Spring Break - Friday

I realize I've already posted once today, but since it is now officially my spring break, I've decided to do something different. 2 years ago, my husband and I went to Belize over my spring break immediately after which I wrote what ended up being blog entries, but I never posted them anywhere. So, in order to relive the past, I'm going to post them now -day by day- so that you can hear all about the best vacation of our lives (so far) and so that I can relive the past.

So here goes:

Friday, April 7th - Day 1
We flew from O’Hare to Dallas without any major event except that the Iraqi National Soccer Team was on our plane. I couldn’t decide if this made us safer, put us in danger, or had no bearing on anything whatsoever. (Now that we’re home and safe, I believe it was the latter, or at least I hope.) So then we flew from Dallas to Belize (no teams of any kind on this flight) where we then got on THE WORLD’S TINIEST PLANE to Caye (pronounced “key”) Caulker.

We landed on what is basically a driveway, and one other couple got off with us. They hopped a “taxi” (a.k.a. golf cart), and we decided to walk. I mean, the entire island is about as big as our neighborhood at home, so how far could it be? We asked someone to point us in the right direction, which they did. They told us it should be a 10-minute walk along the beach. Sounded good to me! The walk was incredibly scenic, but rolling a suitcase through sand is as difficult as it sounds, and we partly rolled, but mostly dragged our suitcases to our hotel. Of course, because we look like big American potheads, we got offered weed right away from a guy with about two and a half teeth. We politely declined.

We got to our hotel where, Doris, our hostess, accommodatingly gave us a map of the island, and highlighted places she recommended we should go to eat, drink, snorkel, etc. This could have been helpful, except that she ended up highlighting the majority of the map. She also asked us with what airline we came over from the mainland. When we told her, she raised her eyebrows and said, “You guys are braver than me,” which did not make me feel good. Right then and there, I decided we were going to take a boat back to the mainland when it was time to depart. We played with her five dogs for awhile, went to our room, and then headed out to explore the island, which took about 30 min. We watched the beautiful sunset (left) on the western side of the island (which unfortunately is the home to a lot of garbage –apparently a problem on many islands) and then ate at a restaurant called The Sandbox. It is here that we made 3 discoveries: Brian discovered Belikin Beer, the national beer of Belize; I discovered Rum Punch, the official drink of my spring break; and the beauty of not having to wear shoes in a restaurant (or anywhere else on the island).