In the last post, we visited Tikal early in the morning and hit the road before it gets too hot.Two hours drive later, we were at Belize border, country number five! The border crossing was easy and chilled and the best thing of all for us was getting to an English speaking country so filling the forms was a breeze! It took us half an hour on Guatemalan side and another half an hour on Belize side to get sorted. We bought the third party insurance just next door to the immigration and got some cash from the ATM in the first town just half an hour from the border and we were all sorted. The easiest border crossing so far. The original plan was staying in Belize for a week or two to explore some of its national park inland and also do some snorkelling on the sea side which is what Belize is known for. But the weather forecast was horrible for the whole week! Heavy rain and a heat wave. We could already feel the heat in the past few days and it was just getting worse so it didn’t made sense to stay if we couldn’t do anything that we planned for so we decided to head north toward the Mexican border and try our luck with Belize later when we are coming back!
We stopped in a lush green shaded area behind a restaurant for free for our first night in Belize. It was beautiful and peaceful. We had our first beer in Belize and had plenty of fresh coconuts to stay hydrated in the heat.
The reason we decided to move fast in Belize and planned for coming back again is because we changed our original route while we were in Guatemala!
Our plan for Panamerica was always a bit different from the classical route. Our car is right hand drive and we are not allowed to go through Nicaragua and Costa Rica to reach Panama so our itinerary after Guatemala was always going back into Mexico, exploring Yucatan Peninsula and drive all the way north to a port city called Veracruz and ship from there to Cartagena in Colombia.
While we were in Guatemala and were trying to finalize our date for the car shipping, we realized that we can actually ship from Guatemala too and in fact it is cheaper than shipping from Mexico so technically we didn’t have to go through Mexico again but we kind of had to go back for different reasons. First one was the fact that we didn’t cancel our TIP for Mexico when we exited Mexico last time because we thought that we had to get back again for shipping so we had to re enter and cancel our TIP. The second reason was that we didn’t explore the whole Yucatan peninsula because we left it for our second leg of the trip and we were keen to explore it. And the third reason was if we were skipping the second leg for Mexico and ship from Guatemala in December, our timing for seasons could be messed up for our South America leg of journey so we decided to do the second Mexican leg of the journey and come back again through Belize to Guatemala to ship in January. So we had to pass Belize twice since it is the safest border crossing between Mexico and Guatemala.
Back to our time in Belize, we had a great first night in Belize and the weather was good! For the second day, we did some offroad driving and saw some of the country. Belize is not big and unlike Guatemala and Mexico, it is flat and open in most areas which is a great change after being on tight windy roads for a while. We headed north toward the Mexican border and set up camp next to a river filled with Crocodile and water lilies next to another restaurant . It was the last day of the 2024. We made ourselves some Mescalita and enjoyed the view. The great aspect of Belize in our short stay was the luxury of being able to communicate with locals! Being the only english speaking country in the region was really making a difference for us. We shared some drinks and stories with few locals and found a nice little friend who stayed with us for the rest of the evening too 🙂
On the first day of January 2025, we crossed our third border in three days, Belize- Mexico border. The weather was about to get really bad and we decided to cross as soon as possible. Having our TIP for Mexico, it was another easy border crossing into Mexico.
First place on our itinerary in Mexico was Bacalar! An area known for its crystal clear rivers and we were so excited about it but bad weather chased us to Mexico and it was pouring for two to three days.
We set up camp next to a beautiful lake but couldn’t see much of the turquoise water that we were expecting. Since the weather forecast didn’t look great here, we continued driving north toward a town called Valladolid. And hoped for a better weather in Bacalar on our way back to Belize.
Valladolid was beautiful! We set up camp in a small farm with a small church in it! It was actually a bee farm with some cute hutts that they were renting out and some beautiful area for camping. It was easy to walk to the town from the campsite and we really enjoyed our stay there.
Valladolid is a main hub for visiting Chichen Itza, one of the new seven wonders of the world. So the town was full of tourist buses loading and unloading tourists. Since we entered Yucatan Peninsula, we experienced a different Mexico! Yucatan is the main tourist hub for Mexico and most of American tourists visiting Mexico mainly land here in this part of Mexico. For this reason, everything is priced based on US dollar and significantly more expensive that the rest of Mexico. Tourist attractions like Chichen Itza or famous cenotes of Yucatan were priced too expensive for what they were really so we skipped most of them.
After few days in Valladolid, we headed to Cancun area, the real tourist hub! We didn’t expect much of it but as we were in the area, it was good to see how it really feels.
The whole coast line in Tulum and Cancun area are taken over with massive luxury resorts. There are very few stretch of sandy beaches accessible for the public which they require you to pay entry as well and then you need to pay for the car park as well! Crazy!! And guess what, it was packed with people too. At this point we knew that we saw enough and it was time to go and see some more laidback side of Yucatan if it still exists.
After having too much in Tulum and Cancun, we were lucky with our camp spot. Found a nice cozy place in the forest owned by a really nice person next to a beautiful wood carving gallery.
He gave us some tips about the more rural and relaxed areas in the peninsula.
So the next day, we headed to one of those place, a laid back little town called El Cuyo, located on the northern side of the peninsula.
As soon as we got there, we felt its positive and more laid back vibe comparing to the eastern coast of the Yucatan.
We found a small little place under the palm trees to camp. That was another great stay in Yucatan. A small sandy patch next to a family run small restaurant so we helped a young family with paying a reasonable amount for camping. What made it really special for us was sharing a place with Nathan and his cute dog, Sofia! Nathan is a Canadian living in Honduras and every year he travels back to Canada in his Sprinter Van. We shared a great evening listening to Nathan’s crazy stories and playing with Sofia.
El Cuyo had another attraction for us. There is a very narrow stretch of sand bank that potentially is driveable and could take us west to a famous pink lake in the area with some Flamingos. From the other side, it is gated and locals only allow people to pass with a local tour guide but from El Cuyo it is open. We weren’t sure how wet and muddy it can be. So the next morning, we went to the police station and asked them and they said no, not possible.
We drove to the start of the road and asked locals and they said, it is open and there’s no problem with your car! So we started the adventure! And it was a great decision. I mean look at this!
It was such an epic drive!! We were the only ones on the road and really enjoyed it. Saw lots of species of birds and a lot of Flamingos. It took us few hours to get to the other end and the most famous lakes with more Flamingos. The local guides that brought tourists from the other end, were so angry to see us and wanted to stop us from going through. This area is completely open for public but this is another ugly aspect of the tourism in this area. The locals can not tolerate people passing by without paying them, crazy!
We were happy to do the drive, that was a unique experience. From there we had a quick stop in a small fishing town called San Felipe with beautiful colorful houses, wooden fishing boat and a great local vibe on a Sunday afternoon.
From here we will head to the western side of peninsula and slowly heading south toward Guatemala to meet our shipping deadline. But we still have a fair amount of time to explore more wild spots in Yucatan.
This is the story for the next time, till then enjoy life!
