides so it becomes a very popular base for foreigners. There are also a fairly large contingent of expats living there as well as communities of Mennonites.

I would have liked to stay a few days, but I had it budgetted perfectly so that I would leave with just enough money after one night to pay the $40B departure fee and have $5B left over to pay for a minibus to my next Guatemalan town. Belizean money is not quite useful outside the country and locals prefer to keep the American dollars for when they travel or buy things from other countries.

I found a nice guest house with a sweet little balcony, met up with Mara, and the following morning checked out the very popular canoe races which start in San Ignacio and end in Belize City. It is made up of almost a hundred boats varying from guys who have practiced all year and are out to win it along with guys who just want a reason to get drunk and party. There are four stages and lasts for four days. The shotgun start was at 7am so I had to get up early. Luckily I was still on island time so got up in plenty of time. After the race started, which was pretty chaotic as there was a bottle neck to get past the low bridge as well as a few groups who had no reason to be in a boat. It was all over in a couple of minutes but it was an exciting start. I went back and got Mara who over slept, grabbed some breakfast at the famous Pops and headed off on the bus to the border. I unfortunately didn´t factor in on the cost to take a shared taxi to the border which was three miles from the bus station, but it was an okay stroll. Paid my money to “leave?”, and I was back in Guatemala. Officially now, I am one country away from being home, but I only visited the Caribbean coast side of Guatemala so I still have to cut back through it visiting some of the sites before heading straight up the Pacific coast back to the US.

Fresh off the boat.

Kayaking out to the reef. Nice pristine waters are a major plus in my book. These are the places where I don´t mind the ocean. Second longest barrier reef in the world. Although it was nice, still not as good as the Red Sea or the Caribbean Islands when it comes to color and number of colorful species.

The back or Ignacios Cabanas.

My evening spot to hangout.

You can fly to Caye Caulker but it is cheaper and just as fast to take the water taxis. It is more convenient though if you have a connecting flight out of or into Belize City.

Birders paradise.

This guy was a professional model. Every time the sun came out he and his wife hung out on this stump right along the path between the Cabanas. Every tourist who came by had to take a photo of the row of Cabanas and of this guy. I should have charged for photos.

This was the cool post office. First you had to be sniffed by the bomb detecting dog either that or he was just checking for chicken. The papers posted on the wall are the names of people who have mail to be picked up. Quaint.

Pot holed sand roads with no cars. Too many golf carts though. Lazy ass people.

My tortilla chip shop. Excellent. $2B. You can´t eat just one.

Ignacios from the dock.

The Dutch guy who was Tarpon crazy. I caught them in the Keys like bluegills.

Backpacker stove.

This slot limit snook lived under the dock. It let me walk right up to him and I even grabbed his tail (didn´t like that). He left after I told Armando about him and he tried to gaff it.

Pretty, pretty sunsets.

Belizean staple food, stewed chicken and rice and beans. $7B.

Proof I wake up earllllllyyyyy. Sunrise baby. Gotta be nice for me to get up that early.

The cut or split. Basically, during one of the hurricanes, the water broke through the island forming this channel. Now the island is cut into. The good part of it is that a beach has formed here with nice white sand and deep water in the channel. Bad thing is the boats run through here so you have to be careful.

The cut.

The Lazy Lizard rasta boat that you can go out on the reef in.

I ended up kayaking around the island once during some high winds. It was extremely brutal but I got swarmed by some juvenile dolphins which were neat.

More of the cuts sea wall that failed.

Introducing Ruby my island playmate. She got great pleasure from stealing my juice, whimpering until she got half my peanut butter, jam, and banana sandwiches, and totally ruining my peaceful hammock time. I think her mom was happy at first in that she didn´t have to watch Ruby when I was there but then a little miffed when Ruby only wanted to hang out with me. Plus, usually when I returned her she was covered in sand, peanut butter and jam, juice, mud from the beach, and she said “Fuck” a lot. Ruben and others got her started on the “Fucks”, I just sort of reinforced her by telling her “no”. Later on, it became a way of getting my attention so when she came in the morning and saw me she would start yelling “fuck” and running towards me. Other times when I wasn´t paying attention the “fuck”s would fly.

Armando. He didn´t really have any other kids to play with around there so when I came along it was like a gold mine to him. He was deftly afraid of the water, but after a couple of days I got him to go for a swim with me, although wrapped around my neck. Everybody was pretty surprised.

Pretty much my daily activity was playing. Mara a Canadian girl I met there and in my next stop was surprised when I told her I was 43. She thought I was 9. I told her that all asians look young for their age. She didn´t buy it.

More sunrises. Feel lucky I don´t show you 14 of them plus sunsets.

Good old Ignacios. Highly recommended for the get away from it all set. Basic though so if you are coming from the States and this is your first stop, you might consider the nicer resorts first. For me it was three stars.

Belize city port. There was three cruise ships waiting when we got back. I guess they don´t have a deep water port as they were parked way out. Lots and lots of tourists. Luckily though I think they go to San Pedro.

The water taxis that take you out to the outlying cayes. $15B one way or $25B round trip.

So this is where I got stuck. Caye Caulker is about a 45 minute water taxi ride north of Belize city. Now, I was actually really looking forward to this part of my trip from even the beginning. Now, I know I have not been to enthused about islands, but as this was actually a Caye and not an island, I figured it would be okay, even if some Belizean orphans were going to have to start school without supplies.

I wasn´t planning on making the long run in one day figuring I could stop off in Dangria another Garifune town half way between Placencia and Belize city, but after walking around the town for a couple of hours, I figured it was just going to be another disappointment so I stopped by a grocery store and loaded up on some food which I would take with me to C.C. From there it was a second bus to the capital and then a third express bus to Belize City. Now, most people I had been talking to were pretty much giving Belize City a poor score on the destination scale as it was crappy and dangerous, so I figured it would be fine to do another capital city style run through. Fortunately, from the bus station to the water taxi office is only about a five minute walk although most people again recommended not walking and taking a taxi the couple of hundred meters. Now, just to try and balance things out, I do have to say that I think that the negative talk is a bit over done. I know what the key reason why people have such a negative feeling towards Belize city even though really it is not that big nor different than any other port town. The main reason is sadly because the population is black. Drving through town with the exception of skin tone, there was no different layout or out of control bad guy on the corner look to it than any other town that I had been in in Central America. In fact the dangerous five minute walk was the main road which was side by side stores run by Indians. So maybe I have my perceptions crossed and Indian shopkeepers are really dangerous or perhaps they are such good sellers that you end up spending all your money, but in general, I think most people see black people and automatically start getting into the gang infested ghetto mode. Kind of a bad rap, but what can you do, at least I am acknowledging it. In reality though, it was the same issue in Key West and St. Thomas as the same kind of unwarranted impression is given. Sadly, even in paradise.

The taxi boat was packed with tourists as we headed off to the budget island versus San Pedro which was the more all inclusive resort style island. We pulled in and I grabbed my bag and headed off to the left down the beach having got the heads up on a great place to stay right on the beach. A couple of Australian girls I met in Placencia had let me know that the two best budget options were either Bellas, which was in the center of town but it had a kitchen or Ignacios which was on the beach but had no kitchen and was about ten minutes walk from all the hubbub of the tourist center. I was not interested in all with the town center so the cabanas on the beach were an easy choice. It was basically at the end of the tourist places with the tip of the island being still kind of wild. I picked out a cabana, dropped my bags and was in a hammock ten minutes later. The cabanas were basic but versus the other style huts and cabanas that I had been in, really nice especially since they included a bathroom. The beach was ten feet away and there was great views. A crickety old pier led out over the sea grass which gave way to a little deeper water where you could swim. The island is basically surrounded by flats and sea grass, but the reef is around a mile out easily spotted from shore as the waves breaking were very visible. Most of the time the water was crystal clear although when the wind picked up it got a little choppy and the visiblity dropped. Other than that, some really nice water.

I ended up staying for two weeks as Ruben the son of the owner through in a buy six and get one free night deal as well as towards the end letting me have all the usual additions for free, drinking water, bike, snorkeling, etc. The island itself is one of those mandatory week places with a lot of activities on tap. The most common activities were snorkeling and diving with the Blue Hole being a world class draw and the second longest barrier reef. Other stuff including hiking, bird watching (extremely popular as being on the end of the island we saw all the birding freaks passing by with all there binoculars, long lens cameras, camoflauge, books, etc. If I go back, I am going to bring a shotgun and follow them around asking them to spot birds out for me). Fishing was also a huge draw as sport fishing for flats fish was pretty active as I saw a ton of guys with their fly rods as well as guide bringing their clients right in front of the property. Just at our dock I spotted Tarpon, Snook, Bonefish, Barracuda, Jacks, and all the other little shore fish. I fly fished a little bit but really didn´t want to get too involved as I really would have stuck around. One Dutch guy was there for two weeks and he spend every day out on a Kayak flyfishing for Tarpon. With the island life you also have tons of restaurants and bars to hang out with although I spent most of my time at Ignacios having only walked to the other side maybe three times the whole time I was there.

Steve´s daily itinerary.

5:30A Wake up at sunset and watch the day begin. The Cabanas face the East so you get the best fireball sunrises.
6:00A Hang out on the dock seeing what kind of fishies are around debating whether I should pick up some fishing stuff.
7:00A Have my patented peanut butter, jam, and sliced banana (sliced long ways not into circles- makes a huge difference in the flavor, really,) sandwiches for breakfast.
8:00A Play with Armando, one of the third generations of the family owned Ignacios before he went off to school
9:00A Back to the dock to hang out and then the start of my hammock time.
10:00A Rubens (second generation) wife comes to take over the office bringing with her their 10 month old baby and Ruby their 3 year old and my other playmate. We play until around noon when Armando comes back from school for lunch and we all hang out under the Cabana with my hammock and a swing.
1:00P Armando goes back to school and Ruby goes in for a nap so I head to town to my tortilla making shop where I pick up a bag of freshly made tortilla chips and then to the Chinatown grocery store for a can of tuna. After lunch it´s a quick swim and snorkel followed by a hammock laze.
3:00P Armando comes back from school and Ruby wakes up hearing us playing and she comes out. We full around until 5:30 when Ruby goes back to her house with her mom. I go for my afternoon swim and then hang out with Armando, Chuck (retired American friend of Ruben who spends a few months a year in Belize at Ignacios) and Ruben.

6:00P Dinner time so either I go to town for some take away stewed chicken and dirty rice, some canned food I brought from the mainland, or out with Chuck and Ricky (Another son of Ignacio).

8:00P Back to Ignacios for some dock time relaxing sometimes with a cigar sometimes with my spotlight to attract fish and crabs.

10:00P Bed time.

The weather was still a little volatile as some of the winter crap from the north blows down and we got hit twice with some chilly nights. Out of the two weeks I would say we had “perfect weather” for nine days and some overcast day the rest. Overall very nice.

My last night was really nice as they threw a going away bbq for me with a whole table full of food. I hadn´t had a hearty american style bbq in a long time so I ate a shit load. Two servings of everything and three of the mashed potatoes. I was getting in shape for thirteen of my days there.

I had a really great time even though I pretty much did real low key stuff. I didn´t go on any of the tours as I wasn´t really all that interested in paying money to see stuff that I had done many times before, instead one day I snuck out on a kayak to the “not allowed without a guide” reef and checked it out on my own. Playing with the kids was great and pretty much eliminated my middle of the day nap times. Caye Caulker definitely rates as a possible return visit place especially because I would like to go back armed with some of my fishing stuff. With it being so close to California and cheap flights to Cancun, I could easily get down there anytime I wanted. I am sure the family would be happy to see me return, especially the kids.

The main access path running through town.

My buddy Coco

Art shot.

Sorry, another damn sunset. It could be worse I could of shot a market or a church or some rocks.

The rest of the islands walkways. Kind of a pain in the ass.

Wildlife. Best when fried or worn on a hat.

More path walking.

My day time duties.

Its a path, you gotta follow it or how else are you going to get on any adventures. Travel tip #412.

It led to the end of the settled area. All this can be bought just like in Costa Rica where everything has a for sale sign on it.

The guesthouse where I stayed. Not beachfront but sure was beachy/sandy. Still, I was lulled at night to the sound of the sea.

I caught the sunset at the docks every night.

Remember the town of Boquete in Panama? It was that top five retirement towns in the AARP magazine. Well, Placencia is the beach side version of the same thing.

After a nice bus ride through the country side in another retired American school bus picking up and dropping off mainly school children, we pulled into the tiny village of Independance. Even though my target was Placencia, the main access point from the south involved getting off at this village, walking about five minutes to the little mangrove port and taking a water taxi through the mangroves and to the docks on Placencia. Placencia I should add is a Caye, or in mainland terms a sand or shell bits island. Placencia was this but also really a isthmus as it was connected to the mainland which a road had been built connecting Placencia to the mainland. Placencia is known in Belize as the Caye you can drive to. Just cruising through the mangroves paralleling the island was a bit daunting as it looked like Key West or Red Hook in the Virgin Islands. There were modern fancy houses lining the water way with many new ones being built. All the shops and buildings were dollied up and the whole place had the manicured feel to it. The place looked very exensive. The amount of sail boats and yachts were very off putting. I started thinking that this place was going to take some money. I also started worrying that my time in Belize was going to amount to a bunch of one nights and out as it would be too cost prohibitive and not very interesting.

The island is a bit odd as the main thoroughfares consists of the road that dead ends in the bay and a main walkway which is a concrete path that cuts through the center of the narrow isthmus. Beyond that, everything is sand. To get anywhere you take one of the two concrete or tar road/path, and then you are trudging the rest through sand to the final destination. I found a nice little tourist office and she gave me a low down on the couple of backpackers. There were basically four places that were in the $30-40B range and after trudging around for a hour I found that three of the four were booked. Crap. The only place that had a room was in a kind of old original wood plank houses. They had tenants in the bottom floor and two main section one having rooms with bathroom and the other with shared. The good part about the place was that it had a kitchen which guests could use. Being such a retirement community, the Chinese owned grocery stores were packed with all the goods you could imagine. In fact, for the three days that I was there my meals consisted of grilled ham and cheese sandwiches and get this Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. Four years ten months since I had those cheesy yummies. The Canadian couple that I was hanging out with thought it was hilarious that I would rather have that then go out for dinner, but there are not very many times when the planets line up and you have access to Mac and Cheese and a kitchen to make them. Wonderful.

The town itself is pretty preppy with a lot of retirees hanging about living their perfect life. It is done up enough that I guess you could consider it a vacation getaway in its own right although it did not share the barrier reef like in the north. For the reef you head to the north where unfortunately there really is no beaches and for beaches you head to Placencia. It is also a yachting and sailing ship port as quite a bit of money was floating around in the bay.

This was another stop where fishing became more apparent as in the evenings a few of the expats came out and were fishing the docks while during the day there were steady streams of tourists being taken out on the local boats. Still though, I held back and kept the fishing off of my primary attention. Instead I did a bit of swimming in the morning and evening filling up the rest of the time in the hammock or kitchen.

All in all, a nice place if you want a bit more of Americanism to your Central American stay as English is the predominant language, the facilities are geared toward the American expat, and the place is almost like staying in an all inclusive resort as the locals seemed pretty clean cut and accommodating as they knew where their money was coming from.

The run to Belize was a bit longer at two hours plus it wasn´t exactly the mirror calm seas that is conducive to the Caribbean. One of the midday storms roled in and we were hit by wind and rain. The water was a bit choppy but we were fortunately a bit heavy as half the passenger area was full of bundles of clothes somebody was importing. I was fortunate enough to take what looked like the worst seat right up front where the wall of bundles allowed a little bit of leg room and an impenetrable wall. The people behind me and to the back all had to wear heavy tarps over them because of the rain and sea spray.

Pulling into Belize was a breath of fresh air after a kind of cramped and damp ride. I also had to pee so that made it all that more uncomfortable. Immigration was a couple of questions and a stamp. I was in. Punto Gordo also was a place that I thought was worthy of a couple of nights stay as it was the southern most point in a relatively non touristic part of a heavily touristic country. It was also heavy Garifuna but with also a mix of Indian, Asian, Central American Latino, and American Expats. Different to Livingstone there was nobody waiting for people at the gate. I just headed into town made a left heading for the kind of out of way hostel which was highly recommended in the guidebook. It was about a fifteen minute walk but it was all worth while as there were good views and plenty of places to pee (trees). When I got to the guesthouse I was a bit dampered when the lady there told me they were booked. Crap. Even though they were full I inquired about the prices to get a feel for pricing as the Lp guidebook is a couple of years old and some prices have been way off. I got a bit sticker shocked when she told me the price but figured it was the usual price hike for being a preferred location for the backpacker bible following set. My other options were back in town so I headed back but on a parallel street that ran along the beach road. This took me straight through the middle of town and into the central plaza area. There was a nice looking hotel right on the plaza so I stopped in to check even though it looked to be a little high budget. Again, full. Crap. I did a quick sniff of the armpits to see if it was me that they didn´t want, and started to get suspicious about some sort of anti-asian conspiracy or possibly anti-US, or possibly anti-Fresno. The next three places were the same. Oh shit. Punta Gorda is not close to anywhere so having to leave town was not going to be a good option. I had just done two water taxi rides so I dreaded having to get on a bus. I was also looking forward to staying in the town a bit to get my usual new country orientation out of the way. Finally, one of the full hotels house keepers helped me and told me to go to a pharmacy and ask the people there if they had a room. I was thinking that I would be renting their spare room or something but it turned out to be some actual hotel style rooms that they had on the second floor. The place was shit and very expensive at $35B (Belizean dollar is pegged at $2B-$1US). With no option I bedrudgingly accepted. I later learned that there was some sort of educational meetings as well as a large group of missionaries and volunteers in town which had taken pretty much all the main stream accommodations. The town was pretty small and after a couple of hours I had the lay of the very sleepy town. The place ran at a pace of slow to comatose. Still I would have liked to have spent a couple of days just to get a better grasp, but it just wasn´t worth the extra expense. I did however have tv in my room and the first opportunity in a long time where the tv channels were 90% English and 10% foreign. I also found a little Honduran mamas place serving cheap stewed chicken and dirty rice. Later that night I had my first chinese food since Ethiopia. $10B for a massive amount of pork chow mein, not such a bad deal considering the volume. Oh yea, I saw a guy actually fly fishing off one of the docks. Now, that part of Belize I had not even thought about. Belize is actually a sport fishing paradise. Nice.

Anyways, the next morning I was on the old school bus heading for my next destination.

Heading to my next stop involved a hour and a half ferry ride across the bay. I was looking forward to visiting the town of Livingstone which was a heavy Garifuna (Black-Caribes who were transplanted from the island of St. Vincent back in the colonial days.) The atmosphere was also supposed to be unique due to the fact that there were no roads leading to the town and it was only possible to be reached by boat.

I had the option of taking one of the faster water taxis, but the slower ferry seemed like a more relaxing way to go. It was fully loaded with supplies as well as a couple of dozen locals and tourists. After a pretty smooth run we arrived at the sort of odd port town.

My original perception upon pulling up to the dock were pretty good. It was as advertised, a town running along an river inlet curving around to the ocean. Just as soon as we pulled up to the dock, the local rasta wanna be touts jumped on board scrambling to grab hold of the couple of groups of backpackers wanting to whisk them away to their preferred paying hostels. As I was alone I was able to sneak by unmolested. Just getting past the blockade to the dock, the second wave of hasslers were lined up ready to take you on a boat tour to a few standard destinations. Once bypassing them it was a short walk up hill to the heavily tourist lined main street which housed the hotels, bars, restaurants, and tourist souvenir shops. The third wave were the lazy touts who just waited outside the hotels on the tourist street trying to be “helpful”. The whole while, mass tourist groups with guides holding up their little flags kept a bunch of cruise ship tourists all grouped together. I didn´t like any of it. A few guys tried to buddy up but I just kept blowing them off even when they kept following me around hoping that they could hitch up to me as I walked into a hotel and score a free payday. I figured that since it was early in the day I was in no rush to find a room and without the heavy weight of a large pack I could just wander around the town feeling it out to see if it was going to be somewhere I could shack up for a few days as based on the earlier descriptions it seemed like a place I could do some time. Walking around was pretty mundane as there really wasn´t much different about the town than any other although it did seem like you were more on an island as the town was on a sort of isthmus with the river on one side and the ocean on the other. After a couple of hours I had hit pretty much all there was to see so I figured it was time to drop my pack. I picked a little place off the tourist street and more in a little residential area. I had to cruise around a while to find a locals place that didn´t cater to tourists as the prices on the tourist street were nuts. By mid-afternoon I was pretty much through with Livingstone and headed down to the dock to see what my options were for a boat to my next destination.

Generally, the guidebook is fairly reliable on transportation options, but I guess something happened as the two companies that ran daily boats to Belize were no longer in business and the twice a week ferry was the only option. As that didn´t leave for a couple of days I was kind of stuck. Talking to one of the water taxi guys, he let me know that the other possibility was to take a water taxi back to Puerto Barrios where they had a daily boat at 10am. I was already dreading having to get up for the extra early boats that no longer ran, and now having to get up early to make a run back to the town I was already at plus make it in time for another boat departure just made the whole thing sound dreadful. The only good part was that my hotel in Puerto Barrios was close to the dock, it had tv, and I could get another helladelicious at the park.

The next morning I was up early as I was wanting to get the hell out of Livingstone. The only catch was that there are no scheduled boats back to Puerto Barrios, so you have to wait until the boat fills up before they leave. Luckily, I only had to wait about an hour. A quick hour ride back and I was there a half an hour before the Belize boat was about to leave. A nice kid came along and took me to the ticket place which was actually a van parked in front of the immigration office. I had to get my stamp out of Honduras before they would sell me a ticket. With ticket in hand I had about ten minutes to spare before the boat was to depart.

But don’t worry be happy…
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Cuz everthing is gonna be alright…

What a painless border crossing. I am very enthused about this CA-4 agreement. One stop at the immigration to let them know I am jumping ship and off I go to Guatemala. Painless. Even changing money at the border was painless, I think I got more than I was supposed to. Mini bus waiting to take me to my final destination of Puerto Barrios. I thought there was going to be a bit of trouble when the minibus driver found out that most of the passengers were getting off halfway to head south rather than to head into town. I knew what was going to happen. They were going to do a tourist dump. I was going to be stuck on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. Nope, the guy explained to me that he had called his friend who would be picking me up in his minivan. He had me stay in the van as it was airconditioned and kept coming in to apologize and to tell me it wouldn´t be long. The guy came, they carried my bags over to the new van, explained that I didn´t have to pay anything more and said goodby. No problems. I made it to town which being a major port town and basically owned by the banana companies and was arranged as such, and was easily able to find my target hotel. I was settled and doing my scans of the town within a few hours of leaving Honduras.

I was in Puerto Barrios primarily because I like these types of working towns as well as the fact as it was the staging point for my next destination of Livingston which is a no road access town which requires taking a boat. Cool, looking forward to it. This also allowed me to get my usual new country orientation out of the way.

At the moment though, (I am up to date, whoopahhhh), a storm came in last night and today is a bit rainy and cold. What the hell is this shit. Cold is not good, and it is causing my mirror calm bay to be a bit choppy. I was looking for some nice Caribbean calm cruising weather for the hour or so ferry ride over to Livingston so I decided to take another free day and hope the weather clears tomorrow. From Livingston it is off on another boat which will take me to Belize, something I am also looking forward to. I am thinking Belize will be a bit different than the usual latin american countries and something I need at the moment. From there it will be back to Guatemala for a little more in depth look. And after that, drum roll please, my last country before heading home, Mexico.

Another place with no ocean access as the whole shore line is either residential houses, restaurants, or sea port.

Bananas is big business. This one is headed off to Europe. Bananas are about $.05 here.

Another amazing treat I found. One scoop of shaved ice, squirt on the orange syrup, pack the top with more shaved ice, add sweetened condensed milk, honey, strawberry jam, dehydrated and liquified mangos, sugar syrup, and a sort of honey banana concoction. Damn good. I named them helladelicious.

You know it is good when the bees follow you around. The guys cart was swarming.

Although it was possible to make it across to Guatemala in one day, it would have been a five bus plus one country change, way too much chance of some screw up and being inconvenienced, so I decided to take a stop at the port town of Puerto Cortez. Puerto Cortez is the largest and most important Honduran sea port. To me it was a big ass wall that stretched on for three “as far as the eye can see”. Actually, what it made me flash back to was Syria and the port town where I spent a couple of quality weeks eating great American diner food and watching tv. I had the same layout with a hotel that overlooked the port with another wall that went on forever with a sunset that dropped somewhere behind the white washed ten foot barrier. Since it was my last stop before heading over to Guatemala I decided to spend a couple of nights there soaking up the sketchy port town vibe and which allowed me to do some exploring. Now, the place was a port town, and like most port towns they were built essentially because of the port. I give this information because when you visit these places and as a tourist sometimes it is hard to connect on why a place built on the Caribbean actually has no access to the aforementioned sea. My free day I took a walk to the entry gates to take a photo of the wall, kind of another flash back to Israel/Palestine, just to give the perspective of what you get when you visit a working port town. It feels like a sort of beach apartheid (South Africa flashbacks), with a wall dividing you from the emerald waters of the Caribbean. I kind of stood there and looked down the wall as it extended basically as far as I could see. I figured it was some sort of mirage (kind of a flashback to hiking to the pyramids in Sudan), and that it couldn´t be that far, plus with my fatness, it would do some good to get some exercise, my other option was getting a snowcone and watching tv from bed. So I walked. I walked a long time. Finally after an entry way where I had seen some cars drive in from afar which I had misinterpreted as the end of the wall, I got another eyefull of wall as it kept on going for a second “as far as the eye can see”. That stretch finally ended at a gas station which I thought would be my gateway to the ocean, but turned out to be another “as far as the eye can see” wall that curved towards the ocean, but then straightened out again for another stretch “as far as the eye can see”. Finally, the wall veered to the right and ended at a river. Looking down the river I could see the ocean but it was still far away and there was still no access unless I lept and let the current take me out to it. Walking over the bridge there were a few restaurants right next to the bridge but not wanting to see the ocean but not have to buy a burger to see it, I kept going. There I met up with another wall, this time it was the property of the Honduran Navy. There wall was another “as far as the eye can see”, but this time with barbed wire. Finally though, the damn wall ended and it opened up to a nice grass covered beach with full access to the Caribbean ocean. Man, what a pain in the ass. I took a bus back to town, it was that far.

Puerto Cortez wasn´t horrid, it was pretty much your usual Central American town with the usual central park. On a positive note, they had Pizza Hut, Wendy´s, and Burger King. No McDonalds though wtf. For some reason, I am not craving American fast food. One night I had my usual fried chicken and chips, but my final night as I stopped by the grocery store, there was a girl outside selling tamales. Now, in my family that is actually Christmas food as one of my imported Aunt Lucy brought tamales to our usually authentic Japanese Christmas/New Years feasts. Usually it was mochi making at the ranch but a day was also spent making tamales. Eating those for the first time in years was a treat although they are pretty sparse on the meat, but what do you expect for fifty cents.

The wall.

Finally the beach.

Sunday tamales.