Text: Peter Johansson
Editing: Christer Lundstedt
Photos: Christer Lundstedt, Peter Johansson
Videos: Christer Lundstedt
Friday 11th of August
06.37 We have slept the last night in Mexico. We are at Hotel Caribe Princess in Chetumal, are up early and it is still dark outside. The Swedish ladies in the soccer World Cup progressed to the semifinals after a 2-1 victory against Japan.
07.33 It is time for us to leave the last Mexican hotel of the trip. It hasn't been the best but it has done the job.
07.54 The first mission of the day was to get hold of cash before departure. There was a failure at ATM number one, Scotiabank. Once again our cards did not fit in the card slot. Things went better at the other ATM at BBVA. Now we take a bench break at Muelle Chetumal, the pier near the terminal. A bearded man in a taxi has passed by. Now two travelers come and walk past us. Is everyone going with our boat? Our boat does not leave until 10.00, but we have received clear information that we must be there already at 08.00.
08.31 Once we arrived at Terminal Marítima Internacional, we left our luggage on a large cart. Then we stood in the check-in queue and now we have filled out some documents. When and where do we pay the exit tax we collected money for? We will go with Water Jets International (https://www.sanpedrowatertaxi.com). We bought the ticket for the boat online already at home in Sweden.
09.43 A man came and gave an educational account of everything that had to be done when we passed passport control. Now, after a full seven weeks, we are stamped out of Mexico. We have never, continuously, been longer in any country outside of Sweden. One of the papers we filled out has been left. Do they do any good?
10.17 According to the timetable, our boat would have departed at 10.00. I hope it didn't because we are still ashore. We haven't paid any tax yet. OK, apparently it's time to board. The passengers have been given different boarding passes that show which is our final destination. The boat goes first to San Pedro and then continues to Caye Caulker.
10.22 Everyone gets a place on board the light blue boat Eva Bay, everyone who wants and can. This will be the last listing with Mexican time. By the way, where did they actually put the luggage?
TIME ZONE CHANGE
10.39 It goes fast across the sea. We jump over the waves. There is a concentrated atmosphere on board. The man from Water Jets International sits sleeping. The clock is turned back an hour and San Pedro in Belize is getting closer. Yes, we are on our way to the San Pedro mentioned by Madonna in La Isla Bonita. That's how it is, isn't it? Or?
BELIZE
11.39 We disembarked at San Pedro Water Taxi Terminal here in San Pedro on the island of Ambergris Caye which is the largest island in the nation of Belize. It got its name from the large pieces of ambergris that washed up on the island's shores. "Caye" comes from the Spanish "cayo" which simply means "islet", "sand seal" or "cut". The island is approximately 40 km long and 2 km wide and consists mostly of sandy beaches around the mangrove swamp in the center of the island. Once ashore we exchanged the Mexican pesos we took out this morning. We never had to pay any exit tax. Then we were stamped in after certifying that we are not carrying any drone. You are not allowed to fly drones in San Pedro due to all the low flying propeller planes that take off and land on the island. We handed over completed documents and said no thanks to a taxi driver. Next we walked a few streets away to the Voyager Sun & Reef Hotel (https://sunandreefhotel.com). There we left the backpacks until it was time for check-in. Now we rest in the sea breeze and listen to "Self Control" with Laura Branigan, which is played from a nearby bar.
13.46 There was good coffee, nice staff and wise words of wisdom about the black drink on the walls. Now we are waiting for check-in. We are back down by the beach for a while before we head towards the hotel. Here in San Pedro, the traffic consists mainly of electric golf carts. There are an incredible number of these, although the occasional regular car also occasionally appears.
18.43 We came out just after dusk and began our walk away towards the airport, John Greif II Airport (San Pedro Airport). We wanted to see how long it would take to walk there because we are going to get there on foot on Sunday morning and on the other hand we want to visit a larger supermarket near it.
Saturday 12th of August
Muelle Chetumal.
Check-in at Water Jets International.
A long wait to board.
The passengers on Eva Bay.
The boat is emptied of passengers.
We are visiting Belize for the second time.
We disembarked at the San Pedro Water Taxi Terminal.
Everywhere San Pedro is called La Isla Bonita.
San Pedro letters in Central Park.
Central Park, San Pedro.
Here there is free internet connection.
Water games at San Pedro Beach.
Long-awaited cold beer.
Christer is waiting for lunch.
Peter is having lunch at The Black Pearl Restaurant.
Truths about coffee at Lavish Habit Café.
From here you take the speedboat to Belize City.
Voyager Sun & Reef Hotel, San Pedro.
Dusk in San Pedro.
San Pedro Town Hall.
Christer at El Patio Grill.
Peter eats his dinner at El Patio Grill.
A truth in the evening darkness.
We stay here for two nights.
08.34 Sleep is sometimes needed, especially at night. The night in our room has been pleasant and now it is almost the end of travel nights for this time.
09.17 As the hotel does not serve breakfast and we ourselves did not buy any to the room, we have set out on the streets of San Pedro in search of this Saturday's first meal. We are going to a café that has received good reviews and seems to have an interesting selection. 09.38 The cozy little Mesa Bistro offers us Coconut French Toast, soft lightly toasted bread mixed with coconut and tropical fruits. It cannot be missed. The venue and the waitress are nice. In here, an American family has also placed their two children in front of each computer screen. Is this what family breakfast meals look like these days? 10.05 That was perfect, a delicious and very filling breakfast. Now we are ready to see the town. We don't have to think about food anymore, ever. At least that's how it feels right now. 10.27 After I went into a small shop and bought some souvenirs to give away, we are back at home in our room. 11.11 Everything is now ready to let in house keeping and let ourselves out for city walking. 11.31 We have started the day by taking a walk away to the harbour area where we disembarked yesterday. We have since visited the stationery store Caye Supplies and bought various notebooks. For Christer, it's notebooks to use at work and for myself an upcoming journal to write in.
Morning in room 304.
We will have breakfast at Mesa Bistro.
Christer is waiting for Saturday's breakfast.
Coconut French Toast, coffee and juice, a perfect breakfast.
Outdoor gym in San Pedro.
Christer walks along Angel Coral Street.
11.44 We started to take a longer walk along Pescador Drive but we realized after a while that there wasn't much to look at. We mostly had to step aside to let golf carts pass and we were getting more and more sweaty. We'll probably go down to the water instead. San Pedro is a lovely place but it is crowded here. There is not much space to walk around.
12.02 If the sun is behind a cloud, the day is bearable. We are down by the beach near Central Park. We have canceled the plans to swim in the sea during the afternoon. The only beach is right in the center and there isn't much you can do there other than take a swim or go down the slide with the kids. 12.27 Waiting for our room to be cleaned, we are now up on the roof terrace here at the hotel. Here, as it usually is from the roof, there is a good view. We film and photograph San Pedro from a completely new perspective. A bit out to sea, the water changes colour. Outside the coral reef, the water takes on a darker color. It's deeper there. 12.42 After we walked a lap around the block, everything was ready in the room. Now we're going to cool off for the next period of the San Pedro experience. 13.32 Cooled down, we start to get ready to go out again. 14.40 After a bit of walking around and looking among the expensive goods at the Super Buy Supermarket, we got together a working breakfast for tomorrow. Now the question is, do we go out for a late lunch or just have a coffee? 15.06 There will be afternoon coffee at Lavish Habit, the cafe we visited yesterday. We have ordered coffee and are going to eat waffles with cheese and ham.
Quite quickly we cross the island and reach the south shore of San Pedro.
Looking for a shadow.
Rooftop view of Central Park and San Pedro Beach.
The coral reef is visible on the horizon.
San Pedro Roman Catholic Church.
Back at Lavish Habit Café.
15.22 We got good waffles and good coffee. This is a perfect cafe to visit when you want a cool break from the tropical reality outside.
15.49 We are back at home in the hotel room. We are now ready to check in for the flights home which start tomorrow Sunday. 16.21 We are most likely checked in correctly and can fly tomorrow. It will be a long journey home via Belize City, Miami and London. 18.02 It's starting to be time to wrap up and tie this trip together. We plan to go up to the roof terrace first to enjoy the sunset. 18.15 The door was locked so we couldn't get up to and out on the terrace. The cleaning staff have gone home and then they had locked up to the roof where they dry the bed linen. Well, we've been there before but too bad about the view towards the sunset. 19.18 We are now mostly waiting for the dinner hunger to appear. There is one last dinner to be had before the journey home begins. Via YouTube's Nostalgikanalen, we watched a debate program about the impoverishment of and development in Jämtland region. The program is called Mitt i sommarsverige and was broadcast from Vålådalen on August 6, 1980 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8IKeZu2264).
Waffles as a snack at Lavish Habit Café.
Super Buy Supermarket near our hotel.
We saw a TV program about Jämtland in Belize.
Oh Bombay Indian Restaurant, San Pedro.
Beautiful decor at Oh Bombai Indian Restaurant.
Peter at the last dinner restaurant of the trip.
19.43 We had intended to go to a nearby restaurant, Elvi's Kitchen, to have dinner. We had even chosen which dishes we wanted to order. One should not prepare so well. Then a problem often arises. The problem tonight is that the restaurant is full and there are even more guests standing outside hoping to get in. It will probably take time for us to get a table and to eventually get food. We are looking for other options instead.
20.11 After an evening walk in the drizzle towards the airport, we have found one of the two Indian restaurants we selected as a backup option. Oh Bombai Indian Restaurant will be serving our closing dinner. It's beautifully decorated in here and a TV shows views of London. 20.16 We have received our Belikin beers and are now waiting for the food. 21.13 There was a lot of food and good food. It was so good and so much that I couldn't eat it all myself. The walk home was carried out in the rain, but we can tolerate a little water. Now we will make a final summary of the stay here and planning for tomorrow's journey home. 22.47 A calm and quiet evening comes to an end. We have read our books and rested. Evening beer and much-needed sleep soon follow.
Sunday 13th of August
06.30 It's an early morning at the Voyager Sun & Reef Hotel in San Pedro. It's almost time for breakfast. Both the pen and I are tired. The pen can always be replaced, but I have to harden myself. The breakfast consists of a mixed selection that we picked up during the visit to Super Buy Supermarket yesterday.
07.28 If everything goes well, everything is packed, we'll get to the airport and also enter a plane. First we have to leave the hotel. 07.55 As far as I know, it´s the first time we have walked from a hotel to the airport. Sure, we've stayed in airport hotels, but I don't count them. It was quiet on the streets this early Sunday morning. We are now checked in at Tropic Air (https://www.tropicair.com). We have each received a plastic boarding pass. They have a red colour marking. When "red" is called out, we get to board a plane. 08.22 Various colours have been called but not red. We are sitting nicely and waiting here at the terminal. 08.59 Everyone with red markings on their boarding passes has now boarded Tropic Air's Cessna Model 208B. There aren't that many of us, around a dozen. Before we boarded, we had to line up outside the plane for an assessment of our respective size and weight in order to get the best possible seat. The seat belt is of the same type as those in cars. 09.29 After one of the shortest and clearly lowest flights we have done, we are now waiting for the luggage here at Philip SW Goldson International Airport outside Belize City. We have been here before. In 2011 we flew from here to Houston in Texas, USA during the beginning of our journey home from Central America. We have again flown domestically and abroad on our travels. 09.41 Christer has received his luggage but I have to wait for my backpack. It didn't come with our plane but might come with another. The small planes fly regularly between San Pedro and this airport. 09.57 My backpack had to fly on another plane. Now it is back by my side. 10.24 Via a screen we checked in and received luggage tags and three boarding passes each. We left our backpacks at a counter. The next time we see them is at Arlanda Airport. We don't have to pick them up and check them in again along the flights. In addition, we have paid some form of exit tax.
We have walked to the airport.
The check-in desk at San Pedro Airport.
An aquarium fascinates.
It's crowded in a Cessna.
Belizemo Pizzeria will be our lunch restaurant.
Christer is having lunch at Philip SW Goldson International Airport.
10.56 Now we are stamped and security checked. There were no more taxes than the $18 we paid before.
11.07 There will be an early lunch at Belizemo Pizzeria near the gates. We have ordered pizza and beer. There is a bit of humour in the name of the pizzeria, referring to the country's name Belize and the Italian word bellissimo. 11.46 It was a decent amount of food for a high price, but nowadays we are a little impressed every time we can eat real food at an airport. It is not always possible. Sometimes there is a lack of good restaurants, sometimes there are places in the restaurants and sometimes it is just too expensive. At gate 10 there is a call for Ruben Young right now. 12.06 There were more shouts after Ruben, but they paid off. He just arrived and everyone at gate 10 is ready to fly to San Pedro. Will Ruben or any of the other passengers stay in our old room? Who knows? We ourselves continue to wait for our turn to fly. 12.41 First my backpack misses the flight here and now Christer has been asked to go to do an extra check. They called for him and some other passengers in the loudspeakers. 12.55 Christer and a few more randomly selected passengers were called to Special Search, an extra security check. When it was ready, he was allowed to board. I followed but was stopped. It was only Christer and the others who had been checked extra who were allowed to board a little earlier. Now we are all going to fly on the American Airlines Boeing 727 to Miami.TIME ZONE CHANGE
15.49 We are on board and the clock has moved forward two hours. On our way up to the correct flight altitude, we fly over a big city. We currently do not know which one. It could be some Mexican city. 16.46 We have enjoyed orange juice and salty pretzels. In about three quarters of an hour, we should have solid ground under us again. 17.03 Having previously flown over Cuba, we now see the Florida Keys, the long chain of islands that runs from the Florida coast out to Key West.UNITED STATES
18.00 There was a long wait to get off and out of the aircraft. This was followed by a long walk followed by a short train ride. Here at Miami International Airport we are now waiting to show the passports before we can go to the next gate. Why on earth can't we go straight away? We're not entering the United States.
18.41 It was a reasonably smooth passport and security check. The question I keep asking is, why this circus when we have to transfer. Well, now we are at the gates to once again cross the Atlantic. 19.02 There was not much more time here at the airport than going to the right gate and boarding. We are now on the American Airlines Boeing 777. It is uncomfortable and cramped where we are supposed to sit. 19.18 Everyone is now on board. Unfortunately, the plane has problems with arranging cool air. Can someone open a window? It takes approximately 8 hours to fly to London Heathrow. From now on, that's the time that applies in my notes, London's that is.
We are in place, ready to fly to the United States.
We fly over the Florida Keys.
We are waiting at Miami International Airport.
Monday 14th of August
TIME ZONE CHANGE
01.50 It was a simple but good meal on board. Is it supper, dinner or night meal? It all depends on which time zone we are referring to. I didn't get a Gin & Tonic as an appetizer. Now we're going to unwind. 03.11 It's time to see if I manage to sleep, rest. As mentioned, it is anything but comfortable in our seats. 07.15 The passengers have woken up and are waiting to eat, breakfast is served. 07.58 Our served breakfast was small and light. Within an hour we will be on the ground at Heathrow Airport. 09.04 Our plane and us inside it are waiting for it to become available at the gate here at Heathrow Airport. 09.16 It is not yet free at the gate. We wait further. 09.27 Finally we are at a gate. It is not the first thought but still a gate. Now we are in Europe again.UNITED KINGDOM
09.49 We're off the plane and wandering around here at Terminal 3. Whatever it takes, we'll make our way to Terminal 5. I haven't been sitting comfortably tonight. You can feel it in your body.
10.04 Now we are in a bus on our way to Terminal 5. 10.33 The bus took us smoothly between the terminals. I slowed down a bit in the security check, didn't stand as you should and was checked extra. Now we are in any case at Terminal 5, where we were already in June.
Bus between Terminal 3 and Terminal 5, Heathrow.
11.27 We have been looking around the entire terminal for somewhere to eat a decent meal. The only things we found were brand stores for Gucci, Rolex etc, health food and long queues at the few restaurants that serve real food. The solution to our problem was, as in June, sandwiches and drinks from the WH Smith kiosk. Isn't it time that airports prioritize food for travelers over selling luxury watches, perfume and clothes?
12.42 We are now at the A18. It is the last gate of the flight home. 13.38 Boarding the British Airways Airbus 320 with destination Stockholm Arlanda was smooth and slow. We are already almost 20 minutes late.TIME ZONE CHANGE
15.58 We're finally on our way to Arlanda and Sweden. How lucky I rebooked my train journey. I hadn't made it to the one I had originally booked.SWEDEN
17.05 We have landed in Sweden and at Arlanda. In 1½ hours we and the backpacks should be on the train north.
17.21 In one day, we have used four planes from San Pedro in Belize to Arlanda in Sweden. In an hour, the next transport modes will begin. 17.58 Baguettes, sandwiches and drinks for the trip, the evening and breakfast tomorrow have been purchased. We rest as usual at the Sky Bridge. The backpacks are with us. 18.29 The Mälartåg train that was supposed to take us from Arlanda to Uppsala this time is unfortunately delayed. Is the train waiting for us in Uppsala or not? 18.37 We only have five minutes before the train change in Uppsala. 19.04 We made it to Uppsala before the train's departure. Now we roll further north. As the rails are still in poor condition outside Hudiksvall, we will change to a bus when we reach Söderhamn.
At the luggage belt, Arlanda.
Changing trains in Uppsala.
Bus between Söderhamn and Hudiksvall.
20.03 Do I really dare to write this? Yes, what the hell, the train journey goes on without a problem. We keep the time.
20.36 The third vehicle of the trip to Sweden, a bus, is entered in Söderhamn. 21.20 We have changed vehicles again. On board a train we soon leave Hudiksvall for the last section up to Sundsvall. 21.47 I have just booked a taxi for the two of us. It will take us from Sundsvall's central station and up to Christer's apartment. I have received a travel allowance from my mother who thought we could treat ourselves to a taxi. 22.35 A man stood by a taxi with a sign that said Jonsson. It was the wrong name but the right vehicle and person. Now that we are at Christer's apartment, it is time to sum up this long journey. Last year I had a vision of backpacking outside of Europe. We have had to do that with gusto. We have gone all in when it comes to food, drink, culture, history and above all everything to do with Mexico. It has been nice on several levels, experiences, people, yes everything. The highlight was the days in Valle de Bravo when Haydee received us in the best way. Now Christer is home and in twelve hours I will also be on my way home, home to recharge for everyday life but also for new adventures. We still hold the backpacks for more trips.
Peter writes the last lines in the journal upon arrival in Sundsvall.
You can see 54 photos from August 11 in this photoalbum.
You can see 55 photos from August 12 in this photoalbum.
You can see 16 photos from August 13 in this photoalbum.
You can see 6 photos from August 14 in this photoalbum.