Don't Put All Your Eggs In The Sunshine Basket

We are back.

The trip to Belize was great. The plan (at least for me and Dave) were to sit on the beach and relax. The relaxing was definitely accomplished. I will try to recap the last eight days:

Day 1: Christian and I wake up at 3:00 am, shower, finish packing and drive to Atlanta to catch our flight. We have a layover in Miami, so it is mid-afternoon when we get into Belize City. We then get on a puddle jumper to take us to Placencia. It is about a 30 minute ride, but we had several stops to pick up other passengers and cargo. That was an fun trip. The "runways" at each stop are barely long enough for landing and taking off. There is no taxiway, no lights, no paving. There were a couple of times that we didn't see where we were going to land until we were right on top of the dirt runway. We land in Placencia and Alex is waiting to take us to the Maya Breeze Inn. The road we travel (as are most roads in the whole country) is unpaved and very bumpy. The van ride to the Inn took about 20 minutes. We passed through the village of Seine Bight. This is a Garifuna village. Driving through, you realize that you are, indeed, in a third world country. The "housing" can barely be classified as shacks in our country. I am not sure that there would be running water, electricity or indoor plumbing in most of these structures. It is like what you see on the advertisements for "Feed the Children". We get to the Inn, check in, and hit the beach. We still had about two hours of sunlight left.

This is the view from the front porch of our cabana:

This is our cabana:

We sat on the beach and soaked in the rays, then headed to dinner. We were both exhausted, so we hit the bed early.

Day 2: We awake to overcast skies, but no rain. After breakfast we hit the beach to sit back and relax. Christian, of course, could not do this for long, so he took the kayak out along the coast and into the lagoon behind the Inn. That evening we go get dinner and again hit bed early. Let me mention that sunrise was about 6 and sundown is around 6:30, so it kind of throws the schedule.

Day 3: We woke up to forcasts of a rainy day. Instead of sitting in our cabana all day, we decided to take a tour inland and went to the ancient city of Xunantunich. The ruins are amazing, and the views were spectacular.

This is a view of El Castillo (the temple):

This is a veiw from on top of El Castillo. We were only a few miles from Guatamala:

The drive was 3 hours each way. We went North on the Southern Highway, Northwest on the Hummingbird Highway, and West on the Western Highway (there are only two other highways in the country). We were up in the mountains and the views were unbelievable. I would post more pics to accompany these descriptions, but evidently I have already reached the limit of post pics. After the tour, we had lunch in San Ignacio. The cusine in Belize is very Spanish influenced. When we got back to the Inn, the Fenders were there waiting for us. That is when the vacation began! Christian and Lynee immediately jumped into the kayaks and went along the coast for about half an hour. Dave and I got a drink and laughed at them. When they got back we went to dinner and started catching up.

Day 4: Sunny skies!!!! We all hit the beach after breakfast and soaked up as many rays as possible. Christian hitched a ride into Placencia Village to go to the ATM. When he got back, he and Lynee got back in the kayaks and went out to False Caye to do some snorkling. Dave and I sat on the beach. (Do you see a pattern here?) We just drank, talked and enjoyed the day.

Day 5: Christian and Lynee went on the Monkey River Tour where they took a boat up the Monkey River. They hiked in the jungle and saw Howler Monkeys. Dave and I sat around and talked. It was rainy most of the day, so we stayed on the porch. We had some great conversations. It is great to be able to grow closer to friends. That night we we had some more great food and conversation.

Day 6: We had signed up to go out on a sailboat and snorkle, but the trip was cancelled due to the weather. It ended up being partly cloudy and we had some rain, but headed into Placencia Village. There were a few shops and resturants, but after a while we discovered that most of everything was the same. We stopped in a bar and had a drink, then headed back to the Inn. Dinner, drinking, conversation.

Day 7: More rain. We spent the morning bird watching. It cleared up a little, so we hit the beach and threw the football and frisbee. More lazing about.

Day 8: Our last day, and guess what? It rained. We had breakfast, packed and then hung out until we had to be shuttled to the airport. We had a couple of hours to browse through the gift shops in the Belize airport. Bought some knick knack patty whacks, and enjoyed the last bit of time we had with our friends. We got back home around 1:00 this morning.

The trip: amazing. Why? We got to spend time with our best friends. We could have been anywhere, and it would have been great. Leaving them (again) was incredibly difficult. Christian and I both cried when we got on the plane. I think this was harder than leaving them in Springfield. We also had an amazing chance to experience a country that is so unlike ours. I have a lot to say about this, so I think I will post that at another time. I will also post all of our pics.