Due to the fact that we had very poor lighting for photography on our trip down to Placencia from Belize City, this presentation is our return trip from Placencia to Belize City.

We had made reservations to fly to Ambergris Caye at 3:30 pm from the Municipal Airport on the waterfront in Belize City.  We felt that by leaving The blue Crab at 7:00 am we would have sufficient time to make the drive, stopping to have a look at Belmopan and a stop at the Belize Zoo.

The first part of the drive, approximately 45 miles was on a fairly nice road known as the Placencia Cut Off.  We were fortunate that it had rained quite a bit in this area of Belize which kept the dust down, yet not enough to create huge pot holes.

After intersecting with the Southern Highway, conditions change considerably the further north we drove.  Soon, we were traveling on a stretch of road with many deep pot holes and lots of dust anytime another vehicle passed us.

We finally reached the Hummingbird Highway just west of Dangria.  As we turned left, we could see and Esso station ahead on the left.  After bouncing around for over 35 miles we needed a pit stop.  Boy were we surprised, the rest rooms at this Esso station are modern and very well kept.  We nominate them as the cleanest public restrooms in Belize.

We continued west on the Hummingbird Highway which, in October 1998 was very much under construction.  We passed numerous  farms and groves on the east side of the mountains, while driving through a lot of villages, and two rather large towns before  starting to climb into the mountains and through the pass.  

Lan Sluder  the Owner/Publisher of The Belize First Magazine, and a recognized authority on Belize,    (CLICK TO LINK TO)   recently  posted on the Belize message boards that paving is now complete between Dangria and Belmopan with only the construction of a couple of bridges causing any short delays. This information is  based on a trip he took within the last month or so.  

The trip across the mountains was fabulous with each bend in the road bringing forth another great view.  We arrived at Belmopan at about 10:00 am.  It took us about 45 min  to drive around the City, see the National Government Buildings and make a few purchases at the flea market. "Great place to buy spices like whole leaf dried Oregano which has about twice the spice power as our normal ground Oregano"

From Belmopan we turned north on the Western Highway which is a good two lane paved road leading from Belize City to San Ignacio .  After about 10 miles we arrived at the Belize Zoo "See separate story and pictures".