Honduras has this very peculiar policy of requiring all “visiting” people to leave the country every 90 days to renew their visitor’s visa. It is not enough to go to the border, hop across and return. No, you must go to one country beyond. That makes Mexico or Belize the countries of choice for me.
This weekend was the time for me to get my 90 days renewed. Generally I combine a trip to Canada with the expiration of my visa but, as my daughter is graduating in June, it wasn’t going to work out so nicely. Thus, the trip to Belize.
Thursday, I began the trip. By 5:00 p.m. after 6 bus and rapidito rides, 7 waits, two short walks and one border crossing, I arrived in Puerto Barrios in Guatemala. I checked into a hotel and then set out to find the location of the boats for the next leg of the trip – Punta Gorda in Belize. Thirty minutes later I had a ticket and knew where the Immigration and dock were.
Friday morning, I checked out of the hotel, had my passport stamped and found a place for breakfast. Sitting on the edge of the ocean, water lapping at the pilings of the restaurant and watching boat traffic – big (container ships) and little (down to dug out canoes) was, in my humble opinion, a rather exotic way to spend an hour.
Breakfast finished (including fresh mango juice on ice) I headed to the boat heading to Belize. Well ... that was my thought. It was big, had lots of goods being loaded and had seats for 50 people on the deck. Makes sense right? I waited and watched. Twenty minutes before launch time (not a rocket by any means), a coffin arrived and was placed in the aisle between the seats. I was, rather effectively, blocked in for the trip.
So very fortunately, my name was on the manifest for the trip to Punta Gorda. I had picked the wrong boat and, rather foolishly and, uncharacteristically, had not double checked. In my defence, I was on the only boat being loaded. The man who sold me the ticket came and called my name and took me across the narrow dock to the small fourteen seater waiting with several passengers. Phew. Lucky for me.
We headed out across the blue-green tropical coloured waters. Very shortly into the trip, there was a sharp, gun shot like sound. Not good in my opinion. Nothing seemed to be amiss so we continued at full throttle, prow bouncing and banging over the small waves. Ten minutes later we were stopped, engine hatch up and tinkering with the engine (I use the term “we” in the very loose sense of – “I was in the boat when it happened” ... much as some might say, “we reshingled the roof this weekend”.) Five minutes we started again. Every five to ten minutes we stopped for further tinkering. But, we only took a little over an hour to make the trip.
Belize is an English speaking country. What a change in such a short distance and time. There is also a type of pigeon English which sounds so very much like many African English speaking dialects.
Punta Gorda was my kind of town. Small, sleepy and full of balloon tired bicycles – just like the one I ride in Canada ... and which my children deride about with great enthusiasm.
Friday night, as I was walking to supper, I met a marching band coming down the street – complete with white pants, lime green coats and white band type hats. What a surprise. It turned out that there was a sort of band demonstration event that evening in the football stadium. I attended. Two marching groups participated. One was a group of primary students who did choreography to several songs. They wore glittering costumes and partial costumes and were cute as buttons. The second group was the band which had several numbers – dance and music with a variety of costumes. The dancers were phenomenal. I don’t think that any Honduran school would have the same dedication to perfection that this group had.
The trip back was rather easy (generally speaking). The Sunday night section was crowded and slow. Five people are able to hang outside of a van at one time. I hadn’t realized that before (despite African experiences). The school bus trip was two and one half hours to cover sixty-five kilometres. For the majority of the trip there were at least sixty people standing in the aisle (not counting completely full seats). Babies and luggage was being handed around to those lucky enough to have seats. At over 37’ C, the temperature in the bus skyrocketed at each stop. The good spirits of the passengers were amazing to watch. Lots of smiles and banter, despite the crowding.
Here is my chart of travel times for Thursday’s travels. It didn't cut and paste well so forgive the wobbly lines (Pooh's spelling skills). Part of the fun.
TTYL
BB
Time Total Time Section Distance Total Distance Trip Average
Walking 15 min. 15 min. 1 km 1 km 4 km/hr.
Wait 30 min. 45 min. 0 1 km 1.3 km/hr.
La Barca 25 min. 1 hr. 10 min. 15 km 16 km 13.6 km/hr.
Wait 35 min. 1 hr. 45 min. 0 16 km 9.1 km/hr.
St. Rita 25 min. 2 hr. 10 min. 13 km 29 km 13.4 km/hr.
Wait 5 min. 2 hr. 15 min. 0 12.9 km/hr.
Land 5 min. 2 hr. 20 min. 3 km 32 km 13.7 km/hr.
Wait 5 min. 2 hr. 25 min. 0 13.2 km/hr.
San Pedro Sula 75 min. 3 hr. 50 min. 60 km 92 km 24 km/hr.
Wait 5 min. 3 hr. 55 min. 0 23.5 km/hr.
Puerto Cortes 85 min. 5 hr. 20 min. 65 km 157 km 29.4 km/hr.
Wait 35 min. 5 hr. 55 min. 0 26.5 km/hr.
Corinto 65 min. 7 hr. 0 min. 65 km 222 km 31.7 km/hr.
Walking 15 min. 7 hr. 15 min. 1 km 223 km 30.8 km/hr.
Wait 15 min. 7 hr. 30 min. 0 29.7 km/hr.
Puerto Barrios 75 min. 8 hr. 45 min. 49 km 263 km 30.0 km/hr.
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