Road South of Punta Gorda Belize?
 

I will be travelling South through Belize to Guatemala in a few days, and I heard rumor of a recently completed road South of Punta Gorda, or somewhere near there, that runs to Guatemala through Sarstun. Does anyone know if such a road actually exists?

Mike.

Maps I have show 'trails' that cross between S Belice and Guat, but I haven't heard of official border crossings.

Would a call to a Consulate's office reveal more? Dunno...

I have not heared of such border crossing. Your best bet is to call be Belicean Embassy or consulate. Some people have put bikes in boats, and then getting off in Puerto Barrios. You want to have your bike procesed through customs. Most people use the Melchor de Mencos / San Ignanio border crossing. If you go up there you can go and see the Mayan ruins of Tikal.

I just called the Belicean embassy in Guatemala and they told me there is no such border crossing. You can either take the boat from Punta Gorda to Puerto Barrios, o use the Melchor / San Ignacio crossing.

Carrera,
Muchas gracias for the information!

Mike.

How is the condition of the road to Punta Gorda??? Would we cope on cruiser bikes????
And we were told the boats from Punta Gorda to Puerto Barrios take bikes??? We were told they would take passengers only. If they take bikes what is an approximate cost???? Is it like in Laos where it is a passenger boat and you pay some men to lift the bikes on and off the boat???????
Some info would be very well received.
Many thanks, Cheryl.

This may be too late to be of us e to you but here goes anyway.
The road south to Punta Gorda is all paved except for a short 10km section in 'o5 which may be done by now. Cruisers should have little trouble.
Other posts in recent weeks have dealt with the boat issue, find them. In short , there are some of the passenger boat captains who will accept a motorcycle, and it is a question of hiring a bunch of helpers to manhandle the bike onto the boat and find a winch in Pto.Barrios to take it off. The fun will be to find a boat with a load acapacity able to take TWO bikes.

Hi Cheryl,

The road to Punta Gorda is still not paved all the way, but you should have no problem on a cruiser unless it is raining like it was for me, then the dirt turns to grease. Not fun.

As far as the boats go - there's no way you would ever get 2 bikes into one of these passenger boats. They're way too small. I was told that it is solely up to the Captain if he wants to take a bike or not. I was lucky and got mine on board at the second sailing of the day. Be aware though that if there is enough passengers to occupy all seats, they have priority over you and your bike.

It is very expensive as well, I paid over $100 plus a few bucks to the guys I hired to help manhandle the bike onto the boat. You need to hire guys again on the Guatemala side as well to get the bike out again.

However, if you're not concerned about the cost of hiring 2 boats for the journey, it's a very cool experience!

Have fun in Belize.
Mike.

Brad and I have been crossing from Guatemala to Belize with the boat. It cost $70 for each bike and both bikes (F650GS and R1200GS) fit perfectly in the boat. The company is El Chato in Puerto Barrios in Guatemala.
As Mike said, it is harder to cross from Belize to Guatemala but from Guatemala to Belize is less problem.
Anne
www.annamotodiva.com

Boats also run to Livingston from both Punta Gorda and Puerto Barrios.