Belize

 Here's the NEW index to 404. Today is Saturday, the 24th, 4:30am but you probably don't want to read this one. I'm putting it up, just so I can save it. I was wandering around archive.org and I stumbled across a blog I had a bourbonaddict.com, I don't recall putting all those posts in (there's well over 100) but of note was this review I did of my wedding. Sounds funny, huh? I had no idea it was a disaster (according to my wife, once divorced, but before we went out after Ashley's marriage reception and she basically raped me. Funny huh?)

 Of particular note in the review was a link to a site I don't recall making, but apparently I did, krisandjenn.com and also to, lo-and-behold, the wedding photographer's still existing website with all of our wedding photos that we paid entirely too much for. Archive.org didn't crawl krisandjenn.com but once and it never made it past the first page. Also of note was another site I had forgotten about, the one that actually netted me a roommate for a year, Ken Voorhees from North Dakota, and Cassie, who eventually went to our wedding in Belize, and Sodapop who became Charles, transforming from the miserable teenage girl to one of the happiest dudes I ever met. That site was midnighttokerslounge.com. And again the Wayback Machine at Archive.org didn't crawl it basically so there's really no record.

Also, of note is another section I am adding to the site (I'll put it on the new 404 index). The section is 'Extra.' Right now its just got 3 pages, 'I Got Your Six' which is basically lyrics and videos from the album I love so much, Buku Boogie Down, which is just that list of songs from down below here and the myTunes player page i put up as a programming project. And I also put up my ringtones, all 300 of them in case you wanted some weird shit as a ringtone, you can download them. And lastly of the three ages in Extra is a Page of all the links that I've made or I visit, quite a reference collection. Without further ado, here's a funny to me joke and then that sweltering 8000 word write up on Belize

“A Man’s Guide to Love and Lasting Relationships. 1. Find a woman who will make you laugh. 2. Find a woman who has a job and and likes housework 3. Find a woman who is honest. 4. Find a woman who will wait on you hand and foot 5. Find a woman who is awesome in the bedroom. 6. Most of all. It is very important that these five women never meet.”

Belize

Katie, at Belize-Trips.com booked all of our stuff for us; transfers, excursions and rooms. To the extent that everything came into place and we didn’t have to worry about the details that can ruin a wedding, she was invaluable; a total asset that we could not have done without. If you need to book a trip to Belize, use Katie, she is great, maybe the best in Belize. We did our wedding on Ambergris Caye. Why Belize? Cost, setting, lower attendance to make it more special. Plus, think about it; ceremony on the beach with the very closest subset of your whole family and friends, you cannot get much better than that, really. So, to the few brave souls who made the trek, here’s a great big mug of “Cheers to ya!”

The plane ride was okay. We took a red-eye flight out of Seattle at about 11pm and got into Miami early the next morning. We got stuck in from of the emergency exits so we couldn’t recline; that sucked big time. All I wanted was just a few hours of rest! Afterwards, we had a three hour flight to Belize International Airport. Easy. All of our luggage arrived unscathed. Customs was easy. We had to take the cab to the municipal airport for our flight to the Ambergris Caye, and we had too many people to travel in one car so we went in two. George was our driver. George was great!!! (George 610-4450 - call him, trust me, he is a gem) I have a phobia of edges and get anxiety attacks easy so the small plane to the Caye, while only ten minutes, was not high on my list. So we were informed of a pharmacy to buy some Valium at to ease my nerves. That guy only wanted to sell us ten in a blister pack. This was on Freetown Road. We asked George if he knew of another and a few blocks later he had us at another. This guy would have sold us his whole pharmacy. Not really, but we got more than our allotted 90 day supply of many things. Even though we blew about a hundred USD, it felt worthy. Twenty milligrams of Valium later we were at the airport and our luggage was getting tossed onto this tiny plane. I didn’t like it but I was giggly, duh, Valium has that effect. Needless to say, it went without a hitch, a phrase that will, come up often when discussing our trip.

When we arrived on Ambergris Caye, we had a ride arranged, well, paid for. So we hailed a cab and away we were whisked to Xanadu Resort. The Xanadu had a great location right on the Caribbean side of the Caye, just under a mile away from the barrier reef. Watching the waves break over the reef was relaxing. The staff at Xanadu was beyond reproach. Great people. I believe we met with Susan and Stacey. Both were excellent hosts who did everything possible to make our wedding and stay in San Pedro the best it can be. I do believe Stacey is a wee bit smaller but they were both cute white girls that looked very similar, and both über accommodating and nice and ssweet. I cannot count how many times I was asked “need anything?” Xanadu had free bicycles and kayaks you could take for the day if you wished. San Pedro is the main town on Ambergris Caye. Many people rent golf carts to get around instead of bikes or feet. We chose feet. For the most part, we stayed on the resort. We ventured off to acquire 1 Barrel Rum and Belikin, and that is about it.

Now, San Pedro is the main city on the Caye. A taxi driver told me the population was about 13,000 but wiki says about 8,400. I bet the taxi driver was right. It is a cute town, but still very third world.

The problem I had was the same the I have in every resort town. We arrive there ten years too late and the prices are like dining in Seattle. San Pedro was no different. One could easily spend $150 USD ($300BZD) on a dinner. Easily. Finding the places the locals eat was the best part, and sadly enough we only found one. But the one we found kicked butt. We were traveling with a pescatarian, so eating for her wasn’t as good (IMHO) as for the rest of us. But, I did manage to feed me and one person each a Belikin, and a plate of rice and beans with stewed chicken and salad for $9 USD ( $18 BZD) and we could barely finish our plate! Now that is the kind of eating I live for in foreign countries. We did manage to participate in the “world famous chicken drop” on Wednesday night. Needless to say, we didn’t win. But we did have fun and drink many rum-flavored drinks. The wife even managed to acquire a few gifts from a local Rasta.

Again, the Xanadu was great. My college pal managed to bring in two cases of nice champagne. Well, on the first night, after a healthy amount of rum and champagne, people were opening bottles with machetes and being generally all-around boisterous and loud. The staff at the Xanadu was very accommodating and people all around us very nice. The next night we had some British tourist crash our party and puke off of our balcony and that was a bummer. Of course the iPod kept getting turned up and we went into the wee hours of the morning. As it turned out, the guests under us had just taken the tour cave tubing and zip-lining in the jungle and were very tired. We kept them up. We offered them a bottle of champagne, but they refused, saying that if they were ten years younger they would have been up there with us. Classic. And classy people. Yea, that was Friday night after our wedding.

On Wednesday, we we had planned an excursion to Shark Alley. The sea was a little rough and current a bit strong for us non-swimmers but it was neat, very shallow and very unlike Thailand. In fact, I thought Thailand’s underwater features were WAY WAY superior. Although, getting to pet the sting ray and the nurse shark was totally cool. The ray was smooth, but the shark was kinda rough, like course but not sharp like sandpaper. Very unreal. The whole trip was money well-spent although I wish we could have spent the whole time near the sharks and rays instead of near the reef channel were originally set in at. Our guide was really kind. We had one gal who swam less than myself or Vinny and I both donned life vests as soon as we put on snorkels but our guide drug her around by the round floating life ring. Way Cool. Very nice guy who was always trying his hardest to make everyone happy. Very unlike Tanisha Tours guide, Daniel.

The other trip we had scheduled was with Tanisha Tours to the Lamanai Mayan Ruins. Our guide was Daniel. We had scheduled to meet at 6:40am on Thursday at the pier that was on the Xanadu Resort. We paid in advance and were told to bring rain gear and or ponchos in case it rained. Every single one of our eight people were up and waiting on time. It was not until almost 9am that our boat finally arrived to bring us to our port of departure. The trip to Lamanai is usually marked with much wildlife. Katie, of Belize-Trips, said that in every time of the year a good guide can show you much wild life. We saw a few birds (like four) a few lizards (like the ones on the Caye) and one very well hidden crocodile. This trip was billed as an eco-tour with much wild life. The problem was that our guide was over two hours late so we spent much of the trip on a speed boat course through the jungle. Literally, I was leaning into some corners and guests complained to me afterwards that the ride was too fast and frightening in some places because of the excessive speed involved. And Tanisha’s response was that since it was raining (they had raincoats they provided by the way). In fact here is the very weak, unacceptable, cop-out response they gave:

The time that your clients were picked up was 8:45 a.m. and the reason we were late is that we were unable to get in touch with them to know if they were still going on the tour.When this happens the breakfast is on hold until we are sure of how many people will be going.we do not go to hotel rooms, that has created problems in the past. That is why we make sure that the clients have our number.

And for the record, we even phoned the the night before to tell them that three of our guests were vegetarians and to confirm the trip! Inept, they were, at best. What we had was a daggum time they were supposed to pick us up at the dock at and a tour that was supposed to happen. The guide chose to speed down the jungle river and have us almost jog through the ruins. Fun? NO! Was the guide a nice guy? Not realy! Guess what? When we spoke to the Xanadu Resort about Daniel and Tanisha Tours, they informed us that they and other resorts on the Caye refuse to use them because of their shoddy reputation! DO NOT EVER USE TANISHA TOURS! NEVER!!! I will be contacting the Belize Tourism Board to let them know of my extreme dissatisfaction. I will also be posting negative reviews on tripadvisor.com and the belizeforum.com. These guys just plain suck. I still have family asking me how much of a refund and when it will be given. Yes, it was that bad!

Now, all that aside, the actual ruin site was cool. I don’t recall much of it except that the view of it from the river peaking over the jungle made the hairs on your neck stand up. Maybe there was three temples, but you could tell that it contained many that were still under the jungle. And the howler monkeys got into a fight while we were there, which maybe was the highlight of the trip. They have an awe inspiring howl that once you hear, you will never forget it. And they apparently yell at each other for dominance. Kinda like frat boys (just kidding).

Friday was the wedding. Again without a hitch. I loved it. Yah. It was a long but yet short day. As much anticipation as i expected. We decided on her dress in 2001 and had it hand made in 2003 and so when i walked in to our cabin to get i forget what and got yelled at it kinda burst my bubble a bit. So, my step dad insisted that we go get some beers and shots at a local bar maybe some cigars. It’s hard to pass that up, let alone from your dad, so I accepted and we went, with David, my minister, to the corner store for cigars and the bar across the street for drinks. I can’t tell you what nation the cigars were from, i forget, a Caribbean one, but the name escapes me, but oh man they were good. Now, I don’t smoke. I stopped in 1997 after 13 years. But. Yum. Daggum, yum. When I am in a place that had top notch whatever, I’ll do it. Cigars are no exception. I even bought and smoked cigarettes from the same place (I think) and do not have any desire to smoke cancer sticks now. Maybe that is just me. Anyway, yea, I had a Jack Daniels with my ol’ man and my minister and yea, after that it was just waiting. I went to go get dressed in Vince’s room, Vince, being my best man. Well, it was at that point that I realized that I had no daggum cuff links. FRAK! I don’t know exactly but at that point my new father-in-law, Jim, asking if he can be of any service. Yea, and he kinda saved that problem. whew. Disaster avoided. Now if he would have just caught the fact that my fly was open the whole service….. Anyways, it wasn’t too long after that time that me and my best man Vinnie got called to the beach to start the wedding. We had met with the photographer earlier that day so I was ready for her and all that comes with having a photographer. The crazy part was that even though I had seen the dress on Jenn befoerf, I had seen the dress when it was made nothing could prepare me for seeing her all made up and in said dress. She was stunning. It was all I could do to hold back tears. Details still forthcoming…

On Saturday, most everyone recovered from the previous night of partying. I got up around lunch and had some food then went back to sleep for a few hours. Mid-afternoon I got up and went down to hang out with my folks. Seems they were drinking with a newlywed couple from Minnesota who were on their honeymoon. They were a wonderful couple, and fun to speak with. I got along and chatted well with the newlywed wife, but, out of the corner of my eye, I notice that every time her coffee cup gets empty, my step-dad will put in two ice cubes and top off the cup with some White Rum. I only noticed it happening three times. She had one when I walked up ands got the feeling that it may not have been her first drink of

the day. You can do the math, I mean, she was 110lbs if maybe more i doubt it. They had been in the jungle for the past week, and from experience, I can tell you that in the jungle its hotter and you sweat about three times as much as on the Caye. About the time my newlywed wife, Jenn, came by, this gal’s head started spinning and she leaned over to her hubby and said something similar to “I gotta go to bed.” Hubby looked over and inquired “What’s up with her?” Now, hubby was maybe 6′4″+ and 300lbs so a few rum on the rocks didn’t affect him the same way, as we were all pouring them down quite quickly. Jenn was quick to reply “Dude, your wife is totally wasted!” He wobbled her off to their room. The next day we overheard that the cops had to come to their room to take her to the hospital for suspected alcohol poisoning. Turns outs she was just severely dehydrated from sweating for a week in the jungle with not enough water, well, that, and the day of drinking straight rum. The funny part was that when the resort was informed that someone had to be carted off to the hospital with alcohol related ills, they quipped “Are you sure it was not room 2, 19, 18″ and continued to list off all of our rooms. Silly fools. They didn’t know we were professionals and it was all of the amateurs that had to worry.

The next day was Sunday and my folks, and my minister and more were all going home. So he had to say quite a few goodbyes, which was okay as we had much stuff planned in the jungle coming up as soon as the morning of the next day. So, we spent most of Sunday wandering around, kinda shopping. I bought a Belizean Reggae CD from the sole reggae group in Belize. I like it. Caribbean Pulse. Great music. But I am no Reggae guru. I just know what I like. and I like these guys. Even better, that night my new in-laws cooked us a nice Italian dinner. I mean we had to, at one point, make use of the fact that we rented condos on the beach not hotel rooms!!!

On Monday, we boarded the small plane to the municipal where our guide Israel, of Cayo Tours, was supposed to be waiting for us. He was. I must recommend Israel. It took less than thirty minutes before we were begging him to make sure he could be our guide for the rest of the trip. He was totally cool. Israel was living in the town of San Ignacio, which we had to travel to, in order to get to the bumpy dirt/clay road that led us to the Hidden Valley Inn, our next destination. Well, our next resort after we made a stop to do some zip-lining, lunch and cave-tubing out of the Jaguar Paw Resort. By this time there was only the five of us: Ashley, Jenn, Cassie, Vince and myself. Everyone had lunch, although again, because she was a pecscatarian, Cassie’s lunch wasn’t as top notch as it could have been but then if I recall correctly it was only stewed chicken with rice and beans. I loved it. But I always love local food. Yummy. Everyone went on the cave tubing adventure but only Vince, Ashley and Cassie went on the zip lining. The Cave tubing was totally awesome. It is about five minutes from where you park to where you float. Ha! But you gotta walk another fifteen or twenty minutes from that spot as that spot is actually where you end up at the end of the float! I did not have any issue with mosquitoes, but whenever we stopped the fire ants decided to feast on my feet. And ya know, I was smart enough NOT to put bug repellent on, thinking, “Ah, we’ll be in the water the whole time.” Learn from my mistakes; put repellent on whenever you can, and do not forget to put some on your feet, especially when wearing open-toed shoes or sandals. So, the kids went on to zip line. We actually got to spend the time playing with an orphaned Howler Monkey. I know zip lining was fun (I was told by everyone as much) and all but playing with a five month old monkey was truly priceless. The theory was that after Hurricane Dean, he fell out of the canopy and had been separated from his mother. Someone had found him wandering down by the river and usually howler monkey’s that young don’t wander alone in the jungle, so they took him back to the resort where food was put out for him, and attention given to him along with toys. He is totally free to move about and leave on his own but they say it may take another six months to a year before that happens. Until then I urge you to check him out if you can. His adopted name is Gumbo. He was very friendly and climbed all over us. Again, truly amazing experience.

After that, we loaded back up into the van and Israel took us on to the Hidden Valley Inn. Again, his warmth, openness, knowledge about Belize made him a benefit to travel with. He made the very bumpy road to HVI bearable. Folks, ask for Israel. When we arrived at The Hidden Valley Inn, we were immediately treated as royalty by the staff. There is good reason this resort often gets rated as the best in Belize, because it could very well be!! I’ll say up front that this is not a budget resort, so if you are penny-pinching this may not be for you. But oh it was so for me. The sky, after the sun set you could get a drink or four and get into the hot tub and look up into the stars. While the constellations were somewhat foreign, being as we viewed them normally from almost Canada, it was just so memorizing the amount of stars that could be seen. And of course, you were in the tub because you had a full day of this that or the other. For us, the first day at HVI was going to Tikal, in Guatemala.

I can’t recall exactly what time we had to meet our driver, Rick, but I think it was 8am. He was so great that he came up to us the night before, introduced himself and made sure we knew what was going on. The H.V.I. got our dinner choices before we retired for the night so that we didn’t have to miss a beat. They even woke up the breakfast cook early for us! How special! Way Cool. Loved having fresh juice, fresh roasted coffee and fresh eggs on my plate every morning. Did I mention fresh coffee?? Heck yea! They grow, and roast their own coffee on their property! How cool is that? It is cooler than cool, heck man and that stuff is so good. It was always that third cup where the rocket-fuel property kicked in - wahoo!!!!

So Rick loaded us up and we headed off to meet our Guatemalan guide in at the Belize-Guatemala border. As soon as we got there, we had to pay some fees, show our passports and get connected with our guide Luise. Oh, we also changed some Belizean and Mexican Pesos to Guatemaln, I seem to recall giving the guy $100BZD and getting $350 Guatemalan dollars in return.

I cannot recall why but as soon as we got into Guatemala we turned off into a little store area. Vinny immediately got us some beers and I popped off a few photos. I think then after that we even stopped at another tourist trap-like area with shopping but the shopping was very super nicely priced and man there was this book on collapsing civilizations i really wanted. I remember nicely carved, wooden stuff. Then I think our next stop was at Tikal. Now, our Tikal guide maybe had too much information. And, in my opinion, he placed the value of his vast breadth of knowledge above my experience. Now, we had one guest that was way into it. Way is an understatement. Yea but anyway he was all about how the number thirteen was magical and how how oh well ya know 52 weeks in the year is 13×4 and all sorts of stuff like that.

Jenn and I just wanted to take the best possible photos and in order to do that you gotta take a lot of photos, in my experience. He impeded that. In fact, at one point he let everyone climb some temples and I chose the smallest, of which there was another behind it, and snapped off some really nice shots, I think. Jenn was told I was not supposed to go up there and that he was saving the best (that one) for the last. She was happy because it was the best and on the tour. Later in the tour when we were passing up the best temple, the one I went into and was no supposed to, after listening easily to 45 minutes of extra lecture that only one out of five of us enjoyed, our guide informed us that we should feel lucky. Honestly, I did not feel lucky that I had to jog through the jungle and listen to lectures on numerology. Now, that said, I did manage to get a few nice pictures snapped off and *I* got to see it all. In the future, on guided tours, I will, personally, ask for the somewhat abbreviated version, because, if I want information, I will ask, and I do ask. I would not recommend him for groups with small children or people with short attention spans. In fact, my fourteen year old was very bored with the lectures. Now, that said, I would love to walk through the jungle with Luise and learn all he knows about the jungle over a 10k walk. Pick his brain and all that. It is just that, for me, I wanted more photographing and was not adamant enough about how important that was to me. The ride back, for me, was all about water, home made rum punch that was daggum near nuclear and trying to stay awake on a very long van ride back to San Ignacio and up the bumpy road home, to Hidden Valley Inn.

Again, as soon as we walked in we were treated like royalty. When dinner was, how was your day, how can we help, do you need a drink, and of course we hurried back, washed up and came down for dinner with drinks and then rum-punch over the hot tub for a few hours. Dinners were always of the five star variety. Always four courses, and always yummerific.

The next day we had something different planned. Jenn and I rented Orchid Falls for the day and Ashley, Cassie and Vin were off doing horseback riding. Before Jenn and I had gotten our clothes on Ashley busted in to tell us the ride had been canceled. One quick phone call to Katie at www.belize-trips.com and there was an afternoon of waterfalls and a sunset horseback in its place with no money tom foolery needed. Sweet. Better than that really. Jenn and I got our breakfasts and were whisked off to our private waterfalls for the day. Orchid Falls can be rented and sealed off from the public entirely while you enjoy a nice lunch, bottle of champagne and bath towels so you can enjoy waterfalls as nature intended it. Watch out, things that don’t normally get sunlight burn very easily. My advice to you, free.

Orchid Falls are beautiful. And when you rent them, they pack your lunch on ice and its waiting with champagne and glasses and hammocks and water and inner tubes when you arrive. They lock the gate as they leave and will not return until your prearranged time, ours was 4pm, which was only five hours and I think one or two more should have been called for. There is a lower and some upper pools. The lower pools have the cabana attached to it and you have to hike a little in order to get to the upper pools. The upper pools were larger, slower moving and therefore a few degrees warmer. In fact, quite a few degrees warmer. We only wished we had found it sooner, we had kinda just stayed in the lower pool all day for the most part. It was a brief five or six minute walk to the cabana from where they drop you off. Totally worth every single penny. We got back to the resort a few hours before the rest of our group so we got a chance to just hang out by the pool, read, have a few drinks and, yea, just relax. I got a few photos of the sunset that night. That was nice also. After all, it was our honeymoon, however non-traditional it was.

The next day was the Caracol Mayan Ruins and our favorite, Israel of Cayo Tours. Man, I just really enjoy that guy every one bit. He showed up on time and happy and ready to go. the ride to Caracol was shorter than the previous ones to different places and ruins, but I think this one may have been the bumpiest rides yet. It was definitely my favorite tour. It was bumpy so it was slow and you got to really see the details of the ride. Then, part way there we had to get an armed guard (they carried M-16s I was told) to watch over us on the way to the ruins. It seems that years ago there were groups of thieves that were camping out in the forests near there stealing a certain type of palm leaf that was valuable in bouquets and such. So anyway they had gotten brave and had started raiding tourists until the government came in and eradicated them. Now, just for good caution, you have an armed guard truck following behind you at all times. Those guys were pretty cool. I got one of them to hold my arms like I was being arrested so that a photo could be taken. He was grinning ear to ear. It was great.

Caracol, the ruin tour, Israel of Cayo Tours, was the best yet. We got some information and we got a chance to run up every one of those ruins. Vince did all of them but I did two. I was proud of the two I did. The one was to the top of the tallest building in Belize and another to the top of an astronomy observatory. I was told that I was actually seeing the canopy in Guatemala from the very top. How way cool. Exciting. It was all at our own leisure and our guide happily and pleasantly delivered us additional information when needed. I enjoyed it. Plus the temples were such that I could feel comfortable going up them, that made a huge difference. I got the chance to take a whole bunch of photos. There are quite a few that I really liked that came out if that trip.

On the way back we got to stop by a local watering hole where you could get out and swim after a long day in the sweltering hot jungle. Literally it was like 95°F and 95% humidity. Not for the feint of heart. But I was loving it. The swimming hole was way cool also, both literally and figuratively. There was ten maybe fifteen pools that you could climb in and around ands get them to cascade over your head. Wow, and there was a rainstorm that happened right about ten minutes after we got there. Lucky for us, Israel was on it and had gotten all of our stuff into the changing room before the rain got it too wet. Man, that guy is good, give him a raise. I don’t know how long we played, maybe an hour maybe two, but it was a lot of fun. There was one waterfall Cassie perched herself under and one that Jenn and Ashley were using as a waterfall. Total fun. Better yet was that it was about halfway through a very bumpy ride, so it seemed just perched perfectly to make the ride home (which was at this point The Hidden Valley Inn) seem non existent. Dinner, again, was great, along with another night of shooting star gazing from the hot tub. Just wonderful.

Now, it wouldn’t be right if I didn’t mention the G.M. of HVI. His name was Favian I believe. If I recall correctly, they hired him away from some resorts in South Africa. See, I had to ask him about the rocks on the property. The gravel in his driveway is nothing but agate and druzy quartz, most of the agate covered in a thick white skin, but pure colored agate underneath. It also was that near Orchid Falls, most of the rock was a nice mottled orange and red jasper. I had inquired about how and where on the property I could find a 100lb+ boulder of said material. He said it was there and he would find out the specifics and get back to me. This was over drinks. After dinner a very smiling GM came over to me with a 4lb rock, nothing but that white skin no the outside but a small piece had been knocked off the side and inside was an interesting dark colored agate but again with what seems like small pockets of druzy something all over the inside. Crazy. It is getting sphered really soon. It’ll go with my malachite/azurite piece and possibly a chunk of hematite/jasper.

The next day was the way to our next destination, but with a few bonuses: a butterfly farm and a wonderful zoo. The first stop was the Green Hills Butterfly Farm. There were literally so many Blue Morphos that they could swarm and it was verging on creepy. There were also loads of transparent (glass) butterflies and Owl butterflies. It was way fun trying to get a nice photo of a blue butterfly for Jenn. Actually getting those buggers to sit still was rather difficult. It was between those and the glass ones that I thought were the most interesting. I mean, the glass ones because you can see through them and the blue ones were just plain ol’ cool, shiny blue, blue being the most rare color in nature (I think).

The next stop was a lunch break right next to the Belize Zoo. I can’t recall the name of the joint but there were cool bumper stickers and signs up everywhere. One of my favorites went something like this “A Man’s Guide to Love and Lasting Relationships. 1. Find a woman who will make you laugh. 2. Find a woman who has a job and and likes housework 3. Find a woman who is honest. 4. Find a woman who will wait on you hand and foot 5. Find a woman who is awesome in the bedroom. 6. Most of all. It is very important that these five women never meet.” and there was more. I think I actually had the BLT and fries and a few Belikins. The zoo was only five minutes from the bar, which was nice.

The Belize Zoo was friggin awesome. Okay, okay, it was small and the animals liked to hide. But if you could catch a glance at a few native species it was well worth it. Just the time I got to spent inches away from the baby jaguar, named Junior, made the whole thing worthwhile. Vince, Jenn and Cassie were poking along so Ashley and I made our own way. In nature, we had seen a small crocodile, howler and spider monkeys, so those were nothing new, but they were still neat to see. The tapir was stinky and it peed straight back horizontally, so don’t get behind it! We saw some neat owls, kinkajoo, eagles, ocelot, parrots, crocodiles and a margay in a tree. There was a snake exhibit in the gift shop area where you could see the Central American Rattler and another poisonous viper. Interestingly enough on the horseback ride, Ashley had been trying to describe a snake with concentric triangles for patterns, and it was with the rattler or viper. Crazy. The only two snakes she saw were venomous. Wish I had seen them  I didn’t get to see any daggum snakes in the wild. I am am the daggum amateur herpetologist!!!

All in all, the three stops made for a longer trip to the water taxi to Caye Caulkner, but it was well worth it. We even had enough time to stop back by the pharmacy on Freetown Road and pick up the rest of our *90* day supply. Since we wouldn’t be back in less than 900 days we compensated a bit. The pharmacist didn’t seem to mind. We got to the water taxi terminal with about ten minutes to spare. We quickly got our tickets and then the deck hands started loading our luggage onto the boat, and then started loading us. It took a bit longer than I expected and it was just as crowded as I was warned about but the few dollars saved at that moment was well worth it. See, we had to call in favors in order to pay our tab at the Hidden Valley Inn. But two phone calls netted us about a grand (which was apparently $300 less than we needed because as i sit here today my account is $300 overdrawn). But that is totally okay with me, kind reader, as I had a great time. And, to be perfectly honest, when we return, we’ll straight off at H.V.I. then goto Caye Caulkner. There were so many things we did not do while at HVI, including naming some constellations in the sky. At one point we were seeing about one shooting star per 40 minutes or so. We also skipped some nature hikes on their property, some ruins and many other things. Then we would proceed to Caye Caulkner to relax.

So, as soon as we stepped off of the water taxi, Rastas were there trying to drag our bags to our hotel for us. I immediately went into dad mode and told them to step back until I had all my baggage and family in one spot. It turns out that our rooms were fifteen feet from the end of the pier at The Seaside Cabanas. Now, honestly, this is the level of room we usually get in the states and elsewhere. Not that the rooms are substandard by any means, it is just that we usually are not staying at five star resorts, like HVI and Xanadu. The guy who checked us in was a younger guy, in his twenties. In fact, this was the only guy I ever saw at the desk. It seemed some rules were odd, like no using the pool after 8pm. But I suspect they had reasons. That said, I liked the place, or maybe i liked the Caye more. It is very hard to say.

Firstly, from the pier, you can see the water on the other side of the Caye, its that small, that’s east looking west. While you cannot see the north side from the south side, its dang close. So, after getting settled in to our rooms, we headed out to the town. Immediately we met a very nice Rastafarian named Calvin (folks on the Caye call him Calvin Klein). He had his both set up and he was hand-making necklaces. At that point, we kinda just glossed on past him and went walking down one of the three or four streets on the Caye. The girls found trinket shops but I found the music store  I asked for, and promptly purchased the one reggae band from Belize, Caribbean Pulse. The same shop was also selling carvings made from local shells. The carvings were such that they had pink accents on a white shell. How could I not buy a turtle one for Jenn? I did. Which brings me back to Calvin. I do not recall how it came about but we took the turtle carving to Calvin and had him make Jenn a hand-beaded necklace to go with it. It turned out so beautiful we had him make one for Ashley. Now that one took until our taxi was loading up our luggage to hit the plane to leave!! In fact we had half drank bottles of rum we had to do something with so we gave them to Calvin and he gave us a necklace for me. Now, if i recall correctly, Calvin was born in the UK but his dad was in the navy so he moved around a bit and spoke about eleven languages, or so he claimed. He was a very bright individual. He also seemed to be in very good shape.

Now, we arrived on the Caye on Friday evening and left on Sunday afternoon. That did not leave us much time. During our Saturday jaunt around, I met a very nice American ex-pat. He pointed me to “the” place for dinner. Gosh, I cannot recall the name but I can recall that for $20BZD ($10USD or what $9 loonies) you got 2 rum drinks, 2 lobster tails and some rice and beans. Yes, all of that, for only $10USD. It truly was the place to eat. It was on the northern side of the Caye on the water, on the east side of the Caye, on the way to the disco, which we chose to skip. Yea, it was a relaxed place, from what I have been told, its what Ambergris Caye was twenty years ago. Same with Phuket, Thailand, when i first went there in 1995, I was told that it was much quieter in 1975, with 10 cent beers, now there is a KFC franchise and other Americanization going on. yuk.

So, will I go back? most definitely! When? if not for our five year anniversary in 2012, then sooner. Where? At least HVI, and I am told that I gotta see Placencia. Seeing as how our travel agent, Katie, of www.belize-trips.com is building a house there and promised rum drinks on her veranda, and I am not one to pass up free drinks, it seems like we cannot do Belize next time without Placencia!

P.S. Here are a few links to some preliminary photo pages from our Belize trip.Our collection of digital photos - http://www.krisandjenn.com/photos/ or http://web.mac.com/kriswmurray1/Belize/Welcome_page.html

http://www.krisandjenn.com/panoramas/ - three panorama, stitched-together shots (using Photoshop). The temples here are my favorite mostly just because of the extra detail that stitching together three or five photos gives. I totally wish I would have done more. Oh well, more for next time, 2012 I think , if not sooner.

http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/thumbpage.aspx?e=3206099 - wedding photos by the Kay Scott

and the better shots out of 1000 I took are here.

We still have to develop over a dozen disposable underwater cameras and scan in those photos. That will be fun, I am sure. And I hear there is video that may be coming our way too, way cool.