07/10/2000: Bacalar - (crossing boarder of Belize) - Orange Walk, 95 km 08/10/2000: Orange Walk - Yo Creek - Indian Church, 61km 09/10/2000: Indian Church - jungle nearby Hill Bank, 36 km 10/10/2000: Jungle nearby Hill Bank - Burrel Boom, 46 km 11/10/2000: Burrel Boom - San Ignacio, 97 km 12/10/2000: day off in San Ignacio 13/10/2000: San Ignacio - (crossing boarder of Guatemala) - Melchor de Mencos, 18 km Total Belize: +/- 320 km

2. Specific information

Belize was a very strange and surprising country. The inhabitants of Belize speak English and most of them are black. Measures are in miles, pounds, inches,…and the currency is the Belizean Dollar. The infrastructure is poor. There are also many Mennonites living in Belize, they are originally from Holland and speak an own language, a little bit like German.

If you want to cross the boarder of Belize you have to make sure you don't have fresh food, such as fruits and vegetables or meat and cheese with you, because you won't be allowed to enter Belize with it. The hour changes when you go from Mexico to any other country of Central America, turn your watch one hour back.
The climate in Belize is rather humid and hot, especially in the lowlands. Just before we got there, the hurricane Keith had just passed by so many rivers were flooded and villages couldn't be supplied by food.

There are only three big roads in Belize, the Northern, Western and Southern Highway, but going off-road is a wonderful experience. Roads are rather flat in Belize, except in the Maya Mountains in the West.

2. Description of the route

We didn't want to drive on the highway the whole time, so we decided to go off -road.
From Orange Walk, not a very special town, we headed up to Yo Creek where the unpaved road started through sugarcane fields. In spite of the heavy downpours the road was in quite good condition up to Indian Church, where we spent the night in our tent because the only hotel in this village was quite expensive. The Maya Lamanai ruins surrounded by beautiful nature are a must, but take anti-mosquito with you!

We had the intention to take a boat from Indian Church to Hill Bank, but as our three bikes didn't fit in one boat and three boats would have been way too expensive, we decided to bike up to Hill Bank. People warned us it would be a hard job because of the damage caused by the hurricane. Indeed many huge trees were fallen on the road and all the rivers were flooded. With drained clothes and bikes and a night in the middle of the jungle, surrounded by a thousand of mosquitoes and a terrible noise of the howler-monkeys and other special animals, we arrived at Hill Bank. Here we were cordially welcomed by Leopoldo and Liberio, two brothers who worked for the Program Of Belize, an organization concerning nature. Because the lack of shops in the village (if you can call it a village) we were really happy with the food the brothers offered us. On their turn they were happy to hear about the situation of the damaged road.

From Hill Bank up to Rancho Dolores, the road was sandy and hard to drive on. As we wouldn't have made it till a dry place before the night we accepted the offer of a man to take us with in his truck up to the next village, 20 km. further. These offers are not unusual over there. He took us as far as he could because there, a river was flood again. The water was more than 1, at some parts even 2, meters deep. We almost swam the first part but the second part was much to deep to take the bikes with us, so we made a motorboat stop.

In Burrel Boom we stayed the night at Pol's place, a funny man who rents a room in his house. He said we couldn't bike up to the highway because of the water, so he took us the day after in his truck till the splitting to San Ignacio. It's a good road to go to San Ignacio. The last 30 km. you are driving through a nice scene.
We stayed in San Ignacio in a nice Hotel, Hotel Central, with a lovely balcony. San Ignacio was the only place in Belize where we saw some tourists.