The Road that Pavement Forgot: A Driving Nightmare in Belize

In 2008 I took a trip to Belize with my girlfriend. After a few days of settling into a really nice beach house in Placencia (with two ocean view balconies), we planned a trip to the interior of the country to visit the rain forest.

The plan was to rent a car and drive an hour to the one of the country's national parks, home to the section of rain forest we had picked to explore. We followed the plan, but things didn't go our way.

Timing was our first problem.

Belize is an hour behind the east coast of the USA, in the same time zone as Chicago. I can't explain how exactly it happened but it was July and for some reason daylight savings time (or the lack thereof) threw us off.

I was judging the time by the television clock on the news coming out of New York. With no time-specific engagements or shows involved in our trip, there was never a time to test our sense of time until we set our plan in motion to rent a car.

We showed up at the rental place early in the day. We wanted to get an early start.

There was no one at the rental facility and there was no one on the street. After sitting and waiting for the better part of an hour, people started coming by jogging and walking.

We kept waiting with no idea how early we actually were until after waiting another half an hour for the rental place to open, we finally stopped a couple of people out for a morning walk.

"Excuse me," I said, "Do you happen to know what time it is?"

"It's six thirty."

Six thirty. The rental place didn't open until seven and we had already been waiting for over an hour.

I'll never trust the news again.

When the rental place did open, we got our vehicle without trouble and set out for the rain forest.

The first few miles were a relief. We were on the move, our waiting was over and the unnecessarily early start was behind us.

Then we hit the bumps.

Placencia is a small town at the end of a peninsula jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean. To get the rain forest we had to drive to the main land. After leaving Placencia and passing through a village or two we ran out of pavement, literally.

The road turned to dirt, which in itself wouldn't be so bad, but it was riven. That is the best way to describe the surface of the road - riven - like irregularly corrugated steel.

The rental car bounced uncomfortably every five or ten feet. We were jolted again and again until our heads were ringing.

Our little rented jeep was rattling as if it would fall apart any second. My girlfriend was driving because the jeep was a stick-shift.

"Can you check the map?" she asked me. "How many miles is it to the highway?"

"It's only twenty," I said after unfolding the map.

Twenty excruciating miles that would take us over forty minutes to clear.

Trying to lessen the violence of the jolts we suffered on this hellish roadway, we slowed down so much that tour buses were passing us regularly and spewed black fumes into our open windows. When we finally hit the Southern Highway the feeling of pavement beneath the wheels was euphoric.

I looked at June and realized we were both smiling. She was smiling as if she had just finished a fantastic piece of crème-brule and I must have been grinning like I do after a few beers. It was heavenly to be on that black-top.

Pavement has never been so sweet.

*

The rain forest was a trudge through fetid jungle fauna along mosquito-laden trails. We took some pictures and admired the size of the leaves and the ferns, the immensity of the palm trees and the density of the forest growth.

And we sweated through our clothes.

We crossed a creek and looked for those Jesus Lizards that can run across the surface of water, from bank to bank. We didn't see any.

When we were worn out we went back to the dirt parking lot, ate some lunch and prepared to drive out.

I volunteered to drive. I thought June could use some rest after what she went through on the Riven Road getting us here.

Having zero experience with stick-shifts, I couldn't get the jeep started. A table of about a dozen tourists was eating lunch near where we were parked and when I finally managed to get the jeep started they applauded.

I was as happy as I was embarrassed.

At this point we contemplated our options. We could drive back to Placencia and get the bumps over with or we could try to make the most of the day and head south.

Belize is home to a number of temples, holy sites and ziggurats from the Mayan era. Many of the largest of these ancient sites are in the western and northern sections Belize.

Placencia is located in the south eastern part of the country. Only one road connects the southern half of Belize to the northern half and due to recent flooding the road was cut by a fallen bridge. We couldn't drive in any direction but further south.

That's what we decided to do.

We did some more driving over dirt roads that day as we made our way down to an ancient holy site called Nim Lu Punit. The road getting there wasn't as bad as the jostling, jeep-rattling road on the peninsula but it was still bumpy and difficult.

The site was magical and quiet. We were the only two people there.

At the end of the day we were tired, having woken extremely early, suffered our way across the bumpiest road either of us had ever experienced and swatted dozens and dozens of mosquitoes.

The return trip to Placencia on the riddled dirt road was worse than the initial one. This time we knew exactly how long the road was going to be: endless.

Thinking back on that day, I remember the applause at getting the engine to turn over and I remember the natural grandeur of the ancient holy site. More pleasant memories also come to mind and I am glad that we took that little road trip.

Yet the most indelible parts of the day remain the dejection that followed our question to the people walking by the car rental facility ("Do you happen to know what time it is?") and the bouncing, rattling terror ride on the road from Placencia, the road that pavement forgot.