| 15 Cycling Days | 1021 km | 8856 m ascent |
Our route through Belize and Guatemala
Slightly chaotic entry into Belize
Before we knew it, we were cycling the last 35 kilometres in Mexico. We used our last cash for buying some delicious fresh coconut water from a stall next to the road. Slowly, we cycled through the Mexican border area. There wasn’t a single building on our side of the road and nobody who asked us for anything. It felt a bit odd, but as we had encountered borders like this before in the US and South America, we didn’t think too much of it. About two kilometres later, we arrived at the Belize border. We filled in our entry forms and stood in line. However, as soon as it was our turn, the officer sent us back to Mexico – apparently our passports were missing our exit stamps! We were told there was a small white tent somewhere, and that’s where we needed to go. Fair enough, so we turned around and backtracked the last two kilometres. To our misfortune, it started raining just then. We did indeed find the tent and got our exit stamps without any further problems. Luckily, we had kept the receipt for the visa fee from December, otherwise we’d probably have had to pay it all over again!
Back at the border control in Belize, we got our entry stamps and after passing through two more checkpoints, we were finally in Belize! A country we had both been looking forward to visiting for a long time and for which we’d done quite the detour.
First days in Belize
We stopped in the first small city after the border to organize the usual – withdrawing cash and going to the grocery store. The selection wasn’t quite huge, and everything was a bit more expensive compared to Mexico. Suddenly, people around us were speaking English again, though they have a very strong dialect – and even their own language – and we would probably have understood more if they’d spoken Spanish. The roads were pleasantly quiet, and the landscape was incredibly beautiful. Everything is so green and lush. For our first night in Belize, we had picked a small, family-run campsite. On arrival, we were given a warm welcome and met two motorbike travelers from the USA. In the evening, we were all invited to help prepare dinner and learnt how to make the traditional tortillas and plantain chips.
The next morning we could hear a thunderstorm in the distance and as I wasn’t feeling quite well anyway (the last few days had simply been far too hot again), we spontaneously decided to stay an extra night and take the day off. I was supplied with fresh coconut water, and the two youngest children kept asking me if I was feeling any better. So sweet!
The next two days we cycled on beautiful small gravel backroads through the tropical landscape. Everywhere we looked we saw ripe coconut hanging in the trees, every house had at least one hammock in front of their door and there was always somebody playing reggae loud enough for the whole neighborhood. The road into Belize City was paved, but the strong headwind made sure we weren’t going too fast. Belize City seemed to be the only slightly dangerous area in Belize and we didn’t feel quite at ease indeed. The hostel was sweet indeed, with nice owners and we could lock our bikes somewhat safely in the backyard. Theoretically, we could have skipped the city easily, but ever since we knew that we’d go to Belize I knew that I wanted to go snorkelling, and for that we had to come to Belize City.
Snorkelling expedition on Caye Caulker
Without our bikes, we boarded the small speedboat ferry to get from the mainland to Caye Caulker. Off the coast of Belize lies the world’s second largest barrier reef, and the coral island of Caye Caulker is a wonderful spot for snorkelling. I had specifically chosen a tour operator that doesn’t use food to attract animals and makes sure nobody damages the coral. We set off towards the reef in a small boat with our guide and a few other people. The water was just so incredibly beautiful!! Over the course of the day, we stopped at several spots, where we were allowed to go into the water for a while. Sometimes, we had to follow our guide to make sure we wouldn’t get lost in a hidden current. Often the water was only a few metres deep, and Sebi and I could dive right down to the ground. It was soo cool and we saw so many amazing animals! Harmless nurse sharks swimming around us, huuuge stingrays, all sorts of corals, lots of colourful fish and even a beautiful turtle. We snorkeled over a shipwreck and a relatively deep underwater canyon. On the return to the island, we even spotted two manatees in the water!
Back on the island, we still had a bit of time before we had to catch the ferry. Our plan to “take a leisurely stroll around the island” proved to be more difficult than thought; firstly, it was simply far too hot to be anywhere but in the shade, and secondly, the place was packed with golf carts! We found a cute “Chocolate Bar” serving the most delicious drinks, sat down on their veranda in the shade and had a cocoa tea and a chocolate-banana-milkshake.
Towards Guatemala
Unfortunately, we had managed to get a bit of a sunburn on both of our backs whilst snorkeling. Apparently, it doesn’t take more than a day of not being in our daily cycling routine to have stupid things like that happen to us. To avoid the brutal afternoon heat, we decided to plan a few shorter days. We camped at a beautiful private wildlife sanctuary, located in the Maya Forest and used as an international research and education centre. As it was a public holiday, we had the whole place to ourselves. We relaxed in the hammocks and went for a short walk through the forest. With a lot of luck one might even spot tapirs and jaguars there, but we only saw a few parrots that day.
On our last day in Belize, we posted a few postcards and before we knew it, we were at the border with Guatemala! Crossing the border was a lot less of a hassle than entering Belize. We each had to pay a 20 US dollar exit fee upon leaving Belize, answer a couple of standard questions in Guatemala, and that was it – we were in, and back in the chaos! It was only then that we realised just how comparatively calm and organised things had been in Belize. We each bought a local SIM card for the equivalent of a few euros and tried to withdraw some cash. Unfortunately, this proved much more difficult than we’d expected, as none of the local ATMs would accept even a single one of our cards. Our next idea, Western Union, didn’t seem to work for foreigners in Guatemala… Luckily, there are other money transfer services than Western Union, and we finally managed to get some cash with MoneyGram – and even with lower fees than we would have paid at an ATM.
Tikal
Tikal is one of the largest and most important archeological sites from the Mayan era and is situated right in the middle of the rainforest. We – and Sebi in particular – had been looking forward to it for ages! Even the journey there was absolutely stunning, the paved road led right into the heart of the jungle. All sorts of plants with huge leaves were growing right next to and over the road, and it was incredibly green. There were even monkeys in the trees above us!
We arrived at the site around midday and after a short lunch break at the campsite, we set off. We walked even deeper into the forest and there was something to discover wherever you looked. Huge temples, smaller ruins – you’re even allowed to climb up onto or inside some of them. We tried to walk fairly fast to be able to see the most, but right by the entrance a large group of coatis were roaming around, and we obviously didn’t go anywhere for a while. They’re so cute! We walked all the way to Templo IV at the other end of the park, which I particularly liked. The temple is very tall, and as we climbed up the steps, a group of monkeys were climbing up the trees right beside us. From the top, we had an amazing view of – mainly forest. Here and there, the tops of the other large temples poked out from the canopy.
Walking back to the campsite, we could already hear the calls of a group of howler monkeys from a distance. In the meadow in front of the campsite, we saw ocellated turkeys for the first time. They are only found on the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, Guatemala and Belize. They look similar to ordinary turkeys, but have blue heads with yellow knobbles and make quite funny, very deep gurgling noises.
Heat and our route through Guatemala
The following days were mainly memorable for us as having been “hot” – even though we were to experience much hotter days later on in Central America. The temperature was usually around 31-35°C in the shade, with high humidity and virtually no wind. It didn’t get much cooler even at night… We started very early each day and spent several hours at midday resting somewhere in the shade.
Having spent four months in Mexico, we didn’t have too much time to spare and we were trying to make the crossing from Panama to Colombia by the end of May. Other cycle tourists had also warned us that the traffic in Guatemala could be really unpleasant and dangerous in places, particularly towards Guatemala City and Antigua. All that made us opt for the quickest route through Guatemala and we cycled on paved roads towards the Southeast of the country. It was still quite lovely though and we were once again fascinated by the landscape and the chaos all around us. We had a wide shoulder most of the time and didn’t feel too uncomfortable. The biggest problem was actually the unbearable noise we had to put up with all day long. Every vehicle was so much louder than back at home. Trucks driving downhill nearly blew our hearing away. Some passing motorbikes we could hear for the next few kilometres!
Sidequest to Guatemala City und Antigua
For ages, we had been planning to do the well-known and popular hike up Acatenango volcano in Guatemala. Starting point for the hike, which usually takes two days, is the town of Antigua. As this wasn’t on our route and cycling there would have been a massive detour, we left our bikes at a campsite for a week and took a night bus there. I’ll leave that out for now – there’ll be a separate article about it!
Banana Plantations
Reunited with our bikes, we continued on our planned route towards El Salvador. Our legs were burning; we were both so sore from the hike! It definitely uses completely different muscle groups – it doesn’t help at all if you cycle every day beforehand and think of yourself as reasonably fit. In the morning, we stopped at a supermarket and were offered a Coke by a Coke delivery man. We had no idea he’d hand us the glass bottle already opened, but oh well, so we started the day with a whole bottle of Coke at 9am. We saw more and more mango trees at the side of the road, most of them were already full with fruits, but unfortunately they weren’t quite ripe yet.
One afternoon we turned off the main road to cycle to a small archeological site, and were quite amazed. It was the first time we’d seen commercial banana plantations that big! To the left and right we could see nothing but banana plants, growing close together. Fascinated, we watched the transport system for a while. Whole trunks full of bananas, still green and wrapped in blue protective plastic bags, were transported through the plantation on some sort of zip line. If the bananas needed to be transported from one side of the road to the other, the road was simply closed off, the two ends of the zip line connected, and before you knew it, you were standing in front of a train of bananas. I had a brief chat with one of the workers who confirmed to us that all these bananas were for export, mainly to the USA and Europe.
Quiriguá
Quiriguá is a small, archeological site and is, same as Tikal and Antigua before, one of Guatemala’s four UNESCO world heritage sites. It is mostly famous for the stone monuments, that are up to ten metres in height – the largest in the Maya world! We arrived in the late afternoon and were the only visitors, meaning we could enjoy the stone monuments, ruins and natural surroundings at our own pace. The stone pillars and “zoomorphs” were truly impressive, completely covered in interesting glyphs and creatures from the Mayan era. We saw Agoutis hopping around and colourful birds with funny, split tail feathers in the trees. We were allowed to camp at the site’s visitor centre, and in the evening the meadow was full of flashing fireflies.
From Guatemala to El Salvador
We still had a few days of way too hot weather ahead of us before reaching the border with El Salvador. We took half a day off at a finca, as we were simply too exhausted from cycling in the heat. For 65 quetzales (about seven euros), we were allowed to camp there and even had access to the pool! It was huge, unheated and yet the water temperature was still at 30°C… There were hammocks too, and we had the place to ourselves. We enjoyed a relaxing afternoon – as best as we could in that heat. It was so hot that we couldn’t even walk barefoot to the pool!
On our last day, we stopped at a gas station in the morning to cool off, luckily, they sold ice cream and they even had hammocks outside. What a luxury! By now, more and more mango trees were full with ripe mangoes and we could simply collect mangoes from the side of the road. I absolutely love mangoes and these were so delicious too. A dream. Entering El Salvador was so relaxed. Guatemala stamped our passports on the way out, a few metres further on, El Salvador border officials checked our passports and gave us an entry stamp. They were really friendly and even sent us to the side so we could wait in the shade until they had finished.
Published on June 27, 2026
Experienced from 31.03.2026 – 24.04.2026
