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.