Belize 1995

Sunrise at Calderitas, Mexico (6/30)

    During the summer of 1995 a friend and I traveled from the Southeast U.S. around the Gulf of Mexico, across the Yucatan and south into Belize.  This was a road trip on the scale of our later drive to Alaska.  This trip changed the way I view the world and taught me much about myself.

When I was eleven, my family took a vacation to the island of Cancun.  Flying into the airport, we passed over dense, lush jungle that crowded itself right out to the edge of the Caribbean sea.  Of all the things we saw and did on that trip, this image sticks in my mind.  I enjoyed the week we spent in and around Cancun, but even then, at that early age, I felt I had missed something important.

This is the story of my return to the area, and my discovery of what it was.

Preparations:
    We did not decide to make this trip on a whim- we began planning and scheduling about 8 months in advance.  I had been dreaming about the trip for more than three years.  My traveling companion Sean was chosen carefully, though he didn't really know it at the time. We were both students at Clemson University in South Carolina.
    Being students, we were of course fairly poor, and couldn't afford the gear, vehicle, or time that we would have liked.  We were able to chisel about 15 days out of our summer schedules between a family wedding and the beginning of classes.  I spent countless evenings looking over guide books and crawling around on maps.  Many modifications and additions were made to our vehicle, and it was carefully packed with all the clothes, food, water, tools, spare parts, maps, and gasoline tanks we could fit.  (The gas tanks were for Belize, where unleaded gasoline was unavailable- we had to carry all we would need.)
    The itinerary was very flexible.  We would start in South Carolina, drive to the border pretty much non-stop, enter Mexico and drive south, hugging the gulf until we reached the Yucatan Peninsula.  At that point we would drive straight east to the border of Belize at Chetumal.  We'd enter Belize and spend a few days there, then probably head North up to the Cancun area.  Then back around the gulf and home.  It was a lot of driving for 15 days but we were well prepared to cover some distance.

I have broken this travelogue up by day.  This is basically my journal from the trip (edited a bit to remove personal info and some really boring stuff) with pictures inserted.  There is a lot of text to wade through but you can get a pretty good idea of the trip by just looking at the pictures.

We started on June 25th, 1995...

6/25 South Carolina to Louisiana
6/26 Louisiana to McAllen, Texas
6/27 McAllen, Texas to Tampico, Mexico
6/28 Tampico to Catemaco, Mexico
6/29 Catemaco to Calderitas, Mexico
6/30 Calderitas, Mexico to San Ignacio, Belize
7/1 San Ignacio, Belize and surrounding areas
7/2 San Ignacio to Placencia, Belize
7/3 Placencia, Belize to Puuc Mul, Mexico
7/4 Puuc Mul to Campeche, Mexico
7/5 Campeche to Villahermosa, Mexico
7/6 Villahermosa to Nautla, Mexico
7/7 Nautla, Mexico to Texas...

Afterwards...

The vehicle: "Pedro"

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