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Onto Ambergris Caye
By mcdog | April 5, 2007
We’ve had breakfast a the 24-hour cafe El Fernicio, on Avenue de los Heroes and we’re full of eggs and bacon and refried beans and a big mug of hot coffee and it’s time to find a bus to Belize. A last minute rush around a few blocks to see if we can buy a surge protector for the laptop but the machine I’m offered probably weighs more than the computer, no thanks. It’s getting hot already.
At the Mercado Neuvo a guy that looks like a black sumo wrestler in wrap-around shades asks if we want the bus to Belize, it’s the blue bus over there. But the bus over there is definitely not a luxury bus, hey guys, we were expecting to travel in an air-conditioned bus with reclining seats, a toilet and annoyingly loud tvs. The sumo wrestler is the bus driver, and he and his mate try to convince us that the express bus isn’t coming today cos it’s not feeling well. We retire to the cafe, unconvinced. Four hours on that, in this heat, hmmm. Five minutes before the bus leaves, guy number three appears to encourage us onto the bus, and if not convinced that we aren’t being shot a line, we get on the bus anyway. Our cunning plan is if the trip is too bad we can get off at the first town in Belize, about an hour away.
The bus calls at a big hotel and a crocodile of tourists join us, so the story about the sick express is looking more believable. The team of tourists is on an eight-week journey of Central America, there are about fifteen people. The border is only 15kms from Chetumal and we have to stand in the sunshine on the Mexican side but get into a large, cool shed in Belize. The guide book mentioned money-changers but there’s no evidence of any, possibly they’ve been removed by the authorities. A few miles into Belize and the bus is full. There’s standing room only, and we keep stopping for passengers. A genial drunk is thrown off at one point and when he appears to be about to throw a bottle at the bus, the driver’s mate throws his bottles off into the grass, everyone enjoyed the show. All the windows on the bus are open and it’s pleasant while the bus is moving. The driver stops for ten minutes in Orange Walk and the smokers pile off. I just stand for a few minutes, why leave the shade of the bus? Hawkers sell coloured ice and cooked bananas and woven things.
The driver’s mate asks where we are going and then drops us off where there’s a taxi to take us to the Municipal Airport. Taxi drivers that speak english, small talk with a taxi driver, seems strange. At the airport we try Maya Airline first but they’ve no seats for an hour so they recommend we try Tropic Air. At Tropic we buy tickets to Ambergris Caye for US$30 each. After a few minutes of sitting in a room with a mix of aircrew and passengers, our boarding passes are changed. All the other passengers and most of the aircrew leave for the flight and we’re beginning to wonder what’s the score. Then we’re told our flight is ready and are led onto the runway by a stewardess, the only plane is sight is not much bigger than a microlight, magic. I bump my head on the wing and am amused by the crew’s concern for my welfare, thought they would be more worried about the plane than some blundering passenger.
The plane taxied to the end of the runway while the captain mentioned that a floatation device was in the seatbacks ( this was one plane I thought a crash into the sea was survivable but it seemed too pessimistic to read the instructions). The pilot opened the throttle even before the plane had finished turning and we rocked and rolled into the air. The flight was great, four of us, two crew and two excited passengers not wanting to miss a second of this twenty-five minute flight. We could see cruise ships, patches of mangrove sticking out of the water and sand and coral in the sea. The landing was even better than the take-off, we have the video to prove it. 
Thanks Tropic Air, that was excellent.
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