Island Life

Well, here we are on Caye Caulker. It is our last night here and mom's last night in Belize. We've had a great time! The weather has been iffy. We arrived here Monday on an EXPRESS bus! Yes, praise the Lord, they do exist. It was just like the kind I used to drive in AK, a nicer tour bus with A/C. Although, it was so crowded from San Ignacio that we had to stand for around the 1st hour. That was fine though. All in all, it took us around 2 hours from San Ignacio to Belize City and it didn't stop except for larger cities. We had bought some fresh pineapple and a banana from a street vendor before we left and it was great.

Got to Belize city and bought tickets for the water taxi out to the cayes. We had about an hour before it left so we explored only a bit of Belize city. It's crazy there (compared to the other places we've been). Busy, dirty, loud, etc. So, we didn't explore around too much. About everyone we've met now along the way has been robbed there.

We water taxied out to Caye caulker. We grabbed a seat under the bow in the shade and were so glad. As we left dock the crew started to unroll this tarp for the people in the last 2/3 of the boat. They basically sat on part of it and then had some along their backs and enough to hold up over their heads. Basically, they got soaked and windblown and burned. I liked my spot under the bow.

Got off in Caye Caulker and it was hot! We had our packs on and didn't want to venture far to find a place so we stayed at the De Real McCaw the first night. It did fine. A/c and 2 beds and a private bath and fridge. We even had our own deck with a hammock. And we had a nice family with loud children above us with what sounded like plywood flooring. We were up late and up again early. The next day we moved to a different hotel with a room on the 2nd floor with views of the ocean. It's been better here. Except for when it rains and we have a flood from the front door and the slider. We just put down extra towels. It has rained a lot since we've been here. Great storms. Tons of thunder and lightening and wind and pouring rain. We have it down to a science now. We'll be out and about and can see the black clouds approaching in the distance. We know that once the wind starts to pelt us we have around 2 minutes or less to find cover.

Tuesday we were gonna snorkel but it was stormy, so we each finished a book. We've been enjoying the food and local drinks called "panty rippers" - cocount rum and pinapple juice. Very tasty. Today we did get out and snorkeled the local reef. We were on tour with 2 English people and one person from Holland. Mario was our tour guide and thankfully he gave a little more instruction than the last guide. We got to swim with around 10 Sting Rays - even touched them. It was scary at first jumping into a bunch of them (along with a 4-5 foot baracuda), but it was incredible. We also saw all kinds of colorful fishies and neat coral. It was perfectly fit into our day from 10:30 to around 12:45 - right inbetween storms. We were so glad we went when we did!

Tonight for dinner we at shrimp at Jolly Rodger Lobster man's hut on the beach. It was excellent food and we shared a table with 2 swiss, one german, one norwegian, and a gal from belgium. Very interesting and fun. The 2 swiss were robbed at knifepoint in belize city with a guy who recently served 14 years in prison for murder. Mom says "yikes"....too bad Red Cross isn't headquartered in Caye Caulker!

Well, I've called my homestay and they are ready for me tomorrow. The other 2 classmates arrive by plane tomorrow as well. I'm sure i'll be busy ~ Glad to have had this time to rest and explore.

In regards to food - lots of seafood (lobster, shrimp, conch, fish). They do serve rice and beans as a side with most things, although there is also cole slaw and fries....mainly if you ordered a sandwich or a burger. They serve Folgers coffee. There is surprisingly a lot of chinese restaurants and stores around - it appears that the taiwanese goverment has done a lot of social projects in partnership with the Belize government. We haven't tried chinese food yet, although we had excellent chicken curry today for lunch...

Real estate is very expensive here, Brandon. Not a lot of true land for sale on these islands -- a house would probably run around 300k and up U.S. I did take a picture of a nice place for sale (make an offer) along some highway that we traveled by bus. It was rather large, but needed a lot of work. Maybe you could recruit the hispanic lady you have rented my condo to help run a B& B or something? Sounds like Alyssa is enjoying her and the kids~

Love to all of you. Trying to take pics, haven't been able to download them yet. Actually, the truth is I haven't tried. Hey, I'm on vacation.....Enjoy the seattle sun. Sounds like you may be having more of it than we are!