A Journey of a Thousand Miles.... (the first two days)

Confucius once said, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step". In our case it begins with a 6 hour plane ride, a 6 hour bus ride, another 6 hour bus ride, and an hour boat ride. We left Racine at 3Am on Monday morning for O'Hare. I say farwell to my dog, Sadie, and my parents gave us a ride down. For whatever reason we needed to go to Philly then change planes and fly to Cancun. Hopefully a sign of things to come, Cramer and I are upgraded to first class for our flight to Cancun. When karma smiles on you, the only thing to do is smile back and enjoy the shit out of it. Sipping cocktails and reclining in wide leather seats is the only way to travel.

From there we jump on a bus to Playa Del Carmen which is about an hour ride. I've been to Playa before and it's a cool city, but we only have time to walk down the main strip with all the stores, bars, and restaurants. We have to haul ass to another bus station and catch another bus to Chetumal in about an hour. We hop on the next bus and off we go to Chetumal. Chetumal is the last Mexican city along the Caribbean before you hit Belize. It's a pretty big city, population of about 150,000 and we roll in about 10pm. A Taxi drops us off by a bunch of hotels and we start looking for a cheap room. Cramer has a recommendation about a place called the UCUM Hotel. Pronounced Oow-Coom, not You Come, you sick people!!! Hahaha. It's a basic little room but with two beds and a restroom, but it's all we need for $20.

We hit the street wanting some cold beers and street food. Its warm and muggy and there is a calm in the air. I'm excited to finally be relaxing instead of traveling. There isn't much action and there are only a few people wondering around, mostly locals. We grab a 6 pack of Sol from the corner store and park ourselves in some chairs right by the Al Pastor cart. Time to grab some tacos and pound some beers. I've had street food tacos in Mexico before, but this is some of the best I've ever had. If you've never had tacos Al Pastor you're missing out. Its very authentic, spicy pork with chopped up pineapple topped with onion and cilantro on a soft corn tortilla. I put some red sauce on my tacos and Cramer does the same. Two local guys are watching, just laughing. I think I know what that means. This is going to be fricking hot! My tongue is on fire and the sweat is pourning off my brow. After each taco I slam a Sol to cool off my mouth. Cramer looks like he just ran a few miles. Note to self, try the hot sauce first before lathering it on. We hang out there for a good couple of hours. I end up buying a few more beers down the street and Cramer scores a few more tacos. Lots of locals are all coming up and buying food as we sit there, which is always a good sign. Don't go where all the tourists are, go where all the locals are if you want good food. We cross the street and head back to the UCUM for the night.



Day 2
The plan is to get on a water taxi from Chetumal to San Pedro then to Caye Caulker, which are islands in Belize. Unfortunately when we get to the dock the lady tells us that due the the severe weather the last few day the water taxi is shut down for the day. It has been raining pretty good on and off since we got here. But it was really coming down hard as we slept last night. Change of plans. Looks like we're going to have to get on a Chicken Bus to Belize City instead and try to catch a boat from there to Caye Caulker. Chicken buses are old school buses that operate down in Central America like public transportation and are pretty cheap. Instead of a 3 hour boat ride it's going to be a 5 hour bus ride and another hour by boat once we get to Belize City. At first the bus only has a few people on it and the windows are all open. We're cruising down the road checking out the local scenery with the wind blowing in our face. I'm almost tempted to tell Cramer this is pretty awesome. It doesn't take long before the bus picks up a bunch more people on the way. The whole bus is packed, two people to every seat. Suddenly is starts to rain. Windows Up! Oh Crap. The temperature and humidity climb exponentially and the sweat begins to pour. I don't know if I can make another 3 hours of this and my ass isn't going to hold up either!

Once we enter Belize and get closer to Belize City I notice that Belize is a mix of Mexico and Jamaica. You have a lot of Hispanics and others people of African decent. Many of the black Belizeans speak with the Creole accent like in Jamaica and many of them look pretty rasta'd out. I don't know why but I like seeing the more diverse population of Belize. English is the official language in Belize, so it is cool to be able to communicate easier. We make it to Belize City which is a pretty big city along the coast. It's the largest city in the Belize at a population of about 70,000. We're not going to be spending any time here though. We take a taxi to the dock and buy a ticket out to Caye Caulker. We grab lunch at Anna's Lunch Box on the dock before leaving. A really awesome creole influenced meal of rice and beans, spicy stewed chicken, and potato salad. Two Belikins to wash it all down and a big piece of chocolate cake. I start talking to a Belizean guy name Herman on the dock. He is a really cool guy, he tells us he works educating people in Belize about HIV. He's going to San Pedro the large more expensive island to help out and work with some of his family there.


After about a 45 minute boat ride we disembark on Caye Caulker! Finally. James, a local guy, guides us to an awesome room at at place called the China Town Hotel. We have the penthouse suite for $40/ night. The room is pretty small, it has two beds, a TV, a fridge, and AC! But the kicker is the room is on the top floor and the whole roof top is pretty much ours to hang out on. Great view, great breeze and AC. Done and Done.


Cramer and I start drinking some rum which is $5 a bottle down here. We end up meeting a girl named Grace and hang out with her for the night. She is a student at University of Cincinnati, just finishing up a month long archaeological dig with 19 other people in the jungles of Belize. She was ecstatic to be back into civilization after living in a tent in the jungle for so long. All three of us hang out drinking rum late into the night before finally heading to bed around 2am.