Corozol to San Ignacio

We woke up to a beautiful Belize morning and decided to move camp to San Ignacio in the Cayo district, which is towards the center of Belize north to south, on the western side near the Guatemalan border. Before we left Corozol, we had to do a little camper maintenance. Going over a very large tope in Cancun, we had broken the connection from the camper toilet to the black water waste tank. Our camper’s spare tire is mounted under the nose of the camper, and attached by two long bolts. After the truck tires had cleared the tope, and before the camper tires had hit, the bolts holding the spare tire to the mounting had hit the tope, and the entire tire mount had been pushed back, which had pushed back the black water tank, breaking the pipe. It had still worked, but every time we used it one of us had to go in the camper and look down the hole while the other went under the camper and pushed the tank to line it up – not the most pleasant task, by any means, but we’ve learned over the years that when you stay in a camper, you learn to deal with the icky plumbing issues.

The Corozol campground had sewer access by every site, so we emptied the tank, then dragged the hose in the camper and thoroughly cleaned the tank inside and out via the toilet. We were laughing because while we were in Georgia, Pete (my brother) had put one of those magnetic bumper stickers on our bumper which said “I smell like shit,” and we decided that we probably should have kept it because after two days of a non-sealed tank, the camper certainly did. The thorough wash job made it so we could drive through Belize without causing everyone we passed to pull a bandana over their faces, and so we could get out of the truck without being too embarrassed.


The Corozol camp ground, looking towards the sea









That icky task accomplished, we got on the Northern Highway and headed south through Orange Walk. We bypassed Belize City north of the airport and picked up the Western Highway towards Belmopan. We stopped at Amigo’s for lunch, took the dogs for a quick walk, and went in to eat. One of the waiters had seen us walking the dogs, and wanted to know if we had any Jack Russell puppies. He says he’s really wanted a Jack Russell, but that they’re hard to get in Belize, although there are a ton of dogs around that definitely have some terrier influence in their genes. We warned him that they’re pretty hyper, and the more horror stories we told him of the difficulty of keeping Jack Russells, the bigger his smile became. We told him we’ll keep our eyes out, and if we see any, we’ll let him know.

We stopped in Belmopan to pick up some groceries. While there, my stomach decided to rebel again (I haven’t quite gotten over the Cancun/Calderitas queasiness), so Tom had to find some balance between driving fast to get to San Ignacio, and driving carefully enough not to hit too many speed bumps and potholes too hard. We made it to the Inglewood Campground in time, and parked temporarily. Greg, the owner, showed up shortly after we got there and directed us to a nice out-of-the way site in the shade and right next to a palapa (and not too far from the bathroom). We started dinner, and our neighbors, a couple from New Mexico on a three month tour of Mexico and Central America, came over with a bag of produce. They are heading into Guatemala on Wednesday, and know that they can’t take produce over the border, so they ate as much as they could and gave the rest to us.

Greg, a Belize native who is a retired engineer who worked in the aerospace industry in the US for 30 years, gave us the info we needed to get our laundry done, get a chip for our phone so it will work in Belize, and find a hardware store for the parts we need to fix the black water tank, as well as recommendations for a couple of real estate agents. He also has some land for sale in this area, which we will probably look at, even though we told him that we’re probably looking for something with a house already on it since it would take quite a while to build. We figure that agenda will pretty much fill up our Wednesday, since we’re now on Belizean time!

Greg and his wife are also big animal people, with house cats (a rarity in Belize) and four dogs, two of which are puppies he picked up as strays, took to the vet, and which are now his. He told us about the difficulty of finding good homes for them, where they won’t just be tied to chains and left outside, and said that he figures he’ll just keep them. We took this as a cautionary tale, and decided it’s a good thing that our dogs don’t always get along with other dogs, since hopefully that will prevent us from getting a dog collection too quickly!



Squinting in the sun!