Santa Elena

Santa Elena is the town on the east bank of the Macal River, with San Ignacio directly across the bridge. Villa Cayo is here, so this is where we started and ended every day.

The grocery store surprised us. It's not a Walmart, but it's a good-sized store with a lot of variety, and nothing was expensive by American standards. We came out with Cocoa Krispies, almond milk, a mango juice, and an unreasonable number of aloe vera juices. It felt like a place you could actually take care of yourself for a long stay.

Santa Elena also has the first of the two police stations we visited about the wreck. They sent us across the river to San Ignacio, which is how we learned that the report takes five weeks and that receipt books run out.

One thing you notice driving around here: Belize's speed bumps are serious. They're tall, they're often unmarked, and hitting one at full speed would do real damage to a car. It took us a few days to learn to spot them, and we came close more than once.