la isla bonita

(if you haven't read this post yet, read it now)

weary after sitting on planes for most of the day, shawn and i grab a cab to belize city (the airport is about 20 minutes outside of it). ambergris caye is an island (it's actually what madonna's "la isla bonita" is about), and we need to catch a boat to get there. since we have about an hour and a half before the next boat leaves and since we didn't plan on ever staying in belize city, shawn and i decide to walk around a bit and catch whatever sights there are to be seen. yeah, they weren't any. it was your run of the mill poor city. that combined with the fact that shawn and i are tired and still hauling around our luggage, we decide to wait out our time for the boat at the water taxi station. shawn and i are hanging out and just finish talking about how we should try meeting some other travelers around our age since it'd be cool to have people to kick it with but at the same time not be tied to. right on cue, three girls walk in. they're obviously tourists too, judging by their bags, but also because one is asian, and i think she's the first asian person i've seen since i've entered the country. they end up sitting down right next to us. we get to talking and sooner or later, i ask, "so where you girls from?" "ohh, we're from california." i kinda laugh, "really? i'm from san diego." "we are too." what a small world. two are from north park and one is from encinitas. eventually we get on the boat (it's about an hour and a half ride) and get to ambergris caye. talking to those girls (mimo, wendy, and marty) made the ride go quicker. once we got to the island, stupid us parted ways with the girls without making plans to meet back up.

our hotel was a short walk from the water taxi pier. often times with things like this, websites and pictures make the place look/sound better than it actually is. not the case here. the room was simple: two beds and a bathroom, pretty much, but the view from our deck was amazing. it was right on the beach and pretty much in middle of town. we settle in a bit and wander around. the island is pretty small. there are very few cars. actually, the majority of people got around the island in golf carts (where's sidney when you need him?!). after grabbing some dinner and killing some more time wandering around, we make our way to fidos, which we had seen numerous advertisements for in belize city ... "the place where singles come to mingle." there's a band playing 80s songs and some people dancing. it was mostly an older crowd, but we decide to grab a table and a few beers anyway. **side note** there's basically only one beer in belize, called beliken. they have their regular and a stout, which is darker and more alcoholic ... for the same price. we also caught word of a premium, which was supposedly an amber beer, but we were never able to track it down. US$1.50-2.00 each **end side note** shawn and i are hanging out at this place for a bit, when in walks the three girls from sd. they join us, and the five us entertain ourselves by making fun of the people dancing. san pedro (the main ... i mean, only ... town on ambergris caye) has a few clubs. the five of us decide to check out some place called jaguars, mainly because it was nearby and because it looked cool from the outside (the entrance is the mouth of a jaguar ... i should have taken a picture of it). on the inside, it looked like many clubs here, maybe just not as nice. the majority of people there were locals with a handful of tourists. the place was pretty packed because there was a dj battle going on that night. apparently it had been the talk to the town amongst the locals our age for awhile now. now shawn and i are a little excited ... foreign dj battle ... sounds good to us. unfortunately, it wasn't what we were expecting. belize dj's don't really use vinyl. actually shawn had done some research into this area (would you expect any less from shawn?), and the country in general didn't really sell/use/produce music on wax. belize's version of a dj battle was simply the two djs playing/mixing music off the cds they had. the first guy was pretty bad ... no continuity to his set, beats were running into each other all over the place. the five of us were pretty annoyed because it made it very difficult to dance to. mimo and marty don't drink (still not sure why) but all three of them went off to the bar. they came back with five drinks (two were diet cokes). they handed shawn and me a drink even though we still have the drinks we bought ourselves. shawn looks at me, smiles, and says "terence would be proud." i was like, "why." he holds up both drinks, "double fisting, baby." i laugh, then responded, "actually he be proud because we're double fisting, and they bought us drinks." the next dj (obviously the crowd favorite) was considerably better, but for whatever reason, after his set, they go into a round two runoff. this round consisted of each dj playing a song that dissed the other dj, with each dj getting five songs. once again, this made it very difficult to dance to the music. once they announced they were going into round three, we decided we had had enough. plus since it was past 3am, we called it a night ... but this time shawn and i had the sense to make plans to meet up with the girls the next night.

LAMANAI:

the next day we had to be up around 6am for a tour that was leaving at 7am. we get picked from one of the docks and head across the water towards the mainland with about 20 other tourists. on the way over, we see some dolphins and manatees swimming around. our guide steers the boat toward the bank, which is completely covered with mangroves. i have no idea where he is heading at this point because it seems like we're heading straight toward a mangrove covered bank. all of sudden, he makes a slight turn, and we see an opening in the mangroves ... basically a small river inlet covered all over by plants (even above). we travel up this river for a few minutes then stop for breakfast. there were five or six manatees hanging out where we were stopped. i definitely understand why these animals are called the cows of the sea. we head off again, and the rest of trip upriver was pretty awesome. think disney's jungle boat road, but real. we saw all kinds of stuff: crocodiles, iguanas, lizards, bats, hawks, vultures (circling around something), and many many other types of birds. the most amazing part was our guide would be manuevering the boat through the river at about 20 mph, then stop all of sudden, turn the boat around, and point out some animal. however, even when we're stopped and he's pointing out where it is, half the time half of us couldn't see it ... or least, it took us 5-10 minutes to find it finally. how this guy would see this stuff while driving the boat at 20 mph is unimaginable to me. check out this picture. see the iguana? do you think you could see it while driving a boat 20 mph. nuts, huh? after about a few hours on the boat, we get off the boat. shawn reminds me that we have yet to be in the country for 24 hours yet, which is crazy considering how much we've done and seen. now we're at lamanai, which is ancient mayan for 'submerged crocodile' (kinda). we walked around the site, seeing all kinds of ancient mayan building, structures, etchings, etc. we even got to climb up a very large one. supposedly, from the top, you can se both mexico and guatamala (in opposite directions). great view, but i must say, it was HOT up there. you could feel the heat coming off the stones. after some more wandering around, we did the whole river in reverse and headed home.

later that night, we met up the girls at some random bar. we ended up talking to some local who gaves us a hilarious recount of his ex-wife and their divorce. eventually the five of us ended up having some pretty intense conversations about relationships, culture, religion, etc. it was then that i found out more about our new friends. mimo, late 20s, has been in a relationship for about 4 years now (once rocky but now going really well). she kept relating her experiences to mine with sue ellen. wendy, turning 30 soon, is dating a 42 year old ... woman. marty, early 30s, is an ex-marine who's just little off her rocker (i already knew that one actually). we ended up heading back to jaguars that night, which is apparently the thing to do on sat nights. it was more of the same but with decent music this time.

HOL CHAN MARINE RESERVE AND SHARK RAY ALLEY:

the next morning we went snorkeling. i had never been snorkeling and i must say it was pretty cool. we saw all kinds of fish, a buncha sting rays, a few sharks, and one large sea turtle. the pictures of the sea turtle do it no justice. it was much larger than it appears to be in the pictures. i would guess at least 2' wide. at one point, i thought it was going to run into me, and, luckily for me, it turned before it did. i easily could have touched it. i did touch a sting ray that our guide picked up.

we knew where the girls were going to be for lunch and met them there. we ate some good bbq and drank some more beer. we parted ways with the girls again, and shawn and i needed to get some laundry done. we both ended up passing out near the laundry machines because of the afternoon heat (but only shawn got his picture taken). since it was sunday, we had planned on going to church that evening. the girls decided to join us. all three were raised catholic and none practiced anymore. the mass had to be one of the most entertaining/interesting masses that i've ever sat through. it was supposed to be a spanish mass, but for some reason, the regular priest wasn't there, but the priest that was there didn't speak spanish (worked for us). he grabbed some guy from the crowd to translate for him, but it was obvious the guy wasn't doing a very good job. during the priest's homily, he breaks out with some story about a donkey. when he looks to the guy to translate, the guy just looks at him with a "are you seriously preaching about a donkey and expect me to translate" look. the priest was like, "go ahead ... you know, burrrro." from then on, the priest stopped using the word 'donkey' from then on and only used 'burro.' funny stuff. i completely missed the point the priest was trying to make. the homily was topped off when at the end, he said something about being jesus's burro, and then used his hands to make donkey ears on himself. i couldn't help but laugh ... luckily, i wasn't the only one.

we grabbed dinner with the girls and decided to take the night easy tonight (after two straight nights at 3am+). there seemed to be a lot of creepy old men on the island (i felt like they were preying on the younger female tourists). while walking around, marty sees some old guy that was talking to her the first night at fidos. he sees her and says, "hey, i know you." to which, she responds, "i know you too." then he said, "not as well i'd like." the normally loud and outspoken marty was speechless and walked away. hilarious ... but like i said, creepy considering the guy had to be twice her age. we ended up at a bar on one of the docks and caught a live 'punta rock' (kinda reggae-ish) band play and just hung out there all night.

the next morning, we packed up and caught a boat back to the mainland. coincidentally, when the boat stopped at caye caulker to pick up more passengers, an indian girl got on. shawn thought i was just staring because she was cute and indian, but i was like, i know that girl. it ended up being poulina (sp?) from cal. she was in the raas i did for culture show my sophomore year, lived a floor below me in my apt on hillegass, and graduated a couple years before i did. talk about random.

once we got back to belize city, we found this hole in the wall joint that had really good food and friendly people, then headed to the bus station ...