Belizean Public Transportation

Yesterday we left San Pedro for Punta Gorda. We took the same ferry from San Pedro to Belize City that we took for the track meet. Then we took taxis to the bus station.  The first sign that it was going to be an interesting journey was the man walking around the bus station swinging a machete and yelling who knows what. We had about an hour and a half to kill before our bus so we just sat in the terminal.  You had to pay to use the bathroom, which was a poor excuse for a bathroom, so I definitely didn't venture in there more than once.

Once we only had 15 minutes until we boarded the bus, we started waiting in line behind the gate that we were told would be opened. Whoever told us that was the right gate, was wrong. Next came the mad dash. 

The gate was opened and it was like trying to get the only Tickle-Me-Elmo on Black Friday multiplied by 100. Thankfully Belizean people are generally not very tall so it wasn't too bad having to push through all of them to get on the bus. And when I say bus, I mean school bus.  By the time I got on through the front of the bus, all of the seats were full or had people's stuff on them. Luckily, half our group jumped through the back door of the bus and had saved enough seats for all of us. Once we were all on it was less stressful, but still crazy with people trying to find space and jamming their stuff any place they could. There were these two guys in the aisle next to my seat that were hand cuffed together and we found out after that they were prisoners trying to take the bus to court, but the police officer couldn't get on the bus, so the prisoners had to get off too. The bus made three or four stops and was over 6 hours long. It was packed and sweaty and gross.

We kept stopping on the side of the road and letting more people on who would just stand on the aisle. We even let on two girls who road the bus for awhile selling bread and one boy who came on with a huge bucket of coconut water for people to buy. It was definitely an experience.  I'm not sure I'm excited to ride the bus back on Thursday, but it's just another cultural experience!  Here's a picture of some guys who were traveling for the military, but there weren't any seats left for them so they just say on luggage in the back instead.