Stage 1: Belize City to Harmonyville (Belmopan)

 I had a couple things to take care of this morning - I needed a fork and I needed a SIM card. The fork, since there have been a couple instances already where I bought food that did not come with one. The SIM card because I like to stay in touch with my hosts on the road as well as have a safety net in case something goes wrong or I get lost. The SIM card cost $16 Belize Dollars ($8) and comes with $10 of call credit and 165MB of internet, perfect.

Then I was ready to set out on the road. I didn’t plan an extreme first couple of days, Today was relatively flat and meant as a warm up - make sure I’m ok with the weight I’m carrying, my bike setup and the roads/traffic. I will admit the latter was at times a little jarring, after I got around Rockville, I kept getting passed by large haul trucks carrying payloads from a stone quarry, visible from the road. They didn’t seem too keen on providing me with as much space as the other cars on the road, but it was fine. I was passed by maybe a couple dozen of them.

The roads themselves are fair, I was riding on the national highway. At times, there was even a paved shoulder that I could ride on.

I stopped a couple times, once to refill my water bottle and have a snack, a second time to down a bag of ice cold coconut water that a guy stationed on the side of the road was selling.

Ice cold coconut water served in a tied off plastic bag  

Allie, my host for tonight, lives on a self-described “psychedelic hippie farm” out in the jungle. I took a left off the road next to a junked car and road about half a mile down a jungle path and onto the farm.

Arrival at the farm!

She is originally from New Hampshire but moved out here 7 years ago to build the farm on a plot of land her husband owned. She was preparing for an interview she is giving on a podcast tomorrow, they sent her the questions in advance, so she prepared for the interview in front of me. One of the main points of the podcast is to highlight her experience and growth points behind her job as a content creator for information about crypto on Investopedia. One of the first things she pointed out in response to a question about her connection to the environment as someone who has an environmental engineering degree and went to Harvard business school eand focusing her current attention on crypto, was that she is a “contrarian.” She certainly realizes that there is some dissonance that comes from working full time on cryptocurrency while living off the grid in the Belizean jungle. Here is an example of her work that she shared with me explaining “How to Invest in Cryptocurrency”. 

Of course, this is also while raising a 14-month old baby (Ziggy) and taking care of the farm, hosting volunteers, etc. There is a lot that goes down here just on the farm. I promised to help her for a bit in the morning, moving some logs around the property.

A view from the veranda in front of the main house.

I went and took a bath in a stream that runs through her property. The water was cool and refreshing, until a school of small fish began biting me! It wasn’t as painful as others just startling as I tried to scrub off the layers of sweat and sunscreen from the day.

Perfect place for a bath!

I also hung up my hammock tent and will sleep in it for the first time. On my way out tonight, after dark, I saw a huge spider on the ground. I am glad to try to sleep off the ground!