The trip to Belize

I have been so slow to post new happenings on my blog. The time has just flown by. So I will bring everything up to date.


The last post was 2 weeks before I left for Belize. The trip to Belize this time was to find a contractor to build our new home. I had a few contractors we were interested in contacting and a few I found while I was down there.


The flight was from LA to Dallas and then on to Belize. It was not that bad, but it was a full flight. About 8 hours total to get to Belize, then on to get the rent a car at the airport. I rented a car from Belize Auto Rental and was very pleased with the car, the service and the price. The car was a 2005 Kia Sportage with 100K on it. Fairly good on gas and only $540 US for 10 days including CDW and taxes.


The flight was about 10 min late and Customs was slow due to the amount of people on the flight. By the time I got through Customs and got the rent a car, it was getting close to 5pm and sunset is around 5:30pm. I had a 2 hour drive to Corozal and I was going to spend half of that driving on the Northern Highway at night. I was not looking forward to that part of the drive. It was my first trip driving from Belize City to Corozal.


The Northern Highway wasn't that bad, but with no streetlights except in towns, no center divider lines, no lit signs, it could be easy to lose your way in the dark. And everybody rides bikes on the road, sometimes two or three abreast, and dressed in dark colors. A scary drive to be sure. I would not do that again in the dark unless I had to. And the sleeping policemen (speed bumps) are in all the towns and not that clearly marked. I think I hit a couple of them doing 40 mph or so. It's no wonder the shocks in the cars are the first to go.


I arrived in Corozal around 7:00pm and still had to find the road out to Consejo. After finally locating the road, I arrived in Consejo around 7:30pm. I was staying at Bob and Martha's place right across the street for the Customs station. Nice place close to the water and in the small town of Consejo. They rent out a large studio apt downstairs for about $25-$40 a night, depending on the length of the stay.



After a day of travel, I went to sleep early and awoke with the sun. I put together my list of things to do and was headed to town by 8am. My first objective was to get a SIM card for my cell phone. I went to BTL and of course they were closed. Monday to Friday only. I went to another store that I was told would have SIM cards, but they were out of new ones and only had used ones. I didn't want someone's old telephone number, so I decided to wait until BTL opened on Monday.



A friend in Consejo Shores had asked me to pick up some Sage while I was in town, for the Thanksgiving turkey. I went to 5 different stores and none of them had any Sage. In fact, they pretty much all have the same things in all the stores. That's why when you shop in Corozal, you may have to visit many places to find what you need. And most of the stores seemed to be run by Chinese. There are also a lot of Chinese food restuarants in town. In fact, a lot more than any other restuarants. I haven't tried any yet but was told a few of them are rather good.