Getting to Belize

Well now we are down to four oversized suitcases and four carry on bags. We flew out of Victoria, British Columbia at 6:00 a.m. headed for Seattle. We arrived there with one and a half hours between flights. This sounds easy, but we had to get our luggage, go through Immigration, recheck our luggage and then get through Customs. This was actually not too bad. We had a few minutes to spare.

Next flight was to Mexico City (Aero Mexico is wonderful) where we went through Immigration and Customs sans our luggage. Bags were shipped through to Chetumal. So we only had our carry on bags to deal with. Then with no help at all, we figured out that we had to get to another terminal for the next flight. After finding the train to take us to the other side of Mexico City, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed off to the next gate.

In Chetumal, we went through Immigration, gathered our bags and were met by an official from Customs. He checked the number of bags against our names on his list. He told Bob to push a button. It came up green PASSED. We were told to go ahead. The luck of the draw.

We had arranged to spend the night in Chetumal and have Menzies Tours pick us up and take us across the border to Corozal. They were there to pick us up early and we were ready. Our driver Ezekial was wonderful. He helped us unload our bags at the border, we dragged them into the building and breezed through Immigration. Woman at Customs wanted to make sure we were not bringing in contraband for resale. We assured her that what we had was our worldly possessions in the bag. She chose one at random, looked inside and welcomed us to the country. Ezekial helped us reload the van and we were on our way.

Menzies Tours made the rest of our travel arrangements for us. Henry drove out to the airstrip to meet us. We were on the 2:30 flight from Corozal to San Pedro. We were the only passengers so our overweight luggage was not a problem. The same for the 3:00 flight from San Pedro to Caye Caulker.

So now we are here, really here, with all this luggage and no place to stay.... Then we met Alphonso, our taxi driver. Alphonso took us and our luggage in hand. He drove us around and helped us find a place. We had to move a few times that first week, but every single time Alphonso was there to help.