06/14 You better Belize it! I’m officially in Central America now. Crossing the border was painless. The lady just asked where I was going and I was on my way. It sucked having to pay an exit fee of $20 US just to leave Mexico but what can you do. Once into the country I followed the road about 7 miles to the town of Corozal. It’s a pretty quiet place on the shore of Chetumal Bay which opens up into the Caribbean Sea. I’m happy to see there are lots of Chinese restaurants here. Haven’t eaten at one in a while. Drank some new beer–Belikin it’s called. It has a Mayan temple on the front and it tastes pretty good.

On the road into town I saw a dead Tapir, the largest land mammal of the American tropics, so I can add that as my first exotic road kill. Hopefully I’ll see some live ones. And Toucans…there are a lot of them here. Actually Belize has so many things that can seriously mess you up that I’ll have to be careful. There’s even an ant that’s described as causing “waves of burning, throbbing, all-consuming pain that continues unabated for up to 24 hours”. No more dropping Oreo cookie bits and seeing how many ants I can summon during a rest break.

It’s weird speaking English to everyone again. Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official language. The population of Belize is pretty mixed: Mestizos comprise about 34% of the population, Kriols 25%, Spanish 15%, Maya 11%, and Garinagu 6%. The population is small, only 320,000 so it enjoys the lowest population density in Central America but sadly it has one of the highest population growth rates in the western hemisphere. When will people learn?

Stayed in the lake-side town of Bacalar last night. Didn’t have anything exciting to report so I didn’t write up a blurb about the day.

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Things couldn’t be better right now. My sister is walking around the hospital on her own and is expected to be sent home late next week. Her recovery went much faster than expected so they’re not even going to send her to a rehabilitation center after leaving the hospital.

Since things are stable up here I booked some flights to get me back on the road. First stop after I leave here is Atlanta to visit my Dad. I’ll be there for a couple days and then I’m flying to Fort Lauderdale to see some more family and hang out with my friends.

On June 2nd I’m booked on a non-stop flight via AeroMexico to the city of Merida. From there I’ll hop on a bus for a 3 hour ride to the town of Hopelchen where my poor bike has been awaiting my return. I’m glad its flat in that section of Mexico because I suspect the first couple days are going to be tough. I’ve been eating like a pig up here and might have packed on an extra pound or two.

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.

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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.

04/10 Things kind of suck big time right now and I wasn’t going to write about it on here but if I go off the radar unexpectedly this is why. My youngest sister Stephanie (35) had a medical issue that we all knew to be serious but thought would be treatable. Well things went from bad to worse to really bad. She’s basically been in a coma now for almost 4 days and the doctors can’t figure out why. My Dad flew up there (she’s in Calgary) to help out my oldest sister and Stephanie’s 17 year old son Shane. I’ll find a way to get up there if there’s no change in the next day or two. There are buses in all of the cities that could get me to an airport fairly easily. The only thing I’d have to arrange would be a place to store my bike.

Quiet day riding. If I close my eyes I could almost imagine this being the Tamiami Trail in south Florida. That’s the highway that runs through the Florida Everglades from one side of the state to the other. It’s almost exactly like that here other than the cows and occasional ranch houses of which there are virtually none (if any) on US41. Saw a huge boa constrictor and a giant lizard on the road (both dead).

For maybe the 3rd time on my trip I donned my headphones and listened to some music while riding. That almost caused me to ride right by a guy who saw me and came running out of the restaurant where he was eating. Turns out he (Mark) is from Ireland and he’s been riding his awesome Koga bicycle around the world for 17 months now. His trip ends in Belize but we’re not heading the same way. I think he said I was the first rider he’s seen in Mexico since he got here.

I said this before but I’m never going to sleep next to a Penmax gas station again. This place closed at 10pm but all night trucks were coming in so the drivers could take a nap. The problem with that is there’s not one big rig in Mexico that has a muffler on it and they all use the engine to brake. I got maybe 2 hours sleep.

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