Central America!!!!

We've noticed a recent complaint from one of our blog followers about our lack of posts recently. We intend to address this. The reader shall remain nameless, but you can find said comment on the San Cristobal blog... :c)

So, we've made it to BELIZE! And man does it feel strange to speak to everyone in English. But let's start at the beginning: Customs. Suddenly the whole world grew 6-8 inches. There were black people (I think maybe we saw 5 in Mexico). And we weren't the only white people. And we were not allowed to take in fresh produce, so we sat our cheap-asses down on the floor and consumed everything we possibly could rather than surrender it. That's just how we roll. We also, apparently, roll in the rain. It rains a lot here. And people drive like locos. It's actually quite scary.

So our first night in Belize was shared in a guesthouse with a German brother and sister travelling together, and some rowdy Mennonites. It seemed odd to me too. The following day we headed to Belize City, which is probably the roughest place I have ever been to. Buildings are all wrapped up in barbed wire, stores sell their wares from behind re-bar, the poverty is all too apparent The closest vibe I've ever encountered would have to be New Orleans, but like the poorest sections of the city. If this had been the first place we had arrived we probably would have shit our pants about it and panicked. Luckily we've got a bit of experience under our belts, and day 2 in the city wasn't as jarring. The city takes its day of rest very seriously, and we had to work hard to find a little place to watch the World Cup (go Spain!). We actually landed in a big place - Princess Hotel and Casino. Ha! Anyway, we'd like to show you some pictures...oh but wait, there was pretty much no way that we could take our camera out at any time. We decided to keep both the camera and our peace of mind, so we left it behind when we went out. Sad :c(

The following night we stayed at the Tropical Education Center which is where we had our closest encounters with potential mosquito borne illnesses and the Pacific Northwest - we met a guy from Portland Oregon at a random campground in Belize. That's just how it goes. And back to the bugs...O.M.G. Yeah, it was that bad. Bad enough that I just typed omg. We were lucky enough to be able to escape into the screened dining room, but when we had to go back to the tent it was full-on war. We have oh so much respect for Deet now.

Yesterday we continued on with the intention of making it to Blue Hole National Park, but instead met some kids at a bus stop in Armenia. Did we mention that we changed continents? Their dad came by a little later, in charge of his fruit stand nearby, and offered us a place to stay. So we spent the afternoon reading, writing, fixing Eric's wheel (again) and relaxing. After the sun had gone down a bit we went to the park and played with the kids, and then they took us to the creek where we splashed around in their own private swimming hole. They even went into the grove and got us all mangoes - absolutely delicious! In the evening we ate with the family - fried egg, beans, handmade flour tortillas and banana chocolate fondue for dessert. We braved our hot, soggy tent that night, but it was worth it to have had the opportunity to hang out with a Belizian family.

In the morning we all ate oatmeal and fruit for breakfast, and then we were off again with some delicious local bananas in tow. We stopped at the Blue Hole park just down the road to explore St. Herman's cave and take a dip in the limestone sinkhole filled by an underground spring. Oh, and by the way, every place that we have been to recently where the water is supposed to be blue...not so. Rainy season = brown water. But, after sweating up a storm in the jungle we were happy to be able to splash around and cool off, especially since we had the place to ourselves!