March Itinery in the Big Blue Jeep

Driving trip through Mexico and Belize, details listed just for our records to look back on….

1st March: Puerto Escondido – Minatitlan

520km,  7.5hrs, poor road conditions on Mex185 after turning past Salina Cruz. Lots of potholes and topes.

3 tolls: $30, $60, $55 = $145

Hotel: City Express

Highlights: the road out..

2nd March: Minatitlan – Campeche on scenic Mex180.

565km, 8hrs, once through Cuidad Del Carmen the road is a stunning straight drive alongside the turquoise waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

5 tolls: $60, $65, $17, $55 & $70 = $267

Hotel: H177

Highlights: Walking along the Malecon at sunset, historic city walls and pretty coloured painted buildings along narrow cobbled streets.

3rd March: Campeche – Merida

172km, 2.5hrs, no tolls and much improved road conditions.

Hotel: Plaza Mirador

Highlights: Paseo De Montejo, historic centre and tourist ‘hop on & hop off’ bus for good city overview $100pp

5th March: Merida – Cancun 

304km, 3.5hrs, straight roads with good driving conditions.

2 very expensive tolls: $262 & $152 = $414

Hotel: Grand City Plaza 

Highlights: beautiful sugar white beaches with clear aqua waters. $10.50 on the R2 bus from Walmart to the hotel zone and Playa Delfines.

6th March: Cancun – Isla Mujeres 

20km with car ferry from Punta Sam, 1hr.

Ferry: $465 car and 2 persons

Hotel: Chac Chi Hotel and Suites

Highlights: Playa Norte for shallow clear water and snow sand.

10th March: Isla Mujeres – Cancun 

20km with car ferry, 1hr.

Ferry: $465 car and 2 persons

Hotel: La Quinta Inn and Suites 

Highlights: super service at Automotriz Caribe but no Jeep fix due to cost.

12th March: Cancun – Akumal 

80km, no tolls and great straight flat roads.

Hotel: Las Villas Akumal 

Highlights: gorgeous apartment right on the beach to celebrate my birthday.

14th March: Akumal via Tulum to Chetumal 

250km, 3hrs on a straight road.

Tulum $85 to park $64pp entry fee.

Hotel: City Express

Highlights: Birthday tea at Applebees!

15th March: Chetumal to Belize City to Caye Caulker.

158km, 3hrs

Border crossing from Mexico to Belize: Exit fees $350pp

No entry fees to Belize – required 2 days mandatory car insurance $14US

Belize new Northern Highway should be avoided due to unfinished road surfaces, go via Corozal instead.

Car parking at Ramada Belize City for 6 nights $155BZD

Water taxi from Belize City to Caye Caulker $29BZD return.

Hotel: Hummingbird Annex through AirBnB 

Highlights: Snorkel day with Tsunami Adventures, cayaking and no Jeep.

21st March: Caye Caulker to Belize City to Chetumal

158km, 3hrs

Caye Caulker water taxi: 45mins

Belize City via Corozal to Chetumal: 2.15hrs

Border crossing: Exit fees $37.50 BZD get new Mexican Tourist permit at Immigration before going through exit.

Chetumal hotel: Fiesta Inn

Highlights: Indian restaurant on the Malecon.

22nd March: Chetumal to Villahermosa

576km, 7hrs straight roads, worth stopping at Mayan ruins Becan right next to the Mex186 out of Chetumal.

Tolls: 2 × $20 = $40

Hotel: Holiday Inn Express

Highlights: Colossus Olmec heads at Parque la Venta.

23rd March: Villahermosa to Minatitlan

183km, 2hrs good road conditions

4 tolls: $60 & $17 = $77

Hotel: City Express

Highlights: the road out.

24th March: Minatitlan to Huatulco

447km,  6.5hrs worse roads – poor conditions

3 tolls: $60, $55 & $30 = $145

Hotel: Binniguenda All Inclusive

Highlights. free night through Hotels.com

25th March: Huatulco to Puerto Escondido 

107km, 2hrs, no tolls, winding roads to Potutula then topes all the way to P.E.

Home: Casa Los Mangos!!

Mexican $ peso prices listed unless indicated with US or Belizean dollars.

£1 = $22 pesos

£1 = $1.50 US dollars

£1 = $3 Belizean dollars

TOTAL 3560 KM = 2212 Miles (mas o menos..)

March map

Too wet to Snorkel?

Hands up, who would like to see pictures of Manatees, Dolphins, Stingrays and Turtles? Yay me too, but as I didn’t have an underwater camera I didn’t think anyone would believe about our up close snorkeling adventure with a huge Manatee in the open water. However our friendly Canadian boating companions did have such a camera and emailed some great photos to add to the blog post about our wet boating day trip!

Caye Caulker is located 20 miles north of the capital,  Belize City. This tiny island was naturally created by a build up of limestone silt and crushed white coral over mangroves. The Belizean Cayes are sheltered by the 2nd longest barrier reef in the world. This carefully protected reef is still growing and is home to some wonderful sealife.

Tourists visit the Belizean Cayes to snorkel and take part in open water scuba diving all along the Barrier Reef or visit The Blue Hole  where you can dive with Nurse Sharks .

We opted for a snorkeling day trip with Tsunami Adventures. Now the name of the company didn’t fill me with a huge amount of confidence, the last thing you want on a boat would be to see a tsunami heading your way…but we had a great day with Captain Rene and his brother Miguel.

The morning consisted of snorkeling on the reef, I absolutely loved it and was beyond happy being a mermaid kicking away in my flippers. With the sun shining down through the water, it was crystal clear and just like putting your head in one of those lovely fishtanks you see at Chinese restaurants! The sea was only about 15ft deep, deliciously warm and chock a block full of colourful fish. Rene would helpfully point out different coral and fish to me.

This link shows you the kind of beautiful fish hanging out on the coral reef. My favourites were the Spot Fin Butterfly and Angel Fish with their gorgeous blue and yellow colours.

Mesoamerican Barrier Reef Fish, Belize

Rene then expertly steered the boat over to the marine reserve at Swallow Caye to look for Manatees, along the way Miguel spotted Dolphins, Stingrays and Turtles for us along with Manatees popping their noses up for air. These gentle ‘sea cows’ graze on seagrass and can stay lolling about underwater for up to 5 minutes at a time. 

Unfortunately the storm clouds started rolling in later in the day, the weather took a turn for the worse and it absolutely chucked it down. Miguel rigged up a tarpaulin and we ate our lunch huddled underneath. We shared the boat trip with two teachers Chris and Terrence from Vancouver Island. So being used to lots of rain back home, both Brits and Canadians had a good laugh about the irony of being soaking wet and eating our picnic lunch in the rain. It was that kind of rain that came into the boat at all angles. So what else were we going to do in a boat moored up in the pouring rain  – drink rum punch of course!

Captain Rene then took us to a secret place to swim with Manatee. With stormy skies Miguel struggled to find them as the water was so cloudy. But we got lucky and had to get into the water quickly to get a chance to see the manatee. Chris managed to dive down quite deep and got a fabulous photo of the manatee just cruising along before she could swim away from us paparazzi.

Brothers Miguel and Rene had a great sense of humour as we shivered in our wet towels, providing us with fresh pineapple snacks and more rum punch to keep us smiling. They would speak in Creole to each other, which was great to listen to as you would pick up the odd English word and they really looked after us with lots of expert knowledge about about the Cayes. Rene also helped me find some huge Conch shells, you’ll be glad to know – nobody was home. Even with the rain, the boat day trip was the highlight of the week on Caye Caulker for us.

Now if we were back in the UK this Easter weekend, we would be at my sister’s house in the New Forest with my Mum and Dad. Asbury family tradition is to go out for a picnic and we’ve had plenty of picnics in the cold and wet. So this blog post should surely give them a good giggle thinking of us eating our sandwiches in the cold rain, in a boat on the Carribean Sea!

Can you Belize it!?

Photo credits and thanks to Terrence and Chris, Canada

Did we find our dreamy island life?

‘Welcome to Paradise’ a tall Rastafarian calls out to us as he cycles by one handed while holding a bottle of Belikin beer, ‘take it easy man’ and he gives us a big toothy grin from under his deadlocks. The motto on Caye Caulker is ‘Go slow’ and it’s easy advice to follow.

Big Blue Jeep had been left parked up at the Ramada Princess hotel in Belize City and we took the bouncy 45 minute water taxi over crystal clear shallow waters to spend a week on tiny Caribbean island Caye Caulker.

Having beaten off the Spanish at the end of the 18th century to protect the flourishing logging industry, Belize continued to be owned by the UK as British Honduras until 1981 when it was handed Independence and became Belize. A very young Queen Elizabeth is still on the Belizean Dollar currency and English is the spoken language. There is a distinctive Carribean accent with the Creole language mixed in, along with widely spoken Spanish. Not having to think how to communicate in Spanish for the week was a welcome break, however we did still naturally say ‘hola’ everywhere we went!

Being 4 miles long and about half a mile wide there are no cars just a few service trucks and everyone either walks, cycles or ambles around at 5 miles an hour in golf buggies. Our home for the week was tropical rustic Hummingbird Cottage, only a 10 minute walk from the town. Bicycles were provided to get around on – now it’s been many, many years since I was on two wheels and as the saying goes ‘it’s just like riding bike’ clearly this didn’t apply to me…I needed stabilisers! I wobbled and squealed, thankfully with the lack of cars I could gain my balance all over the dusty roads and remember how to cycle. Bikes would be so much more fun with comfy seats for lady parts!

For the most of the week we opted to walk around and there was no chance of getting lost. The village has 3 main streets; Front Street where the busy restaurants, bars, dive school offices and water taxi jettys are. Middle Street with cheaper eats, Chinese run supermarkets and the only town bank. Back Street with calm waters, BBQ restaurants set up in the owners back gardens and plenty of boat docks that are perfect to sit with a beer to watch stunning sunsets.

We found costs to be higher than expected even though it’s billed as a backpackers low budget destination, no kidding really as it’s an island where everything is imported and it’s a captive market. Restaurant dinners were generally $10 – $20 US / $20 – $40 BZD. Although the currency is Belizean Dollars, the US Dollar was accepted everywhere with a 2 to 1 exchange rate. We had $300 US spends for the week, which included our border exit fees! We found a delicious stall selling mini meat pies for $1 BZD each and we dined like Kings at a restaurant called Syds where they made the best fried chicken, mash and coleslaw EVER all for $9 BZD. Good job we were walking everywhere or would have ended up looking like the fat pie man on Front Street. Belizean Rum was super cheap and rather enjoyable too!

With Belize having a British history, I was really hoping to find UK TBags for sale as I love my morning cuppa and my stocks are perillously low. We didn’t find any but we did find HEINZ BAKED BEANS they were ridiculously expensive compared to UK prices but the simple pleasure of eating beans on toast was heavenly.

Seb Coe will be getting a call from me, as I have found my Olympic sport – sea kayaking! I’m crap at pretty much all sports, but once I had settled into my kayak I was immensely happily and most amazily, actually good at it! We paddled through ‘The Split’ and out to the sheltered west side of the island where we saw stingrays, massive tarpon and lots of little dinky fish just cruising through the sea grasses.

Caye Caulker doesn’t have any natural beaches so most people hang out at ‘The Lazy Lizard’ drinking local brewed Belikin beers and listening to reggae. The Split was formed when Hurricane Hattie blew through the island in 1961 with result of the Caye being split in two. It’s now the place to sunbath, snorkel and just relax in the very shallow waters with friends.

We loved our week on this chilled out quirky island with its colourful buildings, friendly people and its Carribean reggae vibe. Watching sunset with rum in hand – oh yes we did find a dreamy island life….