It was a leisurely morning when we got up late, had breakfast and packed up the rucksacks which are starting to look a bit worse for wear lately. We could have got an early boat to Belize City but you have to obey the rules on Caye Caulker and 'take it easy' which we were happy to comply with. Another moody sky today which threatened rain later but the boat trip was dry for the 45 minute crossing. At the boat terminal we haggled with a tour agent for some cheaper bus tickets to Chetumel in Mexico. We were considering the chicken bus but details were so vague on how to get there and timings were non existent. I dare say there are plenty of buses going north from here if we had gone to the bus terminal but decided again to take the easy option and book a tourist shuttle even though it was extremely overpriced at £16 each for a 4 hour journey. The bus was unsurprisingly half full when we departed which is not surprising considering the charge so we all had a double seat each to spread out. The bus made decent time until we hit the border where we had to pay a $20 departure fee each to get our exit stamp. Next it was a 2 mile no man land's drive to the Mexico immigration which is where the fun began. The present rules are that if you stay for less than 7 days than entry is free. But if you stay longer than you have to buy an immigration card which set us back $31 each. A very expensive day. The rest of the bus had to wait for us as it was a complicated procedure to obtain this tourist card and everybody else on the bus were lightweight 7 day flying out of Cancun types so did not have to pay the fee. As it goes we were not to upset as we are planning to stay for about a month so it is cheaper than what it cost us for visas travelling around Asia. One thing though was that we were not very popular when we returned from the immigration process to the rest of the group as some of them had bus connections to Cancun that night and we had taken so long to process our documents that they were going to miss their connections.
Of course, the bus dropped us in the middle of nowhere on the outskirts of Chetumel but said we could have a free beer for our troubles which funny enough got them off the hook somewhat. We needed a taxi to get into town but had no money so had to get ripped off extremely by the bus driver for some local Peso's to pay a taxi. There was a guy hanging around the entrance who was a taxi driver decided as he was the only one there to rip us off for a ride into town. I tried to negotiate with him but the slimy toad had dollar signs in his eyes. Now I was getting miffed at being ripped off all the time as money seemed to be flying out my wallet at a rate I had no control over so I stepped into the road, flagged a taxi down and in my worst Spanish got him to agree a fee half of what Mr slimy toad wanted. He got the hump, jumped into his taxi a wheel spun off. Good riddance amigo!
We arrived at the hotel which was pleasant enough and went into town, not bothering to unpack. Money was quickly obtained with no hassle and dinner was ordered from a restaurant which the owner surprisingly spoke English having a relative in Liverpool and the food was cheap and top notch. That surprised us. We retired back to the hotel and grabbed some beers and to our delight they had a smart t.v. so were able to watch Netflix which had a interesting series called 'Strange Things' which was like a Goonies type thing. We watched a couple of episodes then retired for the night.
Next day after a surprising good included breakfast we hit the town to withdraw more money and exchange up our remaining Belizian Dollars which proved difficult as the banks were not interested and had to use a shady hole in the wall type place that basically screwed us over with their commission and rate. Next was a phone SIM that we got from Moviestar as they were the first shop we came across but had a deal for unlimited data, calls and text for £8 for the month so took that.
Then we had to rush back to pack before check out time, hail a roadside taxi to take us to the bus station to catch a bus to Mahahaul which there was only 3 buses a day but we could not believe it when they said one was leaving in 10 minutes. About time we had some luck. Next stop Mahahaul for some beach time.
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| In search of those dreamy beaches of Mexico. |
Of course, the bus dropped us in the middle of nowhere on the outskirts of Chetumel but said we could have a free beer for our troubles which funny enough got them off the hook somewhat. We needed a taxi to get into town but had no money so had to get ripped off extremely by the bus driver for some local Peso's to pay a taxi. There was a guy hanging around the entrance who was a taxi driver decided as he was the only one there to rip us off for a ride into town. I tried to negotiate with him but the slimy toad had dollar signs in his eyes. Now I was getting miffed at being ripped off all the time as money seemed to be flying out my wallet at a rate I had no control over so I stepped into the road, flagged a taxi down and in my worst Spanish got him to agree a fee half of what Mr slimy toad wanted. He got the hump, jumped into his taxi a wheel spun off. Good riddance amigo!
We arrived at the hotel which was pleasant enough and went into town, not bothering to unpack. Money was quickly obtained with no hassle and dinner was ordered from a restaurant which the owner surprisingly spoke English having a relative in Liverpool and the food was cheap and top notch. That surprised us. We retired back to the hotel and grabbed some beers and to our delight they had a smart t.v. so were able to watch Netflix which had a interesting series called 'Strange Things' which was like a Goonies type thing. We watched a couple of episodes then retired for the night.
Next day after a surprising good included breakfast we hit the town to withdraw more money and exchange up our remaining Belizian Dollars which proved difficult as the banks were not interested and had to use a shady hole in the wall type place that basically screwed us over with their commission and rate. Next was a phone SIM that we got from Moviestar as they were the first shop we came across but had a deal for unlimited data, calls and text for £8 for the month so took that.
Then we had to rush back to pack before check out time, hail a roadside taxi to take us to the bus station to catch a bus to Mahahaul which there was only 3 buses a day but we could not believe it when they said one was leaving in 10 minutes. About time we had some luck. Next stop Mahahaul for some beach time.
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