Belize - Januar 2019

The next step is to disinfect again. (US $ 5 is paid beforehand) This time the disinfection is not only from below, but also from above. It looks like a car wash, but it's much faster. (And the car is not clean either!). The boy is waiting for us behind this lock and points to the next parking lot. We park and he takes care of the car. I hand him our last 10 GTQ.

Belize is an English speaking country and English is spoken from now on. The currency is the Belize dollar, which is equivalent to half a US dollar in terms of value. You can pay anywhere in both currencies.

It's good that we still have a few US $, otherwise we would be lost. In the first place in the building, the lady asks where we would like to go in Belize. I answer that we want to go through Belize and then to Yucatan. She stamps the passports and we go a few steps further in the same building. The vehicle documents are checked here. We are also asked whether we have fruit or vegetables with us. No we have not. We are not controlled. Everything goes very quickly and we are allowed to leave the building and pay 30 Belize $ or 15 US $ at the cash desk outside.

The lady tells us where we can get vehicle insurance and we can now finally cross the border.

We take out insurance for US $ 10, which takes less than 5 minutes. Badge stuck to the windshield - and we're done. All in all, we were done within half an hour.

At some point on the way we noticed that we were only allowed 3 days in Belize. What's that about? Nobody said we wanted to race through here. We are considering going back to the border, but we refrain from doing so. There is not so much that we absolutely must see in Belize and the country is not a big one.

In San Ignacio we go to a bank and withdraw a small amount of money. We don't need that much in 3 days. Then we buy some fresh groceries from the market.

We are looking for a nice place to stay that we can with

find in one "Bird Rescue Park". Several iguanas cross our path in the large park. The friendly owner shows us the parking space on the meadow and provides us with an extension cable.

Instead of rushing out, we spend another day in this beautiful facility. A computer program has to be downloaded and there is a lot to do on the computer. Unfortunately, that takes a few hours. There is always something else to do. The vehicle needs an interior cleaning again and we need a shower.

The Swiss and Svenja and Peter continue in the opposite direction, but we are not alone for long. A Mercedes expedition vehicle arrives at the campsite and Chantal and Ton introduce themselves. As always, we also exchange ideas with them. This is how you get the most valuable clues.

As the name of the park suggests, we see a lot of birds. In addition to parrots, there are also unknown birds

Like it or not, we have to keep going. To say goodbye, an iguana appears again

Zügig erreichen wir 

und dort das Lamanai Riverside Retreat. Wir dürfen uns einen Platz aussuchen und stellen uns direkt an den Fluss, in dem es Krokodile geben soll. Die Tochter des Chefs meint, dass wir Bescheid sagen sollen, wenn wir ein Krokodil sehen. Wenn sie zuerst eins sieht will sie uns informieren.

Im Restaurant am Platz essen wir zu Abend. Der Chef kommt vorbei und wir plaudern ein wenig. Die Dame an der Rezeption war seine Tochter. Ich nehme an, die anderen, die hier arbeiten, sind auch Familienmitglieder. Er hat nämlich sieben Kinder. Alle sind freundlich, aufmerksam und locker. In Belize gibt es sehr, sehr viele dunkelhäutige Menschen, zum Teil mit netten Rasta-Locken. Die Tochter hatte mir erzählt, dass die Mayas dunkler waren und ein Teil Nachfahren von ihnen sind und der Rest stammt von ehemaligen Sklaven ab oder ist eingewandert.

Heute müssen wir Belize verlassen, also fahren wir zur Grenze. Zuerst zur Immigration Belizes. Belize nimmt Geld bei der Einreise und bei der Ausreise. 40 BZD p. P. Das wird am ersten Schalter erledigt. Dahinter befindet sich der zweite Schalter, dort erhält man den Ausreisestempel. Durch einen Gang zur anderen Seite des Gebäudes, dort wird das Fahrzeug „ausgestempelt“. 

Wir dürfen ausreisen und befinden uns erst einmal im Niemandsland. Die Beschilderung ist nicht so toll und wir landen erst einmal am „falschen“ Grenzübergang. Ein Beamter schickt uns zurück zum nächsten Kreisverkehr. Von dort eine andere Ausfahrt nehmen und wir erreichen den „richtigen“ Grenzübergang nach