We left the 5 Sisters lodge just before noon and drove down the long dirt road towards Santa Elena/San Ignacio. These two cities are literally separated only by a river and two bridges – both of which are one-way.

We stopped in San Ignacio briefly. Walked out into the blazing sun and found a place to get some lunch. Found a bathroom as well and paid an entire BZ$ (about 50 cents) to use it. Looked for iced cream, but no one was impressed by the available fare and so we hopped back into the car and traveled on.

Our destination for the afternoon was Flores, Guatemala. We had a planned “nothing day”, where in we were going to travel, check into our hotel and then check out the very local sites for the rest of the evening and afternoon.

We arrived at the Belize/Guatemalan border and opened our window to a gentleman wearing a laminated lanyard. He informed us that the border was closed because of bridge work on the other side. He said some other things as well, which caused our party leaders to believe that he was lying, but I can’t quite remember all of it. They went inside and got the full story – 12-7 every day the bridge was closed. It was about 3:30pm, so we had some time to wait around.

Waiting by the border…

Our first plan was to go to a local tourist spot.

This is a hand-drawn raft that takes about 30 seconds to cross the river. Sean looks pleased that the truck hasn’t sunk into the river yet :P. Unfortunately the place closed at 4:30pm, and we were there at 4pm. We traveled across anyway, hoping to find something to distract us, or maybe to get a discounted rate for the last half hour. No luck, so we wandered around the forest for a few minutes before taking the ferry back. Lots of “native artisans” on the other side of the dock, something I remember from Mexico but hadn’t seen around Belize yet.

We spent the rest of the afternoon sitting by a local river. Some folks read, some pulled out their DS (it wasn’t me!) others went swimming.

Really sweet place to hang out for an afternoon.

Got dry and dressed and went for dinner. Found a local place, had a great little meal, the girls got ice cream and we took off just before 7pm so we could make our bridge opening.

Unlike the Canadian/US border, where both countries trust each other…in Belize/Guatemala border you have to talk to both countries border control to get through. Belize was a-ok, no problem. Guatemala was slightly harder. English is not an official language, so that presented an issue. And the rented car apparently had some quirks.

I think the story was that there was a fee for the car to enter, which had to be paid and deposited to the bank immediately? The bank was closed, sooo….no car. But if you paid this guy, he’d give you a sticker for the car and take your money to the bank in the morning…which sounds pretty sketchy. Buuut…we had little choice if we were going to enter the country, so that’s what we did.

There’s also a fee to get some sort of spray for the car before entering. Costs $3. Probably as sketchy as it sounds :P.

Lastly we needed Guatemalan money – they don’t take US or Belizean dollars in Guatemala. Sean and/or Kerry had the forethought to ask at the 5 Sisters what a good rate was for buying money. That happened without a hitch – lots of people waiting around the border to sell money to you.

It also turns out that the border closes at 8pm. So we had exactly an hour to make this all happen. We were told this just as we had finished all of the necessities and were sitting in the car thanking our stars we’d made it. Dude taps on the window and suggests that since we have only 5 minutes before the border closes, we might want to hoof it :).

We drove for a long while after that. Came into another town called Santa Elena and then on the island of Flores. Which we’ll talk about later 🙂