Mexico to Belize via Chetumal

Leaving Mexico:

After reviewing the various options to enter Belize, I chose flying to Chetumal, and then entering Belize via water taxi.

I consider myself to be a fairly “chill” person, and I like to cut costs in some areas but not others. When we started in Mexico City and decided to fly to Chetumal to enter by boat. This had a cost advantage. Especially because any flight from Mexico City to Belize City was going to reenter the United States somewhere before departing back south to Belize. It would have added hours onto the plane ride and hundreds of dollars.

The flight from Mexico City to Chetumal needed to be an early flight, with a little bit of layover before taking a boat into Belize. This was all based on flight scheduling and the Water Taxi schedule so that’s the route we chose. I was not promised anything glamorous about Chetumal on Tripadvisor or any other blog, but I figured I can make my own fun any where, and my spirit for adventure would keep me inspired and optimistic.

Mexico City to Chetumal

Flight

The day started off with complete dysfunction and total chaos at the ticketing counter at the Mexico City Airport. Firstly, no less than 7 uber drivers canceled on us from the historical district of Mexico City. It was 4:00 in the morning, and we were surrounded by illogical one way streets. It set the stage for the anxiety and frustrations to come. We arrived to the airport in the dark, at 5:00am and stood in line for 4 hours.

Every half hour our so, a panic would set in that people in line were going to miss their flight, and so they would pull groups of people to the front of the line, thus setting the stage for the next round of panicking 30 minutes later. This was the exact fashion which we were finally ushered to the front of the line and then ran to our gate. Once we landed an hour later we were introduced to Chetumal.

The City of Chetumal

This tiny, tiny city only has two or three taxi drivers. And it was pouring when we arrived. We figured out where the departure point for our later boat ride was and then, well, we slogged around in the rain.

We ended up finding a bar with a thatch roof being invaded by stray dogs and we sadly drank beer with no wifi for like…7 LONG hours. We were soaked to the bone, dragging our carry-on luggage around the uneven sidewalks and puddles. Multiple places were closed. I did tear one of my flip flops and have to purchase new ones. People were nice to us, but no one spoke English, google translate couldn’t be called upon.

If I could do it again, I would have happily paid the hundreds of dollars more to redirect through Houston and be sitting on a cramped airplane seat. That would have been heaven.

The Mexican Exit Tax Scam

This is real. I had read about it on this blog. Whether or not it is truly a “Scam” might be debatable, but they do charge you money to depart Mexico, money that should have been paid if you took a commercial airline. They did try to get us to pay the Mexican Tourism tax twice. I had to review my original plane ticket, send some emails to the lady who was processing us, and generally make a big scene to avoid it, but who wants to pay for things twice. Especially on this day!

Water Taxi to Caye Caulker via San Pedro

San Pedro, aka Look Don’t Touch

We finally get on the boat to Caye Caulker and I’m ready to put the rest of this behind us. But there was a little more to come. It was beautiful out on the water, it wasn’t too turbulent, but it was just an open boat crowded with about 30 people on it. I tucked in somewhere that I could be covered. I was soaking wet, slathered in sunscreen, dirty, and I didn’t want to get a sunburn on top of that. Red Head Problems.

Once we got to San Pedro some people who took their jobs very seriously got us through customs. They were giving off serious stink eye. There were drug sniffing dogs and the whole nine yards.

How can I explain what happened next? It could have been a dinner break? I’m not sure. We were told that the boat would depart from San Pedro to Caye Caulker in 90 minutes. Also, we could not leave the very tiny customs area to venture into the city of San Pedro. There was no wifi, and the snack stand was out of stock of beer. There were children around, that seemed to be the children of the employees. They were chatting about school and homework and sharing a dinner meal. How am I supposed to glare at them and display my annoyance. That seemed wrong.

We waited for no apparent reason, with no wifi for another 90 minutes, then we departed to Caye Caulker. I busied myself by taking 100 photos of the setting sun.

Arriving in Caye Caulker

And now we are onto greener pastures, and turquoise blue waters

When we finally arrived in Caye Caulker we wearily departed the boat and started heading towards our hotel in the dark. Several locals gathered around the boat and offered to help us.

“No” we said brusquely, and continued to move past. “Let me get your bags,” someone with a golf cart called. “I’ll take you to your hotel.” “No” we insisted, and continued on. When someone offered to give us directions to our hotel, we learned our first lesson on Caye Caulker.

And that was, that the people there were happy to see us. They wanted us to feel welcome on the island, to know that the magical world of Belize and Caye Caulker would start here at the dock. They were not trying to make a dollar by guiding us to our hotel, they just wanted to make sure that we knew the way. There was such a striking contrast between the hustling that goes on when you exit international airports or enter out into a taxi zone or a subway—but this was not that.

So we ended up apologizing for the misunderstanding, and allowed someone to point out our hotel, and thanked them. The entire island is so small that it was about a 3 minute walk to the Rainbow Hotel. We were given a departing Salutation by the locals. “Go Slow”