Travelblog LA#17: San Ignacio – Belize

13th – 15th July, 2023

 

The crossing from Guatemala to Belize was one of the easiest I have ever done: fast and with little hassle. We are still in low season, so the queues were short. I used a shuttle bus service that was very convenient, comfortable, and not too pricey, but it did – for reasons I will cover in my Border Crossing Tips at the end of this blog – drive right past my hostel only to drop me off in a layby a half hour walk away. Needless to say, I was far from impressed and may have uttered some curses about the driver as I walked up a steep hill under the hot sun with all my luggage. Yellow Belly Backpackers warmly welcomed me when I arrived, but it was too early for me to check in so they looked after my bags while I went back into town to draw out some money and buy groceries.

San Ignacio was a bit of a culture shock. I had heard that Belize is different from most of Central America but had not realised just how different. Being five months into my trip, I have become automatically wired to speak to people in Spanish now, but – whilst some people seemed to understand, and a few even spoke back to me – many pulled bemused expressions. Belize’s official language is English, but in day-to-day life most people speak a Creole similar to Jamaican patois. There is something very musical about it, and as an English speaker it is fascinating to listen to as you always pick up odd words.

Belize is very multiethnic. Most of its population are of mixed heritage, the culture is predominantly Caribbean, and you see all kinds of people. On the first day, I even passed by a pair of Mennonites – a mostly Caucasian Christian sect that settled here in the 1950s – in town, distinctly clad in their blue overalls and wide-brimmed hats. I smiled as I passed them, but they pulled stern expressions and continued their business. I have heard that some of them are starting to modernise whilst overs are very conservative and prefer to keep to themselves; I am guessing the two I passed were the latter. Most Belizians have a cheery disposition and a laid-back outlook on life, but if you are a member of the LGBTQ+ community you might want to bear in mind that some are very religious. I have found most of Latin America to be more gay-friendly than I expected but here I was surprised to see some billboards on the roads with very old-fashioned propaganda printed on them such as, ‘Children need a mother AND a father’.

That afternoon I began exploring and began with Cabal Pech: some Mayan ruins just a short walk away from my hostel.

Belize is an expensive country compared to most of Latin America – one of the reasons that my time here will be shorter than originally planned – but a saving grace is that the Institute of Archaeology appears to be a benign organisation who have kept admission prices to its monuments low. This one has an onsite museum, and it was also quiet when I visited so I had it mainly to myself.

These aren’t the most spectacular ruins compared to some of the others I have seen recently, but the ease of reaching them makes it worth it if you are in the area and have a couple of hours to spare. It features the usual combination of plazas, pyramids and ball courts. There are lots of trees in the area which makes it a lovely place to sit and relax for a while.

The following day, I went to Xuantunich, some other Mayan ruins closer to the Guatemalan border. These were more impressive than Cabal Pech, but this also meant I had to spare the place with a few tours, some of which had inconsiderate guides that kept pausing their groups outside the most photogenic spots to give their long orations (please, I implore you: if you are ever in a tour and find your guide doing this remind them to not be an ass).

One highlight of this place is that some of the original friezes on the main pyramid are preserved. The ones you see as a visitor are actually fibreglass reconstructions – designed to protect them from weathering – but the originals are still beneath. It is truly awe-inspiring to envision what these places must have looked like when they were covered in paint and all of the reliefs were intact. Not only have most of their stuccos not survived the passing of time but archaeologists have found traces of pastes on many of the facades of Mayan monuments so it seems that – much like the Greeks – their world was much more colourful and garish than many people imagine it to have been.

Interestingly, there were some ongoing excavations during my visit. I mentioned in a previous blog that a lot of the older Mayan sites have several layers to them – as they kept building over and over again – and I spoke to the archaeologists and found out that they have so far found a chamber in this pyramid and are currently digging into the floor. Perhaps they will find a burial here. I understand this is fairly common.

During the walk from the road to the ruins, I also spotted some wildlife, including a lizard and a gartered trogon.

But besides visiting these two ruins, I spent a bit of time in San Ignacio relaxing and chipping away at some edits for a novel due for publication next year. Yellow Belly Backpackers was a wonderful place to do it and has become one of my favourite hostels in Latin America. It has excellent facilities, a great vibe, and you can tell that Bubbles – the owner – is not just out to make money. He adds lots of finishing touches to his hostel that he doesn’t need to – as it is already great value as it is – such as stocking up his communal kitchen with plenty of condiments and during my stay he even put out a keg of complimentary rum punch for guests some of the evenings. If anyone reading this is passing through this part of the world and looking for somewhere to lay low for a while; trust me, come here. I expect I will be returning here on my way back to Guatemala in a week or so’s time, but for now, I am going to an island called Caye Caulker to relax on the beach and do some snorkelling.

 

For more photos from my time in San Ignacio, click here.

 

Border Crossing Tips

It is possible to cross the border from Guatemala into Belize independently, but from my understanding this will not only take more time but will not save you that much money. The shuttle service you can book from Flores is cheap (at the time of writing this the touts sometimes quote as much as 150 quetzals but you can negotiate them down to 125). The chicken buses are cheaper but come with hidden costs as they don’t go all the way to the border so if you are carrying a lot of luggage you will need to fork out for a taxi. Border crossing days can often be stressful but the shuttle service made this one of the easiest I have ever done.

But, another thing to be aware of when you book this service is that there are currently two competing companies, and both have some positives and negatives. I used Getaway Travels which came in the form of a plush coach with large seats and air conditioning. It was a comfortable journey, but – as you might remember from the beginning of my blog – they drove past my hostel and refused to let me off. At the time the bus driver claimed it was because he was ‘not allowed’, but after driving me to the other side of the town it was not even an actual bus station he dropped me off at but rather a layby close to a posh hotel so that story sounded like bullshit to me. This suspicion was confirmed when I finally arrived at Yellow Belly Backpackers half an hour later and they told me that the real reason they refused to drop me off was because of a quarrel they were having with them. Yellow Belly used to direct their guests to their service but stopped because they were too unreliable so now Getaway Travels now refuses to drop backpackers off there. It seems pretty childish.

Mayan World runs another service, which I experienced a few days later when I continued to Caye Caulker (as the same bus that departs from Flores each day continues to Belize City). This one does have the convenience of picking people up and dropping them off at their hostels, but their buses are small, rundown, and often overfilled. I was the last to board and given a foldout ‘seat’ at the front by the engine that was very cramped and didn’t have leg space (I had to stretch my feet out towards the driver’s gearstick). At one point the police stopped us and told the driver off for having too many people, and apparently there was an issue with the driver’s paperwork. I was a bit pissed off, and so were many other passengers (most of whom had come from Guatemala that day and had a much longer journey than me). I honestly think the chicken bus would have been more comfortable.

So there is the situation concerning the two shuttle services running through this area at the time I wrote this. They might improve their services sometime in the future so make sure to ask some questions before booking. It is probably still worth using it if you are crossing the border, but if you are travelling from San Ignacio to Belize City, my advice is to save yourself some money and catch the chicken bus.