Sometimes things happen more quickly than you can write about them. And sometimes rivers swallow your Bus and you need to take care of shit.
It’s been over a month since our last blog post has been published here. A long time, considering before this period of silence we have published nearly every week for over a year.
When we crossed from Mexico into Belize, we thought we’d only stay for two weeks and we didn’t know what our Internet situation would be, so we decided to take a short break from blogging. Then, only days before leaving Belize behind for Guatemala, the Sibun River Disaster happened. If this doesn’t sound familiar to you, check our Facebook or Instagram for the whole story and some rather devastating pictures. A more technical rundown is available at our Samba thread.
In just a few words: one night we camped by a river (the Sibun). In the early hours of the day, a flash flood let the river rise over 3 meters. To put that in perspective, we personally experienced the river rising about a foot within the ten minutes or so it took for us to get out of there. Our beautiful dry spot next to the stream was claimed by the Sibun and we had to flee the scene at night, wading through water up over our hips, and leave Big Emma behind, not knowing what her fate would be. During the rest of the night she was completely submerged and the force of the water tipped her over onto her side.
When the water levels went down the next day, we were able to recover Big Emma with the help of many wonderful people. The following week was spent in a repair shop in Belmopan, the capital of Belize. The amazing owner, Carlos, let us use his shop for free and helped us get Big Emma’s engine running again.
But still, her interior is beyond saving and many of our belongings are lost, destroyed, or damaged. We decided to take a break from the road and ship Big Emma back home to Illinois for a make-over.
We will tell you this story in more detail here on the blog in a future post(s), and we will also catch up on what else happened to us before we left Mexico and how we got to Belize in the first place. But for now, there are other things to do than writing. Needless to say, we’ve had a few too many adrenaline rushes in the past few weeks.
Neither this blog nor the trip are dead, they are just taking a break, and so will we. Follow our Facebook and Instagram for the most recent updates, and before long we’ll be back to the keyboard.
Emma, Sven, and Big Emma
1 Comment
I’m so glad you both are safe.