Holiday in Belize.

We were on the road by 0800 and travelled the 90 odd kms to the border. The road was generally good but there were 3 stretches where the black stuff just ran out for no reason that we could see. We arrive at the border at about 1100 and paid Q20 to leave Guatemala. Getting Nancy a temporary export stamp proved more difficult as the computers were down. As we are coming back into Guatemala before our original 90 day importation of Nancy expires it saves all the paperwork and cost at re entry to get a temporary exportation stamp. Having obtained all the stamps we headed for the Belize side to be greeted in perfect English and the Queens head on the money. Immigration was free and easy but getting Nancy in proved a bit more difficult.
Customs woman: 'How long are you going to be in Belize.'
Me: 'err I don't know'.
CW: 'I need to have a time'.
Me: 'err one week'.
CW: 'Are you sure as I have to stamp your passport with the bike details'.
Me ' err no , but one week should do'
CW 'where are you staying?'
Me 'err I don't know'
CW 'I have to put a district on the form'.
Me 'err the coast'
CW' which part of the coast?'. Etc.etc . On checking the passport later I noted that I had been given 1 month for all Belize! Had to pay $15 USD bike insurance at a separate building for the week that we are staying and then we were off. The heat was getting to us both. Even the locals were complaining at how hot it was. Stopped at a hotel in San Ignacio but there was no parking for Nancy so crossed the Hawkesworth Bridge to St Elena and found the Hotel Aguada on the way out of town that had a/c rooms, parking for Nancy in the courtyard and a swimming pool. What a treat! We lay around for the rest of the day trying to get our brain cells cool enough to think and wrote up the blog. The next day we headed back about 7 miles towards the Guatemala border to a place called Clarissa Falls where we camped by the banks of a river. Things were still very hot so we hired an inner tube and floated down the river for 3 hours. What a great way to stay cool and even after 3 hours in the water we weren't cold. Set off early the next day for Belize City about 70 miles east along good single carriageways past house on stilts and villages that had a very different feel to those in Guatemala. Everything is about twice as expensive as they were in Guatemala. The Belize dollar is fixed to the USD at 2to1 and it's very confusing as some prices are quote in USD and some in BDZ. We stopped in the Mopan Hotel that had a secure parking place for Nancy and fell into it's a/c room. Belize City has a very bad vibe and is the only place that we have visited where the locals told us not to go out at night and I believed them. It has a lighthouse, a Memorial to the 4th Baron Bliss who left his wealth to Belize City, the Bliss Institute of Creative Arts, a tourist village for the cruise ships which you can't get into from the land without a pass, some nice old wooden houses, a colonial courthouse with the only clock tower in Belize, and some major road hazards and hurricane damage. But we weren't here to visit Belize City it was the jumping off point to the Northern Cayes and Caye Caulker in particular.