Living in a lilt advert

Travelling down to Belize took quite a while but when we got there it was amazing. We had sepctacular views and everyone seemed so friendly and nice. There was a really cool backpacker sense there which was great. And as the islands we went to - Caye Caulker and San Pedro - are on the carribean I felt like I was in Jamaica or advert for Lilt or something.

The puicture above shows the split in Caye Caulker - lieterally a split down the entire island caused by a hurricane in 2000.

We went diving in Caye Caulker and saw all sorts of animals including Sting Rays and corals. Tanya actually picked one up, which was more than I was prepared to do given that they are the animals that killed Steve Irwin (see story here)!

Video of the stingray

Down to Belize

We hung around in Cancun that afternoon, and decided to get a 6 hour bus down to Belize the following day.

The bus was pretty cool, met this random guy who claimed to be part of the former Mexican olympic field hockey team in 1978 which I was a bit dubious about. But he seemed to know a lot about the subject and then brought out an official guide with his name on it so it would have been a bit of a bizarre and well executed hoax if he was making it up.

We arrived in Chetumal and got a bus across the border to Corozal in Belize. We had an argument with the ticket guy who had charged us double and managed to get our money back. Then we hung out in Corozal waiting for a boat to take us to San Pedro. We waitred for four hours in the sun but it was nice enough and I started to chatting to fisherman who was oroginally from New Jersey. Peoiple here seem much more easy going than elsewhere.

We stayed in San Pedro one night and headed here to Caye Caulker, another island whjich reminds me of Jamaica. We've averaged over 9 hours a day of travelling so far so I think we'll stay here for a day or so to get our beariungs back. I was so tired yesterday I had to leave a meal early at about 8pm as I was so jetlagged. We've been waking up every day at about 5am.

Stranded in Cancun

Arrived in Cancun, only to find Tanya wasn't there. I had a crazy zip through the US, and my flight was delayed by 2 hours which left me 45 minutes to clear the three stage US customs and passport control and to check in and out my luggage. I managed it just but only by running to the departure gates and jumping queues. I arrived at the right gate with 12 minutes to spare.

Only to find I was at the wrong gate as they had changed departure gates. Nice!

So I then had to run again all through Houston and eventually got on the right flight with less than 2 minutes spare. When I arrived at Cancun however I found out Tanya hadn't been so luicky and had been stuck overnight in Atlanta.

I waited around in Cancun airport till midnight (which is about 6am english time), and then went to the centre of town in the pitch black to find the hostel.

We were reunited at the airport the next day when I went back to the airport.

Blind Panic

Right, so I'm off to central america in less than a weeks time. I can't speak any spanish really, I don't really know where I'm going or what I'm doing and I dont have any insurance yet. I'm really pretty nervous about the whole thing to be honest, and clearly spend too much of my waking day thinking and worrying about girls, and not enough planning this trip.

Somehow I've got to go all the way to San Jose from Cancun. Thats overland across six countries, using public transportation in third world countries with poor infrastructure, using a language I barely speak. Nice.