Saturday, November 28, 2009

A Ride on the Cool Side







Nov. 28, 2009
Day 17
Belize City, Belize
trip: 200km
hotel: Sea Breeze Guest House $45 BZ

Eager to update our blog last evening we didn't notice that the town had rolled up it's sidewalks. We resorted to taking a bus into the center of the city from our seaside out of town accommodations. The bus ride proved to be the highlight of our evening. Unfortunately we did not bring our winter jackets. Apparently sub-zero air conditioning is a crowd pleasing favorite in the Mexican transit system. After dinner we caught the last bus out of town. Eventually we realized we were the only people left on the bus. Our bus driver graciously drove us directly to our hotel to end his shift.

We had a full complimentary breakfast this morning which prepared us for our Belize border crossing. One kilometer before the border we were confused by a sign which lead us down the wrong road. Just by chance we encountered a motorcyclist who was traveling the opposite direction and had already explored this dead end. This is where we met Marko from Austria. Marko is currently on a round the world tour and we met him at his 39,900km point. Marko quickly indicated that he was deaf so Greg pulled out a note pad and the two of them conversed for over an hour using sign language and enacting stories all without verbally speaking. Marko has already ridden Africa, South America and Central America and today he crossed paths with us. He is hoping to ride route 66 through the US along side of Harley riders with long beards and ape hangers. His goal is to make it to Alaska and then head off to tour Asia, Mongolia and Russia. We wish him well on his path.

We crossed the border with no problems except that Greg fell over with the bike in the parking lot and scratched his new helmet and visor. Entering Belize we had to pay $2.50US to have the bike fumigated which involved what we were sure was water being sprayed on the tires and brake rotors.

We made it to Belize City just before dark as usual and just happened upon the best kept secret in Belize City (our quality guest house with secure motorcycle parking). We picked up the Express Water Taxi schedule and we're planning a trip to Caye Caulker for the day to swim and snorkel along the barrier reef. This is very exciting and we're looking forward to an early start.

1 comment:

  1. Let me know if Greg need's a new visor for that Shoei. We can ship it to you if you stay put long enough to get it.

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