Belize or Bust...trip 1

In January I headed to Belize with my brothers Russell and Tyler, my cousins Nathan, Heather, and Alison as well as Alison's roommate, Anja, and her sister, Cara, for Belize trip number one. How, you ask did I convince so many people to go to Belize? Well, the tickets were only $224 so it wasn't too hard to convince people to come. How, you especially ask did I get my doesn't like to leave the state of Idaho brother Russell to come??? Well, Belize has some amazing fly fishing...so I guess I don't need to say anymore about that. The first night there we went out to eat at a place near our hotel. On the way there it was raining a little bit, but when we were at the restaurant it really started to pour. As we left someone at the restaurant asked us if we wanted them to call a cab. I don't know what we were thinking but we all just decided to walk back to the hotel. I don't think we had any idea how bad it was pouring. The streets were completely flooded and the rain was coming down like it only does in tropical places. We started out running but our clothes got so wet and heavy it kind of slowed us down, not to mention the chaffing. It didn't take two seconds out in the rain for all of us to realize we were complete idiots. I'm sure the people at the restaurant were like, "dumb Americans" when we left without a cab. BUT, it was fun and was quite the adventure. I was just sure there was a crocodile waiting to eat me in the flooded streets, but I made it back okay. I don't know why but I'm always afraid I'm going to get eaten by a shark or crocodile or some other evil animal. I guess I just worry that I'll look like good eatin, and let's be honest, I probably would be good eatin. Here we are...a bunch of dummies soaked from head to toe. The only reason part of my jacket is still dry is that I did have an umbrella with me which kept me a little bit dry. The rain was coming down so hard though that it didn't take long for the water to start soaking through the umbrella.

Ty decided that if it was still raining the next day he'd wear a shower cap. What a goof ball!

But it didn't rain the next day (not very hard anyway), so instead of wearing my soaked through Diesel shoes I wore flip flops. Ty and Nathan however decided to wear their still wet shoes. Bad mistake though, bad mistake. We all payed dearly the rest of the trip.

That first full day in Belize, Russell went bone fishing and the rest of us went to the Mayan ruin called Xunantunich that is down on the Belize/Guatemala border. It was a pretty area and we had fun climbing all over the ruins. Here we are on top of one of the temples with the guards who were packing heat to keep us tourists safe from the Guatemalans. Belize and Guatemala don't get along too well...part of the problem being that Guatemala keeps claiming Belize as part of Guatemala. In fact many Guatemalan maps just show Belize as an extension of Guatemala. So I guess sometimes there can be tension at the border...hence the big guns.

View from Xunantunich

Me, just acting like a weirdo in my big, yellow, paper thin, poncho.

More of us. And no, my cousin Alison isn't 8 months pregnant here. I think she was wearing her backpack backwards and then had her raincoat on over it...it made for some nice pseudo maternity pictures though.

A view from inside one of the ruins.

Xunantunich still...

After we got back from Xunantunich, we met up with Russell in Belize City and Nathan, Tyler, Russell, and I took a ferry out to Ambergris Caye, an island about an hour from Belize City. The rest of the girls all stayed in Belize City the rest of the time and just did little day trips from there.

While we were waiting for our ferry we got offered drugs by one of the guys that worked for the ferry company. I guess Belize is a pretty lax place because he wasn't even trying to be sneaky about it. Our tour guy the day before told us that everybody in Belize smokes pot, including the Prime Minister...no wonder Belizians are so cool and easy going...and no wonder there are a lot of Rastafarians there.

So right off this guy at the ferry dock asked us if we wanted any "buds." And of course I don't have a clue what he's talking about so I'm like, "what are buds?"

He answers, "you know...Marijuana." To which I said, "no thanks." So then he's like, "well do you want some crack?"

SERIOUSLY, if we didn't want Marijuana, do you think we're going to want the hard stuff???

Anyway, we thanked him kindly for the drug offer and he left.

A little while later, as we were leaving the ferry docks, we saw the same guy and he said something to the effect of "good luck on your trip," to which I answered, (not even thinking of course), "good luck with your drug sales!" Luckily for my sake he didn't even seem phased at all by me yelling out "good luck with your drug sales!" in the middle of a crowded ferry dock and he yelled back, "THANKS!"

I'm lucky I guess that all the drug dealers were all chill from smoking pot so I didn't get beat up. And...in my defense for saying stupid stuff...it was daylight, there were a lot of normal people around, and they seemed like nice drug dealers, not the bad kind.

Here's a picture near our hotel on the island.

And here's a scary restaurant on the island. I just wasn't too comfortable with a CALL HOME sign right by a restaurant called "Cannibals Edible Solutions."

However...I wasn't too concerned about the cannibals when I saw this sign above. I knew they had to be civilized people if they wanted dog poop picked up. That to me is the line between a civilized people and an uncivilized people...what they do with their dog poo.

Waraguma's is the place where my brother Russell fell in love with the El Salvadorian food called pupusas. He even learned how to make them since coming home from Belize. It was the tiniest little restaurant...literally a hole in the wall, but the food was good.

We had a little bungalow right on the beach. This is the view from our deck. Good thing a tsunami didn't hit...we would have been dead for sure.

Our little hotel on the beach...it was a simple little place but was nice and clean. And, they had a dive shop there so we were able to go SCUBA diving (Nathan) and snorkeling (me and Ty) with the people that owned the hotel. It was super duper fun.

On Sunday after church we rented bikes and rode ALL over the island. The only cars that are allowed on the island are taxis and service vehicles so you see a lot of people on bikes or driving golf carts.

We had a lot of fun but the trip was definitely too short. I had a pit in my stomach as we headed to the ferry dock to go back to Belize City and then back to the U.S. I could have stayed there forever...or at least another week or so.

And look what was greeting me when we got back into the SLC airport...a whole bunch of big yellow boxes full of sample to be tested at ARUP Laboratories (my now ex-workplace). Seriously, could I not even enjoy my last few hours of freedom from thinking about work before having to be at work the next morning? Oh well, that's all in the past now.