The first bittersweet goodbye

Alex drove me to the airport. I was a nutcase because I thought I was running late. I should have stopped to think where I was, the Caribbean. Nothing happens on time in the Caribbean. I got there an hour before the flight was set to take off and one would have thought I was early. Alex and I even had time to sit outside for a little bit and just chat and hang out. Saying goodbye was hard. Part of me even wanted to cry. It was so WEIRD!! This has never happened to me in such a short period of time, traveling or not. I turned to make sure he was seeing me off at different times as I was going through security. He was still there, waving. I got to the other side and was sad. I was SAD to be going home, and not happy. The trip home always seems so long because I can’t wait to get there. This was different. I slept on the plane, and I dreamed about being with him. I got home and wished I could have missed the plane, half of me wanted to. It was bizarre, and weird, and sad…. So unlike me.

Anyways, on my way home I had a layover in Miami. One of the security officers checked my passport and then looked at me. Wow, what a great picture you have. Don’t you dare take your hair down! (Hair was up in a ponytail). Then, I got up to the security counter to get checked back into the US and the officer was speaking with one of his buddies. They were talking about a pool party they were going to, and the officer said he wished he had a pretty girl like me to take to the pool party. He was a goodlooking guy too. I laughed and told him I would love to come. Heck, better than going back to snow at home! The rest of the trip home was uneventful. I was happy to be home, but I was sad too. Partly because I was back in cold weather. Partly for other reasons....

Party till you see the light of day, whoops!

I got home at 5:30. I went back to the room, layed down for a while, and got up at 7:45 to get ready to be picked up at 9. (Vacation isn’t a vacation without a nap involved…) At 9:15 pm I was starting to get worried that they had forgotten about me, but the more I thought about it, the more I reassured myself that we were operating on Belizean (Caribbean) time. Sure enough, a minute or two later, my party people arrived and we were off to have a good time.

The party was at a sketchy little joint called Thirsty Thursdays. We took up half the bar, the other half was full of sketchy locals. I had told a taxi driver to pick me up at a certain time, at the wrong place, so I just called him and said nevermind. I didn’t know if I was going to have fun, I didn’t know if I wanted to stay out late. Then I started talking to Alex.

I met Alex the night before briefly, when some of the girls were talking about coming snorkeling with me, they said that Alex would be our guide. So, he was going to be our guide until I was the only one who could go. Then that seemed to change, haha. Or, maybe it was just a joke the whole time. Whatever. I’m being a girl and overanalyzing now. The second night, we started talking a little. He told me he could tell that I’m a little shy or something of that sort, and then said he use to be like that. I didn’t really know how to take that since I feel like I use to be shy, but I’m a lot better now. Anyways, his insightfulness kinda caught me a little. I enjoyed talking to him. He moved on to talk to some other people, but I kept him in the corner of my eye and later he came back to talk to me.

Before I knew it, it was already 2 am. 2 am!! And I had planned on going home around 11. So much for that idea. My ride had left already, Alex had said he would take me home. That was OK with me. First we went to visit the “mancave” for a bit though – his friend Gerald’s apartment. There were darts and a place for the band to practice. Definitely the ultimate “man’s” apartment. He owned the best pizza place in the city, and it just so happened to be right below the apartment. We had a couple beers and moved on – we were going to pay a visit to the breakfast ladies.
These were a couple of the largest ladies – sisters rather – that are out there. But they just fit the job. From 4 am till early afternoon their job was to make a terribly fattening, artery-clogging breakfast for cheap. They did a good job of it too. I even got a lesson in how to make jacks. They laughed at me when instead of cutting slits in the bread I cut them all the way across, laughed whole-heartedly as their bosoms bounced up and down, and then showed me the right way to do it. When they started laughing I couldn’t help but totally crack up myself. The finished product was one of the greasiest meals I have ever eaten, but also totally appropriate after a night of boozing. I don’t know if the women spoke English, but they spoke Creole – I had no idea there were so many different forms of Creole out there. It sounded to me like Jamaican man, and I could actually understand a lot of what they said. Though I tried reading Creole, and it was nearly impossible to understand what was on the pages.

After breakfast, it was late – very late, like 530 am late, and I needed to get back to the hotel to get a bit of sleep. Wow it had been a lonnnnng time since I had seen this kind of late/early morning! Here I had expected to get to sleep around midnight, so much for that idea. But it was finally time to sleep.

You ready captain?

I made my way back to Amigos Del Mar. I was early, so I layed down on a sun chair for a few, taking in the sun and the sounds. I started wandering a little when I started getting too hot. I found a little itty bitty water turtle floating in a bucket of seawater, I don’t know who captured it or why they captured it, but man was it adorable. I had always wanted to see these; well preferably floating freely in the water. But it was really cool to be able to touch them. They had flipper-like booties. So cute! A man came over and asked me if I was on the 2:30 tour. He had to go pick some people up on the boat and asked if I wanted to come with. Of course! Soon as I got in, he asked me if I had ever driver a boat before. No… Well, would you like to? So, I came up to the wheel thinking he would stand beside me and help me when I wasn’t doing the right thing or going in the right direction. Nope. He went and sat up at the front of the boat. I freaked out a little. “See how easy it is?” he said to me. To the right, now a little to a left. See that dock right there? We’re gonna go in for it. Luckily, he came up and stood behind me as I pulled the boat up to the dock, still not totally sure if I was doing it correctly. He grabbed the wheel at the very end. Wow that felt invigorating! The other guests got on the boat, and the guide called to me again. “You ready captain?” I was behind the wheel again. We were going back to the port where we came from so they could check in and we could grab the equipment. And again, I captained the boat when we headed straight for the reef. I was feeling pretty special!

Once we got to the reef, I did, by far – the best snorkeling I have ever done. I saw bright, beautiful coral, a nurse shark (not gonna hurt no one, don’t worry), barracuda, beautiful eagle rays, TONS of schools of fish, I even saw my turtles. The guide even played with a bright green eel that would only get coaxed out of his cave when he got mad. And the guide sure did make him mad! I had seen pictures of the bites that those things can cause, and they are not pretty. Although I have never been diving, I was imagining that the snorkeling I did that day had to be so close to what you see when you are diving. It was absolutely unreal. Totally worth the $40US I paid for the trip. When we finally climbed back on the boat, it was 4:36 and we were still far out to sea. Whoopsies. The guide booked it and dropped me off very close to the entrance of where the airport was. It was 4:46 and I made it to the airport at 4:50. Just in time for boarding! On the way out, I was getting a lot of question from some of the other passengers on the boat. First, why would you go back to Belize City? And then, so you’re here for work? What are you doing here for work? And so on… a family, or anyways a group of three (maybe in their 30’s) that were there (2 women and one man) were from Waltham and they took lots of interest in my job and such. When I almost didn’t make it back to the boat, they mentioned to me where they were staying, what their last name was, and that they were staying in a really large suite and I was more than welcome to crash with them if I didn’t make the plane. How compassionate is that! I was totally floored by their offering, but luckily made the plane anyways.

Speaking of making the plane, not only did I make the plane, but I sat co-pilot! Literally, if I had reached out and turned the wheel to the right, we would all have been going down. That’s how much power I had in that seat. We landed twice; once at Caye Caulker (the island I had been at before) and next at Belize City. I watched from the pilot’s seat as we came down for a landing. It was absolutely breathtaking and incredible. What a day, and it wasn’t over yet.

Scam artists are all over the world

My plane was boarding so I picked up my purse, my travel guide and the bright orange laminated piece of paper that served as a boarding pass and got onto the little plane for the 2nd time this trip. I sat next to a girl who was there with her husband on their honeymoon from the UK. We chit-chatted a bit and our fear of flying came up. She was kinda freaked out to be on this tiny little plane. I should be too, shouldn’t I? But for some reason I was feeling abnormally comfortable. It sure did feel nice. I was able to sit back, relax, and enjoy the view of beautiful turquoise water as well as the small little islands with mysterious cute little small houses on them. I arrived in San Pedro and went a walking. It was easy to navigate, the beach was right in front of me. My goal: Destination snorkeling. I passed a lot of cute restaurants and cafes while looking for “Amigos Del Mar”, the snorkeling/diving company that Lorraine had suggested. On my way, a Rastafarian dude sitting in a chair in the shade called to me. “What are you up to here?” He asked. “Well, I’m on my way to go snorkeling.” He replies “that’s exactly why I wanted to talk to you. My friend and I will take you on our boat, we’ll charge a lot less – you can go snorkeling and we can even go fishing and cook the fish right on the boat!” Well, I know there are a lot of you out there that doubt my ability to make wise decisions while on my own, but aside from knowing it would be stupid to go, I remembered a conversation that Kent and I had had, only a night prior. Apparently there had been instances of tourists going on these boats with the locals and they take them allll the way out to sea, and then take all their money they have on them. They may even force them to an ATM when they get back, and there have even been instances of the tourists being thrown overboard, and left in the middle of the ocean. As a single girl, I was NOT about to get on a boat with a couple strange men. I told him thank you very much, but my friend is waiting for me and I would have to discuss with her, but I think she wants to go with a certain company. He begged and pleaded, and asked me to meet his friend that was walking towards us, but I smiled politely, said thank you, and walked away. Phew. Resisting “salesmen”, scam artists, and people in general who are out to rip you off or even rob you has got to be one of the hardest parts about traveling.

I approached Amigos Del Mar and got a reservation for the 2 o’clock tour. It ended at 4:30 they said, so I asked them, to make absolute sure, what time we would be done, because I had a flight at 5 pm. “it’s over and you’ll be back at 4:30” they assured me. Meanwhile, it was only 12:30, so I walked around looking for somewhere to get some food. I had remembered passing by a restaurant that I had seen mentioned in my travel book; Wild Mango’s. I retraced my steps (avoiding the Rastafarian scary dude) and found the restaurant. Sat down at the shaded bar for one amazing margarita and an absolutely awesome fish sandwhich. Finger-licking good. (Not that I don’t do that most of the time, anyways). I watched the bartender as he threw in whole pieces of fruit to make those margaritas, and stared at the kitchen as some pretty delectable dishes appeared at the server window. I would love to come back here sometime.

Nope bicycles on airstrips don't mix well

Saturday was a busy, busy day. A lot happened in 18 hours and I couldn’t have spent the last day any better. I awoke to an email from Lorraine with suggestions of which company to go snorkeling with and such, which I knew was coming, and the first line said “you have to leave NOW!” Well, it was about 8:30 and as you all know, I am far from being a morning person. I drifted off to sleep and pulled myself out of bed at 10:30 am. Rushed to the airport, which was only about 10 minutes from the hotel, and bought a round trip ticket (60 USD) to and from San Pedro, an island which was superclose to Belize City; about a 15 minute flight. I heard it was the place to be for snorkeling. I got a prime plane-watching seat at a little run-down café situated next to the runway of the airport, and I sat at a picnic table drinking my fresh juice (breakfast). I watched as a small airplane took off. Then I watched as a man on a bicycle rode from the opposite end of the runway towards the airport, in the same path that the plane took when taking off. Now that’s safe! Then I realized that there was not even a fence put up between the airport and the houses and little cafes that line the side of the runway. In fact, I recognized that right next to me (practically) was Lorraine and Alvaro’s house. Interesting about Belize City, you can’t go swimming in the water because it’s full of alligators. Why those alligators aren’t located in other parts of Belize, or on the islands which are so close? I really don’t know!

Nothing is better than making new friends

Upon finishing up my meeting I called Lorraine who had told me to give her a shout. She wanted to hear how everything went. After, she added that she was across the street at the wine bar having drinks with her girlfriends and wanted me to come over. I still had reports to finish up, and some other work to do, but I thought about it for another split second and decided F it. Life is too short to make work more of a priority when fun opportunities like this arise. I decided the work could wait. The best experiences come from meeting great people when traveling, I had to go with it. After lying down for a quick 20 minute nap, I freshened up and headed over.

4 chicas awaited me, along with a glass of wine and a plate of crackers and cheese. Two were Guatemalan (including Lorraine), one Belizean, and the last from the US originally I believe, South Carolina. 4 great girls and I listened as they told stories about how they ended up in Belize, where they met their husbands etc., and just enjoyed the girl’s night. More than anything, it just felt great to be somewhere that I felt I fit in, more or less. I wasn’t surrounded by sketchy guys that were trying to take me home, I could just sit back, relax, smile and laugh with some great girls that I could relate to. I was happy with where I was, and planned on going back home shortly to finish up the reports and relax for the night. Until, Lorraine went to the bathroom. “Do you know what’s happening?” One of the girls said to me. “Huh? What do you mean?” “Well”, she said “today is Lorraine’s birthday and her husband is throwing a surprise birthday party for her at their house! You have to come!” Well, what do I say to that? No it’s Thursday night and I have the opportunity to hang out with some cool people but I’m gonna go home and do work now? OK fine, don’t twist my arm. I’m in. They made some ridiculous story up about how one of the girls had some sort of appointment, but then she decided to cancel it, and they were going to go somewhere and I was going with them but they had to stop at Lorraine’s house first? If I was Lorraine I would have been wondering what the heck was actually happening! So anyways, we took some to go cups of wine of course (certainly can’t do that in the US!) and we were on our way down the street in a range rover. Lorraine knew as soon as we arrived, she saw her friend’s cars, the balloons, and all the shadows from inside the house. I had a few more drinks that night, met some cool people (most of which were actually born and bred in Belize, which I was surprised to hear about), while mingling on my own. Everyone was very welcoming and accepting of me, it was so nice. I was told that I just HAD to go to the birthday party the next night. My thoughts had been that I was going to try to stay at San Pedro since I was going there during the day, so I had to weigh the two options. I could have a great day snorkeling and then spend the night quietly and alone, or I could have a great day snorkeling and come back and spend a loud night around lots of company. Well it was my last night of survey, last night in Belize. I had to go out with a bang.

Beans and Rice

The next day, I walked across the street from my hotel. I had a meeting with a realtor. He was late. But, whatever…. It’s Belize. I expected that. The secretary did not, however. So she texted Hugo to see where he was, did he remember that he had a meeting with me? He was on his way. So I sat, and I waited patiently. And I sat, and I waited longer. 15 minutes later a beautiful man with sunglasses on walked in the door of the really small office. I knew it was Hugo because only him and the secretary sat in that office. I tried to keep my cool and professionalism as we chatted and got through the questionnaires I had for him. He was pompous and knew he was a beautiful man, and he didn’t ask me if I wanted to go for a walk through the city, or to some exotic island. I was over it.

I met Kent a little while later. We took a walk through the town. There were crazies, there were tourists, there were bums trying to take us on city tours. But, Kent made a point to tell them we were locals, unlike the many tourists who had just walked off the tour boat. What a terrible place to dock, I’m telling you. There are so many great things to do in the surrounding Belize areas, but if these poor people don’t have a tour to go on, well if it was me, I would just turn around and go right back on the boat. The city is rundown, poor, full of sketchy people, and there’s nearly nothing to do but walk the dirty streets. Definitely not the best place for a boatful of tourists. Anyways, we walked all around, popped into a few of the dingy “boutiques” selling a mixture of imported and counterfeit products, and decided to find a little place to have some lunch. One guy suggested “Macy’s” to us, so we decided to check it out.

It was a good choice. Local beans and rice, and friiiiiiiiiiedddd chicken yum yum. (The funny posted picture is from Macy's) Kent of course, paid for our lunch. From there we stopped into a couple other markets, and we both picked out jewelry, mine was a bracelet made of shells and was shimmery, very pretty. I helped him pick out a necklace. Unfortunately, the first night I wore it out it had slipped off my wrist and is gone :( Kent is a nice guy. He’s got lots of tattoos, a child, and he’s on some sort of paid leave (it appears) from working with the police force maybe? I didn’t ask him much about it. He plays lots of golf and wants to come visit me in Boston. Sweet guy, but not really my type. He would apologize for grabbing my hand or putting his arm around me because “it would keep the locals away from bothering me”. Haha. It was a lot of fun for the afternoon, but I needed to get back to work. So, we parted ways and I went back to it for the rest of the day.

I had another meeting that afternoon with another lady who helps out with relocations from time to time, just another person who had to think hard about everything I asked her, like… what the F, who is this girl and why is she making me work. Hahaha… But she was really nice anyhow. When I finished up with her, I happily went back to my room. I was DONE. Another full survey under my belt, and I was in Belize. Warm, sunny Belize. And I could relax. Life was good.

True Appreciation

That night I sat at the bar finishing up my work. I think I had a magnet on in Belize. The guys sitting next to me starting chatting with me, starting with smalltalk and then, “so my friend (who wasn’t there at the time) thinks that you’re really cute”. “Um ok (giggle giggle)… that’s nice…” so I continue working. And then friend starts talking to me. He was a nice guy, from Arizona. He was going up to rest but asked if I wanted to go for a walk around the town the next day in the morning, more or less. Why not? Not like I had much else going on. So he left and I went back to work, but not for long. A guy to my left (Canadian) started talking to me, I don’t quite remember how our conversation started, but it was a great conversation. He was just totally amazed with my work, the company, and how I managed to do all that I was doing. He asked question after question in pure amazement, not even letting me get a question about him in! I had no idea what he was doing there. We closed the bar down chatting, his poor friend sitting next to him with no one to talk to, half listening half staring at the bartenders closing the bar down. Unlike the others, the night came to an end and he didn’t ask to hang out with me. I really truly think that he was just inspired by talking with me. He even said that he found me to be an amazing woman with an amazing job. Let me tell you, I went to bed that night with a pretty high ego. But again, it takes things like this to make me stop and think, and realize… how lucky I am to have this opportunity to see the world.

Belize: Yet to be discovered

Today I met Lorraine, a super friendly representative of the company LARM who we speak with often in most of the Americas south of the US. She picked me up and immediately I knew we would click. She is young, pretty, smiley, and just overall a very happy and welcoming person. Originally Guatemalan but doesn’t look it. She has blonde hair. I didn’t see any blondes when I was in Guatemala. We went out to lunch and immediately she was ready to do anything and everything for me, anything I could possibly want or need, she was on it. I think that she was feeling a little bored, in general. She was working part-time for LARM and really, that’s exactly what it was. Last year she placed only ONE person in the country because there’s just no foreigners here. Anyways, I felt like I immediately had a personal secretary. After speaking with her for just a little while, I realized what little there was here. Hairdressers? She goes to Guatemala for that. Clothing? Don’t even think about it. Laundromat? There’s only one here in the city. The really nice restaurant here went out of business because the type of market located here just doesn’t support it. Despite the fact that it was located across the street from the only business hotel in the city, yeah the one that gives you ants crawling on your bed. My hotel. All the buildings are falling apart because construction is expensive and no one can afford to build. Though, when one building does go up, not only is it the talk of the town but it goes within a finger snap. There is just nothing here. Everything is falling down. This place reminds me of Africa, Haiti, you name it. A place with poor infrastructure that has almost nothing. And then you have the touristy areas such as the Cayes which is completely different. This place has still yet to be discovered. As I spoke about it with Lorraine, I realized just how much this place is just totally behind the majority of the world. It’s one of a kind, and original. Not necessarily a bad thing, just different. I wonder what the future of Belize will hold. I would imagine it can only go up, especially with the booming tourism here. Which, is exactly why I was dumfounded Belize City wasn’t better off. Where is all the money going?

I went to the 2nd grocery store today. What’s interesting is that most items are imported from the US, so they carry a lot of the target brands I’m looking for. It’s just that there’s gaps in what I can find. Today I asked, and they don’t sell bananas or oranges here. No bananas or oranges? Where the heck are we, they both grow in tropical climates! Streets are dark at night. It reminds me of the Haiti I saw pre-earthquake, just creepy and run-down. I had a ghetto “taxi” pickup but it was exactly who the hotel said it was going to be. He spoke with a thick accent that I could barely understand and when he first arrived I thought he was sporting no shirt, but he had a wifebeater on. Ended up being a nice guy, just sketched me out at first. He showed me pics of his daughter on his phone.

Golf cart repairs HERE

Today was nice. It was a little weird cause I felt like I was on a date, but it was still very nice. In the morning, he told me he had checked out of the hotel and was staying over there. And, would I stay with him? No.. I have to work the next day. Plus, I don’t feel like sleeping overnight in a stranger’s room! After a little pleading, he left me alone.

We got in the taxi, it was my taxi Greg from yesterday, the one who took a car-denting to pick me up. As he got out of the car to put Navy Seal’s bag in the trunk, he said to me “hi, I think I met you in hell.” Haha… but I didn’t hear exactly what he said so I kept on going like it was nice to see him and he said sorry, he didn’t mean any disrespect. Then I put it together and just laughed.

Navy Seal wanted to take a flight. I wanted to just take the water taxi, because it would be cheaper, but whatever… fine a flight would be ok. Though, I had no idea how much it would cost. Domestic charter flights ended up much more easy than I had anticipated. Plus, he paid for my flight there. Can’t get much better than that. We bought the ticket at a little booth and we got a plastic sign that would serve as the boarding pass. I had a beer outside while waiting for the flight, and then we hopped on the plane. There was no security or anything even close to it. There was room for about 10 people at maximum on the small plane. It was actually a lot of fun, and only ten minutes. Beautiful views of the islands. There was one island with perfectly manicured palm trees and then a huggggggge mansion. I wonder who that belongs to!

We got to the island and they had golf cart taxis which we took to the hotel he was checking into (is it bad that I forget his name?) On the way, we passed a golf cart repair place (no car repairs on this island!), a Laundromat with a whole lot of laundry hanging outside, and a golf cart that said “police” on the front. There was one car that we saw on the whole island, and that was right outside the police station. We spent some time just walking around along the ocean, it was one of the cutest islands ever. There were no big resorts here, only small little inns that faced the ocean side and bar&grills that lined the waterway, with menus written on chalkboard. Mostly simple seafood, but big on the over-the-top frozen drinks. I saw a man with a grill selling skewers of shrimp with so many different types of sauces. Had I not just eaten, I would have loved to try at least one of them. Everything was brightly colored, which I love about the Caribbean in general. This island had a big hippy flair to it. Rastafarians with big, long dreadlocks walked up and down the dirt road covered with coral bits. This was a place to have fun, hang back and enjoy the simple pleasures of life. I would love to come back here on vacation sometime. We grabbed a seat at a grill and I got a frozen banana daiquiri (banana is my favorite!), and a shrimp wrap that was really tasty. After that we took a stroll around and found a nice little spot on the coral beach to take a nice little nap. A simple, pleasant, no-stress afternoon. No-name man (since I can’t remember his name) tried a few times to get a little close to me, put his arm around me, begged to put sunscreen on me, but I wasn’t having it. Not interested I guess. Not my type. I was just enjoying not being alone I suppose. I made friends with a few stray dogs and puppies (there were SO MANY of them and they were all the same kind of dog, it was very bizarre). One dog that I was petting before I got on the ferry to come home tried to playfully bite my hand as I was walking away, as in to say no, no stop, you can’t leave me here, I loved being petted! I felt bad. Though, this dog had a collar, he must have been owned by someone.

The taxi boat to go back to Belize City was ridiculous. They packed us like sardines in there for a whole 50 minutes. Back to back, with nowhere to even lean our backs unless you were lucky enough to get a wall seat which I was not. It wasn’t as bad as I had anticipated though, because I BBM’d with Alice the whole way while we talked about our adventures.

So, are you a spy or something?

Belizians are very Caribbean-like. They don’t smile much. They aren’t very friendly. I got a little pissed at the hotel tonight because I called for a taxi. Apparently, there were none immediately outside the hotel. So, the girl tells me to stand on the side of the street and hail one. What, really? Apparently there would be one coming every minute. First off, I didn’t really feel comfortable hailing a cab off the street. Second, I wasn’t seeing any go by anyways. After 5 minutes dealing with this bull, I called the taxi who had taken me there in the first place. He was still working and was going to come pick me up. Finally. I walked from the edge of the parking lot back to the grocery store so I could sit in front and work. The guard told me I shouldn’t be out there, it was much safer for me to wait here. And that biotch from the hotel wanted me to stand on the side of the street? Whatttt? Greg got to the grocery store and immediately got out and was looking at his car. Hmmm.. what happened? “I was on a rush to come get you and some guy hit me, but it was my fault because I was in a rush.” Oh wow, I said, I’m so sorry to hear that! His door was terribly dented up. “It’s cool, man.” No emotion, no clear disappointment. And from there, he went into a very nonchalant: “So how was your study?”

Met an interesting guy tonight at dinner. I was eating dinner at the hotel restaurant and he saw me from down by the pool. He was pretty drunk and said he was going to come and talk to me. I said… OK…. He quickly became “obsessed”. Or, so he said. Started out as an architect and soon became a navy seal. Not sure if that’s the truth or not, but I don’t think he’s really suppose to tell me that he’s a navy seal if that’s the case. Even though he was drunk, his comments made me laugh, and most of the time they were too much. “Wow I hit the jackpot, the most beautiful woman in Belize!” and “The Caribbean breeze on your hair is just… wow you’re beautiful”. I even got, are you a spy? For the 2nd time this week. What is it with that? Well I guess in his case, he would be in big trouble if I was since he’s not suppose to tell what his job is. He said he wanted to check out one of the islands tomorrow, and so did I, so I agreed to go with him. Hopefully that’s the right choice!

Small red ants crawling on my bed

I passed out again. The line for immigration was pretty ridiculous, I had to wait a half an hour. And I had to pee soooo badly. Finally I got through and grabbed a taxi to the hotel. This friendly guy who had a total Caribbean accent, yeah man this and that. He told me a little about where to go and what to do. Nice guy. I got to the hotel (which is not a particularly nice hotel, though it’s a Radisson, especially coming from the Nikko!) And I was just drained. But I didn’t nap. I settled in, wasted some time on facebook and jumped into writing up the rest of my housing reports from Mexico. I wanted to get out of my room to do this cause I knew I would fall asleep. I found someone to ask about where I should go, his name is Clifford from Nigeria and he works security at the hotel. Well, Clifford and I got to talking (rather, Clifford got to talking) and I was getting antsy. Granted, I did keep asking him questions about stuff I needed to know, but he kept on taking them off subject. It was mildly helpful but I was getting bored and even more tired.

I got some tea and a ham and cheese croissant at the little bakery and sat down to do some writing. This worked fine until the bakery closed, I had to move cause they were shutting the lights. I moved into the foyer and kept falling asleep. I decided it was about that time, even though it was about 9pm.

Got back to my room and ended up going strong writing the rest of the reports.
Speaking of antsy, I was about to go to bed at 12 am and noticed that my bed was covered in them. Small red ones. At least 25-30 of them. I called the front desk and the immediate response was “are they black, or red? Is it just a few? Can you just brush them off the bed?” Umm… no… there’s quite a few actually. She had security come down to take a look. They had me move. Thank goodness. I moved down the hall to a room that was located in a building rather than direct to the outside. Much better. Now that I’m done updating my day, I think it’s time to hit the hay.

I was in 3 countries today. Pretty impressive if you think about it, isn’t it?

Bye bye Mexico, Hello Belize!

Didn’t sleep last night. I got home at 1 am and I had to leave the hotel at 4, and I still had all my packing to do. Oh, well let me take that back. I did sleep, for 10 minutes. I almost didn’t get out of bed but then I remembered that I had told Luis that he could drive me in the morning. Poor guy would be waiting for me. (I guess I forgot about the fact that I had a flight to catch). I was sad leaving my lovely hotel room and my beautiful flowers and the friendly staff and posh hotel. There was Luis. We soared past everyone on the way to the airport. I feared for my life a little. But I feel like I do that a lot as a surveyor anyways. He made a 30 minute ride into a wee over 10 minutes. Pretty incredible.

I slept on the plane. I think, I’m not really sure. Time just kinda drifted. Before I knew it (it was a short flight), I was in Dallas, for the first time ever I believe. Right before I got off the plane their first gate announcement was for Boston. Ironic, a bit I thought. Since I was back in the United States and NOT going to Boston. I got some breakfast/lunch, and found some really comfy chairs to choose from to take an hour’s nap in. I pulled myself out when it was time to board. I could see the gate from where I was and no one was moving so I wasn’t in any sort of a rush. That was when I looked at the departure screen and realized I was standing at the wrong gate. Between my arrival and now they must have changed the gate, dangit. I ran. 10 minutes later I was at the right gate, but they hadn’t started boarding. Phew. I was excited, I was on the way to Belize!

Estoy Enamorado

The bar we went to was hilarious. They all sang Spanish songs and the host made fun of us gringos all night. A song came on where the chorus was “Estoy enamorado” – or I’m in love – and he picked on people to say the chorus, and of course I was one of the first. I said it wrong. But, it was pretty funny. Everyone cheered for me and hoped to hear me say it again. One of the cheers that was made was something about good health (or something like that) to the white girls. Yeah they used a slang term, but Daniella explained to me that it’s an endearing title, not an offensive one. So I laughed and clapped and raised my hand when they told me to, even though I had no idea what the heck they were saying. I left the bar to have some dinner and some men sitting in the corner were very disappointed I was leaving. I watched them talk about if I was leaving, subsequently yell at me, and stare at me as I walked out the door, Sorry guys, this girl is determined to find herself some Mexican food!

I used a taxi off the street. Safety of this is so-so, but I had a better idea of what to look for thanks to my cute taxi man. Jose was nice. We chit-chatted on the way there and he gave me his card and said “please call if you need anything, you have a friend in Mexico”. Aww cute. Little did I know that a half hour later I would.

Hacienda de los Morales restaurant was gorgeous. It was huge and felt like it was in an old-times function hall of some sort. It was also very pricey to go along with it. I wanted to take a picture of my soup and my waiter heard me and was going to take one for me. So, I started rummaging through my purse. Hmmm. I rummaged some more. Nothing. Hmm…. I was getting very nervous. It wasn’t there. It wasn’t on my lap, on my chair, on the table. I had taken a picture at the bar, so it was either there or in the taxi. But the taxi seemed more likely. So, I called Jose. Asked if by chance he had it. “Bueno” was what he said. Umm… does that mean yes? Ya, it did. So lucky. So, he drove all the way back to give it to me. I went out to check on him once, and one of the waiters followed me. He told me to go back and eat, he would stand outside and wait for him to come so my soup wouldn’t get cold. Now that’s service. By the way, my soup was tomato-based with fresh chilis, avocado and cheese sprinkled on the top at my discretion. Delicious! About 10 minutes later, waiter came walking in, and with him was Luis… and my camera! Oh my goodness I was delighted. I asked him to wait for me until I’m done with dinner. I was planning to get an extra tip. I was about to go home, but was asked if I wanted dessert. I didn’t. Though, then they brought the dessert tray out just in case, and damn they looked good! So I had one, and my waiter said sheepishly in English “it’s on the house”. (See? Like I said, there are benefits to being a woman and travling solo). He was a sweet guy. “You are welcome here anytime, this is your house” he said. Too bad my house for dinner charged me over 60 USD for the meal. But, well worth it.

Sure enough, Jose was waiting for me. I paid him 3 times the fare I owed him since he went out of his way to return the camera to me. He was stunned and very appreciative, I really am not quite sure why. He clearly doesn’t understand the extent of what that camera means to me. (Thoughts of when I lost half my pics of Italy right about now….) That was my day, and what a day it was. I’m off to Belize in a few hours (didn’t even have the chance to sleep tonight! Another 630am flight). But what a day. A great one. Luckily, it ended happily when it could have ended very differently.

The real Mexico City

And tonight I did get real Mexican food. What a day it was. I had a meeting that went well at 11 am and then after that… nothing going on. So, of course I took a little nap which lasted a little longer than I had hoped, and I was on my way out. The concierge was busy so the hotel car director whom I had spoken with on multiple occasions walked right up to me to ask what I needed. He’s cute. Tall, goodlooking guy (doesn’t look Mexican at all) and like all hotel car directors at this hotel, he wore a tophat. I told him how I wanted to go on a bus tour and he told me where to go and how to get there. I think he’ll miss me a little when he doesn’t see me tomorrow. I think especially in a place like this I tend to be way friendlier than the average person, which sometimes gets me in trouble (or proposed to by 70 year olds) but sometimes works to my advantage (like getting a free dessert in one of the most high-end restaurants in Mex City tonight). Anyways, I hopped on the bus. I had wanted to check out Condesa, so after being on it for only 20 minutes I got off to get a bite to eat. I walked up and down the streets looking for the perfect restaurant to sit at but there were way too many here. It was like walking around in NYC’s Soho. Finally, someone at a French restaurant started talking to me as I walked by. It looked good so I went for it. A simply delicious salad and chicken and cheese crepe for lunch. Yum. When I went to get back on the bus, I noticed one just up ahead so I ran as fast as I could around the confused people to try and make it as it made a stop, but no luck. It pulled away just as I was approaching the stop. Reminiscent of my bus days at home pre-nextbus. I pulled out my book (thank goodness I had it) cause I had a long 40 minutes in front of me before the next one would come. I paused now and again to take in the scenery. Men behind me were preparing to close up their little grocery/corner store for the day. But best of all, someone at the store put out crates to hold a parking spot when someone in a truck from the store left leaving It open. Someone drove up and asked about it. They exchanged words, they seemed friendly, but before I knew it the guy in the car who drove up left his car in the middle of the street (seems like a normal thing to do here), moved the crates and parked. Meanwhile, I was thinking oh man, if he had done that in Boston he would have had some slashed tires for sure!

Bus finally came and we did a loop of the downtown city. It was nice, especially the old downtown part, minus all the traffic. I felt like I was in Europe. After the tour, I returned home much later than I had wanted to. I had been wanting to go for a swim all day, so finally I did it. I was told I needed to take a shower before I was getting into the pool, so fine I did, though I thought it to be bizarre. Maybe they just thought I was a dirty gringa. I swam and poked around, the only one in the pool until a couple other punks came and totally showed me off with their goggles, hair mask and swimming skills. It was getting late anyways. I had heard from Daniella (Gerry’s friend) and I had wanted to meet up with her. I showered and got all ready (in 45 minutes max, seriously) and out the door I went. The cute taxi dispatch man helped me with a car again and I was on my way.

People watching

I went to talk to someone at the phone company to ask about international phone rates. The guy had a line of customers behind him waiting to speak with him and he went on and on asking me questions and talking to me. Just as I was leaving, (FINALLY I was going to be able to get away), he said “I was wondering how long you would be here for because if you would be here this weekend I would take you out to show you around the city”. Good thing I won’t be here this weekend. Why can’t any of these guys be attractive and under 70 years old?

Had a lovely meeting this morning with a woman who, as I had been told, said that she loves every single one of us AIRINCers. And she said exactly that, once again. Warm fuzzy feelings all around, seriously. Though we went on a half hour tangent about an owner that wanted in his Colombian client’s contract her signature that she did not have a “second business,” ie – are you a drug dealer? Yeah it’s pretty interesting, and kinda crazy in some ways, but I think we talked about it being crazy over and over again for a half hour. It wasn’t sounding as crazy anymore by the end. Anyways, sweet lady. It was a nice meeting.

I went to the Sheraton Hotel for some prices that I needed and once I was finished, I walked over to a little square where there was just a pedestrian area and lots of restaurants. I had to go to one of the restaurants for some prices, so I just decided to eat there since I hadn’t eaten all day. It wasn’t until the end of my lunch (my head was buried in my work) that I looked up and realized what great people watching there was. And then I realized, every other couple walking by was 2 men. Seriously, I was in awe. I wonder what the deal is with gay people in this area? Another strange thing that happened was that there were two ladies sitting next to me, they didn’t speak any Spanish. I was dazing off staring at the couples when I heard “excuse me, excuse me” so I looked over and smiled, that smiled which has gotten me into trouble so many times. “What was it that you had for lunch? My friend was wondering for the future.” I thought for a moment, “the Nordic Fillet”. “Is that fish?” “No, no – it was steak.” “OK, thank you!” She said. I was puzzled. A) If she was asking me what I was eating, she must have done so because she thought was I was eating looked good. So if A) is true, then B) how could she not tell that it was steak? It was brown. Fish is not. Then I got to thinking that maybe she just wanted to start a conversation, but ended it there. It was a little strange I thought, but whatever.

Walked home from dinner tonight alone, only a 7 minute walk, but I was stared at by everyone, (which consists of males standing alone). So, I just gave them a whole-hearted “buenas noches!” and kept right on going. Staying at such a nice hotel surrounded by attractive business men, I’m keeping my head high as a single young female staying at this hotel. And I love the feeling. Ya that’s right, I might be really important with my 3 cell phones, I’ll just keep you guessing. I ate at a fancy schmancy Spanish restaurant tonight and had some really good paella. Yummm-yyy!!! Though, I really need to make sure that I get some real Mexican food before I leave this joint! Tomorrow night for sure.

A great night out for a 90 year old.

I drove around the city a little while today. I spoke Spanglish with my driver. It was a good day. I got back and opened my door to 25 beautiful roses. Shut up, really?? Was my initial reaction. I haven’t gotten flowers on too many occasions, and it had to be from a 70 year old creepy man, right? In the card, he said he loved me and wanted me to be the first lady of the United States. Ha, what does that mean. What a weirdo. I was just hoping he was forgetful enough to forget that we had planned to go out for dinner. Oh, but he remembered. At 8:15 I was headed downstairs after getting a phone call. I wanted to stay in the area. Like I said earlier, he sketched me out a little so I didn’t want to do anything or go anywhere too crazy. We took a taxi, he wanted to show me the hotel he was “living in”. Don’t worry, this didn’t consist of going to his room. It was alright, but not somewhere I would think someone making $30,000 a day would make. He ordered a bourbon for me. Ewww. I drank it politely. And then he jabbered on about stuff that made absolutely NO sense for about a half hour. I would repeat some of it, but it doesn’t make sense for me to even remember. Something about the Germans being lightbeings and not descendents of God, and the Jews crucified Jesus and that’s why they burned in Auschwitz, and then, after all the tado about it being so great that I was a democratic, he told me he was a straight to the right republican. All the way to the right. Last night he had said the exact opposite. I’m not sure if the guy is nuts or has alzheimers or something. Who knows. After our bourbon, we went to the Sheraton hotel to see Mariachi. Damn I was hungry, but there was no food there. Just more drinks, and some snacks. Some other older man came in, and him and crazy started talking. Before I knew it, I was surrounded on either side, and would be for the next hour, by two elderly men talking back and forth in Spanish in the middle of my view of the mariachi band. I was right in the middle. Great evening out for a 90 year old, but not for me. Better yet, crazy introduced me as his wife. And then he asked me where we met. This was a serious question.

Luckily, we left at a very reasonable time, and I wasn’t even the one to suggest it. Stephen asked me to marry him a second time and I said no, so he finally left me alone with a “if you change your mind, you know where to find me”. And didn’t try to set up a further “date” with me. He left me at the hotel, dropped me off and let me be. So far no crazy messages, we’ll see what the new day will bring.

What not to lose while in Mexico

I had a meeting at starbuck’s across the street this morning with a realtor. Nice lady, from Ottawa Canada. Married a Mexican and it didn’t work out, 2 kids later. Susan told me about this contamination sticker that you need to get in Mexico every 6 months, 1 year, or 2 years depending on your car. And, once your car reaches either 8 or 10 years old, you are not allowed to drive it every day! If you get caught with not having the sticker, or with the wrong license plate number (it’s the last number that determines) on an off day, your car gets impounded. Or you pay off the Mexican police, whichever works better for you.

There is heightened security throughout the hotel today since the president is here. Unfortunately I didn’t catch a glimpse of him, and I meant to get a pic of all the bodyguards/secret service or whatever they were hanging around but I forgot. Oh well. I felt like I was back in India again. Though this time they went a little further and even needed to shift through my purse. Well, I gotta give it to them, you never know what you could find in that purse of mine. I find things I forgot about all the time. Maybe a semi automatic weapon would be one of them.

One thing I am going to try NOT to lose while here? The immigration paper that was given to me at the airport. They didn’t make as big a deal about it as they should have when I arrived, but one of my co-workers lost hers and needed to pay about 50 USD AND write a letter to the Mexican government about how sorry and stupid it was for her to lose that paper, beg them to let her leave the country, she had to tell them how Mexico is the best country in the world, and if she were a millionaire she would invest wholeheartedly in it. Well, not really. But you get the gist of it. I have never seen anything like that before – (well, missing a travel visa is one thing, but immigration papers is a totally different ballgame, or I would have thought so).

After my meeting with Susan, I went to lunch. I looked around sheepishly and noticed I was one of about 3 women only in the whole of about 70 people in the restaurant. Talk about outnumbered. It’s OK though, a large population of those people were made up of really good-looking soccer players; Los Santos, apparently one of the major soccer leagues in Mexico. I only know that cause I just googled them. Oh well I don’t really care, what I do care about is that they were nice to look at.

Meeting Wealthy, Ancient Mr. Loco

Met a very strange old man tonight at an expensive restaurant at the hotel next door. He was sitting next to me and just started talking to me, telling me what my soup was when it wasn’t what he said it was, but I gave up after the 2nd try. He told me a little about his background, he has a perfect American English accent but grew up in Mexico to a couple of wealthy parents. He carries pictures of his mother around with him, (including a very large ceramic one) and clearly has a thing against black people and gays (said some inappropriate things out quite loud which made me feel a little uneasy, he’s clearly not American!) Though, he loves Obama. And, he is very much democrat and loves the health care bill. I thought he was very much the opposite. I thought it was a littleeeee bizarre when he filled out the comment card with all my personal information (address, phone number, etc.) and then where it said spouses name he put his own. And then, he put it in his pocket. Also, he told me his name when I met him, and then showed me his national ID. His ID had a different name. When I asked him about it, he said he was changing his name because he wanted to sound British or something like that. Bizarrooooo. Lived all sorts of places, said some very, very strange things that go way over my head, and says he has a whole lot of shares in oil companies and makes about $30,000 a day. He paid for my dinner right off the bat. He has these strange sores all over and walks with a limp, he’s only 65 years old but seems as though he’s 75 or so. Before I said goodnight to him, he asked so, you’re really not a CIA agent? And you are a democrat, really? WTF? Anyways, before I realized just how strange he was I agreed to go to dinner with him tomorrow night. We shall see where this adventure goes, maybe I should ask him to buy me a BMW for a souvenir.

This morning, I awake to a knock at the door. At 6:45 am, despite my DO NOT DISTURB sign. I didn’t think too much of it, but it was enough to get very sluggish me out of bed. I noticed my phone was flashing. There was not one, but TWO notes that had been slipped under the door. One of which was from 5:45 am. Lauren, please call me as soon as you wake up. The second one read as follows:

Miss Lauren Marie Basler:
Just to let you know that Mr. Stephen David Foster called to leave the following message: I really enjoyed last night, my phone number is …… ext. 410. I tell you, I am separated from Mary Caroline, my wife of 14 years. I would like to marry you and have children. Please let me know if you accept as soon as you can. Thank you, have a nice day!

Oh my god this guy is a psycho. 5 minutes later, my phone rings. REALLY? So I pick it up “Hi, what are you doing? Huh? It’s 7 am I’m sleeping!! This city doesn’t wake up until at least 9!” So I go to tell him that I’m sorry, but I have a serious boyfriend at home, and I drop the damn phone and it disconnects. I may have even broken it. But damnit, I want to tell him that he shouldn’t pursue it (cause frankly, I don’t like 7 am phone calls) so I call him back. It took me 3 tries and 2 disconnections before I finally got through. And I tell him. But he still wants to have breakfast, lunch, AND dinner preferably, but I told him that we could have dinner the following night, so I kept it at that. What a morning. It was 7:15 am and I was wide awake but exhausted. I napped in and out a little while longer.

Is Mexico REALLY dangerous?

Stop believing what you don’t really know, people. Mexico in general is NOT dangerous. Really, it’s not. I feel totally safe here, you don’t see armed guards like in the majority of Central America, you can walk around night or day and not worry about it. My taxi driver said to me, Americans think that Mexico is so dangerous, but it’s not true. The news makes them think this. It’s just like any other major city; New York, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles… you can walk around day or night but you need to be careful at all times, and not wander into bad neighborhoods. I never would have thought Mexico would be as safe as it appears to be, and as everyone says it is. I have had multiple conversations with people about that here, and I truly believe it’s true. The news sure is pretty powerful.

But, you know what is dangerous? They don’t stop for red lights in Mexico. My taxi tonight took me on a little tour to see some of the nice neighborhoods. He cruised through a couple red lights. So, I asked him… you don’t need to stop for red lights in Mexico? He laughed and said: “Green means go. Yellow means go faster. Red means take a moment to look around.” I liked my taxi driver home tonight (even if he did charge me $30, well it was kinda a ways away from the hotel) and he suggested this restaurant where I met weirdo and told me I should try the French onion soup. So I did, and it was excellent. That followed with a shrimp dish. Yum.

The Mexican President, even though he lives down the street, is staying at my hotel tomorrow night. Someone important is in town. I’ve got to try to catch a glimpse of this!

Church, pyramids and tequila - all in one day

Awesome day tonight. I was feeling a lot tired and reserved when I got into the bus full of people. But, we met at the “headquarters” and changed buses. We all had an introduction and we were on our way. I heard the girl next to me say that they talk way faster in Mexico than they do in Argentina. I found out later she was Brazilian. Later, I mentioned to the guide that I thought Mexicans spoke Spanish quickly and he disagreed, but then later said that it’s like US Americans in the South speak slowly, and New Yorkers speak quickly. So, I wanted to say… so are you saying that maybe you do speak quickly? But I didn’t. I just let it go. Anyways, we stopped first at Our Lady of Guadalupe, the most visited (pilgrimaged) church in the world second to the Vatican. The story goes like this: Indian goes to Bishop and says Bishop, our Mother Mary wants us to build a church in x location. Bishop says I don’t believe you, bring back a symbol. Bishop dreams that Indian will bring back flowers as a symbol. Indian picks flowers in the middle of very cold weather at the site where the church will be. This doesn’t make sense because the weather should be much too cold for growing roses. Anyways, Indian goes back to Bishop with roses. Indian unfolds his shirt and there is an amazing portrait (a miracle) of the Blessed Mother. Apparently. This “miracle” is still hanging in the church to this day. It was made out of cactus, and due to the material that cactus is made from, it should have disintegrated a long time ago. A miracle, or so they say. So, we got to see this piece of “art”. I took some pics. My tour guide asked me a couple times what I thought of it, I said I thought it was pretty cool. But personally, I was thinking it really would be quite a miracle if that picture is really what was on the guy’s shirt when he let it down. He told me finally that he thinks the Indians played quite a trick on society. Kinda what I was thinking too. It was time to move on to the highlight.

My head bobbed in the car while the guide explained the history on the way there. Once we got out and moved around though, I was fine. We first stopped and took a look at the cactus plant, watched obsidian being carved into beautiful figurines, and tried some tequila shots. Good way to start a big tour.

The pyramids, which we finally got to see in person, were awe-inspiring. Up at the top of the ridiculous amount of stairs which I did climb by the way, barely (I didn’t realize I was that out of shape), people looked like little ants looking up at the top. This is a society that scientists know very little about. They have no idea who lived here, nor do they know why they abandoned it; what is believed to have been THE largest city in the world way back in one of those time periods. I had some nice conversations with some great people, and by lunchtime we were all great buddies. The 2 margaritas that knocked me on my ass helped that out to. We really had fun, and I had a great Mexican dish full of lots of meat in a bowl, served with tortillas that you can choose to use or not. I did, and used quite a few of them. I was terribly drunk after the 2 margaritas though. So drunk that after coming home, taking a 4 hour nap I woke up and physically got sick, on 2 separate occasions. Not only that, I had THE worst pulsating headache I had felt in a long long time. Not a good way to end the night!

Welcome to Mexico!

Got into Mexico tonight, from summer in Panama into winter in Mexico, and was greeted very warmly by everyone. I tried to speak Spanish constantly, even when they spoke English with me. Customs was a little more bad-ass than other countries in Latin America, and almost everyone had to get their whole bag searched. Luckily I didn’t. After the bags were scanned, each person was asked to press a red button which would tell you if your bag would be manually checked or not. I have no idea if it was random or not, it was strange. On my way to the hotel, I had a nice driver, but he bored me. Only half I could understand, the other half was mostly blah blah blah ehhhhhhhh blah blah ehhhhh (the latin version of um).

My hotel is gorgeous. Really, really nice. I’m on the 21st floor, and there are something like 43 here.

All I have to say today, is that well, I drove through some lovely neighborhoods on the way to the grocery store, and I still love love love love my hotel, it’s got a hot lounge, 2 Japanese restaurants, an English pub and another casual Mexican/international restaurant. The grocery store today sucked, items weren’t labeled well so I often had to use the price checker, and it was hard to find matching items anyways.

Tomorrow I’m going to Teotihuacan or something like that. Getting up early, we’ll see how that goes!

Panama Canal

Had a good day today. After a realtor meeting in Costa Del Este, I took a liking to the taxi driver and decided to keep him for the day. I checked out of the room and then he took me around the city a little bit. We stopped at a couple islands to take some pictures, he explained how the ugly beach lining a very lonnnng bridge was going to be cleared and turned into a boardwalk. Panama City had a brand new Trump Tower, and besides some pretty interesting architecture. Lots of brand new buildings were going up, I hadn’t seen much like that since being in India. We finally made it to the Panama Canal, after getting through the ridiculous traffic that can be found throughout the city. The canal was pretty impressive, with tens of thousands of gallons of water that needed to be drained when the ship was passing through the locks. I followed about 45 minutes of watching one very, very large ship (actually the max size that would fit through the canal) from start to finish going through this particular station. From one end to the other, of the canal, cost the ship over $310,000, and they would drain tens of thousands of gallons of water for this to happen. This totally shocked me, I couldn’t believe how expensive it was. The ship needed locomotives on both sides of it to assist in getting through the canal. It was pretty impressive, that’s for sure.

I had noticed while driving around that lots of the cars didn’t have plates on them. Leonardo told me they weren’t needed. He also told me how everyone in Panama eats fried chicken, and lots of fried foods for breakfast typically, including empanadas and big juicy steaks. Sounds healthy.

We went and sat at a little restaurant with great views of the ocean, nice and calm, and had some snacks, beers, and seafood. The traffic on the way to the airport was brutal, but I didn’t care much because I was passed the f out. I got there with time to spare, thought they told me at the checkin counter that there was only 3 minutes until the start of boarding.

Always one step behind

I had a bizarre taxi driver incident today. I had to go to a mall for only about an hour to get some prices. Well, taxi driver was afraid he was going to get bored, so he wanted to take a walk. Him taking a walk turned into him following me around one step behind everywhere I went. Even worse, it was that very awkward hmmm do I wait up for him to catch up to me? (I think we North Americans walk much slower than they do in Latin America). He rarely even talked to me. I didn’t know if I should tell him what I was looking for, although I doubt that would have gotten me very far. I asked him to tell me where one of the stores that I needed to go to was and he took me to the exact opposite side and there it was NOT. I had to get prices for Hard Rock Café and immediately the girl thought she was going to be seating the two of us. Haha, not so much. Even that was awkward, I felt like I had an annoying child tagging along behind me.

Lastly, for the very last experience of the day, I met Mario the realtor. He was kinda a pain in the ass. As soon as he opened the door, a good-looking, egotistical man greeted with a “hi we’ve been waiting for you, we’re very busy”. Umm… I was 10 minutes early, for once. I was already pissed off. So after explaining a little more why I was there and what I was looking for, he kept giving looks like “I don’t have time for this”, and everything came out came out like one of those people who were totally smug and thought they were just better than you and again, like you were wasting their time. He explained to me that a lot of people came to just “look” around and they didn’t want to deal with that. And then, he asked me if we had a lot of clients coming into Panama. What a dick, really. Whatever. I was going to get as much as I could out of them before I leave. I’m not sure what happened, but all of a sudden the mood changed a little. Suddenly he wanted to be helpful, and maybe it was when I mentioned that P&G, whom they had relocated in the past, was one of our clients. After I gave up with asking questions, Mario and I small-talked. About Panama, about Boston, suddenly he wasn’t in so much of a rush anymore. He gave me some sightseeing books, put me in touch with a sightseeing driver, and I even got a kiss on the cheek when I left. It was a strange meeting and I didn’t get much out of it.

There are no big macs at Burger King. WHOOPS!

Today I went to the mall. What a mall it was. The thing was HUGE and so much nicer than most of the malls I have been to in the US. Every single high-end brand you could think of and then some. I had found a restaurant I was interested in checking out, so I left the mall and asked the cabby if he could take me to “Palms”. Hmmmm… he was confused. He asked his cabby buddies, they seemed confused too. So in the car I went and we would look for it. We did 3 loops of the neighborhood and I had decided to give up, I told him he could leave me there and I would find somewhere else to go, there were so many restaurants around. But no, he wasn’t giving up. He wanted to know much more than I did what the deal with this restaurants was. So, we asked one person. No idea. The second one told us where it was, so we did another loop. But again, we didn’t see it. We asked a third person who said it was in the same place that the previous guy mentioned. What the heck? What are we missing? And then finally, the 4th and LAST person we asked was able to tell us it was now called “Tomate y Amor” instead! PHEW! I made sure to give the guy a couple extra bucks for being so determined and helpful.

Today I went up to a Burger King fast food joint and asked for the price for a Big Mac. WHOOPS!! I will never do that again. The poor lady was horrified. And the guy next to me just laughed at me. How embarrassing.

I had a great waiter tonight. It was kinda unintentional. I was walking in circles trying to decide what I wanted to do for dinner. Walked outside with the intention of getting a cab. A waiter saw me walk out the door and immediately said hello, and asked if I wanted a soda to go with the fries I had just bought from burger king because a) I was starving from not eating anything all day and b)I felt bad about asking for the price for a big mac at Burger King. I said no that’s alright, and he said “it’s on me”. Well, that in Spanish. So, I said sure then, why not. I can sit and decide what I want to do for dinner and do a little work while I’m at it. So, my super ambitious plan of going back the hotel and freshening up before heading out again fizzled out and I just decided to eat there at the restaurant. Aside from the pumping techno music that was meant to make people feel like they were at Nikki Beach in Miami (complete with white décor everywhere) it was a nice little spot, and I had a seat outside so I could people watch when my eyes weren’t glued to my second blackberry writing down prices. There was a little small talk here and there with him, and I even got a free mojito (good drinks down this way!) and he called a taxi for me when I was going home. I’m not sure if he was “interested” in me or not, he really just came across as being friendly and curious. Not over the top about it, and he rarely came around to chit chat. Not a very attractive man, but there was definitely something about him that came across as genuine. I could just see it, and it was comforting in a way.

The darker the coffee roast, the less caffeine.

I got to the hotel and was totally and entirely exhausted. I had things to do but a nap was my first priority. The problem was that when I forced myself to get up because I had a phone appointment with a realtor, (about 1.5 hours later), I was unable to really wake up and felt like I was recording things in my sleep. My brain wasn’t working. Even worse, I made some phone calls after the half hour meeting and one of the realtors wanted to meet me in less than 2 hours, which meant I had very little time to finish my phone calls and other stuff that I wanted to work on. And of course, no time to go back to sleep.

I think I was still half asleep when I had my next meeting. But man, this lady was spot-on. She was the total package; she clearly worked for a great company (rather she was the vice president), she had a chic office, she was friendly AND very professional. I really didn’t know what to expect at first, but she was totally patient and super nice. I left in a very upbeat mood and decided I would keep up the work with surveying a grocery store.

One interesting tidbit before I go: The darker a coffee roast, the LESS caffeine there is. That’s to say, we think that espresso packs quite the punch, but actually a cup of regular coffee has more. Who knew?

Sometimes people take advantage. I hate those people.

I was about to find the cabstand when someone asked me if I needed a cab. Yes I did… so I asked him if he was a legit taxi and he said yes (I guess what else would he say?) and on approach to the cab, it was a yellow one with taxi cab emblems. I had no idea how much I should expect to pay so I didn’t bother to ask. He seemed like a really nice guy who spoke English pretty well and we made small talk and he told me a little about the city. As we headed towards the hotel, what I saw was a LOT of high rises. It looked like a modern miniature NYC. I got out of the car and was charged $35. $35? I thought that was pricey but I didn’t have anything to compare it to. I would ask the hotel. Sure enough, $35 was double the price I should have been charged. What a dick. So, as soon as I got to my room I decided to call him. “Hi Tomaximo! (yeah seriously this is his name) So I was going to use your taxi services this week, but then the hotel told me that you overcharged me! The hotel taxi costs $30 and the yellow taxis should be $15-20, that’s not fair.” For 20 minutes in the car? He says. Yessssssss I said, I really don’t think the hotel would lie to me. Again, the hotel car is $30. Well, I didn’t get very far. He said he would drive me to the airport on Friday for $15 but that doesn’t do a dent in it. It’s principal, right people? F him.

Costa Rica to Panama, and lots in between

A few interesting things happened in transit from Costa Rica to Panama. The first was that I was assigned to sit next to a man who appeared to not be Spanish, he looked white like me and he was older. He seemed slightly awkward for some reason so I didn’t make any effort to talk to him. But, about 30 minutes into the flight, and after a little nap, he handed me my breakfast which he had been keeping for me while I slept. Along with that he asked if I was traveling for work but it went something like this. Whawhawhawhawhawhawhawha whawhawhaaaaaaaaa whawhawhawhawhawhawhat are you dododododododododododo ing in Panama? Poor guy had a stutter. A terrible one. I commend him for opening his mouth to talk to me, or anyone in general. I can’t imagine having to deal with that. We had a great conversation though, turns out he’s a scientist from Chicago who has lived in Panama since 1992 with his family (wife and children). He somehow works for an extension of the Smithsonian museum. Smart guy, I wasn’t really totally sure what to do in the instance that he couldn’t get his words out. At times I finished his sentences for him, other times I just looked away until he could get it out. I tried studying his face for signs of embarrassment when he would trip up, but we would go right back to normal conversation. Interesting experience.

Upon my exit from the airplane, and being the last person to leave the airplane, I caught a glimpse of the bus full of passengers on the way to the airport. I was stranded, well not really. The rest of the flight crew and pilots were too. I stood there and made very small talk (and of course declared myself “lucky” to be stuck with the flight crew) for a good 20 minutes in the hot Panamanian heat while waiting for something to bring us in. It was taking forever, but I thought it was pretty funny.

After getting a big thudded stamp on my passport, and having my bags scanned, I was out in the terminal. As usual, I headed right to the ATM so I could get myself some local currency. I didn’t know what the exchange rate was, so I just took out 100. And guess what came out of the machine? US dollars!

Yeah I'm alone on Valentine's Day, what of it?

I love driving around the countryside in Costa Rica. It’s a feast for the eyes. Lots of golden yellow and light grassy greens, along with rain clouds in the distance hovering over the mountains/volcanoes that sometimes produce rainbows. San Jose itself is a small, kinda crappy city but the surrounding towns are tiny and very farm-like. Very different from anywhere I have been, it’s fairly developed and modern, but at the same time it has a very rustic, humble, farm-like feel to it. Everywhere. I guess all the cows and donkeys, coffee, pineapple and banana plantations, and rows and rows of fields help promote that view. But the traffic sucks.

Speaking Spanish is becoming more and more comfortable. Well the listening part even more. I still cheat and ask if they speak English, but most of the time I speak spanglish or just Spanish, cause they probably understand my Spanish more than they can speak/understand English. It’s very rewarding. I had a 20 minute conversation with someone in a store today and only had to say “what?” a couple times. Proud of myself. Of course the conversation ended with him wanted to touch my “rubia” hair and asking if I had a boyfriend in Costa Rica. No old man, I’m going back to work now.

Had Peruvian food for dinner tonight. Quite good, it was my second time to this restaurant (I came two years ago). I avoided whatever his name was who was working at the restaurant next door. It was successful. I was wondering why the restaurants were so very busy today, and then remembered it was Valentine’s day. I was the only one there alone in a restaurant full of lovers and pretty dressed up girls, so very sad if you think about it. But I wasn’t sad. I sang along to the sappy love songs and hope everyone looked at me and realized how content I was, and wondered what the hell I was doing out alone on Valentine’s day. I just finished the San Jose survey gosh darn it!

I think I was frustrated when I wrote this one.

Got a happy valentine’s day wish today from one of my Indian friends. You know , it gets to be a real problem when you start forgetting who you have told you have a boyfriend to, and who you have not. I guess I should create a story and stick with it so that I don’t forget, but there are some that I don’t mind if they know I don’t have a boyfriend, and some that are just better off thinking that I do.

Ugh I need to get up in 2 hours. Why is it that I’m always stuck working so late finishing everything up perfect to a T? My fault or just not enough time? I’m really not sure. Anyways, tomorrow I go to Panama. Today was a whirlwind, I didn’t really expect it to be as busy as it was. I have been calling and emailing the freaking car insurance agent for a full week now, and he hasn’t gotten back to me AT ALL. I don’t get it, this has never happened to me before. And this guy is suppose to be THE contact for one of the major relocation agents in the country! Service in Central America I guess, though I haven’t seen it this bad. I’m about to give them a piece of my mind with a lot of English swear words involved. (In these situations I try to pretend that I’m actually someone really important, where in real life I’m not, but that’s OK. We tend to lie our way through getting information quite often. Most of the time it works.) Today there was lots of traffic. Since Lorena cancelled on me because of her car accident, she didn’t have time to meet with me today (though it took an email and a phone call to get her to say one way or the other; again… typical central America)…. She would talk with me tomorrow, but just in case I thought I would try calling Crown Relocation which we meet with throughout most of the world. Oh my god I wish I didn’t, it was like pulling teeth. They were about 45 minutes away from my hotel with the traffic that I had to deal with, and I got there and had to sit in on a meeting with 3 people; the country manager, the business director and an account manager while I tried over and over again to explain why it’s important that they meet with me and help me out with information, and lightly try to tell them no that I’m not trying to promote this crazy business opportunity for them. Maybe in the long run it will be a good thing for them that I met with them because our clients will be aware of their presence in Costa Rica, but they just… wouldn’t… get it. Kept asking the same questions over and over again, I didn’t know how to answer them any differently. It took about 45 minutes before we could finally move on to the information that I needed. After about a half hour the country manager was possibly getting frustrated and said “wow, you better give Crowne credit for this!” I wanted to kick his teeth out. You’re an amateur, you don’t know who we are. Get some more experience, realize our importance and then get back to me. We actually have somewhat of a partnership with Crowne somewhere in Asia I believe it is. Still didn’t even phase them. Part of me thinks they were just stupid people. No that’s mean.

Volancos and hot springs...

Today was so nice. Well, I went to bed late as usual last night and that wasn’t very nice, but oh well. Typical. I got out of bed at 8 am and starting washing up. 5 minutes into in my phone rang. “Good morning and we are here early!” Oh man, I told them it would be about 10 minutes and made record time with getting dressed. Good thing I did all my showering and prepping for stuff to bring the night before! The drive out and seeing the countryside was very nice. We stopped at an artisan’s shop that makes oxcarts (Guinness book of world record-holder actually) and looked around the shop. They had excellent wooden products. I bought a bracelet and a set of wooden coasters, all very pretty. Hopped back on the bus and I napped until we stopped for an excellent lunch, I got the “casado” which consisted of rice, black beans, plantains, salad, beets and chicken. I got to know some of the other people on the tour. There was a little boy with an Indian father and a Bulgarian mother. He was the cutest little thing, so happy go lucky, never heard him cry. He must have been 2.5-3 years old. Grandma had purple hair. I met two couples; one of which currently lives in Madison, Wisconsin. But, they spent 12 years in an ashram in India! Unbelievable. The other couple “live” between Florida and Australia but travel just about constantly. They spent years in Jakarta, Indonesia where their kids we to the international school there. He is from NY, she is from Australia. They met traveling and just kept it up. She was telling me that after their Costa Rica trip they were “talked into” going on a cruise (where they would be going back to Central America!) and then to NY for a wedding. Constant travel, but they seem to love it. They both seemed young; have kids that are 26 and 28, but are both retired. She was a nurse, he was a financial accountant for Kaiser. I don’t know, I feel like there has to be something else going on for them to have enough money to support all that travel.

After lunch, it was hiking time. We hiked a short hour around the base of the volcano Arenal. Very pretty, but I thought I was going to be able to see some active volcano action, which I did not. I got stung by something and momentarily freaked a little, but it was fine. I saw some beautiful flowers, leaf-cutter ants and some very, very large leaves.

From there we went to the hot spring resorts, and that was lovely. There was pool after pool of waterfalls and warm thermal water. I get lost roaming the pathways of the grounds and finding all the hidden waterfalls and entrances where there was no one around. It was pretty amazing and beautiful. I went in and then chatted with my new couple friends until it was time for dinner. Dinner was a Costa Rican buffet and it was excellent. First course was salads, seconds was rice and meat and such. I was laughed at when my desert plate consisted of a second spoonful of rice and 2 small desserts. Wow you eat a lot! Yeah, that’s pretty much my trademark :)

On the way back, Manfred the guide gave me his card and told me to keep in touch. I’ll keep his card because I feel kinda bad, but it’ll probably end up in the trash. I have no reason to keep in touch. I passed out all the way to the hotel. It was a busy day, but a really nice one!

Plaza Itskatzu in Escazu

Met another guy obsessed with Boston sports today. Specifically the Patriots. It’s nice to feel especially welcome because of something I have in common with a local or two. Also, I’ve been told on multiple occasions that my Spanish is really good. That’s so nice to hear!

Nothing special went on today. Had some great sushi at the Intercon though, (oh my goodness and an AWESOME salad, it had avocado, sushi salmon and cukes finally chopped with some awesome pastry-like crunchy “noodles” to go along with it. Divine. I listened to a bunch of guys that sounded like they were gambling bigwigs of some sort, I couldn’t make it out, but it sounded like they were heavily involved in the sports industry or something. I tried hard to figure it out. The Intercon is a lot nicer than my hotel, but for some reason I love the casual, homey and airy feel of my hotel. The doors are always open, and there’s always fresh air circulating. Even if the biggest disappointment is that they don’t serve lunch all day like they use to!

I had the most bizarre survey sitch tonight. I got caught taking prices with my phone immediately after walking into a store, it was so unusual. Never has such a thing happened to me while trying to be so discreet. After it happened on the first floor, I went upstairs. Someone caught me right away on the second floor too and I tried to keep going but the lady followed me. Finally I gave up and walked out. So bizarre. The mall in Escazu is really high end and very nice, in general. Oh, and I loved this two years ago… but I’m staying in Itskazu plaza in Escazu. So funny! Tomorrow I am getting up early to see the Arenal Volcano, and I’m super excited, though I’m sure I’ll be very tired as well.

A couple days ago, I got caught in Hiper Mas (like a higher-end Walmart) by the security and the manager. They told me I couldn’t survey, but it was the end of the night anyways. Today I went back and finished on my blackberry without even a 2nd glance. I never saw the manager, that helped. The other night I couldn’t find my way out of the store. Everything was gated up and locked so I had to find the only exit and make sure to call the hotel for a car cause there were none in sight. I walked around for a good 20 minutes before I could finally figure out where the heck I was going. I actually got a little nervous. I talked spanglish with the guard (which I have done a lot this trip) before the taxi came, it didn’t take all too long.