We crossed the Belize border to head into Mexico in the a.m. and it was pretty easy. We left our truck in the yard on the Belize side because it wasn't tagged yet with permanent Belize tags. Cheap to park--3.00 BZ for day parking and 10.00 BZ for overnight (that is $6.50 US for 24 hours). We took the bus over the border to Mexico immigration in Chetumal, and then snagged a taxi to get to a car rental place. Well, easier said than done....The taxi guy took us to about 4 car rental places before we found one that even HAD a car in the yard to rent--it being the holidays and all. The car wouldn't even be back until 3:00 in the afternoon, so we had about 4 hours to kill. We wandered through the mercado (market) on the main drag and found a little place to eat
Here is a sign from the eatery ^. When you go to these places a lot of the menu signs are hand made and
you just have to ask if they have what you want. Phil wanted grilled chicken, which they had. I had huevos and chorizo. After we ate we kind of walked around and decided to check out this place
It's the Museum of Maya Culture. HOwever, the main part of the museum was under renovation, so we checked out some art exhibits on display. There was one photographic display that featured photos of the cañeras--people who work in the sugar can fields. That is one of the hardest, crappiest, jobs in the world and they hardly get paid squat. There was a pretty courtyard in the middle of the museum
This cool sculpture was outside the museo on the street.
The downtown of Chetumal was typical of any Mexican city I have every been in--small shops, a mercado where everything from clothing to meat is sold (fresh butchering--no refrigeration required here!), a little park with shade trees and benches for lounging. We got some coffee, snacked on some fresh fruit and roasted favas and checked out everything while we killed time.
We went back to the car rental place (which was actually in a hotel) and the guy said the car wasn't back and might not be back for 2 or 3 days....WHAT???? We wasted all that time waiting on that car? Well, by this time we had just about figured out that it was going to be the bus or nothing....but he made a call and found a car over at one other place. It was more $$ than we wanted, but we really wanted a car. yeah, we can do the backpacking thing, taking buses etc, but it was more hassle than we wanted and we really weren't set up for that. Anyhoo---we went to the place, got the car, and we were off to Lake Bacalar where we had reservations at this place
Really nice place on Lake Bacalar. Here is a pic of the sunset over the hotel/lake
The only draw back was their internet connection really sucked. LIke, as in, almost non-existent. I do a lot of business online so I felt lost. Anyhoo, there are some pics of the place
Phil trying to listen in on the neighbours. Check out the shell overhead lights
Guess they used Google Translator on this one ^
The pool-side bar at Hotel Lacuna ^
The ceiling over the bar--all shells! Cool!!!
Thus ends day 2 of our adventure! Onwards into the Yucatan peninsula tomorrow!!
No comments:
Post a Comment