Looking forward to it: Welcome to Belize, Punto Gorda
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.
Tags: Belize