Belize - Visa Run

A nice rainy morning on Roatan kicked off our Visa run to Belize. After our boat to Ceiba was nearly cancelled due to a storm, we made it to Sam and Luke’s place to stay the night. We headed to San Pedro on the Sunday and met with some other volunteers and also some of our Honduran friends – we teach their mum English. We spent the day in San Pedro – we went to the movies, ate a McDonalds and went to see the prison in the world’s murder capital – a good day.

Monday morning was an early start. By this point, it was Robbie and I, Sam and Luke, Ellie and Bryony and Lisa and Olivia, so 8 of us. We got the bus from the station to Puerto Barrios in Guatemala. We were going to get the bus to Puerto Cortes and get the boat from there but the boat broke down so we had to go the long way. After a freezing cold bus journey and border crossing, we arrived in Puerto Barrios, got on a little boat and headed to Belize. The boat journey was good fun and not too rocky, and we arrived in Punta Gorda in Belize to get on a bus, followed by another boat to get to Placencia, our final destination. So after about 13 hours of travelling across 3 countries we had finally arrived!

Placencia is a beautiful little peninsula with amazing beaches and lots of nice restaurants and places to stay. So we found ourselves a hostel, went for a quick swim and just chilled out for the rest of the first day. There were loads of Rasta people there with loads of dreadlocks and they are just nice people who come and talk to you whenever they feel like it. So we met a local Rasta guy in the evening who claimed he could’ve been a singer if he wanted to be and he sang a song about ‘The Pressure.’ This became our song for the week – ‘They don’t know about the pressure…in the society!’ We met the same guy on the last night and sang the song back to him; I wonder what he was thinking at that point?!

Placencia really is so beautiful!

We spent most of the day’s just chilling out on the beach or on the balcony of our hostel. It was so nice just to be with everyone again and catch up on the past couple of months. We swam pretty much every day and tried to snorkel but the sea was a bit cloudy so we couldn’t see very much at all – the Roatan sea is clearer than Placencia!

One day we rented kayaks between the 10 of us – us 8 met up with Fionn and Antonia who were there but in a different hostel. So for some reason, in the 3 kayaks that we rented, we decided to put the 4 guys on 1 kayak and 3 girls on each of the other 2. Well as soon as we set off our kayak capsized and filled up with water, making it almost impossible to paddle it, against the tide, to the cay (a little island) we were heading for. We did eventually get there and ate very soggy sandwiches that we’d made up. Then we tried to drain the kayaks because they weren’t floating at all. We did this and then met a few guys in a proper boat who tied our kayaks on to their boat and towed us around for a bit. It was a great day – though we did lose a few snorkels thanks to us capsizing and just our genuine forgetfulness.

Most of us after kayaking to the island

We had a couple of meals out which were really nice – chicken from a little stall was amazing – though we cooked most of our meals. It worked out so much cheaper – about 80p per person – compared to about $10 to eat out, that’s one way of saving money!

We did some karaoke one night which was great fun – singing with the locals as well was such a great laugh. I managed to convince one guy I was a 14 year old German MMA fighter which was fun! It did rain absolutely loads most evenings though so we got soaked to the skin a few times. We also saw a little tornado in the distance which was pretty cool. The weather was a bit annoying though it didn’t stop us having a great week, tanning a bit, and predictably for me getting a very red nose! Going for a day on kayaks in the Caribbean with no sun cream is not a great idea…

It was a shame to leave on Friday – our boat was again cancelled so we met a random bloke who said he could take us to Honduras for the same price as the actual boat so why not? After getting our passports stamped and seeing an 11 year old driving a car, we set off in a tiny boat made for no more than about 12 people, into the open sea where at points we couldn’t see land in any direction. The journey was rough to say the least, though we did see sea turtles which was pretty cool. We were absolutely soaked to the skin by the time we got back to Honduras, and a rain storm for about an hour on the boat really didn’t help. Back through immigration means I now have a nicely decorated passport! We all set off on our own ways back home – Sam, Luke, Robbie and I went in a bus to San Pedro and then somehow met Lisa and Olivia, Fionn and Antonia and Hannah and Caitlin who had all travelled there in different ways in San Pedro Bus station! After a nice Burger King we went back to San Juan Pueblo with Sam and Luke to spend the night. We got back ‘home’ to Punta Gorda yesterday lunchtime after a great week, definitely the best week I’ve had since I got here!

Never too far from home!

There are loads of photos on my Facebook from the week so take a look there to see more

Top 3 Belize moments

The Pressure – They don’t know about the pressure, in the society (most people reading this won’t have a clue what I’m talking about, just trust me it was so funny when a Rasta guy sang this to us!)

The kayaks – The day on the kayaks was so much fun and being towed around by locals was amazing

Spending time with the other volunteers – I’m so excited for the big travelling now. Spending time with everyone really is amazing and the 2 months of travelling will be the best time of my life!

Hasta luego, until next time,

Sam xx