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Travel Update #40

Hello from BELIZE!

We hope everyone had a fun holiday season, and 2024 is starting off well. It’s been a few weeks since we sent an email out, and we’ve got a lot to catch you up on! We finished our trip across Mexico, and we’ve made some exciting decisions for 2024!

Drumroll please…. 🥁

We’re driving to Panama! 😁 Over the next few months we’ll be visiting seven countries in Central America, and we’re starting with Belize!

Belize

Belize is a small country to the south of Mexico on the Caribbean and it is the least populated country in Central America. During the days of the colonialism, the British set up shop here, and the country only gained their independence back in 1981. The national language is English, and a variety of ethnic groups live here including Maya, Garifuna and Mennonite.

Caye Caulker

We crossed the border, parked the van, and then took a water taxi over to the tropical island Caye Caulker! We stayed in a hostel while visiting the island, and Finnley came too!

While here, the weather didn’t cooperate, but we still enjoyed our time on the island.  We also saw MASSIVE sting rays and took a trip out to the Hol Chan Marine Reserve to scuba dive with sharks! 😁🦈

Hopkins

Once back on the mainland, we drove south to Hopkins, a small Garifuna beach town on the coast. We parked at a family-run restaurant and had a few quiet beach days. We also hopped back in the water to do more scuba diving. This time at one of the atolls offshore! 🤿🐠

This is the last time we’ll be on the Caribbean for a while, so we enjoyed a few more beach days before heading inland.

Hummingbird Highway

We drove inland via the Hummingbird Highway to San Ignacio. We turned what is usually a two hour highway drive into a three day road trip because we made so many stops along the way. One stop was Blue Hole National Park, where we hiked to a cave and swam in a cenote.

San Ignacio

We’re in San Ignacio, and we are taking a few days to get ourselves ready to cross the border to Guatemala! It feels strange to be crossing a border so quickly, but the Central American countries are very small compared to Canada, US, and Mexico. The campsite we are staying at is frequented by a family of toucans. 😊

What’s New

We’ve released a few videos on YouTube.

The first video is from our visit to Puerto Vallarta. We had a fun few days trying street tacos and touring the city.

The second is from our time in the town Tequila where we visited and camped at distilleries, and learned all about the drink Tequila. We hope you enjoy them 😊

That’s all from us this week!

Hayley, Jake and Finnley 🐾

P.S. If you know of anyone who would like to receive our updates as we head south, please forward this email on to them so they can use this link to sign up to receive our email 😁👍

Driven: 18,390 km / 11,427 miles