A True Belizer!

Crossing into Bushland.

Sunday, January 28
Day 2

Vancouver to Seattle



I'm still in Vancouver with my trusty old Dixie. I nearly froze my fingers off vacuuming the car this morning in near zero temperatures, surrounded by foggy mist. Belize is looking better and better by the minute.

The drive down to the border crossing was surpringly easy and not one single driver gave me the finger. Have Vancouver drivers actually changed since I left a year ago?

With growing apprehension I neared the Bush Land border. Would they allow a dyke like me to cross the border? After all, homosexuality is still technically illegal in several states and I'm heading into a country where over 30 states have gone way out of their way to pass anti gay marriage laws. If they're going to waste that much energy on something relatively trivial instead of fixing rampant poverty, racism, violence and murder rates then how much energy would they put into protecting their borders from the influx of Canadian vegetarian, atheist, dykes, with Cuban stamps in their passports, corrupting their children. The friendly female border guard asked me a total of 3 questions and wished me a good trip. So in the end this crossing went just like all the dozens and dozens of others I had done in the past :-)

Aside from some donkeyhole cutting 3 feet in front of my bumper for only doing 75MPH in a 60 zone while passing other traffic, the trip down the I-5 went quite well. I then promptly got lost in Seattle and finally arrived at my friend's home an hour late after pulling a few U turns, and cutting in front of lineups with a sheepish "soy turista" grin on my face. That out of state licence plate sure comes in handy at times. After being razzed for getting lost we played some serious Scrabble and I kicked her ass in revenge.


Monday, January 29
Day 3
Cycled 20km, local in Seattle

Seattle to Dallas


Breakfast, shopping at REI and a 20km local bike ride. Plus some more kickass Scrabble. My friend caught up a bit but I still maintained my overall lead ...not that I'm competitive or anything like that ;-)

I got dropped off at the airport by my friend. Being the worrier that I am I arrived 3 hours early, only to find that there was no lineup whatsoever anywhere. I dragged the bike and bags the whole 50 feet from the car to the counter and ended up chatting with the bored check-in clerk for about 15 minutes. Nothing to do at SEATAC for 3 hours except sit around and drink $6 beers. The flight left 5 minutes early and I swore I could see some last minute passengers running down the tarmac waving frantically. We simply ignored them and blasted off into the air leaving them choking in a cloud of high grade kerosene.





A true depiction of what things looked like to me after that Zopiclone.

Tuesday, January 30
Day 4
Belize Day 1

Dallas to Belize City


Dallas/Fort Worth. Can you say "Middle of Nowhere?" Fantastic airport but too far from the city, even for my 7 hour layover. Of course I had no sleep on the plane and DFW has really mastered the art of "no sleeping allowed". The benches all had arm rests to discourage hobos coming off the planes from bedding down for the night. I found a little corner and bedded down on the floor, using my carry-on bag as a pillow. As part of their advanced mastery of the art of "no sleeping allowed" they made sure that their floors were chilled to perfection to prevent hobos like me from catching a few illicit winks. I tried half a Zopiclone to help with the snoozing but it didn't work. Now I was bumbling around the airport in a sleeping pill induced stupor. So I fit right in with all the other dazed travellers. We once again left a few minutes early in a plane that was nowhere near full.

Out I stepped into the heat and damp tropical odours. An American tourist asked me to share a cab and I gladly agreed. We later learned that Belize city taxi driver policy prohibits people from sharing airport cabs if they don't know each other. Changing money was a breeze and the Belize Bank at the airport charged me a whopping $1 service charge for cashing a travellers cheque. They gave me the official rate of 2 Belize Dollars to the US dollar. While I was in Dallas the exchange booth there wanted to give me about 1.70 Belize for the US dollar. Luckily I had done my research and didn't fall for that. I Arrived at the basic guest house in the heart of Belize City and settled in for a night of relaxing, dining on cheap local food and a few Belikins.


Wednesday, January 31
Day 5
Belize Day 2

Cycled 14km, locally in Belize City


Today is my Belize City day. I got the old mountain mule assembled and marveled at the pristine state of the bike box. This is the first time that my bike box arrived in the same state in which it left. I cycled around the bumpy streets and alleys of Belize City for a whopping total of 14km's. Then took the old mule back to the guest house and walked around the city for several hours more. I ended up buying a small bottle of "1 Barrel" rum for $5.00US at the "duty free" shop in the tourist village, which has been expressly set up to fleece unknowing tourists stepping off the cruise ships. I later found out that the same rum costs $4.50US or less in the regular "non duty free" shops.

I highly recommend visiting the Image Factory and staying at the Seaside Guest House in Belize City. It's a basic guest house but it's very friendly and near the water for a nice cooling breeze.

Tomorrow I straddle the old mule to pedal off into the wild blue yonder.