San Pedro at Ambergris Caye: Aay prittay ladays!

Tuesday morning (yesterday) Annie and I woke up to more rain-odd how I never get tired of falling asleep and waking up to the sound of rain!-and got our things together to leave Caye Caulker for San Pedro/Ambergris Caye on the 11:15am water taxi. As a recovering teacher, I have a tendency of waking up annoyingly early, so I was actually up at 6 and then again at 7, so I journaled for awhile and got to know Mia, Krissy and Kylie, the three unbelievably cute daughters of a couple who were related to the proprietors of Daisy's Hotel and who lived in the room next to us. I'm not quite sure what the mother of these three did all day other than take care of her daughters, but her husband seemed to be the hotel handy man. I met the girls and their mother on the veranda of the hotel (the only place we could get wifi- we obviously spent a fair amount of time there, wandering around trying to pick up the sparse internet) waiting for someone to pick Mia up to go to her first day of first grade final exams- did she look forlorn! She definitely did not want to spend the day in school, although her mother said she normally enjoys it. Mia did not say a word to me, but just nodded or shook her head and smiled shyly at me. Apparently she opens up after she knows people, so I told her she reminded me of myself a little bit, especially as the oldest of three girls! Mia's little sister, Krissy, who is in kindergarten, was a lot more talkative, and I hung out with her and little little Kylie, who really didn't speak much yet, after Mia left. It's pretty hard to understand a little person who has no concept of the difference between regular English and Creole! At one point, I asked her if Krissy if she had eaten yet, and she responded,"Nooo- my mama's makin' lahbstah! Ya lak lahbstah?" tp which I obviously said yes. She informed Annie and me later on that her "mama was makin' lahbstah on de what stoff,"- the white stove :) So cute! I took some pictures of her that I'll try to add at some point. After some delicious meat pies from a guy on a bike that rode by (don't worry, Mom, they were fresh outta the oven, and our travel nurse said we could eat street food if it was still hot :) we made our way to the water taxi pier. The water taxi was about half an hour late- island time, ya know- but it got us successfully over to the town of San Pedro on the island of Ambergris Caye. 

Ambergris Caye is the most popular destination in probably most of Belize (in fact, all of my parents Belizean timeshare trades are in San Pedro on Ambergris). As soon as we stepped off the water taxi (under sunny skies!), we could see why- it has a lot more vibrancy than Caye Caulker. Caye Caulker's residents, apparently, want it to stay very low key and calm, and the residents of San Pedro would call that boring. San Pedro is full of restaurants and bars and golf cart taxis and tourist shops. However, the one post office is already closed tonight so I wasn't able to get stamps :( San Pedro is not thaaat big in the end! But it sure has its fair share of forward cat-calling men- we've heard everything from "Aay gorgeous!" to "Sexy ladies!" to "Aay pritty gals!" to "The deals are better the more beautiful you are!" to "Prettier than Baywatch!" to "Ouch ouch!" to kissy noises to a man walking in front of us calling out "Mangoes! Hot bodies!" We just smile at the ground or say thank you and keep walking. Anyway, we were welcomed to San Pedro by a sting ray under the dock, which was still special even if we swam with them in Shark Ray Alley! We ignored the golf cart taxis in favor of walking the short distance to Ruby's Hotel, which is right on the beach and basically in the heart of San Pedro. It's really more like a backpacker's hostel, not too different from Daisy's, and outfitted with wifi. We spoke for a bit with a middle-aged Canadian man named Andy who had decided to reject the retire-at-65 norm and instead live out his life traveling and attempting to live off of investments. He also decided to forgo marriage and kids and living near friends, so I don't think I'm too interested in his lifestyle, but I do enjoy hearing life philosophies that involve enjoying life rather than working working working. He informed us that Ramon's Village, which is about 100 yards up the beach, clears out the seagrass from the water at their beach and, since it's all public beaches, we could swim there for free without the bother of seagrass. 

Before our swim, we searched for food. Since it took awhile for my discerning self to decide on a satisfactory place to eat, we got some fresh smoothies- watermelon for Annie and banana for me- to sustain us. We ended up eating our first fry jack (a delicious puffy fried tortilla with some combination of beans and cheese and chicken or whatever else folded inside of it) and some tostadas from a little stand. At this stand, Letty's, we sat for a bit with Elliot, a middle aged Belizean of African descent who told us he was a millionaire for a living and asked to kiss our noses for luck. I responded with a very firm no, and Annie did likewise. I am all about learning about a person, but I am not down for any type of touching other than handshakes. That was strange. But the food was awesome and he made some good recommendations. I'll remember him as a true character. On our way back to Ruby's we stopped at a place for some weak but tastey two-for-one Rum Punches- the Cayes' typical alcoholic drink. We sat on the beach between two diving company piers with a couple from Washington D.C.- one was a marine biologist-turned-chiropractor and the other was a Peace Corps member-turned-documentary film maker who spent 13 years with National Geographic and now has a contract with Discovery. We really enjoyed talking to the couple, John and Carrie, who were here for not for the first time to dive the renowned waters. It turns out that Carrie was in the Peace Corps in Guinea, where my 6th graders had pen pals all year! I love coincidences like that. We discussed last names of people there- she recognized Banghoura and Camara from near her placement region- and she described life and work there, as well as her fascinating take on how documentary filming has changed over her career, which has taken her all over the world. She even got to interview Jane Goodall in Tanzania! John and Carrie suggested we try Warugama for dinner and really encouraged us to go to Ak'bol Yoga Retreat Center for 9am yoga and the best breakfast on the island.

And so, after a swim and some internet cafe time, we tried out Warugama, which was absolutely delicious! When you walk up to a place and 1) all the tables are full, 2) it's a hole in the wall with no decorations or pretenses, and 3) they're outside handmaking every type of pupusa imagineable, it's probably going to be good. We ordered lobster pupusas, shrimp pupusas and bean and cheese pupusas- all were good, and lobster was divine. We washed that down with a Rum Punch each (better and stronger than the earlier ones), followed by a Belize Breeze (a few different types of rum and blue curacao and maybe other stuff) for me and a Dirty Banana (Kahlua, lots of vodka, Bailey's, and chocolate and stuff and obviously banana) for Annie. Aside from the overly chatty waiters (we enjoyed it at first but then got a little annoyed after one of them had us watch videos on his camera, but hey two young girls by themselves I guess invites some of that), we loved Warugama. The waiters wanted us to go to a bar with live music, but we declined and went home to go to bed so we could do our 9am yoga at Ak'bol!

Well, the sunny skies held up during the day, but the night skies opened up and we were again serenaded to sleep and awakened by the falling rain. We decided to rent bikes to get to Ak'bol, which is over on the other side of the island over the bridge near the resorts. We got ready while it was still pouring, and we decided to be determined young ladies and to brave the rain for the 2 mile bike ride. We were somehow blessed with sunny skies ALL DAY LONG! We had a beautiful early morning bike ride through town and down along the beach (there's a beach bike path of packed sand that is suggested rather than the road on the other side of the bridge because recent harsh weather has torn up the main road) to Ak'bol. At Ak'bol we had a little scare when Annie realized she didn't have her debit card (and mine was compromised and shut off the day before we left the US) and I didn't think I had my pay power card and we didn't have enough cash to pay for yoga, let alone breakfast afterward. Luckily, I am a smarty and packed my pay power card with my passport in my travel pack at the outset of the trip, so after beating myself up for a second, I checked the pack and found it. Kirsten, our American yoga instructor, led us in one of the best yoga classes of my life at the end of the pier under a thatched roof over turquoise waters. Although we have been on the beach and snorkeled and all of that, I had not felt in touch with nature until we did that yoga class. The sea breeze on your skin and the lapping of waves in your ears really pushes you to complete relaxation and peacefulness. We followed our yoga class with a ridiculously yummy fry jack with beans and cheese, coconut french toast, and horchata while we discussed travel with the Mr. Thompson, the retired UBS-Payne Weber guy that sat next to us with his Fox Terrier, Axel. It was so ideal! After Ak'bol, we rode bikes further north and checked out the view of the resorts from the beach- we could definitely come back here, we thought. Mom, Dad, check out the timeshare exchanges! We made it back to Joe's Bike Rental two sweaty messes and went and chilled out at our hotel and in the water at Ramon's, where we played with 5-year old Emilio (the son of a Mayan couple selling necklaces on the beach)- soooo cute! 

Since then, we've showered and bought some souvenirs and now we're here, at the second overpriced Belizean internet cafe we've visited, drinking Belizean beer and updating the important people in our lives about what life is like on the Cayes of Belize! We'll pack up our bags in preparation for our 6am departure from the Cayes back to Belize City to catch our flight to Guatemala City tomorrow, then we'll head next door to Wild Mango's for dinner- we've gotten a couple of recommendations. We'll be spending tomorrow night in Antigua en route to Pachaj, where we will attend Spanish language school for 4 or 5 days at the Chico Mendez Project where our little sister, Becky, studied a couple of years ago. I am not sure of the internet situation in the upcoming days, but I will be journaling if I cannot blog, and then I will post those journal entries if need be. We're off to the next country- adios, Belize; hola, Guate!

Caye Caulker: Watchya First Islanda Experience, Mon!

There is only one real tourist shop we know of on Caye Caulker, Belize. There are only about 2,500 residents of the island. There is one car (for the police), and there are four trucks (for the airstrip). Besides that, everyone has to drive golf carts. Just to give you a good idea of life in the Cayes of Belize.

It has been rainy (at times torrential) since we arrived, which will probably continue through our time in Belize, since it is the rainy season. Yet people go about their every day business with friendly attitudes and Creole islander laid-backness. Annie and I arrived here by boat yesterday morning at 9am after leaving our parents in Cancun and taking a bus at 10:15pm the night before. We rode eight hours through the night sitting next to a 40-year old Belizean hairdresser from L.A. named Aretha McCoy (named after THE Aretha, but not the real deal haha). She was returning to Belize for the first time in 13 years for the funeral of a cousin, who was shot in a night club (gang-related I think). We also sat next to a Belizean singer from San Pedro on Ambergris Caye by the last name of Heylock. When not describing Belizean life and culture to us in regular English, they spoke to each other in their sing-song Creole, which was fascinatingly unintelligible (by now we've heard it a bunch, and we still have no idea what they're saying!). They taught us that men would say,"Watchya gal!" to us in an effort to pick us up. I don't know that we've heard that exact phrase, but we've certainly heard efforts to pick us up by Belizean men.

When we arrived at 6am to Belize City (after an  eventless, rainy, 4am border crossing), Annie and I gathered our bearings at the bus terminal while talking a little to a Belizean who worked with the transportation ministry and a Polish med-student from the UK named Mike who had been on our bus. Mike accompanied Annie and me in our taxi to the Marine Terminal where the three of us ate Journey (pronounced "Johnny" after years of Creole) Cakes, which are really good biscuits with a cheese or other filling, and chicken tacos from a street vendor. Mike, with the long-term desire to work for Doctors Without Borders and a balding head, soon left for a hotel. I paid the ticket lady, with bright pink shirt and matching eyeshadow- "Only $10!" as she held up the makeup palate for me to see haha. Her poorly arranged and glued-in tracks (hair weave) did not prevent her from kindly providing us with round-trip water-taxi tickets to Caye Caulker and San Pedro/Ambergris Caye, saving us some money in total. Annie and I started working on getting first nail polish remover (which turned out to be bad stuff and to not work at all) and then internet from the sarcastic young Indian cashier at the terminal by last name of Amir (he wouldn't tell us his first name or where he was from in India- odd fellow indeed). He demanded to know why in the world we didn't want to cross the Guatemalan border by bus- we said it was too dangerous. Then he refuted our arguments by saying the Cartels only go after each other at first, then saying he knew people everywhere so he could get anyone through, and finally by saying that the Cartels kill anyone who crosses them and random people do get caught in the crossfire. Ha, see?! Amused, we paid him $4 Belizean ($2 USD) to use the internet to let people know we were safely in Belize until our boat left at 8am. Meanwhile, the rain pouuuured down!

Carlos, the water cabbie if you will, made sure our backpacks were loaded and that we boarded our water taxi, along with a Chinese woman who was accompanying her half-Chinese son and a younger mestiza and her two cuuuute little boys, as well as a couple of hispanic guys, a latina, and a man and a woman of mostly African descent. What a mixed crowd to witness the ever-failing engine of the water taxi! Annie and I just tried to stay awake- I think she may have just been thinky while I was tryyying to keep an eye on our bags (but I was so sleepy after our long bus ride!). We first made a quick stop to a private island, which I mistook for Caye Caulker and got up all ready to get off, making a slight fool of myself in front of all these locals, before we arrived here.

When we arrived, we walked down the damp and rickety boardwalk to the sandy streets of Caye Caulker, heading for Daisy's Hotel, another picture of rickety :). We met Nino, a guy who informally arranged a room for us by calling out to a never-named woman who seems to own the place (actually, her name might be something like Lena, but she stays inside all day and never comes down from her apartment on stilts). Originally, our room looked pretty dingy, but a very friendly maid-ish lady finally arrived with her young super cute nephew, Emilio, to put sheets on as well as put up the screens and curtains. Amazing what some details can do for a room, especially in a third world country! Now our room feels quite homey, with a twin and a full, and a couple of newly-tiled bathrooms down the hall. We take our TP (hotel-provided luckily) and our own soap to the bathroom, and we throw away our TP rather than flushing it (that seems to be the norm in most of Central America). There is hot water in a decent stream in the shower, which was a nice surprise!

We slept for an hour at Daisy's and went in search of breakfast, winding up at Amor y Cafe, where the Creole ladies cook up a delicious breakfast int heir homey kitchen/cash register counter. Annie and I sat on the sandy road and watched the golf carts drive by and the staff run out for more papaya and pineapple while we at a BLT with a fried egg and Marie Sharpe's Habanaro Sauce (made in Belize) and a wheat waffle with fruit and syrup and butter yummm! After breakfast, we strolled down to the Split, a shallow area of water that appeared after a 1961 hurricane that splits the island into two. It's really the place to swim, since boats don't pass through and there's no seagrass in the water. On the way, we stopped by the tourist shop, made arrangements for a snorkeling tour, noticed the beginning of a whole roast pic (and made plans for dinner) and observed all the people and their wares along the road, all in the rain. So many Rastas and island characters! We headed back and got ready to snorkel, praying that our valuables would remain untouched during our expedition (which they did).

We walked down to Anwar Tours and met with Omar, who outfitted us with snorkel gear. Then arrived Tom, a newly-minted Canadian lawyer of 27 on a summer adventure before he starts real work. After him arrived a Spanish-speaking Belizean couple, Dani and Axel, who were super nice, and Axel seemed to know a lot about ocean stuff. Then arrived four Canadians who were maybe a few years older than us, and they were nice and lively. We had a great time (without lifejackets-yay!) exploring the second largest coral reef in the world. We saw a green moray eel (Omar coaxed it out of its cave for us), lion fish (they look craazy! and they're not native to this area :( ), parrot fish, urchins, sand dollars, AND we swam with sting rays and nurse sharks at Shark Ray Alley- I touched a shark! That's pretty crazy considering I wouldn't even touch my own fish, Squirt. However I was not about to touch a sting ray- they really freaked me out. I guess I touched one once at Monterey Bay Aquarium, but these were alllll over the place and I basically kept my feet off the ground (the water was about four feet deep) because I didn't want any of them to run into my feet. Ha I was basically latched onto my more brave younger sister! We stopped at three different places, and at the third one we got to go off and do whatever we wanted, which was really cool. We were really lucky that the rain let up while we were out there. We made friends with Tom, and we invited him to come eat roast pork and drink Belikins (Belizean beer) with us at La Cubana- we sure were hungry after our 3 hour tour!

At La Cubana, owned by a Cuban couple who could serve up some meaaan mojitos, we got the buffet, which was full of Caribbean specialties cooked up by Belizean Latino Chef Juan (I had to make friends with the guy serving the pig!). Juan had made Caribbean meat balls and chicken stew and shrimp stew and rolls and mashed potatoes and Caribbean potatoes and rice and black beans and chocolate cake and some other kinda cake that was like sweet cornbread aaaand last but not least Juan's Secret Sauce for the pork that was amazing! It involved garlic, which is always a pleaser for me. We at that out near the water under multi-colored lights and discussed the Canadian health care system vs. ours as well as the law system vs. ours. Then towards the end of the meal I noticed cheers from the bar next door- the NBA finals! We moved next door only to watch the Thunder lose the third game to the Heat. It was fun, though, even though this Creole lady who was drunk was waaaaay too loud a fan about the Heat. We went home early so we could rest up for our move the next morning to the town of San Pedro on the island of Ambergris Caye- the more famous and more developed of the Cayes. As soon as we got home, the torrential downpour started up again, so we fell asleep to the peaceful patter of the island rain. Stay tuned for a (most likely shorter) update about Ambergris (which, btw, means whale sperm-hahaha).