Note: If you’ve been following our Facebook fan page, you know that we’ve been out of Belize and in Utila, Honduras for the past month. We’ve fallen in love with scuba diving and are currently still in Utila feeding our addiction. Our next posts will catch you up with the last month of our lives and the new twist in our travel plans… so stay tuned.
Our trip to Belize started out as a visa run to renew our visas for the C4 Region (Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua), but lasted two weeks. We embraced the “Go Slow” motto of our first stop, Caye Caulker, and spent a lot of time just relaxing at the beaches.
Belize Statistics:
Length of Stay: 14 days
Average Cost per Day for Two People: $42.44 CAD
Cities/Towns Visited: 4
Distance Traveled: 940 km in 6 automobiles and 2 boats
Days Sick: 0 for Ashley, 0 for Mike (yay!)
Number of Items Lost: 0
Biggest Tourist Traps: Orange Walk
Exchange Rate: $1 CAD = $2 BZ
For more great travel statistics, check out our stats page!
Our Route:
Punta Gorda – Caye Caulker – Orange Walk – Dangriga – Placencia – Dangriga
Highlights:
- Swimming with nurse sharks and stingrays in Caye Caulker
- Cinnamon bread and ham & cheese turnovers at the bakery in Caye Caulker
- Lounging on the beach in Placencia
- Happy Cow cheese and crackers
- Fairly cheap fresh seafood
Lowlights:
- Orange Walk
- Happy Cow cheese and crackers
- Expensive restaurant food
Surprises:
- It was more affordable than we had heard. Granted, we stuck to the cheapest hostels and cheapest eats (thank you stewed chicken, rice & beans!) that we could find.
- How much younger the Queen looks on their bills compared to Canada’s.
- How many young pregnant women there were everywhere we went.
Lessons Learned:
- It’s not always a good idea to go to a city just because Lonely Planet declares they have the best street food in the country… especially during the rainy season when the street vendors aren’t even out.
- If you’re not enjoying a place, there’s no reason to keep staying there.
- Even if you have a rough idea how long you plan to stay in a country, lie and say it’s the maximum stay so you don’t lose out on days on your visa.
Belize Journal – Where Did We Spend Our Time?
Caye Caulker – 6 nights
What we did here: Very little actually… lots of lounging and swimming, snorkelling with sharks & rays
Orange Walk – 1 night
What we did here: Hid in our hostel from the rain and the pushy vendors selling tours to Lamanai ruins
Dangriga – 3 nights
What we did here: Nothing… mostly waited for the post office to open so we could mail a parcel home
Placencia – 4 nights
What we did here: Relaxing & swimming on the beach
If you want to check out some of our Belize photos, check out our photo gallery.
Did I mention that we LOVED Caye Caulker? Ahh such a great place to chill out. Not the cheapest, but still lovely.
We really loved it too! It definitely wasn’t the cheapest, but it also wasn’t as pricey as we were expecting from our conversations with other travellers. The pace of life there was so relaxing… I can definitely see myself going back!