Loz and I hotfooted our way down the Gale’s Point after much um-ing and ah-ing about Placencia, Monkey River Town or some other interesting place down south and far away from Cayo. Came across a group of 4 guys on the Coastal road with a puncture in their shite Nissan 4×4. Offered help but none of the Land Rover tools work on its fiddly bolts.

I was a little bit surprised at how poor Gale’s Point is. I really had no idea what to expect, but you can see it’s a completely forgotten part of Belize. Not really a tourist place either, so we just slung our hammocks at the “camp ground”, swam in the lagoon and wandered around the village. Had an “interesting” necklace making session from a local guy. An absolutely brilliant sunset and then the sand flies got horrendous, but luckily the owner of Gentle’s Cool Spot gave us some military repellent which was 100% effective (sounds like an ad).

The owner also gave in insight into the political situation at the moment in Belize. The current PUP government have increased the amount retired Belizeans get per month from $75 to $100. They then like the PUP, who know that the UDP will win. (Belize has never had a single party in consecutive terms of office). Basically, the PUP are using up all the money the country has, so that when the other lot get into power sometime next March or April, they’ve got no money to do anything. Belize is highly politically active and a very high percentage Belizean’s use their right to vote, more than British people do! Belizeans will protest and hold rallies about virtually anything politically relevant. It doesn’t help that a lot of the politicians have their own interests at heart. I’m not saying they’re corrupt, just that if they’re leaving office then they might sign a few hundred acres of protected area over to themselves as a ‘retirement gift’…

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