Cancun to Belize City: A Quick and Easy Border Crossing

There are a couple ways of going about this. Flights are a joke of a price and considering the close proximity to one another, a waste of money as well.

From the airport there is a direct bus that leaves daily at 2215 with the bus company ADO. This goes straight to the bus station in Belize City and costs 498 pesos, arriving some time the following morning. From the bus station, taxis are 7 Belizean dollars to anywhere in the city, these are basically cars with a green number plate, they aren't exactly labelled as taxis.

Another option if the night bus is fully booked (this is what happened with me) is to take a night bus from Cancun to the border town of Chetumal. There are a few buses run by the ADO bus company and I took the one at 2238 from the downtown terminal in Cancun, it takes six hours to Chetumal. This bus costs 302 pesos. Of course, this bus ride can be done just as easily during the day time (and I'm sure there are other companies), I am merely describing how I did it at night so as to save a nights accommodation, very important to most backpackers.

Once at the Chetumal station, you can pay 200 pesos for a shuttle bus/ mini van to take you onward to Belize City. This is with the company San Juan, and they have hourly rides from 7am onwards, I'm sure there are other companies operating out of the station. The minivan stops at the Mexican border for exit stamps at Subteniente Lopez, additional tourist tax may be required here from certain nationalities. I read somewhere that it is a hoax and a way of ripping off people but they seemed pretty insistent and handed out stamped receipts, possibly not legit but not too bothered and not much you can really do is there? The tourist tax is 294 pesos.

Entry to Belize through Santa Elena is plain sailing and as they speak English you have a welcome greeting, provided English is your native language, stamp in your passport where you request it and then it's back on the van to Belize City. Nothing much to see along the way and by 1030 you'll be dropped off at the car park opposite the Caye Caulker Water Taxi jetty which is perfect for most people who are literally heading straight to Caye Caulker.

NB: Whilst driving south in the minivan to Belize City, we passed a couple buses heading north to Chetumal. These were local Belizean buses which no doubt cross the border and go to the town of Chetumal. I don't know if they go to the station where the ADO buses arrive and depart from but someone at the station would be able to tell you where to get one of these buses which, by basic reasoning, must then return to Belize City for what I can only assume of a cheaper price than 200 pesos. If your budget is that stretched, this could be another option.

Iguazu Falls

Feeling lazy in the heat of the day I decided to hop in a taxi to take me to the RioViaria bus station, arriving in plenty of time for the first of many long bus rides I will no doubt encounter during this trip. Travelling from Rio in Brazil to Puerto Iguazu in Argentina was to take around 22 hours, but having booked the ticket in advance I got a pretty good deal on the Cama class bus, basically you can just about lay flat, one class shy of the buses where you can lie totally flat.

Getting over the border was easy enough, exit stamp in Argentina took no time and at the Brazilian side there was a little more faff but once everything was x-rayed we were good to go. Feeling pretty refreshed once I got to my hostel I decided to have a wander around the town, the jumping off point to see Iguazu Falls. These are the widest falls in the world at 275m and Iguazu literally means ‘big water’. When you see the falls themselves you can see why.

Getting to them is easy enough .There are two sides to the falls: the Argentinian side which gets you closer to the actual individual waterfalls and the Brazilian side which gives amazing panoramic views of the them.

Argentinian Side

From the bus station in Puerto Iguazu you can just take a 60 pesos round trip to the national park, buses come every 20/30 minutes.. Once in the park, there are three main circuits which are must dos: the Garganta del Diablo (Devil’s Throat) trail which takes you right up to the biggest section and the centre piece of the falls, the Lower Circuit trail which takes you along the base of some of the falls and the Upper Circuit trail which takes you above a few of the others. Other trails include the Macuco Trail which is a 7km round trip to Salto Arrechea and not half as strenuous as it’s made out to be, and taking a boat trip to San Martin Island, but unfortunately this one was out of commission, probably due to recent rainfall.

Getting there relatively early, the best thing to do is take the train to the Devil’s Throat to try and avoid the big tour groups and later crowds. As you walk along the gangway, you can see the mist rising in the distance and when close enough you can hear the roar of the falls until you approach the site where you are at the end of the walkway looking into the water and getting soaked by the spray. It really is an amazing sight; a huge torrent of water exploding out into the river below, however you have to be quick with photos as the second a good photo opportunity comes, it is gone in the mist and both you and your camera will get wet.

Entrance to Devil's Throat

Approaching the Devil's Throat

Once you have been up and down to the Devil’s Throat, you can take it easy as the trails themselves are long enough not to get too caught up in crowds, only at the bottle neck view points do things start to get a little crowded.

On the Lower trail, you get a good soaking and vantage point around Salto Ramirez and Salto Bossetti, when open you can follow the path down to the dock to take the boat over to San Martin Island, and following the Upper Trail you have great views down into Saltos Dos Hermanos, Chico, Ramirez and Bossetti, culminating with great all round views of falls Mbigua, San Martin and Escondido right at the end of the Upper Trail around Salto Bernabe Mendez.

Lower trail

View of Saltos Adan, Eva and Bossetti

View of San Martin and Escondido

View of San Martin and Escondido

View along Lower Trail

Salto Alvar Nunex

 Upper trail

View over Bernabe Mendez

Above Salto Ramirez

Brazilian Side

This side is easily reached in a couple of ways: take a local bus to the Argentinian border, get it stamped, wait for another bus (if the one you were on left) to get to the Brazil border, get another stamp, get another bus to the park and repeat the process coming back, or sign up for a tour.

Usually I would just go about the cheaper more drawn out route but the tour also included a buffet (which had insane meat options), some time in Ciudad del Este in Paraguay (which ended up being the biggest waste of time ever unless I wanted to buy cheap, knock off goods) and Itaipu Dam (which provided a wonderful tour in Spanish). In conclusion, maybe just going to the Brazilian side of the falls on my own steam would have been a better option.

The Brazilian side of the falls is much smaller than the Argentinian side but it does offer amazing panoramic views. The first view point gives spectacular views of the waterfalls around the Upper Trail on the Argentinian side and the further along ‘The Path of the Falls’ you go, the better they become. The end of the walkway leads into the water and again you are taken into the mist of the falls before heading up to the lookout tower for one more final photo opportunity.

View of Saltos Adan, Eva, Bossetti and Mbigua among others

 

View of Salto Tres Mosqueteros in the foreground, Salto Rivadavia in the background

Approaching the biggest fall on the Brazilia side

There are less falls on this side but better views of the Argentinian side, whereas the Argentinian side is better for getting up close and personal with the falls. All in all, I would say you have to go to both sides in order to get the most out of this amazing natural experience.

Carnaval in Olinda, Brazil

Once the Carnaval started, it was pretty much impossible to get the views from the previous couple of days again, there was never a moment when the streets were even close to been clear, maybe in the early morning hours, say 5am. The thing that made this Carnaval different from those in Salvador, Rio ad Recife nearby is that it didn't go on into the early hours. The odd night might have had some road where things didn't quieten down until 2am or so, but by and large come midnight, most people were tucked away in the their homes and hostels and getting ready to start again in the morning. Come 8am, horns blaring, fireworks exploding and drums pounding sounded the alarm to get moving and start again.

Having met some great people in the hostel, we tried to arrange it that we'd do our own thing during the day and then meet up later in the afternoon. During the heat of the day, the party never let up, with many of the surrounding roads always packed with blocos streaming through the crowds; some pulling a float, others with a puppet at the front with a flag bearer and brass band behind playing the local frevo music that Olinda, and the Pernambuco region is famous for. It was just up to you whether you joined in their party or carried on chatting/ drinking/ dancing where you were.

Wherever you looked, there was a street vendor selling water and cans of Skol or Brahma, the beers of choice up north. Both watery badness that goes down well in the heat when cold, quite horrific when they are mildly chilled and horrendous at room temp. Best to get them down quickly then. When the beer gets to much, there are always the mixed drinks and when in Brazil, why look any further than the fabled Caipirinha, the most sugary drink on the planet, surely.

To make a Caipirinha you need:

Crushed Ice,
Cachaça (Brazilian sugar cane based alcohol)
Lime
Sugar

Simply put some sliced lime in a canister, add 2 heaped table spoons of sugar (some of them had even more, it's a sweet drink in case you hadn't noticed). Use a crusher to mix the two together. Add some Cachaça, a couple of shots or so depending on how strong you want it, then add some crushed ice. Cover the canister and shake the living daylights out of it. Pour, drink, wince, get used to it, repeat.




There are other drinks of choice, but this would be the one I would go for. There's the chocolaty Capeta (not my favourite) or a Caprioska (think Caipirinha but with vodka instead). You can also mix up the fruit too, it doesn't always have to be limes. If you can handle the seeds, the passion fruit one is delicious.

Various squares throughout the town were set up with stages and at varying times throughout the day, there would be performances by different bands all pretty much playing the same music. It's not often you hear the same six or seven songs and like them even more at the end than at the start, something about them just makes you want to stamp you feet, raise your glass and dance. Of course the problem here is you look  a total gringo, as even the most ungifted Brazilian native can dance the samba and beyond and make it look easy. It's not, I just ended up stamping myself so I'll carry on with my generic clubbing moves. 

Down the bottom end of town, there is an area reserved for stalls selling drinks and food. It's also a decent place to rendezvous with lost friends, have a breather and prepare for another dance party or bloco. The food is pretty basic but who doesn't love beans and rice, and then there's the old family classic, Macaxeira (ma-ca-she-ra), meat and stodge, perfect to prepare for the next round of celebrating.

When you aren't dancing in a plaza by the stage or following a bloco and tapping away to the rhythm of the drums, you can quite happily stand to the side and watch as the revelry passes you by. This is one of the many reasons I chose this Carnaval as you can just watch a sea of colour pass you by and as it is so small and intimate, it was safe too, so taking pictures couldn't be easier. The people are also super friendly, so if you see someone in the parade who you think looks awesome, or you want to join in with them and dance, it isn't a problem, they are only too happy to accommodate you and dance and pose with you.

A genuinely pleasurable experience and one I would only be too happy to do again. However, if that were the case, next time I would bring an array of costumes and accessories. The amount of people dressed up in random regalia and genuinely original costumes was incredible. Besides that, there's not much more I would change about the way I celebrated Carnaval here in Olinda. A real treat and something I would recommend to anyone.