Onto Guatemala or back to Mexico?

As we had only a 30-day visa for Belize, time was ticking  and we wanted to visit Pine Ridge Lodge which is about an hour and half drive south of San Ignacio on a mostly rough gravel road. It was time to move on again. We said see-you-later to Mat, Stacey and family and headed south.

We stayed at the Lodge for a couple of days, Neal the owner was very accommodating and is another ex-Brit.

While here we found  some British Para’s were on jungle exercise in the area. Their main base of operation is just north of Belize City, quite close to Captain Hook’s restaurant we had visited on our way south in Belize. The trainers were using the Lodge as a base for planning their exercises etc. We sat close to them after dinner the night we arrived and had some fun and enlightening conversation with them.

There was a nature walk within the ground to small waterfall.

Neal also kept Guinea Fowl on the property.

In the morning Neal informed us the one the Para trainers we met the night before had taken a fall early in the morning on the way to maneuvers. Neil did not have many details but said the trainer had a broken arm and a gash over his eye. They had taken him to the hospital and expected once stabilized he would be evacuated back to the UK.

Later in the day a couple more Overlanders arrived, they were from the UK (David & Jane). We had arranged for Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding for dinner this night, once David & Jane found out they decided to join us.

Next day we had decided it was time to leave and had to make some decisions on our direction. After our see-you-later David & Jane, we hope to see them down the road somewhere. They were heading back to Cancun for a visit to Cuba then head to the UK for a couple of weeks before continuing south.

We had hoped to be able to get new tires in Spanish Lookout, Belize. We had told been told they would be receiving a new shipment  of tires and would have our size. When we arrive at Spanish Lookout, Stewart went to the dealership only to find out their delivery of new tires had not arrived. They told him they had two tires from their last delivery if we wanted them. Stewart asked to see these tires only to discover they were strictly a commercial highway tire; we require something with a little more of an aggressive tread, a Mud & Snow equivalent, which these were not.

After some deliberation we decided to head back to Mexico where we knew they had the tires we preferred. The other option now was to continue on and see if we could get tires further along our travels. Alas, we decided Mexico was the best bet at this time.
Leaving around noon we went back to San Ignacio then travelled the four and half hours back to Corozal.

We also past a house obviously owned by Canadians who had put signs on the post outside the property!

We had actually planned on going back to Corozal to go back to Serenity Sands B&B to see Penny. Penny’s brother Phyl and family were coming down for a month and had offered to bring a new skylight for us. The original was damaged when we drove through Selina Cruz way back in early December. We planned on staying at Serenity for four nights to visit and install the new skylight.

While visiting with Phyl he had other house guests!

While Phil and family had been back in Canada this Dove had decided to make its nest undercover the cover of their patio. It certainly did not worry about having half a dozen people sitting and talking on the patio while looking after its eggs.

With only a day or so left on our visa, we returned to Mexico.

We had been speaking with a Michelin Mexico representative, who was extremely helpful and accommodating. When we inquired about the  tires, they told us they had 3 in country and would import a forth for us from the USA but would not be here for a couple of weeks. Once they had all the tires, they would ship them to a local dealer to install. For us Chetumal was the obvious location.

As we had a week or two before the tires would arrive in Chetumal we went beck to Yax Ha resort located in Calderitas. It so happens we again we got to see the next full moon, a Pink Moon.

While in Calderitas we went into Chetumal a couple of times on the local Colectivo bus for a stroll around the town and along the waterfront.

After a week in Calderitas we decided to return to Lake Bacalar for a few days. Unfortunately, this was not a good move as we went back to the location on the lake where we had previously stayed, only this time a local restaurant had decided that it needed to blast out it’s music until the early hours of the morning and start again at 7am. Needless to say we only stayed two nights. The second night to see if the first was anomaly, but this was not to be the case.
While here we ate at a food truck just next to said bar, called Jamba Maya. The food was a Cajan/Mexican fusion and was very good.

After two nights we left and went back to Yax Ha to pass the time while waiting for our tires.
While back in Calderitas we decided to we pulled out our bikes out and took a ride out to Oxtankah Zona Arqueologica, this was approximately 7km/3 miles further north along the coast from Calderitas.

Did you notice the skeleton waving?

Last stop at the site was an old Spanish Chapel within the site.

On our way cycling back we stopped at a restaurant for a refreshment.

While in Yax Ha another couple who lived in Australia arrived and set-up next to us. We had fun evening with Todd and Louise telling tales and discussing each of our travels. Todd,  originally from the USA and Louise from South Africa.

We were informed our tires arrived in Chetumal, so next day we left Yax Ha for the install. The installation of the first tire took two hours as our rims are specialty item, after completing the first one which was a learning experience for everyone, the other three took about forty minutes each. Once all were installed we headed over to a modern north American style mall. We had dinner in a restaurant here then spent the night in the carpark.

Next morning it would be back to the border.

Next: Guatemala