Our transport arrived at the door of our guesthouse in El Ramate, Guatemala about 20 minutes late having come from Flores and as far as mini-buses go didn’t look too bad. We were pleased when they put our big bags in the back rather than up on the roof.  The girls carried their bags on board and along with our day packs we found some seats and settled in for the ride.  Or so we thought….

About 20 minutes up the road we pulled over at a crossroad and a couple of the local guys opened up the bus and started taking our bags out again!  Ten minutes later it all became clearer – along came another mini-bus, smaller and a bit more run-down.  This was our bus for the 5 hour odd trip.

This time all the travel packs were tied down on the roof and covered over with a tarp – all least they should be ok if it rains!  It already had some passengers on board and when we all boarded was full up with not one spare seat.  How the world of travelling of backpackers has changed – nearly everyone had headphones on, no -one made eye contact or moved so the girls could sit together. There were two girls sitting across from each other so our girls each had to take the spare spot next to each of so at least got to sit across the aisle from each other. Dave and I sat one row back sharing the small bench seat.  And so it went for the next couple of hours until we arrived at the border….

So how does a land border crossing go, you ask? Well imagine all the following in slow motion …

All off the bus, all collect and take their own luggage and line up in queue, make it to the desk get stamped out of Guatemala, get asked to pay the 20 Quetzal ($2) ‘fee’ (read bribe) per adult (ironically children are exempt from this bribe!),  pull luggage past the big tin ‘bug-spray car wash’ that all vehicles have to pass through, head into the next big building, line up in another queue for our entry stamp into Belize, pull luggage across the car-park and to our waiting minibus.

We get back on board the bus and sit and wait around 20 minutes while the bags are loaded back on top of the bus and others are standing around having a smoke.  This allows us to grab some other seats so we are seated in one line across the bus for the remaining 2 hour drive into Belize City.

The scenery for the day’s journey by bus is not that exciting, quite rural and scrubby, the occasional plantation – bananas, mango trees.

But it is interesting never the less, just to hear and see life go by in the sleepy little villages we pass, the changing style of house from lower bungalow style or two storey block house of Guatemala to the almost ‘Queenslander style’ house – very run down timber houses up on stilts in the villages in Belize.  The girls choose to pass their time playing games and watching movies on their ipods – yep clearly more in line with the ‘new generation’ of backpackers!

Belize is the only country in the Caribbean region with a British Colonial history and thus is a Commonwealth country where English is the official language although Creole and Spanish are more commonly spoken.  It is relatively sparsely populated country with under 350 000 people, and around 90 000 in Belize City itself – the lowest population density in Central America.  It has, however, one of the highest crime rates with its homicide rate the sixth highest in the world.  Hence, anything we read about Belize City in particular said to avoid spending any time there.

So on arrival into the bus station (just a spare corner allotment) we hopped off that bus, grabbed our bags and walked 3 minutes down the street single file with Dave at the front, the kids in the middle and me taking up the rear. We were at Water taxi ferry terminal and loaded onto the next water ferry around 10 minutes later.  So we think we did pretty well spending less than half an hour in the city – must be a record to arrive and depart a capital city anywhere!

We were on our way to Caye Caulker about one hour away by water-taxi costing a very reasonable $23 for all of us.   Belize’s top tourist destination, The Belize Barrier Reef and subsequent Coral Caye Islands is a 300 kilometre long section of the 900 kilometre Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System. It is one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world with over 70 hard coral and 36 soft coral species, 500 species of fish and hundreds of invertebrate species and they estimate that only 10% of all the species have been discovered.

Caye Caulker (and the nearby more upmarket Caye Ambergris) are limestone coral islands, basically a sand bar over a limestone shelf.  Caye Caulker is the smaller island only measuring about 8km (north –south) by less than 1.6km (east-west). Very much in the hurricane belt it is at the mercy of the strong storm surges that can easily cover the entire island as it is only 2.4 metres at its highest point.  Being small and flat and having no vehicles (except golf buggies) it lends itself very well to bike riding and we are happy that bikes are included with our accommodation (we only have to hire a smaller one for Immi for the duration).

Caye Caulker became popular with the Hippies following the so-called “Gringo Trail” running from Mexico into Guatemala in the ‘70’s. The laid back Rastafarian vibe is alive and well with Reggae music heard as we venture out along the streets and the trademark green, gold and red flags and hats around.

Our week here was a relaxing one – not much in the way of school went on.  Our accommodation was a self- contained motel style room with views straight to the sea from our front verandah and a swimming pool out the back door in the central area.

Hammocks were strung out on the top of the block giving great ocean vistas of the wonderful Caribbean waters.

After our mind-blowing day out on the water (see Unbelizeable post) we really kicked back and relaxed with Dave and I sampling the very cheap rum options for sale in the little supermarkets, and using the blender in our apartment to mix up some cocktails of our own.   Dave also managed to re-do his Dive certificate making the most of the opportunity to do it in a remarkable marine environment at a quite good price (not as cheap as Asia but cheaper than home).

Our days were spent bike-riding to get groceries and a daily visit the bakery, doing the laundry and swimming in the pool and off the beach,  even taking out books from their little local library after David discovered it on a trip to the Post Office.

Oh and keeping with the Rastafarian theme they got their hair braided yay a respite from the daily grind and nagging to brush their hair!

We leave Caye Caulker exactly a week after we arrived bound for Mexico by Water Taxi via Ambergris Caye where passport formalities were carried out.

It is surely the most picturesque and laid back customs and immigration station we have ever visited – on the Ambergris Caye pier.