Bacalar paddleboard to Orange Walk Town & nightmare border crossing
Started the day with a sunrise paddleboard activity at Bacalar. There was a rare fog that rolled in though, so we didn't see much of a sunrise, but it was mysteriously beautiful anyway. It was an official activity of the hostel I mentioned in my last post, but a few people attended that were not from there, like me. There was only one other person there from the USA. Lots of school kids there on their winter break. I ended up chatting with one young lady who was born in Africa, but was going to school in Paris. She spoke very good English, and she also knew some German, Mandarin, and of course Spanish. My inspiration! After a free breakfast of local fruit, yogurt, granola, and toast at my hotel, I left about 11:00 for my nightmare at the border crossing of Chetumal MX/ Corozal BZ.
I had YouTubed and read about nightmare border crossings, so I was fully prepared for just about anything, however I did not expect this. First Komoot took me to the commuting border crossing, and not the one witih immigration, where I needed to get my passport stamped (if I wanted to get out of the country later). I didn't know this right away, so I was I was cycling through tons of armed guards, they just watched me, and bam - I was in Belize! It wasn't until I was a few hundred yards in though that a man stopped me and said I needed to go to the other border station. He directed me back though the pedestrian channel from Belize to Mexico. I went through and the border agents told me to open up my panniers. I tried to explain that I had just come from Mexico and just did a U-turn, but that conversation didn't go so well for my Spanish, and they didn't speak English, so I just let them go through my bags. Whatever. I told them I knew where to go now though. It was only a couple miles away.
When I got to that official border crossing, that's when the fun started. I rode my bike up to the agents (in Mexico still) and they said I could not cross through here on a bike. What?! I asked por que and they were speaking so fast I could not understand them but it sounded like something about safety. They directed me to the other border crossing and I explained I was just there, but I needed to get a passport stamp. Ah - they said. "You cannot go through here on a bike" they said again. Yes, we had already established that, so I asked what to do. They said I would have to get in a taxi. My bike and all the gear in a small taxi car? So I started to head out and stopped at the fumigation station and a nice man who spoke very little English came out to try to help. I explained the whole situation and he said that I would need a taxi. I wasn't getting anywhere. Finally he suggested to flag down a pick-up truck maybe. Now that's customer service - gee how about implementing some policy and instructions for touring cyclists? Are they that infrequent along here that they really didn't have a good system to accommodate? I really don't see the big difference between a bike and moped, but...Whatever, I was prepared for anything.
A few minutes later I flagged down a big pickup truck with a family in the back seat and did my best with some help of Apple translate to prepare for this conversation when they said they spoke English. Wonderful! I told them the story and they did not seem too surprised, as if they had heard other stories perhaps. I threw my bags and bike in the back and we were off - right through all the agents! But then I thought - wait, what about my passport stamp? I knocked on the cab to explain (I think he would have just taken me right through to Belize) and he helped my out and pointed to the immigration station. Little did I know that the Belize immigration was indeed about a mile down the road. So I started to stand in line at the Mexico immigration when I noticed that and an officer said I needed to be at the Belize immigration station. And, that I would need a taxi to get there! F@*& that! I was on the tail end of the whole station close to Belize, so, I just waited until no one was around really, and then started cycling like I knew what I was doing. Then, all of a sudden - I was in Belize again! I rode up to the station for them to check passports and the young man told me to go inside, and asked me how I got here without a taxi. I was getting very hot and irritated, so I didn't engage him. I went up the building and asked an agent where I could park my bike and I kid you not - he said I needed a taxi as well. Honestly, I don't know where a taxi would have dropped a bike off anyway. I filled out the immigration form in a couple minutes and very polite and friendly Belize agent stamped my passport and I was on my way. Wheh!
Here's some trivia about Belize that in all my research, I did not know. The whole county is in English, and English is the primary language! No metric system here at all. Gas is in gallons (almost $7/gal). I saw my first alligator of the trip too! But he was dead, on the side of the road, so I did not take a picture.
Everyone in Belize was very friendly to me - asking where I was going, cheering me on, giving me thumbs up, and the drivers were extremely friendly as well.
I stopped at a roadside food stand to grab a bite. Chicken and beans and rice (a staple in Central America), and pumpkin pudding. It was so good, but I could not eat it all! All of that plus a quart bottle of water came to the equivalent of $6 USD, so I gave her $10 and told her to keep the change - to support the local economy. The conversation I had with her - in English, and the cultural experience of such was well worth it.
After such a long hot day and at the border crossing, I arrived at my $25 USD hotel down a dirt (but very safe) road right at dusk. What a day!
I had chicken and rice and beans, with some type of (good) salad that I could not quite recognize, and then pumpkin pudding - made by the same woman. She had to be close to 70. She rides her bike here to work every day.
Working on my post, with a green enchilada ready-to-eat dinner back from Walmart in Cancun, since there were no restaurants nearby. I figured time to save some weight.
