TRAVEL- CENTRAL AMERICA
FRANCESCO CICCARELLO( W) / SERENA BARONCINI( P)
NO ROAD LEADS TO SOUTH AMERICA
If observed from the globe, Central America appears to be little more than a narrow strip of land nestled between two oceans. Reality is made up of seven nations, each very different from the other in terms of history, customs and traditions, but so united in the joy of living life. Let ' s try to tell you about the kaleidoscope of emotions that going through them gave us.
A bridge over the Rio Azul took the tyres of our motorbike out of Mexico into what became the fourth state visited on our trip.
Belize is the smallest nation in Central America, just three hundred thousand inhabitants, and only became independent in 1984 but is still part of the British Commonwealth and has King Charles III as head of state. We would learn this along the way and for this reason it was strange to hear the border officer speaking in English after months of Spanish.
We were even more surprised when they asked us for 40 Belizean dollars( about US $ 20) to insure our motorbike in a country where the annual GDP per capita is just over $ 3000. We would soon understand that the traveller here is considered in the same way as the tourists who choose to stay in luxury hotels while a large part of the population lives, if lucky, in modest homes.
We headed to Orange Walk Town discovering the true nature of the town ' s inhabitants made up of anonymous avenues and department stores full of stacked stuff. The ease with which we were able to communicate and got to know people contrasted with the intransigence of the policeman who fined us for overtaking the line of cars stopped at the traffic lights and who rode away from us without a helmet and riding while talking on the phone. The solidarity shown to us by the motorists convinced us