If you asked me to plan out the perfect day, I would repeat today over and over again.  Today was simply amazing.  We docked in Belize before sunrise and boarded and air conditioned bus that drove us out of Belize City.  The city itself is nothing to write about, the true beauty of Belize is in the country side.  Full of rolling hills, farms and orchards the countryside is stunning.  Our ride lasted us about 45 minutes and led us to a restaurant area that rented out lockers, water shoes and sold trinkets.  After renting a locker and claiming our head lamp we boarded an old school bus and went for yet another ride.  This one took us deeper into the country side and to Cave Branch, a local park.  Our guide then handed us our inner tube and led us through a 30 minute hike through the jungle. 

Our hike took us to a part of the river that we had to cross by foot.  This spot was the ending point of our tubing journey, to get to the beginning we had to hike a bit further.  It was here though, that we got our first feel for the water.  It was cool but very welcoming given the heat.  There was a small cliff that many of the guys in our group jumped off of for kicks.

After we tubed for about an hour, we got to the ending point and hiked back to the bus.  We boarded a bus and were taken back to the locker area were we had lunch before we got dressed and claimed our belongings.

Even though our tour was so long, we still had time to shop in port.  The port of Belize has several shops for souvenirs and trinkets.  They have great wood carved animals there that people were going nuts over.  I can't wait to come back to Belize, next time I'm heading for the Mayan Ruins.

1102 Miles from home.
Travelmates:  Mom, Dad, Scott, Justin, Melissa, Carol, Tina, Kim, Andrew, Nana, Uncle Rob, Aunt Nancy, Kirstin , Rob.

After a plush bus ride from Tulum to the mexican border town of chetumal (which wasn´t a bad place... its definately reinforced my positive mexican experience) we found ourselves at a loose end for the next leg of our journey. Solving the problem we niavely purchased a ticket for a ¨first class¨bus to belize city...

I guess we were spoilt over the last 4 weeks, as we rolled our eyes when our run down bus pulled up between the ´plush´ ADO mexican coaches. Little did we know at the time, but this was a fairly good measure of the things to come. Bye Bye AC... the dream is over.

After a smooth border corssing, we found ourselves slowly cooking in the sealed bus with AC that blatantly couldnt keep up with all the seated and standing passengers. Every gear change was hit and miss, and every speedbump amplified (instead of dampened) by the loose suspension.

Eventually we made it to belize city & was greeted by many smiling faces eager to help. The english speaking locals, weatherboard and corrugated iron homes all incurred a strange familiarity... however, this wasn´t anything like home. Belize is a little behind the times, with only a few ATM´s in the country, generally ´run down´, (but i guess you can´t get too carried away given that a cyclone wipes the place out every few year) and I think a lot of people wouldnt particularly enjoy it.

The locals have a strange way of making money from tourists. RAther than being in your face, they befriend you with everything from accomodation advice to sweet poems about life and love. a little different, and a bit of a novelty (at first).

However, it is super chilled out, & I´m definately glad I made it a stop. We found a nice (& safe) little guest house, but moved on early in the morning, skipping the postcard perfect cayes, in search of some wilderness or waves.

A Place to Sleep

We ignored the offers of taxis when we got off at the bus station and immediately sat down on the curb to enjoy some fresh watermelon and pineapple they were selling on the street.  This gave us energy to start the long walk with our packs to the Swing Bridge which is supposed to be a dodgy area.  It kinda is, but we got a decent room overlooking the bridge at a place called Isabel´s Guest House.  I checked out a few places before selecting this one.  It cost $16 US per person which the most we have paid, but it had 3 fans, a fridge, freezer, dresser, and mirrors that allowed me for the first time to see how much my eyebrows needed plucking.  They had a nice shared TV area with a comfy couch too.

We learned just how dodgy the area was when we walked around looking for dinner.  Locals looked at us like we were crazy walking down their streets.  But, we did find a place where I could get 3 good tostadas for 50 cents!  It is the kind of neighborhood where so many people have died that they actually bury people in the center dividers of the streets.  This was the kinda neighborhood where 5 policemen hang out on the balcony of their building watching the city below.  If they are too scared to come down, we better get out of here!  So, we made the long walk to the Casino.  It was surprising how quickly the scenary changed from beat up neighborhood to upscale.  Unfortunatley, I was unable to get in because I did not have ID.  They want to check your passport, have you sign in, hold your bag, and put you thru an xray machine before you go in.  So just like the family vacation we took when we were kids to Las Vegas, Luis went in to check out the gamboling area and I was sent to the arcade to be babysat.  Neither of us being gambolers, he soon joined me in the arcade. More fun.  They have a bowling alley, movie theater, and all the games you want.  We played a few rough games of air hockey before continueing our walk in search of the nightclubs.  Not much luck, so we jumped in a taxi back to our hood.  This was a very special taxi.  It had A/C sorta.  Behind our backs in the window was a little fan that turned on when the engine started.  The dashboard of the car was furry leopard print.  I am sure we were the envy of our neighbors. 

We thought this was big city, big entertainment.  Not so much.  Maybe we should do what all the other travellers did when they got here... go straight to the Cayes.  We weren`t planning on diving, but maybe a little snorkling or beach time would be nice before leaving Belize.  So, we moved our bags to the half the price Smoking Balam Hostel that didn´t have rooms the night before.  We paid and told them we´d be back later that afternoon after our day at San Pedro Caye.  But, that never happened...................   

On the plane, home sweet home in a couple hours. Modern day transportation....

5:44am
Rain. Finally. And by rain I mean downpour. It's gorgeous.

10:07pm
man that david cook - him on my ipod is a little bit of home right here. I mean all my music is of course, but because he's someone so current it's like an instant time machine when he pops on.  meantime the rain has drastically cooled us down today.  we could actually move around and go out because the weather was so nice - a nice warm breeze blowing ever so often. for anyone that hasn't been to belize, i can only describe the heat as...paralyzing! really sometimes it's too hot to even get up and go out and walk somewhere; it's too hot to move from in front of a fan - no joke. i've had heat stroke strike me twice before i was finally able to learn how to handle the heat - hydration! loads and loads of water is the key. however it is a tropical country, so the weather is just part of it's charm. :0)

Aunt Sonia's house lies right in front of the lagoon so we get a nice cool breeze as we sit here relaxing after noon dinner-yes dinner is at noon here. And then there's tea in the evening around the traditional American dinner time. No, we're not British but we used to be-hence our old name (British Honduras), government, school system, and some British traditions that still hang around-such as evening tea.

I've been so busy with other things on my mind that I forgot about the simple guilty pleasures I have. Like last night when I was lying in bed listening to my mp3 player, and all of a sudden david cook came on and I thought aw david cook I forgot all about you! (Christina would kill me if she read that) And then I thought oh I have 'so you think you can dance' waiting for me on my tivo when I get home. Guilty pleasures. Then I started to think about how funny it is that one never realizes all the excess they live with until they're forced to do without it. I've been here almost a week with no tivo, no internet, no cell phone service even - and I don't miss a bit of it. If I got bored I read a book. Or I went outside and talked with my aunt, or went next door and talked with my cousin. It's nice to be totally unconnected here in the village. And a village it really is-Crooked Tree is just a little village in Belize where everybody knows everybody and their children and has for years. You cook, clean up, and socialize all day, go over to my cousin's in the evening to watch the Lakers be embarrassed in the finals, sleep, and do it all over the next day.  In fact there's a huge reunion next weekend that people from all over the place are coming to.  It's a village reunion, but really it's an extended family reunion. 

I much prefer it here than Belize City, and maybe even more so than Dangriga. Although the ocean is nearby Dangriga and here we've only got the lagoon with allegators-that's a small drawback. But none the less the peace and quiet is luxurious.

Went to the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary today. It's a nice little place that has info about the are and trails that you can hike throughout the village. I'll have to come back and do that some day. I've realized that I'll have to plan a separate backpacking trip to Belize as a tourist in order to see some of the things I want to see. Everytime I come to visit family for however long, that's all we do-visit. That's fine of course since it's the purpose of the trip, but sometimes I'd like to get out and go tour around a little bit - but it's not really their kinda thing. You know when you've lived somewhere for years and grown up there things sometimes aren't as cool to you as they are to outsiders. Plus growing up here they've seen lots of stuff and been lots of places I haven't. So in order to play tourist I'll actually have to plan that type of trip. I'll plan a good length of time and just schedule in time to visit all the fam along the way.

P.S. Granted I don't have cell phone service I still have been playing a lot of sudoku on my phone though...and it's come in very handy for journaling purposes...

Uncle Willie's funeral. Happy Father's Day.

12:30am
Feeling a little lost and outta place in the wee hours of the morning-yet at the same time I don't.  This is a different family.  A family where I actually see resemblances not only in each other, but also in me.  I feel regret for not having gotten this experience before, and also a little bit angry.  I don't know whether or not that anger is displaced at my father or mother, if it's at myself, or if it's just that stage of grief that I'm in right now, or what the deal is, but it's just there.

5:30am
Now I know roosters are supposed to crow, that's what they do at dawn, but I mean really.  Come on.

8:00am
Nothing like a cold shower on a hot humid Belize day! No joke! It's the best thing ever!

10:21am
I miss the boy. Which is ridiculous.

It still amazes me to this day that less than 24 hours ago I was in another country.  Granted Belize isn't that far away...  Modern technology still gets to me when I see how easy it is to go online, buy a plane ticket, and now less than 12 hours later I'm down south in Belize.  Unfortunately the circumstances of this trip are what they are, otherwise it would've been nice to just spend some quality time with my dad's side of the family.  I just wish Uncle Willie was here too.

Adding insult to injury we show up at Continental's check in desk to find out we're only allowed 1 piece of check in luggage these days!  Due to rising fuel prices, they now charge $25 for your second piece!  Highway robbery!  Airplane meals now consist of pretzels and muffins, and headsets that were once free now cost a dollar.  I swear we're headed to a depression.

Nonetheless here I am, relaxing in the surprisingly cool breeze currently blowing through Crooked Tree, trying to catch up on sleep before the wake tonight.  Granted this isn't a vacation as I'm here for a funeral and the trip is mainly for family bonding time, not to mention there's really not much to do here in the tiny village, I still plan to squeeze in a little picture taking.

Drove right through Belize City.  Only stop was to drop people off and pile more on the bus.  I'd spent a couple days diving there before.  I'm glad we arrived during the day.  Did a lap around town and picked up some more people and off to the border.   Last time I was in Belize City I was the only gringo on the chicken bus and I got dropped off at night downtown.  Luckily no issues.

Tropical Storm Arthur formed on Saturday May 31^st, 2008 and made landfall in Northern Belize on the Yucatan Peninsula before becoming the first storm of the Atlantic Hurricane Season. The rains from tropical storm Arthur compounded the effects of tropical storm Alma which had developed in the Eastern Pacific on May 27^th.

Heavy rains throughout Belize caused rivers across the country to overflow. Together, storms Alma and Arthur brought approximately 15 inches of rain over 36 hours across Belize causing flash flooding in low lying areas.

Due to the difficulty in accessing the affected communities, the Belize Red Cross has yet not been able to conduct detailed assessments in all affected areas. Information from existing assessment reports from various agencies are conflicting with number of affected population ranging from 5,000 to as much as 13,000.

As a result of the storm, I was asked at 8pm Monday 2 June 2008  to deploy to Belize to support the Belize Red Cross.  Within 1 hour myself and Lorena (Logistics RIT from PADRU) had flights booked and headed to the airport at 3am that morning to arrive in Belize by 10am on Tueday. 

Over the past several days, Lorena and I have worked with the Belizean Red Cross to draft a Plan of Action targeting 500 families (2500 individuals) affected by the floods.

With luck, the rains will hold off for the next several weeks, alowing for the country to rebuild critical infrastructure that was lost due to TS Arthur. 

In a city where good fare is hard to come by, this place was a welcome relief. It is built in an old Belizian industry and sits astride a manmade beach. Its open air environment is especially enjoyable around dusk. The pork chop was decent as was the always popular in Belize, rice and beans.

In Belize City, there are few other choices as the city is more or less a launching point to other points throughout the country. However, despite earlier viewed reviews decsribing poor service, apparently the business took these to heart as I had no complaints. The staff was friendly and attentive although the food was nothing to write home about. If you find yourself laying over in Belize City, I would recommend staying here. The drinks were still good at the pool-side bar (my smile photo was taken here) and the pool itself is quite nice.

We arrived in Belmopan just before dark, and Bert, the taxi driver, hit us up immediately.  I told him i wanted cheap accommodations so he took us to Eastern Guesthouse, run by "chinaman".  The rooms were very basic, but the price was decent.  49 BZD for a double room with a shower but no air condition.  After we settled in, we immediately went for a walk about.  We got near the bus station and Bert spotted us, and told us he knew where to take us.  He dropped us off at La Cabana for free.  We had some local beer, Belkin stout, and some local soup, that apparently was for hangovers, but they seemed to out of everything else on the menu.  Soup was good, however, they simply dropped half a chicken into broth with onions and spices.

We had the bar call Bert to pick us up and take us to the Bullfrog, which we were told would be hopping.  No such luck, but we had some more beers and met a dude from the states living and working in Belize.  After that we walked home without any incident.

Playa del Carman to Belize City [Planned]