Mexico to Guatemala - leave bike and return
 

I’ve been touring Mexico (Baja and Mainland) for month or so and have left my bike to return to work for a couple of months. From posts I’ve read, this should be no issue..hope so :) Upon my return I plan to continue riding in Mexico and then exit (prior to TIP expiry) most likely to Guatemala ride a bit and then again leave my bike here to fly out for a couple months of work prior to returning.

Any current recommendations on best border crossing locations to Guatemala, or Belize (but who knows when land border there will open) Any strong do or don’t :)

Thanks for insights.

James

:Beach:

From Mexico into Belize there is but only ONE border crossing legal for tourists and that is the crossing at Subteniente Lopez just west of Chetumal ,Quintana Roo.It is served by a spur off highway Mex 186 .After a recent total rebuild of the Mexican side the new customs facility is big , modern and efficient .Follow the direction signs to that new building ,called Chactemal . The old crossing is still there in the village center but leave that to the pedestrians and traffic going to the duty-free zone and casino in Santa Elena BZ. The new and old crossing both deliver you to the same Belize customs buildings which now have modified the traffic routing a bit . The requisite BZ auto insurance seller is still in the small building at the south edge of the complex.


From Mexico into Guatemala you have four places where you can easily cross as tourist with a motorcycle or car .
1. El Ceibo at the SE corner of Tabasco east of Tenosique is open during daylight and evening .Traffic is light. The new highway in both countries is exellent and delivers you into the Peten with no hassle . Road connection for travel to all other places in CA . This is the crossing for those who seek the fastest ,most direct route to countries farther south.

2. La Mesilla is a major crossing into the Western Highlands of Guatemala on the Pan-Am Highway/ Mex 190 south of Comitan.It is open every day but limited to sane hours . It is very busy and crowded on the GT side as it puts you right into the hectic street marketing in the Guatemalan town on the mountain side . The Mexican customs are much better organized and calmer as they are at the base of the mountain four km to the north in Cd Cuauhtemoc,CHIS. Stop at Mexican customs,on eastside of highway .There are no barricades across the road to stop you from proceeding and you would simply need to ride back down the mountain.
.3& 4
.There are TWO Guatemalan access points within 50km of Tapachula ,Chiapas; nearest is Talisman, CHIS (El Carmen ,GT) at the end of Mex 200 east of the big city .
Second , Cd Hidalgo ,CHIS ( Tecun Uman ,GT) is 25km south near the coast .Both have fine paved access routes . Both can be busy with truck traffic which may clutter your perception . Cd Hidalgo in particular can confuse you as there are two bridges with one at north being exclusively for commercial trucking and the old town center bridge is for" civilian" vehicles and pedestrians .
For BOTH these CROSSING TOWNS you need to do the MEXICAN exit-paperwork for you and the bike at HUIXTLA Customs Terminal which is about 70km NORTH of the border along the north side Mex 200 and almost 10km west of the junction of highway Mex 211. Get your papers in order there and then the Mexican exit at the border will be a breeze. The GT entry procedure is handled at each of the GT towns. Either crossing can be used for access to CA 2 which runs along the coastal plain and foothills all the way to El Salvador. There is also from Talisman the option of RN 1 which takes you directly into the mountains and to CA 1.

There are several other small border crossings but they are meant more for use of the locals who have permanent border passes .They usually do not have the ability to do full tourist documentation and will demand that you go to the nearest full service crossing which will be one of the four I listed and may be a day trip away . Some are totally open and unguarded with no customs office. Do NOT cross there and proceed. If you cross then do it only for a short in and out visit . Failure to have documentation of your exit/entry may force you to go back hundreds of km to get those corrected at the previous border .For example the river crossing by canoe at Frontera Corozal,CHIS has no regular customs processing( or none at all) on either bank .Unless you first checked OUT of Mexico elsewhere it leaves you "up the creek"with incomplete papers for the bike in GT. Leave such crossings to backpackers and the locals.


Between Belize and Guatemala also you still have only ONE point where tourists may legally cross; that is at Melchor de Mencos ,GT , about 20km west of San Ignacio in middle Belize west of Belmopan . (The new Jalacte crossing is still not official nor operating .)


For every border crossing, make sure you get the passport stamps for EXIT of the one country before beginning the ENTRY process for the next. Hours of operation at even those border crossings with limited service ought not to be a major concern as such will at the least be in daylight hours and perhaps the early evening. Schedule all border crossing times
accordingly .
Forget about any border crossings when it is dark . An exception to this may be made if you know with certainty that you will have a hotel room waiting for you on the other side within a few minutes of the crossing.

Belize and Insurance
 

My info is a bit dated, but probably still on point. When I rode from Mexico into Belize in 2008, shortly after clearing the border, I stopped at a small roadside building and bought insurance. When traveling around Belize I encountered checkpoints two or three times. The sole purpose of these official checkpoints was to confirm that I had insurance. As I recall the penalty was stiff for not having insurance.
I have ridden every country in Central America, and Belize didn't make much of an impression on me. There is a cool swinging bridge in Belize City, some nice beaches toward the south (Placencia Peninsula), a big party called Garifuna Settlement Day (Nov. 19th), and the Pine Ridge district has ruins near the GT border (there are others...) Most of the food was nothing to write home about. In Belize City, I encountered random hostility from Rastas and a warning from the locals that sections were to be avoided for safety reasons. I didn't have the budget for Caye Caulker, Ambergris Caye or diving at the Great Blue Hole. Hopefully, your experience will be more positive.

Belize entry from Mexico
 

Since 2008 the border entry from Subteniente Lopez, QR, Mexico into Belize has been changed a considerable bit .
The approach road is now a wide expressway which exits west off the highway to the old bridge before you hit Subte Lopez village , and it goes through a modern and spacious Mexican customs facility . No longer is it a hectic bit of shopping street and a crowd of vendors walking about . There is a large drive-through arch for "fumigacion " of vehicles . (Formerly Mexican fumigacion was done at roadside a few km north ,almost at the junction with Mex 186).The old downtown border bridge crossing is best left to the pedestrians and the folk with an interest in going through the big "Duty Free Zone " in Belize .
From the new Mexican customs facilities the road loops south with concrete walls at the sides as it crosses the Rio Hondo floodplain and then there is a traffic circle where you exit south into the Belize border facilities yard which remains mostly unchanged . Its next exit gets you to the Duty Free Zone .
Belize immigration and customs are dealt with in a common big building , while outside the entering and departing car- and pedestrian-traffic is segregated each to a side .
Belize may require its "Fumigation" spray of the vehicle and it is done at the new Mexican facilities of Jalacte for ALL traffic .So even if you cross at the old bridge you will be directed to go back the 500m to the exit of the Mexican NEW terminal .You need have no contact with Mexican customs there , just get the bike sprayed ,pay and return to BZ customs with your Receipt for the spray.
The Belize Insurance Corporation sells the requisite BZ insurance in a tidy white building ,clearly signed outside the south exit of the customs plaza , not inside the main shed .
The other BZ border crossing is into Guatemala at Benque Viejo /Melchor de Mencos . It is not a big facility and has a straightforward arrangement with a main customs building and a smaller separated white building handling insurance standing off by itself on east side of the parking area .

( I would love to include some photos but there is no way that I can figure out of how to move them from my laptop photo files directly onto an HU post, ; that seems to require a lot of side steps and urls (?) that I know nothing of )


As for my impressions of Belize , I rather enjoy travelling around the small country with no great interest in doing the presumably usual tourist things . I make a point of snooping around in the backroads ,as through the Shipyard and Spanish Lookout regions . These are big Mennonite colonies with strikingly different ways of living . The shipyard area is at the southwest side of Orange Walk and is occupied by the more regressive persuasion who insist on using horses' power as much as possible .They also employ some big diesel machinery but appear to eschew automobile ownership . The white-limestone dirt roads are fine in the dry season but clearly show the results of wet wet season bogs and petrified deep ruts .
The Spanish Lookout Colony is a totally different approach with modern agricultural machinery and commerce being prevalent . Many of the gridded roads are being paved with blacktop . This colony has relatively big field crop farms ,dairy, beef and poultry operations which supply most of the food for the whole country . All the modern farm equipment and commercial activity would not look out of place in Canada or the US . Indeed many of them have dual citizenship and they migrate and interchange to other countries with with similar colonies ,Mexico, Bolivia, Paraguay ...
These colonies are still expanding and ,sadly , there is still the attitude that the jungles surrounding them are to be chopped clear for more farms .
The Hummingbird Highway from Belmopan to Dangriga is a gem ;it winds though some jungle covered mountains . Blue Hole National Park , orange groves . Placencia is a bit of a wealthy gringo magnet on a sandspit dangling off the coast ,but fine for a visit . Punta Gorda at the far south is another mix of Garifuna-Euro-and- whatever came through .