travel to san ignacio

today's post was going to be full of happy wonderful things and how much i love belize until i got into a fight on the last bus.  assholes.

i'm so over the guys in this country, i can't wait to get back to hispanic people.  guatemala in 5 days.    no one bothered me when i was hanging out with john and he'll be here tomorrow, so this shouldn't be bad.  hopefully he and his wife won't get too tired of me hanging around.

i left san pedro on the 9:30am boat, stopped at caye caulker then belize city.  a gross man slept on me half the way and i had to keep pushing him off.  ick.  in belize city a cab to the bus station showed me a pretty inner city kinda place, decay and garbage, i'm glad i didn't decide to spend a nite there.  when we started driving i was sure that the driver was taking me to the hood to mug me.  but that's just what the city looks like, i guess.

we boarded an old school bus, i think this may have been my first chicken bus experience.  the weirdest thing someone had was a giant tv on her lap but i don't think it needs actual chickens to qualify.  i got serious grade school flashbacks from the bus and they weren't the good kind.  i had to take the bus to belmopan, then another to san ignacio.  i was told that the first was an express bus but what that really means is that it will only stop to pick up people on the side of the road if there's an open seat.

i sat with a nice girl, born and raised in belize, and she pointed out some interesting things in my lonely planet.  she is a pageant director and artist, and wants to have a mobile art studio, travel through central america in her bus with her boyfriend, selling their stuff wherever they go.

at belmopan i changed to another bus, finally my own seat.  i bought some chips from a wandering boy and they turned out to be banana chips, not corn chips.  add some hot sauce, they were so good. but probably not much better for me, fried is fried i guess.  and off we go, crazy broken school bus flying down the highways.

i had some issues with a couple guys on this bus but i'm going to skip that.  total downer since i enjoyed the first bus so much.  after that i was just in a bad mood.


the bus station in san ignacio is a gravel lot with a couple people selling food.  i found a cab, got to my 'hotel', which is a hut on the edge of the jungle, and now here i sit on a hammock while women clean my room.  there's a giant dog curled up underneath me.  i just watched an iguana bite the tail off another one.  ants and centipedes are walking around the door frame.  a moth the size of my head flew into the room.  and i think the mosquitos have finally found me.  i'm in the jungle now, and will probably get malaria today, that's what a downturn my day has taken.

food.  drinks.  swimming pool.  nap in the a/c.  then i can start the day over.

rusty