After saying goodbye to Sam and Tulum, we began our journey to Guatemala. The easiest way to get into Guatemala from the Yucatan Peninsula is by staying overnight in a Mexican border-town called Chetumal, and catching an early morning bus to Flores (Guatemala) via Belize. So this is what we did.
The 3 hour bus journey from Tulum to Chetumal was uneventful, save for Grey holding his tummy and feeling rubbish the whole time. Upon arrival in Chetumal, we decided to check into the nicest hotel in town – THE HOLIDAY INN - so that he could have some much needed rest-time in a quiet and comfortable bed.
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| Happy at the Holiday Inn |
After having a quick look around the very quiet town we decided that the best option for dinner was room service! We ordered guacamole, chicken soup, spaghetti bolognaise and flan (standard Mexican dessert) and ate it all in bed with the television on. Then we settled in for a long, solid sleep before a 5.30am wake up to catch our ongoing minibus.
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| Chetumal explorations did not go well for Grey |
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| Room service!:) |
… And then a wedding reception started downstairs in the hotel. Because the whole hotel surrounded a communal, concrete courtyard, the music and noise reverberated through the entire place. It was bloody loud. I gave reception a call to check what time the wedding would be kicking on until. 2am apparently. I slept okay nonetheless, but Grey had another bad night’s sleep.
After an early wake up, finding our way back to the bus station, expecting a “nice-big-bus” and ending up on an old, cramped minibus instead, an uneventful crossing of the Mexican border and entering into Belize, we were on the road! Although we only drove through it, Belize looked interesting. Within seconds of being on the road, the different cultural mix was evident, all the signs were in English, there were cows tied up in yards, and we drove past a couple of very cute looking markets. After being in a Spanish speaking country for so long, we wanted to jump out and talk to everyone! Being understood has become such a novelty!
When we came to the Belize/Guatemala border crossing, things got pretty funny. Hoards of people approached the minibus, offering to exchange dollars or pesos at terrible rates because Belize or Guatemalan currency was needed to get out of or into the respective countries (I’m stlll not sure what the deal was). Also a lot of the people on our bus didn’t have the foresight to bring any cash with them over the border, and this created the need for a lot of borrowing etc. Grey was like a bank!
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| Grey sleeping on the minibus. He was sick, poor thing |
A few more hours of driving and we arrived in FLORES, ready to check out a new country.
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