From Belize to Ambergris Caye

    After driving three hours from Tikal, Guatemala, crossing the crazy border (I think we might of passed through illegally, shhh), going to the Belize zoo; we arrived at the aiport to be informed that due to the storm the water taxis had been cancelled and the last flight for San Pedro - Ambergris Cayes had already left. UGHHH! Jen and I walked inside, and I proceded to find a gentleman by the name of Juan, behind the counter at Tropical Air. I spoke with him about our situation and asked if there was any way he could assist us. He disappeared for several minutes, re-emerged told us he was trying to help out, he disappeared again. Kara and Jon were getting a bit anxious when Juan reappeared and let us know that he was going to be able to help us out. He was our HERO. He had spoken to a pilot who was willing to fly over one more time! Sweet. Now I am thinking great how much is this going to cost us.. well, never fear... we are in Belize, it was only $60/per person. Are you kidding me? Tropical Air, I love you. I dished out the last of my cash, since I didn't have my MC (my wallet had been stolen 5 days before I left the country) and everyone else only had CCs, we jammed through security and walked outside to see the smallest friggin' plane I have ever seen. We were travelling through windy skies, over the ocean, in a six seater single engine plane.... little nervous now. Even better, I had the opportunity to sit in the Co-pilots seat. Not one to turn something like that down, up I went.
About 45 minutes later, I notice the runway. It was getting fairly dark, but I could see the lights and the sunset was just finishing. I looked to the left at the instrument panel and see a red flag on the monitor that says Terrain Alert. At the same time, I notice this strange beeping noise. I look behind me to my fellow travellers and see Jon staring ahead with a look of fright on his face and fiercly writing in his journal. What the hell? I look at the pilot and he calmly looks at me, pushes some buttons, adjusts some levers, smiles and continues on. I am pacified, nothings off. Two minutes later we are attempting to land. Unfortunately, the high winds were making that a little difficult and each time we got close and upward draft lifted us up and over on the runway. Heart pounding, my feet pushing into the bottom of the foot panel area, as if that is going to help me stop the plane, we touch down. The entire crew are on the run way clapping. I think we may have been really, really lucky.
I thank the pilot, exit and turn to see Jon, Kara and Jen throwing themselves out of the plane. Jon, who has his pilot's license proceeded to tell me the beeping noises that I was vaguely nervous about were alerts informing the pilot that we were about to stall out. Ignorance certainly is bliss in this circumstance. I turned around and gave our pilot a hug and said thanks again. Time to find a taxi gang! =)