Day 10 - Is today the day we reach Belize?

It’s a new day and we are full of hope that Belize is on the horizon. We sleep in a little late, because we spent some of the night tossing and turning due to warm air in the room, and to give the mechanics a little more time to work on the truck. After we get up, I finish some work on the blog, adding pictures and commentary, and then head out for breakfast.

After breakfast, we head over to the mechanics to see the outcome of their work. Unfortunately, they are still working on the truck and it is now 10:30AM. The hope we had for reaching Belize today is slowly beginning to fade. The fuel pumps are in but now they need to put everything back together and start it up. The gas needs to be put back in the tanks, about 20 gallons, so that takes more time, and the siphon hose is not that big.

Finally, the truck starts and we are on our way. It’s now a little after noon and we still need to pick up the boat in that small town where this all began. It’s still 3-4 hours to Chetumal, so we hope we can get there in time to get our pedementos cleared by the Mexican officials. It’s going to be close.

And of course, there is construction on the road we are traveling, so it slows us down by an hour. It’s going to be real close. We are not going to drive faster to reach the border, just to make sure Hipolitos’ truck will make it to the border. We arrive in Chetumal right around 4:30PM, but we still need to drive to the border, in Santa Elena.

Is it still possible we could cross the border into Belize, today? Not with the line that has formed at the border crossing. We get to our visa cleared but we are then informed that the pedemento office is now closed and we will have to return in the morning. It’s going to be another day in Mexico. This is starting to old, and I want out of Mexico, now. Tomorrow will be day 11. Not what we had expected when we left California, ten days ago.

So we check into a hotel at the border and wait for morning to cross into Belize.

And just as we think everything from here will go smoothly, Hipolito gets a call that his uncle has passed away, and he needs to be with the family in Belize. He will return in the morning and we will attempt to cross then. I have to wait until he returns, as we are both on the same pedemento and both of us need to be there so we can clear Mexican customs, together. He has a Belizean passport so he can cross now, without the truck and boat, and come back later. Will we cross into Belize tomorrow? Hipolito says yes, but I am beginning to have my doubts.