And yes Belize is actually a country. Many people have never heard about it, and even fewer know where it’s located. After visiting it, I fully understand why it’s so unknown it’s like the world quietly forgot to advertise this place.
First surprise: it’s the only country in Central America with English as the official language, thanks to being a former British colony. It’s still part of the Commonwealth, which explains why everything feels a little Caribbean, a little British, and a little “we do what we want.”
My first obstacle: technology died at the border
The moment I crossed into Belize, my roaming decided to go on vacation. Zero connection. I spent way too long talking to customer service, only to end the call exactly where I started with no internet.
And wow… when you lose the internet while traveling, you basically lose your personality. No life, no work, no family, no Google Maps. Just me and my thoughts, welcome a silent retreat so to say.
Even the Airbnb Wi-Fi played jokes on me. I couldn’t connect to my work server because apparently Belize is not considered a “safe work location.” (Probably not due to me but because my company assumes Belize is where people go to escape responsibilities.)
But Belize itself?
My time there flew fast because I wanted to move on to a more “internet friendly” country.
But I still enjoyed: amazing fruits, quiet, remote areas (population is only about 400–500k) and endless jungle thumb up for that.
San Ignacio was especially beautiful, houses hidden in thick vegetation, hills everywhere, and enough nature to make Google Maps irrelevant anyway.
GUATEMALA
Crossing from Belize into Guatemala was like switching realities.
In Belize: nobody noticed me.
In Guatemala: I became a walking tourist magnet. Suddenly everyone wanted to say “Hello, hello,” even if those were their entire English vocabulary.
My outfit didn’t blend in either. But nobody cared probably because several people riding motorcycles also cover their whole face to survive the sun.
I thought Mexico was a cultural shock, then I met Guatemala.
Different level. A time capsule. Somewhere between 1982 and “Google Maps refuses to help you.”
There are the famous chicken buses old American school buses painted like they’re going to a rave. Cars look like they’re held together by duct tape and the driver whispering “not today.” And road rules… better not even talk about that. I felt like I was back in Vietnam or Cambodia: if you don’t take initiative, you will simply live your whole life waiting to cross the street.
When I try to find a direction and Google Maps tells you:
“Sorry, we could not calculate transit directions,” you know you're in a place the modern world forgot.
Still, I enjoyed the challenge like being a 1980s explorer with a paper map, but with my broken Spanish as the compass.
The guards. With guns.
Another utterly bizarre and hard to process thing for a Western person is seeing guards with heavy guns, that hits you fast.
Grocery stores? Guards with shotguns.
Pharmacies? Guards with shotguns
Restaurants? Guards with shotguns.
Metrobus stations? Police with guns
Buying a ticket? Police with guns
And even though I somehow felt safe, the surroundings told a completely different story. I’ve never experienced anything like it. It looked like a war zone where looting is a normal Tuesday, yet everyone stays strangely calm about it. The heavily armed police and army are omnipresent, and when they’re even at metrobus stops helping you buy a ticket, you really start wondering what you’ve gotten yourself into. Meanwhile, some people sleep on the streets with their kids, and right next to them a luxury SUV cruises by, followed by a car coughing out enough black smoke to start a new volcano. The contrasts are enormous.
Ok, but was something good there?
Yes, surprisingly, the weather here is actually very enjoyable not hot, not cold, just perfectly in the middle. That’s because Guatemala City sits at about 1,500 m altitude, so it stays around 23–25°C during the day and 14–15°C at night. My watch even showed that my oxygen saturation dropped a bit while I was sleeping a nice reminder that I’m basically living on a mountain.
And the fruits… wow. I tried more new fruits in a few days than in all of Mexico and Belize combined new, strange, and incredibly tasty ones like Jocote, Cherimoya, red mamey sapote, green oranges, and Loquat.
And then is the traditional Maya clothing… absolutely authentic. A culture that survived civil war, poverty, and globalized nonsense, still alive, still beautiful. I’m grateful I got to see it.
So now: goodbye Guatemala, and hello El Salvador let’s see what surprises this country has for me.
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