September/October 2000 NCJ

are really just watching you and youractions or reactions to the delay) wewere cleared to go across.The next stop was immigration. Theytossed away the visas we received atthe consul and issued replacements thatwere good for 180 days. We also neededa “tourist vehicle permit.”By this point it was 6:00 PM. At last wewere finally leaving the border in searchof our next road.The Path Less TraveledWe accidentally made a turn too early.We missed the route we usually take andended up on a road that we hadn’t traveledbefore. Near Rio Bravo, we decidedto try heading south to pick up Highway101. It was a good road—no traffic—butup ’til that point, no motels either.We have a rule about driving after darkin Mexico. No, this is not because ofbanditos, but the wild life, live stock andpedestrian traffic along the roads afterdark makes it dangerous to travel at night.We finally came upon a Pemex (aMexican government-owned gas station),loaded up on fuel, and inquiredabout nearby motels. We found out thatthere was lodging just ahead in ValleHermosa. Once there we found a nicemotel and settled in for the night.The town of Valle Hermosa closes upfairly early, so we had some cheese,crackers, snacks and a couple ofcervasas for dinner.The next morning we became a bitworried, as we had not yet passed throughthe next checkpoint typically located about20 miles from the border. (Rememberthat we were on a different road than wenormally take.)Another gringo staying at the hotel toldus that there was one just down the road.Cool! We headed out and 10 minutes laterarrived at a checkpoint. The only problemwas that the official at that checkpointcould not stamp transmigrate paper work.He directed us to a proper checkpointthat was not far out of our way. There wepaid 25 cents to have our paperworkstamped and were again on our way.A Rain DelayThe rest of the way through Mexicowent reasonably well. A fair amount ofrain caught us in Minititalan, so we endedup holing up there for an extra day.The roads between Poza Rico andNautala were in pretty bad shape in afew spots due to the late Septemberrains, which caused mud slides in themountains and washed away 100 to 200meters of roadway due to flood waters atthe coast. When we got back out on theroads, most were passable—thoughsome had detours.When we finally reached the Mexico/Belize border, the Mexican customspeople directed us into a compound area.We expected that they might make usunload everything and account for eachitem on our inventory. After we paid our$50 processing fee and waited about 30minutes, though, they let us cross theborder to Belize.At the Belize side of the border, allwent well until they spotted Desi.While we were still planning our trip, wehad tried to determine what we wouldneed for documentation to get our doginto Belize, but we couldn’t find any informationthat covered bringing in pets. As itturned out, we were supposed to havefaxed down Desi’s health and shot records.In turn, a permit would be faxed back tous. With this paperwork in hand at theborder, we would have been issued alanding permit for Desi.Luckily, Bev was able to talk our waythrough. Now we know the procedure (untilit changes). All-in-all things went fairly well—we only spent an hour at the border and onlypaid $50 duty to Belizean customs.The Home StretchWe traveled about halfway downcountryand stopped at JB’s WateringHole around 6 PM. As we were enjoyinga drink and arranging for a room for thenight, we were chatting with the ownerand another patron. All of a sudden, thisother patron said, “I’ve been looking foryou!” Uh oh.As it turned out, he had noticed myK8JP baseball cap. The guy was Steve,the new V31BB. We had a short, butnice, chat. (We ended up hooking up on20 SSB some weeks later.)The next morning, we hit the road earlyand arrived at our home-away-from-homeby 11:30 AM. This gave us the afternoonto clean up our house. By sunset, we hadalready settled in.I will have more on our recent adventuresin Belize in upcoming columns. Ihope that you also have some travelexperiences that you can share with us.Please pass along your tales and traveladvice.73, Joe V31JP/K8JP ■27