Una launcha llena "chips"

From Livingston the next morning, we boarded a public launcha to Puerta Barrios where we would receive our exit stamps and catch our boat to Punta Gorda, Belize.

The ride to Puerta Barrios was uneventful and we arrived with an hour in which to have our passports stamped and grab a quick meal before the next boat left for Punta Gorda. We purchased our tickets for the boat and left our bags in the ticket office while we made our way to immigration. After paying an “official fee” of US $10 for our exit stamps, we returned to the office to find that our bags had already been loaded into the boat.

When I asked the man in the office while boat he had put our bags into, he responded in accented English, “The one with the cheeps.”

Thinking that I must have misunderstood him, I asked him again and again, he told me, “The one with the cheeps. The cheeps. The one with all the cheeps,” and directed my gaze to a 17 ft speedboat at the end of the dock packed full of huge plastic sacks full of thousands of snack sized corn chips.

When we got to the boat we marvelled at the contents of our vessel and joked that at least if we crashed onto a deserted island, it would take a long time for us to starve.

The boat’s only other passenger was the a Belizean man, the owner of the chips, who had bought them for one quetzal a bag and would sell them for 25 cents, Belize, garnering a 50% profit on each bag.

Because our cargo was so light, we were able to slice through the Caribbean sea with little mishap, save a few drenching waves of seawater that managed to wash aboard, much to the amusement of Andy and I who remained relatively dry and the chagrin of those on our right.

After getting stamped through customs, a small nondescript block building, we walked through the nearly deserted streets of Punta Gorda, a lazy coastal town, to where Andy´s friend Ryan had parked his truck. Because Ryan had joined us, we had the luxury of a personal vehicle and headed straight to the beach.