It was time to leave Caye Caulker way too soon.  As expensive as it was, looking back I wish we’d stayed a few more nights.  Instead, we caught the water taxi back to Belize City at 12:30 in the afternoon.  I had an idea of which direction the bus station was once we landed, so we started walking.

Across the bridge, Mandy asked a woman for the bus station and she pointed in the direction we were walking.  So far so good.  Another woman who had overheard Mandy asking for directions was walking with us and told us to turn right down another street a few blocks down and go across a bridge and take a left and we’d see the bus station.

Belize City is…unpleasant.  The people were great!  The city is…Unpleasant?  We stuck out like a sore thumb because two more people helped us get to the bus station and we ended up walking straight there.  Once inside, we had no idea what we were doing.  Do we buy tickets from one of these counters? Nope, they’re selling food and drinks and homemade sub sandwiches.  All of them, all in a row have everything you could need except for bus tickets.  So we asked a guy behind one of these counters and once we told him where we were headed he said the bus should pull in right in front of where we were standing.  Ok, cool.  There’s an old American school bus there now, so I guess it’s going to pull in after this one.  We got some water and rested after the long walk to the bus station.  Probably should have caught a cab, but oh well….I’m sure we saved $3 or something.

I poked my head around the corner and was about to ask Mandy if we should get one of these subs for the ride since it’s going to be a long way to San Ignacio when another person asked me where we were going.  I was about to ignore him but decided these people have been so nice so far, what could it hurt?  “San Ignacio.” I said.  “Oh! That bus right there is going to San Ignacio!” he exclaimed.  “Um…what?”  I asked.  I was confused because the bus in front of us had a sign on it that said Benque, not San Ignacio.  He brings me over to a woman who had just gotten off the bus.  “This bus is going to San Ignacio?” I asked.  She said it was and so I asked if I needed to pay her now or buy a ticket or what the hell was going on.  Nope, you pay after you get on the bus. It was going to cost us $16 Belize to get there.  That’s $8 American, or $4 bucks each.   So we got on a school bus for the first time in years and we hoped it was going to San Ignacio.

I pulled my guidebook out and felt a sense of relief when I realized that Benque is the border town of Belize and Guatemala and San Ignacio is indeed on the way of this route.  We settled in as more people boarded the bus.  People came through selling food so we bought some oreos because America, Yay!

It finally left the bus station and I knew we were in for a long ride when the bus kept stopping along routes in the city to pick up people.  This would be a pattern that repeated itself throughout the 3 hour ride.  At every little town we passed, people got on, and others got off.  It turned out, we had gotten on the ‘local’ bus and not the ‘express’ bus, which would have went straight to our destination but would have cost more.  In the end, I’m glad we got to experience the local culture and see the countryside.  Eventually the woman from the bus terminal came around and collected bus fees from everyone.  I don’t know how she kept it straight who had paid and who hadn’t, but her system seemed to work.

We pulled into San Ignacio finally and got off the bus.  Mandy had to use the bathroom and luckily there was a restroom near the town center where the bus had dropped us off.  There was a woman inside the restroom who handed Mandy some toilet paper and she tried to decline when she realized that you had to pay a dollar to use this restroom and that toilet paper would be all that you had at your…Uh…disposal so to speak.  Welcome to San Ignacio.

We had made a reservation at what turned out to be an AirbNb in someone’s house and I wasn’t crazy about that idea.  Looking back, we should have just taken it.  We ended up at a  legit hotel in town that was way over our budget but we had our own private room and bathroom and shower.  A welcome change from the island.  We also had to shell out an extra $10 for the remote to the air conditioner and at first we declined this option but as we were exploring the city, we realized we would die without it.

The Belize dollar was still just as strong out here in this town as it was on the island and I knew we’d only be staying a few nights here.  Most of the activities in this town were actually located outside of town and honestly, we were beat and just wanted to rest in this small town, so we didn’t do much except move from our hotel to Bella’s backpackers the next night.  Our first true hostel experience.  Bunk beds and shared bathrooms.  We had a loft to ourselves, but it was still something to get used to.

We met some cool people in the lounge area, including a Danish couple who ended up teaching us how to play a dice game with them.  We had fun just hanging out and exploring the town and waiting in line for the ATM.  Seriously, this town had the world’s busiest ATM.  There was always a line, no matter the time of day.  One time we got lucky as we passed it and even though we didn’t need any more money at that point, we went ahead and got some because we had never seen it without a line.

The first Saturday of our trip coincided with the weekly San Ignacio Market.  Everything under the sun could be bought here, including pupusas….bean and cheese filled fried bread that I thought we wouldn’t be able to find until El Salvador but I am so glad we did.  Mandy found an ankle bracelet and we bought some bananas and peanuts for about a quarter.

At first, I felt bad we didn’t do any of the activities offered here, but because of the type of trip we’re on, we just cannot do everything we see.  We need to pick and choose wisely or else we’d be home by July. Sometimes, it’s ok to just chill out in a city for a few nights and that’s exactly what we did in San Ignacio.  It was time to leave Belize and head into Guatemala where the first test of the little Spanish I know would happen. Aye, Dios mio…