Monday, March 17, 2014

Chetumal to Tikal

I was up early this morning as I wanted to make it across Belize and on to Tikal today. I stopped and filled the bike and both spare cans as I did not know where I was going to get gas in the near future and I did not really want to change money in Belize if I didn't have to.
Now I am off to the border and I stubble into a new crossing they are finishing in Mexico and I stop and get my visa canceled for the bike and the return deposit, then on to Belize.
When I finally get here as it is not just on the other side, I role up to the guard and fins out I have to stop and go into the Hall and do the clearing first. So I park the bike and off I go. Now this is real easy as they speak english. Immigration is a easy and the customs for the bike is almost funny. The guy wants to know how long I will be here and I say 6 hours, Ahh just in Transit then, Yes and he stamps my passport and tells me to make sure I have it cancelled at the other border and I must stop and buy insurance at the big white building you could see there. So the guard doesn't even look at me now and I stop at the insurance corporation of Belize and and they are open and it is not even 8:00.
I had a great conversation with the fellow there and paid my 12 Belizian dollars ( $6.00) for the 24 hour period, smallest they do, and off I go again.
The roads were interesting as they were not marked great and had some hellacious potholes too. I did get stopped by the police and they were only interested in seeing if I stopped for the insurance. Too easy to deal with for that.
I finally made my way to the next border crossing and into the hall I go. Immigration and customs then I was warned to avoid  the spray barns and to drive around them if I didn't want to be fumigated going into Guatemala. Yes I drove around.
After waiting for about 30 minutes I finally managed to get my papers for Guatemala and then through the guards and then the toll for the bridge and I was on the road again. GPS's are great but the extra maps you can get do tend to leave a little to be desired. I got to the gate to Tikal Park finally and I hadn't seen a gas station for quite some time.
I booked not the Tikal Inn and then promptly went for  walk to see what I could see. Yes I got to the central square and there were very few people around so the pictures were great.

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