Thursday, June 28, 2007 (Caye Caulker, Belize)
The drive to and through Belize was hell. I'm not sure which was worse, that or the boat ride to Little Corn. The boat hurt more, but the drive just never ended! It was probably made worse by being sick.
Belize as a country (at least what I saw) looks like a flat, barren wasteland. Everything on the way in made me think "dive." Even Belize City was like that. At the heart of the city, nothing was over 3 stories, most places 1 or 2, and everything looked like ramshackle houses. I almost couldn't believe this was the biggest city in the country.
The boat ride over was great and I spent my time singing Josh Graban songs from Awake to get the...reggae out of my head that our driver had been playing half the trip. I really hate reggae. Even here we get accosted by people wanting to get us to hotels. We took two beds at Tina's Backpacker's Hostel, right off the dock. Shortly after, the last bed was taken by...a guy from Wisconsin....Our other roommate is a loud, obnoxious, foul-mouthed, misogynist pig....For [him], I'm glad to be moving.
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The basic attitude of most of the people on Caye Caulker |
C wants to be in a nicer place (namely, AC with hot showers) for the nights after she dives. So yesterday she went exploring for places. Many were booked up because of the lobster festival this weekend, but she found one....But the rain has been horrendous this morning, so we're still trying to work out the actual move. Also because of the rain she still hasn't gone of the dive she booked for this morning; the place wasn't even open.
Basically, we woke up that morning to a torrential downpour. I mean, it was like being in a waterfall that was the size of the island. And the whole place shut down. I mean, it makes sense; what are you going to do with that kind of rain? It's hard enough for anyone to walk the streets (which we attempted to do, at least for breakfast). People just don't go in to work until the rain stops; nothing is happening. So I hope the weather clears or it may be a boring day.
(evening, new hotel)
This weird sickness thing simply won't quit. At the end of this entry I'm going to catalogue my symptoms.
The rain finally cleared by late morning and we moved. The dive was rescheduled for 1:00. I ended up spending most of the time she was gone watching movies. I just had no energy. Then ~3 I went up to the Split (not far at all) and then checked email...
C got back from a good dive...and she's doing the Blue Hole tomorrow. In fact, I'm going, too, to snorkel the same areas she's diving. Dad is paying for both (I don't know when he volunteered that, but he did). I think this will be good for me and I hope it may help clear this congestion up.
So then tonight we had a barracuda steak at a shoreside grill hut – awesome!
For anyone interested, I've put in the list of my symptoms as recorded. But since I assume many may not want to read about this, I've done it as a separate link, so as not to disrupt the flow of the master narrative. :-) See, I'm thoughtful like that.
| Friday, June 24, 2007 (Caye Caulker, BZ)
Today has been an amazing day. I joined C's diving trip to go snorkeling at three places. All of them were lots of fun. I had good fins (the fitted kind, not adjustable) and loved being able to just float and look at things. I saw so many fish of an amazing array and combination of colors: deep blue, bright (nearly neon) greens, rich yellows, purples, and oranges. There were gorgeous yellow and black striped ones, and many with so many colors (some in stripes, some dotted along as scales). My favorite was this small one I kept seeing that was 2/3 deep purple and the other 1/3 a rich orange, split by a diagonal line. I also saw sharks – several! – though small ones, only about 1.5 m. long at most, and several schools of large fish that would swim near and even around me. What's more, most of my symptoms seem to have cleared up; I guess a day of activity in sun and salt water did wonders for me. My cough is still there, though very intermittent, and there is the mildest of chest congestion, but hopefully even that will go away with another night's rest. ...Though I kind of like the AC and the space we have here, I'm kind of more ready to be back in a hostel tomorrow – more considerate neighbors, easier to meet people, and – hammocks! |
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Tonight's the Miss Lobster Fest Pageant. I'm a little wary, but plan to go.
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The parade was four people (teen boys) on drums, followed by a set of float decorated golf carts (mostly the contestants and last year's winner) and ended (replete) with the island's fire truck. If you blinked, you really did just about miss it. They even turned around and went back.
Budget cuts must have gotten them. Take special note of the 7 in 2007. |
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The bass drummer is rather excited. I understand it. This seems to be the biggest event of the entire year on this island. |
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Have you ever seen a parade of golf carts? No, not with golf carts, of golf cards? Yeah, I hadn't either. |
| You know, for all that I am lightly making fun of the whole affair, I have to admit that their band really was very good, especially considering it's so small and it's all kids. I was very impressed by the music. | |
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No parade is complete without a fire truck. |
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There she is...Miss Lobsterfest...(okay, the rhythm doesn't work) |
The pageant was worse than I expected. I should have gone with my gut: don't go. It started an hour late and the 40 minutes prior consisted of loud, bad music. The Belizean national anthem was a piped through Souza march. And the contestants were just really bad performers. Plus, the audience was loud (with two very rude, obnoxious bitches in front of me – I wanted to grab the ponytail of one and yank her backwards) and the background music stayed loud. The DJ and MC also sucked. The invited dance troupe was actually very good, though it wasn't my thing and, again: loud. So I left and came back to read and C left when the skits got bad and the bugs worse.
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A busy street of the island. I think there were a total of two trucks, the only non-golf card vehicles. |
Saturday, June 30, 2007 (Caye Caulker, BZ)
| Today as been an easy, lazy day, and I like it. I ate too much at breakfast (a whole meal), confirming that my stomach has shrunk. We went to the split around noon, then shortly after moved back to the hostel. Really, I've spent most of the day reading, lounging, or playing sudoku.
While here we ran into Clayton, one of the guys from our dive boat yesterday. He's from Alabama (school in VA) and his friends flew back today; due to confusion he flies tomorrow. We had dinner with him. Then at the hostel this evening he tuned C's guitar which prompted someone else to bring out her guitar, and music ensued for a bit. I wish this kind of thing happened more often. |
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I'm really ready to be home now. I had a good self-check-in this afternoon while alone in the hammock. I'm weary from traveling, worn out from my vacation. My body says most of my symptoms are from this and I simply am ready to return home. I am. I'm ready to get going on the things to be done there, to get into a rhythm, to start a new phase in my life. It's time.
Soon and very soon. |
| Sunday, July 1, 2007 (Belize City, BZ)
Today has been the most absurd day. The strangeness began with a cute experience at the Split. We were there swimming and a little boy, maybe 7 or 8, starts climbing on C. He wanted to jump off her shoulders and do a back flip. We did think this was strange at first, and looked around for his parents. But nothing at all seemed out of place about this (must be a common occurrence) and he was very insistent. So she indulged his attempts, then he tried off of me. He told us his name was Charles and he was around us intermittently for the rest of the time we were there. He was a cute kid, if a little strange in being so forward and direct. |
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Then we had lunch at the Bamboo restaurant, a place we'd been to a few times, having good food and good drink (we especially loved the Bailey's banana colada). While we're there this tall, thin, blond guy walks by. For a moment I think, "he looks familiar," but since I don't recognize the people he's with I put it out of my mind. Then a minute later he comes up to our table and I suddenly realize how I know him: it was Ronald, from Holland, who we'd met at the Monkey Hut in [Granada]! So we talk for a bit; he's just arrived to the island and we review some high points and recap on our trip so far with each other. Too bad we're not staying longer, as it'd be great to hang out. |
Shit! No, they're not. I'm wearing my flip-flops (as I had been the whole time on the island), having forgotten to change shoes before leaving – so I wouldn't forget my shoes. But I didn't, so I did. And my best bet is they're at Tina's, perhaps under a bed, forgotten when I pulled the bags out this morning.
I got a phone card and tried calling, but kept getting a busy signal. C talked to a guy at the boat and he said he'd run over and check, since Tina's is close to the dock, and bring them back on the 5:00 boat.
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So we got a taxi driver and then found another who'd go for $1 less and switched. This guy actually took us to three different places because the 1st one was too expensive and the 2nd was full. The one we're in is not a bad place (my tune would soon change), but I think we're in a seedy part of town. Anyway, we're close to the dock, to go back for the shoes and the guy said he'd take us to the airport tomorrow for BZ$50. |
We went back to the boat terminal to learn that what they did was call, get no one, and quit. Helpful. But there was one more boat going and returning and this time the guy agreed to actually go to Tina's and look. We wrote down the info for him. So we're going back one more time, hopefully to return before sunset, though we may cut that close. I was beginning to get a sinking feeling about all of this.
While there, though, we got to talking with another taxi driver and learned that the guy taking us tomorrow must be violating some kind of union rules or something similar (all I got was, "that's not fair, he doesn't work here"). We told him we were sorry, we didn't know. He offered to take us tomorrow for BZ$35. We said we didn't want trouble with the other guy. He said he'd get us at 7:20, half an hour before the other one said he'd show up (we told him we needed to go at 8:00, he said he'd be there ~10 minutes early). So we finally decided to go with the new guy, because $15 is a lot when we're both this over-budget (I owe C 2 dinners out at Christmas for the extra money she's had to throw in today [for the record, that's now down to 1 because of something else I covered for her after getting stateside]). I really hope that's early enough to totally avoid the other guy. It is kind of bitchy to do, but then not only is it much cheaper, he did it to someone else, C began to get a bad vibe from him, and maybe (maybe) it's now playing by more correct rules. And we promised each other from the beginning that we'd trust each other's feelings and intuition on things.
A little bit longer and we're out of here. I don't think I'll truly finish settling until we're at the airport tomorrow.
(later)
We went back to learn that the 6:30 shuttle arriving about 7:15 is AM, not PM. So my shoes won't be here until morning at best. I'm not sure if I should try going early before the taxi arrives (getting back right as it gets here) or ask the driver to swing by on the way out. I'd rather do the former, but I think it'll end up being the latter. Hopefully it'll still be fast enough that we're gone well before the other guy is close. I just really don't want a confrontation....
| Monday, July 2, 2007 (Houston, TX)
...We made it out of the hotel and Belize City with no problem. I don't know what became of the other driver and I don't want to. I never did get my shoes, though. They're gone, lost to the island. I sincerely hope that someone finds them soon who can wear them and takes them as his to get good use out of. I will feel slightly better believing that that's what happens. |
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Flights home give you a lot of time to reflect on your travels and write some final wrap-up thoughts.
Return to the starting page.