Immigration day is always fun! We got up early and headed to the gym on our way to the Hokey Pokey. For those of you that dont know, it is the water taxi that runs from Placencia to Independence. We made a quick stop at Brewed awakenings for some go go juice. They have some of the best coffee and sea weed shakes around. plus the girls there are super friendly. They memorize your name (or maybe I go there too much....?). The skies were blue and the water pretty calm, so the 15 minute boat ride across the lagoon was enjoyable. Although, they have implemented a new rule. You must now wear a orange life preserver during the duration of the trip. It is funny to see everyone wearing the hideous things. But better safe than sorry. Given a little more room, it would have been fun to challenge someone to a sumo fight! Adam and Ashley sat near the back, while Angela and I sat on the front seat. We got there just just as it was about to leave, so seats were limited. It seats 4 people wide and and about 5 to 6 rows deep. We passed a large cabin cruiser anchored in the middle, but didnt see anyone on board. The mangroves swayed in the breezes as we cruised past them at around 40 mph, just enough to have to be careful not to lose your hat. We pulled up to the Independence dock, where people were already gathered to make the return trip to Placencia. Several taxi drivers were drumming up business, but we had already made a call for our usual taxi driver to meet us a the dock, and like clockwork, he was there waiting. He is an older, soft spoken, rasta man. He has a full size van and it offers comfortable transportation to the immigration office. The roads have not improved at all along the way from the dock. The pot holes are relentless, jarring your back, rattling your teeth. Fortunately, he took the long way around to avoid as many as possible. We stopped at the new bus terminal first to drop off another passenger. It is a really nice facility, but a little out of town, so the taxi drivers stay busy. A couple miles out of town is the banana growers association, just before the building that houses the immigration officials. When we arrived there was a short line coming out of the door, but it wasnt long and we were in front of the officer. She was very friendly and asked about our day and plans while in Belize. We received another 30 day extension to stay in the country and paid the fee of $100 bz. Next we walked across the road to customs. Having driven our vehicles into the country we needed to extend the vehicle permits as well. There was not a charge to do this, however, we were reprimanded and warned that we were supposed to bring our vehicles with us to be inspected. Fortunately, they renewed the permit, but told us we would have to bring them next time. Bummer, it is a 45 minute drive around to the office, plus fuel, while being lower than recent months, still equates to $4.00/ U.S. per gallon. Our rasta taxi man was waiting in the parking lot and he zipped us back to the dock for our boat ride back to Placencia. The taxi was a little expensive at $10bz/ person. We were able to do everything and return to the boat In less than an hour, so not much time was wasted, and fun was had by all. On the way back all 4 of us sat in the same row, goofing around the whole way. We finished the trip up with with a panini for lunch from the Secret garden. Man was it good! We are all set with immagration for the next 30 days......
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 22:26:23 +0000
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