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The Zoo

The ride to Guatemala is only a few hours and it is still early in the day. I stop at a welders to get my dirtbagz bracket welded.

I am out of Belize currency which is fine because everywhere takes American money for a fair exchange rate. My only money is a American $100 dollar bill. The repair is going to cost $5 USD but he doesn’t have American change to give me back. It would be all Belize which will be worthless to me in 2 hours when I hit the boarder. The zip ties seem to be working fine so I’ll get it welded in Guatemala. It’s probably cheaper there anyway.

An hour down the road I see the zoo so I stop by. It is $10 US but they don’t have American change for my 100. I think about sneaking in, then the girl at the counter says they take credit cards. No kidding I think. I havn’t used a credit card this entire trip. This is perfect. Right after she hands me the recipt I think, I should have gotten a bottle of water before she swiped the card. I am waterless and it’s getting hot. Here are the photos.

The poor guy was just pacing back and for the entire 5 mintues I was there. The cool thing about this zoo is all the animals were nursed back to health or abandoned and couldn’t live on their own anyway.

A lady was feeding this cat and making him roll over and give high fives.

By now I am really thirsty. The zoo won’t let me buy a water with my credit card. I find some Americans in the parking lot and bumb $2 US off them for a water. Thanks!!
I go back to the counter only to find that a bottle of water is $4 US. Are you kidding me? This is strange because all over Belize bottled water was the same price. I take off knowing that the first store I stop at it will be 75 cents. I find a gas station and am right. I buy two bottles for $1.50 US and continue to the boarder.

I pass this shady prison and think of my friend back in Belize city who spent a month here just a 10 days ago.

There are prisoners working the fields with machetes. I drive a ways past them, turn around and get out my camera for a drive by shot. The guys notice me and as I drive by are waving their arms and machetes telling me to stop. Yikes! I get out of there!

The last town before the boarder. It’s a one way bridge with the direction not in my favor. It took a bit of exploring to find the brige crossing the other way.

This is the other one way.

People were doing everything from washing their car, bike, doing laundry, swimming and watering their donkeys in this river.

It was pretty shallow and I scouted out a doable route for driving across it. My better Judgement told me not to and I continued on my way twards the boarder.

I wonder where that way goes?

At the boarder I have to use the money exchange guys. I only had that $100 USD bill on me. I had no idea what the fair exchange rate was. Lonely planet says it is 7.9 at the time of publishing. I imagine it is higher now. After my bargining exactly 30 Belize which the exchanger says I need for the exit tax and the rest in Guatemalan. My rate was 7.5 to 1 US. I walk to the counter and the young lady tells me I owe 35 and they only take belize. I smile real big and look concerned. I give her my 30 Belize and tell her that is all I have. She looks at her boss and they say it will be ok. She gives me a reciept and I go to the next booth. They stamp my passport and I cross the bridge. I am now in Guatemala.

The crossing here is pretty simple as well. Since I am a small motorcycle a worker waves me past the mandatory vechicle control spray. That saves me a few bucks. It was $5 in Belize. Mexico didn’t have one. I get copies made of my paperwork and pay a few fees.

This is the only road into guatemala and it is dirt. This is a good sign I love it.

The bike is gassed up and I take off aiming a main town near flores. Pleanty of daylight. I don’t want to drive at night in this country.

I stop for some delicious food. It is a wonderful to be back to Mexican food prices and standards. The food in Belize was expensive and not great.
Chicken Tacos with Lemon and a Coke. So good!

A guy was making snowcones so I got in on it.

Then these guys drive by and I flag them down.

It’s been a week so I don’t remeber their names or anything, but they had a pretty funny story. They were supposted to be riding South America right now. They are from Europe and had their bikes shipped to South America, but they ended up in Panama instead. Being the good natured guys they are they just went with it and drove north going to Mexico. One of those bikes is 25 years old. They loved their BMW’s. They told me about a cool route to take that involved a 25 Kilometer boat ride connecting 150 clicks of off road. They said flores was the name of the town where I should stay. It’s not to far down the road. They were only going this way, because they were denied crossing into Mexico at a remote broader crossing in the north that didn’t have the paperwork for vechicles. They had to drive to the Belize crossing and get the paperwork stamped and pay the fees then drive back. We part ways and I end up in Flores at a Hostel that costs me 25 Guat. Which is $3.50 and it has free highspeed wireless internet. I love Guatemala so far. It is cheap and Beautiful. I hope it is not dangerous like everyone says. We will see. I am going to have to be here longer than I thought. This rotor issue is turing out to be quite the hassle.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 4th, 2009 at 9:02 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.