Fixed Bikes, Paradise, and Scorpions!

In response to the last blog, yes, my wheel is fixed!!! I had to brave Belize City again, and perhaps I will never have to go there again in my life. But, I am forever grateful to the Chinese stores of the city because they helped me find what I needed.

Anyhow, we traveled to Placencia the next day after I had my wheel fixed. We rode the first half of the day in driving rain. The water poured down the back of our legs in streams and our shoes became little ponds that our feet were stuck in. The wonderful thing about Belize is when the sun comes out though everything gets dry real quick. So after the sun came out we dried real quick. Placencia is described as paradise. It pretty much is, nothing but beach cabins, coconut trees and endless beach with blue water. Merilee and I set up our tent under Miss Grace's porch so we could escape bugs and the frequent rain downpours. We made dinner consisting of plantains and egg and cheese sandwiches. Quite yummy really.

This morning we woke up, ate our giant oversized cookie shaped fortune cookies, (another great thing about Chinese stores) and went to breakfast. I got mistaken for a woman again. Nothing funnier than some dude thinking he is real suave and smooth to realize that the ladies he just said his sexiest hello to are actually one dude and one lady. We ate fry jacks with beans and chicken. Fry jacks are triangular pieces and fried bread. Think bengets (spelling?) or just fried chewy bready goodness. We also got to watch some of the Tour de France. We feel somewhat related to those bikers when they are in the mountain stages.

Later we swam in a warm ocean and then went back to shower. Last night, in our bathroom, there was a scorpion. It was gone this morning. This afternoon, it decided that the best place to hang out was right above the shower head. I very hesitantly took a shower under the scorpion. As I shampooed my head, I would only close my eyes for mere instants lest the scorpion decide an aerial attack. Leaving the shower I warned Merilee of our friend. Well, she was not about to shower below our friend. So out comes the broom. With a few timid swipes she manages to thoroughly piss off the arthropod. (Interruption: Have you ever tried to write a blog while someone is number twoing next to you? There is no door, just a curtain, you do the math...) Finally Merilee takes a stand and knocks it down. Now in the shower stall a scorpion is running around, but with a few skillful sweeps of the other end of the broom the scorpion is out the door running away on the sand. Merilee and Eric 1, Scorpion 0!!

So, ten minutes after we shooed off the scorpion I am sitting trying to get the internet to work. All of a sudden a big black bug lands on my shoulder. Of course, I freak out thinking it is a scorpion and desperately try to shake it off. I manage to fall over, bang my shin on the concrete edge, and drop the computer in the process of ridding myself of a harmless gecko. Sheesh, my heart was racing!

pictures...Blue hole, Water goodness, sexy siblings, and forget train crossings look out for the plane!