The early morning boat ride from Caye Caulker back to Chetumal Mexico was just as rough as it was getting there. Tossing and turning, but we were so tired from the night before that it didn’t make any difference. Once we made it back to the main land our car was found in great condition, nobody seemed to bother it luckily; so off to Belmopan, Belize. We made it to the border to find a pretty quiet border crossing, assistance from a local which consisted of pointing to the customs and immigration buildings. Based on previous stories told about the horrors of not having insurance in Belize we bought some for extra security. Right away the difference from Mexico to Belize was very different. Not so much in the topography, but the development of most of the area. Most of the small towns that we drove through didn’t have any sort of main street or center, but a small convenience store.
It took seven hours to drive from the border of Mexico to the capital city of Belize…Belmopan. Belmopan is literally the smallest capital city in the world we believe. A few years prior a hurricane (can’t recall the name) destroyed most of the government buildings in Belize City so all of them were moved to Belmopan. So scattered about were foreign embassies surrounded by Chinese restaurants and markets, with the largest building being a tire center and the tallest structure a cell tower.
We were planning on staying with a contact my aunt had made the previous year, but we arrived later than expected and made our way to Ian Anderson’s jungle resort about 12 miles outside of town. It was a hidden paradise right on the edge of a river. A view straight out of a Robert Frost poem; Peaceful. We found our bunks and made plans to go cave tubing the next morning.
It took the better part of two hours to find the “national park” to go cave tubing, which was worth driving to considering if we booked with a guide outside of the park it would have been $100. We were able to find a guide once we got there and managed to pay $20. The three hour tour led us to the ancient underworld of the Mayans. The Mayans traditionally would sacrifice the most biggest and strongest of their people because that was what their god wanted, the best. Given the dark eerie feeling of the slow moving water in these dark caves it wasn’t at all surprising that the Mayans used this area for such sacrifices.
Another night staying with a contact of Derek’s aunts we then took off the next morning towards Flores, Guatemala. Just west of Belmopan, the roads were pretty haggard, rocky, and rough and we found ourselves pulling a couple G’s after every dodged pothole. Just west of Belmopan we had heard about a Mennonite village that we should check out called the Spanish Lookout. The moment we turned right off the road, our car was happier than a goat in a paper factory, freshly paved road that hadn’t seen but maybe two cars. Come to find out, the Mennonites in the area have total control over the maintenance of their roads and you could see it also in the way they maintained their farms. Rolling green pastures with white picket fences dotted on the horizon. Spanish Outlook is totally self sustained, raising most of Belize’s meat and dairy products a place almost worth revisiting with its traditional simple way of living.

Oh yeah, not to forget the Voice of Holland Bart Van Overbeek was also with us for this entire journey…