Breakfast
Well, it was time to leave Belize. Nice place for a holiday, but wouldn’t want to live here. Terrific for couples and adults without children, but not very child friendly. Very bar and doof-doof focussed. Any café or restaurant with an eight page menu will have the first six pages devoted to drinks. Eating seems to be kind of an afterthought here.
Wandered down to the ferry with our luggage, checked it in, then walked along the sand back to our coffee shop for a final breakfast.
Exited Belize the way we came. Took the ferry back to Belize City, a taxi out to the airport, and waited around for a small plane to fly us to Guatemala. Didn’t know that Saab made airplanes, and it was only a small one at that. Twin props and 33 seats.
Arrived in Guatemala City safely but that’s when the fun started. I’m getting the idea that the Australian government Smart Traveler website is hopelessly out of date for almost any country that is slightly off the beaten trail. It told us that we had to get a tourist card upon arrival which would enable us to have access to the five Central American countries that we are going to, and we spent a futile hour walking around both the arrivals and departures of the international wing of the airport, asking gate staff, information services, knowledgeable looking locals, and finally an immigration counter tucked away on the second floor of one of the terminals. Nobody had heard of this dumb tourist card, and immigration then assured us that the stamp in our passport would allow us entry into the other countries without visas or payment (just as every other country’s website said). Apart from a waste of an hour of my life, I wasn’t too fussed as we didn’t end up having to pay the US$25 each to purchase the damn card.
Then it was our turn to try and change money. Not an ATM in the whole airport. I guess the currency exchanges have something to do with that policy. So we ended up having to use a currency exchange to get enough money to take a taxi to the hotel, as all the websites assured us that to get free Wi-Fi at the airport to order an Uber you needed a local phone number, and that you couldn’t procure a phone card at the airport. After getting our cash and exiting the airport, I tried my luck at joining the free Wi-Fi, and found that it worked just fine if I was happy to watch a commercial. After duly ignoring the ad, it connected just fine, so I was able to book an Uber that was half the price of the taxi. Alexander turned up, and 20 minutes later we arrived at our hotel, which, unlike hotels somewhat north of here, didn’t require any type of deposit, so it didn’t matter that I only had a debit card.
So I guess it all worked out much easier than I thought. If only the Australian government could get their information correct.
Lovely room, lovely king bed, and lovely choice of McDonald’s, KFC and Pizza Hut next-door. Oh, and we’ve got our own Wi-Fi router in our room just for us. I think I might stay a bit longer.
Guatemala City is divided into a number of zones. Some are very safe, some you wouldn’t go into at all, and everybody seems to know which is which. Our hotel, and all of the other international hotels, are in Zona 10 which is designated as international and very safe.
Security guards are everywhere. They all seem to be unarmed, so I suppose they are just there as deterrents. There was even a security guard outside the tuxedo shop. Mind you the three extremely overweight women in security guard uniforms who were wandering up and down the tarmac at the Belize airport wouldn’t be dissuading anybody. I’m sure I could’ve walked faster than they could run.
Hotel Biltmore, Guatemala City
Baggage delivery Belize style
Hotel Biltmore Guatemala City