I quickly asked about the Belize bus. Not until tomorrow, although the
second-class bus to Corozal will still hit today. I end up taking a
taxi to the second-class (local) bus stop. I tell the guy where I want
to go. He brings me to this corner. I was like, where's the bus come?
He tells me there. Go there. Okay.
I go and ask the lady at some counter about the bus. She tells me it
comes in 15 minutes. Okay, cool. Just early. And there was some lady
and her kid waiting for the bus too. So I knew I was in the right
place. I looked quickly in the guidebook about Corozal. I didn't expect
to stop there, but hey, it's along the way, it sounds cool and the name is fun to say. Corozal, Belize. Especially with a Portuguese nasal accent. The only thing is that I'd be arriving in Corozal about 7 pm with this bus, so it might be hard to find lodging, oh well. It was fun and spontaneous.
While I waited for the bus to arrive, I saw some guys playing three card monte on top of an overturned cardboard box. Seriously. Then I had to wonder why they were playing three card monte in a place where there were no sucker tourists, just all locals. Eventually more people lined up for the bus. Then this one guy came up and everyone crowded around him. Everyone started whispering to each other and had exasperated looks. Uh oh. The bus was supposed to be here twenty minutes ago. I bet that there's no bus or we have to go travel somewhere else to catch the bus. Turns out there was no bus. They were all colluding together about splitting the taxi cost to the border and catching a bus at the border. Apparently, it's a common experience. But I wasn't going to do it. So I cut my losses for the day and just caught a taxi to a hotel in the guidebook. It was the cheapest thing listed, so I headed there. Except the weird thing was that the taxi that I flagged already had a kid in it. But the guy told me to get in anyway, so whatever. He dropped the kid off at the ElectroMart and then went to the hotel for me. I guess that's normal to pick up as many fares as possible. At least he got me there. It was pretty curious though when the taxi stopped when I flagged one down and there was two guys in there. I thought it was just the guy's little brother or something, but I still don't know what went on. At least I was getting a place to stay for the night.
Hotel Ucum. Great name. There were no A/C rooms. Great. But they had a pool! This place looked like a traditional motel. Or a hot springs hotel. Because the whole place was actually centered around the pool. There were day rooms for the pool and towels all around and...well it was a room anyway. With a private bath. So it worked. I wasn't going to just head off to find somewhere else at this moment. And it was raining, so I needed shelter.
When I got to my room, I was glad that it was at least looking secure. But I worried that they'd put another person in my room. There were two beds and they already ran out of A/C rooms, so who knows what they'd do. I had just gotten off a bus that I wasn't supposed to have been on and I had not gotten on a bus that I should have, so I was burnt out. Nothing turned out the way I expected. After seeing three card monte, I was pretty scared for my belongings. I made sure to padlock my bag to the toilet, and I never let it out of my sight. I truly thought they took my backpack off at Tulum and I wanted to make sure I had it within reach at all moments.
I was miserable at that point. I wanted to be in Belize. Relaxing, tropical Belize. I quickly realized I sounded like all the tourists I despised in Cancun. I just wanted to hole myself in the room and not leave until morning when I'd head out to Belize. I wasn't dealing and tolerating the challenges thrown at me. I thought the whole adventure was about not having structure and just going with the flow. Yucatan? You can too! Eventually I headed off because I got hungry and was hoping something good could come out of Chetumal.
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