Belize

It finally happened, I am no longer a Peace Corps Volunteer. And to commemorate the event I left El Salvador with a few friends and hit the road for a short vacation in Belize.

Things started off with a real bang. We hopped a bus that we heard about through the grapevine that leaves from the Belize embassy and drops you off in the Belmopan, the capital of Belize. Well when we got there it was tiny and painted like a circus van covered in tourist signs. Things immediately got interesting when the tarp didn't cover the luggage and it rained. After solving that problem, we got going and one of the bags fell off the roof rack. Luckily it wasn't my bag, but we had to stop and re-organize all the luggage on the roof right there on the side of the highway. In the best decision of the day Matt and I decided to have a quick beer in Guatemala before crossing into Belize. It turned out to be the best decision all day because the two people we were supposed to leave at the border weren't being let through, and although we were supposed to leave them, our drivers wouldn't leave. So two hours later we finally loaded up our van and to our surprise, instead of leaving two people, we picked up an extra. Meanwhile through all of this the others in the van talked about us "Gringos" to the drivers, fully aware that all spoke spanish and understood everything. But everything was redeemed upon getting to Bryan's house and finding two large pizzas and cold beers waiting for us. Nothing says welcome like beer, pizza and a friendly face.

The second day was just as adventurous. The plan was to get to Placencia, a beach peninsula in the southern part of Belize, by taking the local buses. Well we got on the 12pm bus and it was like bizarro world. The bus was colorful, but not as colorful as we had been used to. The seats had not been adjusted to try to squeeze in three and two passengers and people weren't elbowing you to rush to the seats. The bizarro kicker was that the vendors started getting on and selling all the old favorites IN ENGLISH. I had never even thought of what to call plantain chips in english until the other day. Two buses and a water taxi later we got to our hotel. We immediately changed and jumped in the ocean where Erin and I were promptly stung by a jellyfish. All was made well by finding a restaurant that served more mexican style food and the Guatemalan waitress was relieved to speak to us in spanish.

The third day had little special to speak of except that it was a pleasant day spent by the beach and exploring Placencia. We had dinner at a tasty restaurant that we picked because there was an englishman playing guitar. Although the qualifications where lax for our restaurant choice, it was very good and I had an awesome piece of fish.

The fourth day was the big one. We had reserved a "Rasta Sail" the previous evening and were desperately hoping for the rain to pass so we could have a good day on our boat. On our way we wanted to stop by the office and see if we were going out or if there was a refund available, however it was closed. So we just went to find the boat and our Rasta Captain. We wound up sailing out into choppy water and driving rain. Angie did her thing and complained most of the way, but we made it to a private caye, appropriately named Sipro Caye (spelled differently than Cipro, but pronounced the same). Once there we swam to shore and Jasp, our Rasta captain, cooked us up a Barracuda and a vegetable dish on an open fire. Then he took us for a snorkel all the way around the island before we got back in the boat and steeled ourselves for a a sail back to shore and more rain.

The fifth day was spent relaxing on the beach again and trying to make proper time to the bus back to Belmopan and Bryan. Again he was our saviour with a pasta and salad and beer as always.