A little Belize

Belize is surprisingly spacious for a small country, well not over surprising considering that there are only 300,000 residents. As we rode from Placencia down the coast to Punta Gorda we got to see just how much open spaces there are.
Brenda getting swarmed in Punta Gorda.

Most of the southern part of the country seems to be covered with Orange groves, lush forests, and a somewhat arid section. The highway is good with only a couple of potholes here and there, but the side roads are all dirt.



We made it down to Punta Gorda in good time, drove around the town, ate lunch then left, backtracking North up the highway to Belmopan. Belmopan is the capital city of Belize, some time ago they built this city and moved the official capital from Belize City to Belmopan. This was done because someone felt that Belize City was too exposed to hurricanes, so moving the politicians inland fixed the problem somehow.

A little farther North towns like Orange Walk, which is in the middle of sugar cane fields, and then Corozal which is the last good sized city before the Mexican border.


Corozal was a very pleasant surprise, as we expected it to be just another 2 horse border town, however, it turned out to have a very pleasant atmosphere and a nice bay-front street and walkway. Our guesthouse, appropriately named Bayside Guest House, was conveniently located just ½ block from the waterfront and 1 block away from the main commercial street. Karen, a British expat, is the owner/operator of the house and was a wealth of knowledge about Belize. We spent the rest of the day and evening enjoying the town and the view.