The Caribbean Coast

Monday March 7. Enjoyed an early morning walk on the beach before the rain started up again. A Caribbean beach is quite different from a Pacific coast beach. There is less tide and smaller waves

 The beach at Hopkins

and so the beach is narrow. The sand is coarser, and the palm trees grow quite close to the water’s edge.  The foreland is also quite flat and marshy.

Today is a turning point in the trip. We have finished our last planned climb and are heading north toward home. Although we still have a tourist itinerary in Mexico, it feels like we have more driving ahead and less to look forward to. We had similar mixed feelings the day we turned around in Panama, but our emotional forecast was wrong! We had so many delightful, serendipitous adventures coming up through Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Guatemala that it wasn’t anti-climatic at all. I hope for a similar outcome this time. Mike is studying the map and the guide book for the Yucatan to see what it has to offer.

It is still hot, day and night. I can’t remember the last time I wanted a second layer. Three am at 11,000 feet on Chirripó maybe? Most of the night here I don’t even want a sheet. I sweat 20 hours a day. Mike has a different metabolism and only sweats 4 hours a day.

We drove north through Belize and across the border into Mexico. We took a side trip to see the town of Dangriga—not much there—and a longer side trip into Belize City which we enjoyed seeing. It

Belize City waterfront

Kingfish for lunch

was a holiday in Belize and most of the shops were closed. And most of the people were in the street by the bridge, listening to music, eating street food and watching the canoe races in the river. We walked the front street past the passenger boat terminal, the park and the lighthouse until we came to a restaurant that had been recommended to us.  We ordered a big lunch of Kingfish (Mike) and Creole fish stew (Sharman), with enough leftovers for dinner too.

The border crossing took less than an hour. It was very quiet: there was not a single adjudante or money changer there! We didn’t like the US$15 we had to pay as an exit tax from Belize. Our Mexican permit for the car is still valid, so that end was easy. After the final fumigation, we suddenly realized we didn’t know where we were going! We didn’t have a plan! We hadn’t even gotten out our map of Mexico! We pulled over to the side of the road and quickly hatched the plan to spend the night in the nearest town, Chetumal. We followed maps.me to a cheap hotel recommended on Ioverlander. Ah, hot showers! We are suffering immensely from the bug bites on our legs from our bath in the river yesterday, so bought some salve from the Pharmacy. We walked all over looking for an ATM and after three banks decided we would just have to eat the high ATM fee. Then we felt rich and stopped at an artisinal chocolate shop for a cup. Mine was “a la mesa,” just the cocoa and cinnamon, but Mike ordered the pre-Columbian style that has chilies in it too. 

Tuesday March 8. We got up late and spent time cleaning up and organizing. Mike went out to look for a map while I caught up on blogging. We stopped by the tourist office on the way out of town looking for information on chocolate tourism; we didn’t get much. We drove via the coastal town of Tulum and stopped at the market for fruit, bread and cheese but never saw the waterfront. The roads are good!

We arrived in the zocolo in Valladolid just in time to watch the International Women’s Day march. Then we sought out a chocolate mini-museum that showed how cacao is grown and processed into chocolate. Of course they provide free samples to induce visitors to buy the expensive stuff. We wandered around the zocalo and found a restaurant for our beer and appetizers. This time it was a kind of corn fritter with chili inside. On our way back to the van we were seduced by the sound of marimba music, and wandered into the marimba museum where a concert was underway. Boy those guys were good! I’ve never heard or seen anything like it.

We were parked in the police detachment lot. At 6am we were on the front lines for the morning briefing by the sergeant.