Moving on

We had to leave Caye Caulker.  It was very easy to sloth, but we were paying 85 a night for our house.  On our last night, we were lucky to be treated to a Garifuna drumming session.  The Garifuna people were freed slaves from the 1700s on the isle of Roatan who kept much of their African culture intact.  They now live all up and down the Carribbean coast.  It was someone's birthday so many folks gathered on the beach in front of a bar and got the rhythms going - turtle shell moraccas, and bongos with very tribal sounding singing.  It was neat after spending a week here that there were some familiar faces we had gotten to know. 

Boat to Belize city took an hour going from the Cayes back to the mainland.  Belize city is a SUPER dodgy place.  Locals take taxis to go 5 min. distances.  An expat on our boat got a cab for us to get to the bus terminal.  The schedules are posted in paper on the wall and impossible to understand.  Departure times are just a suggestion.  I asked one of the employees where to catch the bus from, "Over dere," he replied. 
"Which gate will it leave from?" I asked. 
"One of them over dere.  It'll come sometime." 

We headed into Belmopan, which has absolutely nothing there at all for a capital city - literally a bus station, a gas station and a few random shops.  After picking up many more passengers on our already full bus, we headed south down the Hummingbird Highway.  This would be the best place for a bike tour.  No traffic, perfect winding hills, beautiful scenery with mountains and lush forest.  It reminded us of the countryside in Taiwan and the Philippines.  Ironically, Belize City also reminded us of how sketchy Manila is.

 We had to change buses and give the boys some running in Dangriga.  Once we got walking around in the sweltering heat we decided we'd just stay the night and got a dingy overpriced cabana that looked like no one had stayed in for quite some time.  Boys still had fun playing on the beach and underneath the cabanas.