To Belize and Back

Well . . . the kids visas had expired . . . and apparently the school didn't think it there responsibility to put the kids on my work visa (Ilana never got one!), so we were left with the dilemma of what to do. We decided to not wait until our final departure at an airport to see if the Mexican officials will notice the overstay. So, we headed to Belize-- 6 hours on a bus to Chetumal, another hour to the border. And, surprisingly, we pass out of Mexico with no problems. Then, we enter Belize with no problem. So far, so good. We then walk around a fence and go through the Belize customs for exiting their fine country. This is where it starts getting ugly. We were extorted a rather large sum by the Belize official who noticed the time between Mexico stamps in the kids' passports. We had very little choice but to pay it. Then, we walked across the free zone and to the Mexican border to pass through the Mexican immigration. They also noticed the error, only we had already left Mexico and now had Belize stamps in our passports. The official raged at me and I feigned complete ignorance of Spanish. Finally, the angry bureaucrat stamped our paperwork and waved us through. It was exhausting, scary, grueling, expensive, and completely avoidable.

We tried to make the best of things by exploring the 7 colored lagoon in Balancar and by swimming in the famed Cenote Azul. But, in then end we still had to spend another 6 hours on a bus which broke down and a became a 9 hour oddysey to get back to Cancun.