06/15 First whole day of riding in Belize and I’m not a fan. The Northern Highway as it’s called has no shoulder, no lane markings of any kind (including a center yellow line) and there are big, old rumbling sugar cane trucks all over the place. No one ran me over and that’s all that matters I guess. The wind was kicking my butt too. It was blowing hard from the east which pushes me right into the broken asphalt that marks the side of the road. Fortunately I have mad riding skills and avoided running off the road.

Other than a lot of sugar cane fields there’s not too much in the way of scenery. I miss hills. On a positive note the people here are extremely friendly. I’ve had more fist-bumps from strangers on the street then I ever have. And the food… it is sooooo good. Had this garlic pepper shrimp tonight that was awesome. Most of the restaurants are air conditioned which is great because then I don’t have to chase nasty flies away from my dinner. So other than the stinking road and that things are a bit more expensive I like it here.

Orange Walk Town is pretty neat. It seemed from reading different web sites that it would be really touristy but its not that way at all. I even found a place (Baba’s) that changes Mexican pesos. There’s a decent-sized river that runs through town that you can travel up to see the ruins at Lamanai (used to be huge Mayan city). I’m going to skip it because staying an extra day for the US $40 tour plus the cost of the motel (US $35) is way too much.

I sure miss having detailed GPS maps like I did for Mexico. I’m using the Garmin WorldMap v4 and it only has major highways on it. That didn’t help when it took me 15 minutes to find my way out of Corozal this morning.

GPX Track

Weather in Chetumal, Q. Roo when posted:

Temperature: 30 °C, Humidity: 70%, Wind Speed: 6km/hr, Cloud Cover: broken clouds

06/12 Perfect day for riding. It rained for a good part of the morning which kept things from getting too hot then it stayed mostly cloudy with a nice breeze. Nothing much in the way of scenery other than a couple small lakes.

I was prepared for a long day but it never came to that thanks to a sign that I hadn’t seen in almost 6 months — a campground. I checked my GPS and saw that it was right next to a lake so I jumped on the dirt road hoping for a nice, lake-side spot with a little store stocked with cold beer. That dream ended quickly but it was just because tourist season is over so most things are shuttered up for the summer including the little store and the restaurant that sat empty. The guy pointed over next to some mangroves and said I could pitch my tent there. After setting up camp I went for a nice, relaxing swim in the turquoise waters of Laguna Bacalar, the second largest lake in Mexico.

GPX Track

06/04 Other than passing through a bunch of quiet, rural towns there wasn’t a lot to break up the long stretches of road that cuts through the rain forest. The sun stayed behind clouds most of the day so I didn’t have to stop and rest as often but the heat still wore me out. It’ll be nice to get back into some more temperate areas but I don’t think that’s going to be for a while.

The last town didn’t have a motel but one of the guys on the street said this town did. It doesn’t. I was beat so I rode over to the policia and asked if I could camp next to the church. No problemo. The only thing that made me a little nervous was a Friday night baseball game going on in the nearby field. A homerun down the 1st base line would have had a good chance of smacking my tent. Fortunately nothing flew my way.

I did turn out to be a bit of a curiosity for the people who saw me setting up camp. Moms actually walked their kids over to the fence between the church and the baseball field so they could watch me. Some kids were short so they were lifted up so they could see too. I finished my camp stuff, bought some water and sat down to watch the game with them.

WARNING: there’s a picture of a big, dead snake below.

GPX Track

04/12 Tacked on some good miles today. I was thinking about stopping in the last city but some cyclists I met suggested I try this place for some camping spots so I pushed on. The wind didn’t help. What does a guy have to do to get a tailwind around here?

Seybaplaya isn’t the beach-side village I thought it was going to be and camping wouldn’t have been a good idea. Whatever industry used to sustain the town either left or seriously slowed down. The free highway runs right through it and where there’d normally be dozens of businesses lining the road very few were open. Many buildings were shuttered up and abandoned. I never did find a restaurant to eat dinner at. Had some good tacos by the town square though. It looks like fishing is the big industry in town and there might be a mining outfit up the road but whatever used to attract people here is gone.

Right at the edge of town the biggest pack of dogs started running after me. There must have been at least 10 of them. Fortunately they were content to just run beside me and bark. My Dog Dazer is toast. Water and/or bouncing around finally got to it. The bamboo stick scared a dog away so at least I have that.

Best part of the day was cresting a little hill and seeing the Gulf of Mexico. It’s been a long time–well over a year since my last trip to Sanibel Island. My GPS says I’m only 800 miles from Miami.

A couple days ago I noticed that the same bolt that broke on my right front pannier broke on the front left one. Hopefully that one doesn’t have to be drilled out too. I’ll worry about it later.

GPX Track

I ended up staying here today hoping that there’d be a change with my sister’s condition. No such luck though. Tomorrow I’m going to ride to the next town and make plans from there.

While walking to dinner tonight I’m fairly sure that I saw someone being kidnapped. A couple people on the sidewalk in front of me had stopped and were looking down a side street. When I got to where they were I could see a white mini-van with the door open stopped next to the sidewalk. Right next to the open door 2 or 3 guys were struggling with another guy and it looked like they were trying to get him into the van. I didn’t go over because that would have probably been a stupid move on my part. The Mexican guy standing next to me didn’t head over either so I figured he was staying out of it for a good reason. I didn’t stand there for more than 10 seconds because I kind of stick out here. First time I’ve seen any kind of violence in Mexico. It’s possible it was something other than what it looked like but I doubt it.

I just saw the Wikipedia entry for this city: “Escárcega was featured in fifth position on the 2002 Lonely Planet Guide to Mexico’s “worst of Mexico” list.”

Nice. I haven’t seen that much of the city but it doesn’t seem that bad (other than people being kidnapped). There is kind of a weird feeling you get here that I noticed yesterday. People don’t seem as friendly and even walking down the street I’m not stared at like I normally am. Maybe it’s because people are afraid? Who knows. Or it could be that everyone here thinks Americans are jerks because the dumbasses at Burger King thought it would be cool to stick up this huge obnoxious sign that you can see from miles out of town. No wonder some local kid back in Palenque used BK as an insult when he said I should go there to eat. To be fair he was drunk but still.