Canada: the very end of the road

Heading north towards the Canadian Arctic.

I walked across the border on to a very quiet road indeed. But I wasn’t going to let a lack of cars defeat me: I was on a mission to the top. To the Arctic Ocean and the top of the North American continent.

USA

Hitching a ride with a truck through Nevada.

We were woken up by the bus driver at an ungodly hour as we approached the Mexico-US border at Ciudad Juárez. In a daze, we disembarked and joined the queue. I looked around and it slowly dawned on me that everything was in English: this was the US border control. But we hadn’t yet had our passports stamped for exit out of Mexico! The bus driver must have assumed that everyone on the bus was Mexican and not bothered to stop at the Mexican post. I sheepishly asked a guard what we should do. She made it quite clear that they didn’t really care what happened or didn’t happen on the Mexican side – all they were concerned with was whether or not we should be allowed into the US.

Mexico

Dressing up in Chihuahua.

Across the border from Belize and back into Spanish-speaking territory. It would have been a fairly easy crossing were it not for the fact that our bus, which was supposed to pick us up again after the border, had gone on without us to Chetumal, presumably because us foreigners took a few more minutes than the driver could cope with. We were stranded at the border with no money and no cash machine for 10km, and taxis waiting eagerly to rip us off.

Belize

A local with an improvised hat on Caye Caulker.

We crossed the border from Guatemala and were immediately confronted with a stark difference: the border guards spoke English! My first non-Spanish speaking country in some seven months.

Guatemala

Sunset over Lago Atitlán.

It may be another of the C-4 countries, but just like the others, it has a personality of its own, where ancient Mayan temples meet modern cities and stunning scenery.