I know what we did the day after... we woke early to go to the Tulum Mayan ruins )small, but on the water... so stunning. Me and Roisin were talking about how crap the sky looks next to the sea... whereas in Oaxaca the sky was stunning.
Tulum is quite small and very well kept - like a Golfcourse, but there isn´t too much information there. Unlike the other ruins where they know some history, the plaques literally read ¨This was a house¨ and other obvious information. Although, there was a wall around it still, apparently only the priests and rich could live inside the walls.
Later we headed to AKUMAL to swim with the turtles. I think I have actually already written about this... I am slightly obsessed with Turtles.
So after I posted the last info, it was time for my Irish lads to finally rid of me... they asked what I was doing, I was all pathetic and ´I don´t know...´ they were all come with us.. and that is when I realised that is exactly what I wanted to do.
So only about an hour later we were on a bus heading to the northern city of Chetumal. This is very close to the border, so you literally change buses and then within a minute you are off getting your passport stamped. The whole process was very easy... all the guy said was ´´You coming back¨ (and $200 pesos, which they aren´t supposed to make us pay.. but that man was standing inbetween us and that country)and I emphasized my YES... this was my fear - what if they don´t let me back...
Then we hopped on the bus again (in no man´s land... or Melize..Bexico..) only for long enough to pass over a bridge, pass a few casinos and a brick shop and then we exited again at the Belize boarder. I freaked out and ditched all of the food I had, unsure what machines and such lay ahead of me. Shouldn´t have bothered... I stepped in with my luggage, the first REALLY friendly guy gave me a stamp and then pawed through my passport (´´this is the most beautiful passport I have seen!´´) and showed it to the equally cheerful lady next to him.
¨How long you in Belize for?¨ A few days. ¨A week?¨ At most.´¨I´ll give ya till the end of the month... just in case you don´t want to leave. Have a GREAT time in Belize¨
I practically skipped to the next lady, the baggage checker, I went to lift my bag on the counter ´´Don´t bother´´ she said. ¨Got any alcohol?¨ (she asked while texting) No. ¨Any food?¨ No. ¨Welcome to Belize¨ (still texting) Is that it? ´Yeah. Have a good holiday Maám¨.
Well the whole thing was very easy and exciting. Side note onthe people of Belize... Most we encountered were of Black descent, including all those at the boarder, on our bus, in Belize city and most on the island we went to. Others are Mayan (the native people of Mexico and Northern Central American countries) or expats. Due to the integration there are people from Light to pitchblack dark. The official language is also English... although it is slightly remixed and most the time it was quite hard to catch.
Our bus trip showed ´Apocolypto´, Mel Gibson´s Mayan film. It was in Mayan which I thought was fab... I never bothered going to it when it was at State because it was R18 and I knew that meant violence. But I loved it... I think I have a appreciation for it, after being in Mexico and at MAyan Ruins that I wouldn´t have had in the theatre. The crap DVD )all is burned) froze in the last crucial 5 or so minutes (although once on the island I saw it in outdoor theatre.. so got the end) and then they started to play ridiculous, cheaply made music videos. Songs here litterally either use a reggae beat or rhyme ´shizzle´with ´nizzle´etc and they have an instant following.
As we were parking outside the bus station in Belize city a taxi driver jumped on the bus to make sure he nabbed us. We got in his van.... I don´t know how the windscreen was still on.. it looked like it had been shot at with about 10 huge cracks. He drove us to an ATM around the corner where he got out of the car to keep an eye on Padraic (we had been told to not go outside at night by a HUGE gangstar lookin father of four who had huge dreads, a backwards cap, timberland shoes, a huge football jersey and gold chains on the bus he was all ´When I head to da city, I remove my chainnzzz´), apparently druggies and theifs take over at night.
Sorry, tired.
No comments:
Post a Comment