Belize City to San Ignacio

Start Time: 3:30 AM

Miles: 70 miles
Average Speed: 13.9 mph
Max Speed: 27.0 mph

Total Trip Miles: 156

It was a long ride, but we are feeling stronger and got our first taste of mountains. The good part about going up the hills is that you get to go down!

After a brutal day riding to Orange Walk in the sun, we headed 8 miles northwest along another road to the town of San Estevan. We went up to see the church that ROW and New Life Ministries have partnered to build in that village. The San Estevan church is one of three churches ROW and New Life Ministries have planted in villages around Orange Walk. The churches in San Roman and Guinnea Grass are complete and growing congregations in those communities, while San Estevan still a ways from being complete.

Over the past few years several ROW teams have traveled to San Estevan to help build this church. In fact, I was part of a group from Hampden-Sydney College that helped to pour the foundation, so it was a special sight to see the church with walls and a roof. There is still a need for teams to come down to help finish the church, so get a group together and let ROW help you all come be part of this work. We need teams to help with construction, but we also need teams to host revivals and Vacation Bible School.

It has been inspiring to see ROW’s work prospering in Orange Walk and San Estevan, and to see the people and communites that benefit from the work on a daily basis.
If you want to come see it for your self, then let me know and we can get you down here! If you have already been, tell us what you did.

In Courageous Faith,

Nick

Statistics

Miles: 37.5
Average Speed: 12.9 mph
Max Speed: 18.9 mph

Before the ride started, we watched the sun rise. We would later regret not having watched the sun rise while we rode (It gets HOT!)

Finding shade in the public park in Corozal hit the spot.

On the road, in the sun, with no shade in sight.

Taking a break to see where on the map we were. At this point the the sun is so hot we can only go about 20 minutes between breaks.

Reaching our destination of Orange Walk was a great feeling.

When I send teams to Belize, one of the big things I tell the groups is to not get too worked up when things don’t go according to schedule. Things work on a different schedule and at a different pace in Belize. If you are hoping to have materials delivered at 11:30, then don’t be surprised if they show up around noon or later. This can drive taskmasters up a wall, but that is why I always tell the groups to be flexible and take advantage of your environment while you are there. Yesterday, my problem was that I had to take my own advice, and I wasn’t even in Belize.

My flight from Chicago was delayed enough by morning thunderstorms that I arrived in Dallas with only 5 minutes to make my connecting flight to Belize. To say the least, I missed my flight. To make matters worse, that was the last flight of the day to Belize. I was then sent to the front desk to rebook my ticket for the following day. The only problem with my flying the next day, and the reason at this point I could not adopt the Belize mindset of taking it as it comes, was that the following morning I needed to be starting the bike ride IN Belize. So I started talking with the customer service worker, and we managed to come up with a unique solution.

The solution was that I had 25 minutes to get through DFW’s security, travel to another terminal, and see if I could get to the desk of a flight traveling to Mexico City, and then beg for a ticket. With about 2 minutes to spare I made it to the desk and was able to get a flight to Mexico City as well as a connecting flight to the town of Chetumal, a town 15 minutes from the border of Belize.

This whirlwind trip finally ended with me being able to meet up with Brainard and Scott, and all it took was a flight from Dallas to Mexico City, a run in with security officers in Mexico City that wanted to keep my electronics, a flight on to Chetumal, a taxi ride to the border, a walk across the border into Belize, a short ride, and then the final rendezvous with my ride. I was tired from the long trip, but I was so pumped to be in Belize that it didn’t matter that in a few hours we were going to get up and return to the border to begin the long bike ride across Belize.

It has been great to get comments! Keep them coming, and we will be sure to keep you updated!

In Christ,

~Nick