November 2001

ihana.com - big trip - diary - belize - november 2001

 

Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

View from the Hummingbird Highway

Belmopan

Tuesday 27 - Friday 30 November

We have to meet Ali in Placencia, which is inconveniently located on a thin spit of land almost at the bottom end of Belize, but that was where he shipped his landy to from England. Driving south through Orange Walk, we arrived in Belize City and stopped for a quick look around. We bumped into an English guy, Mike, from Halifax, who lives in Belmopan, the 'capital'. He was well chuffed to see the bright blue landy from England and gave us a tour of the city perched on the cubby box. The city looked a bit minging but we'll check it out more thoroughly once we've met up with Ali. Afterwards, we all left for Belmopan where Mike let us camp outside his attractive pink house (the wifes choice).

Have you got a spare brake master cylinder?

Even landies give way to planes

Life goes on after the hurricaine

There was hurricaine damage everywhere

A quick tune up and the landy is flying

Leaving Placencia....yeah!

Reaching Placencia the following day via the Hummingbird Highway we found Ali wearing a skirt with mosquito bites covering his white body, digging about in the back of his landy (Da Fridge). He was very shocked to see us, as he thought we'd be in Cuba for a week. Once he'd composed himself the next question was whether we had a spare brake master cylinder as his landy was unstable under braking. This turned out to be due to having almost flat tyres on one side which we gleefully pointed out to him.

Placencia was recently trashed by a hurricaine so things were only just getting back to normal, the locals were still waiting for the freshwater pipeline from the mainland to be replaced . Unfortunately, the hurricaine didn't wipe out the very healthy sandfly or mosquito populations. The landy was due for its valve clearances so, to escape the biting insects, we drove to the nearby airfield which had a strong sea breeze. Once Ali got Da Fridge organised, we left heading south and camped on the mainland in a forest.

The Southern Highway takes shape

Punta Gorda

The Southern Highway was partly surfaced and they are still working on the rest. Dodging giant Caterpillars and driving over mounds of soil, we arrived early on the first ever market day in the town. After lunch we decided to attempt to drive to the Mayan ruins of Pusilha, accessable only by boat (according to the guidebook) and beside the Guatemala border.

previous entry
next entry

Join our Mailing List      Read Guest Book

all content is copyright © ihana.com 2001