31. 29-6th March. Miami Vice in Belize?!

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29/02/08
John and I intended on getting the 8.30am bus but once again my cheap alarm clock from Bangkok didn't go off. I ran to the bench outside the hostel and there was John waiting patiently. I was only two hours late...not a geat start to our journey together. John being so laid back wasn't in the least bit bothered. We got the 11.50am bus which cost $18. It was a 5hr journey but the coach was awesome. We travelled in style! John and I were the only non locals on the bus until we picked up four girls from Norway. We got talking to them when we all go dropped off at Chetumal and we decided to head straight to Belize rather than staying the night there. To be honest the girls already knew what they were doing and Joh and I decided to tag along. The girls got the first taxi to where we had to get the bus to cross the border and John and I got in the one afterwards. Since John and I were lacking in the Spanish department we were not convinced the driver was taking us to the right place and when he stopped to say "you are here," John and I just looked at each other with pure doubt written all over our faces. It looked like a ghost town but there was a bus parked next to a run down cafe. What choice did we have?! We got our bags and walked towards the bus and noticed the girls were sat in the cafe...what a relief! We had about 30mins to wait for our bus. The bus was one of those old school American buses! We had another long journey infront of us but I was looking forward to getting to Belize city. The bus got busier by the minute and by the time we got to the border the isle was full with people standing up in the isle. The border crossing was different. The customs bloke just kept talking to us about sex! John and I were the last ones back on the bus by the time the bloke stopped talking! We were stood up at the back with the Norwegian girls bags. They were pleased as they knew their bags were safe now. To be fair John and I had a right laugh with the locals at the back of the bus. I have never noticed such a huge difference before whilst doing a border crossing. On the Mexican side, noone speaks English and people seem to stick to themselves. You cross the imaginary line and all of a sudden your surrounded by people speaking perfect English and by people who don't stop talking to you!ha They do speak with a Jamaican like accent which is awesome. They are also not shy about showing their affection to their partners in public! The bus slowly got quieter and it wasn't long till it was just about the six of us left. We really got talking to each othere then and got to know each other a lot more. Their names were Linn, Monica, Line and Sahra. When we arrived in Belize city it was dark so John and decided to share two taxis with the girls back to the hostel they had booked in advanced. Being blokes we had nothing booked so we just kept our fingers crossed. I went in one taxi and John went in the other as the girls didn't feel that safe. By this point they didn't know we were both whimps!ha We arrived at Sea Side Guesthouse and John and I were able to get a room. Mitch and Diana, the owners were...unusual but harmless. Very friendly though. We spent the night on the balcony having a few drinks and just soakig up the relaxing atmosphere. We were lying on hamocs and beach chairs, the stars were out and we were only a stones throw away from the sea. We did get told though that it was not safe to walk around the city at night but we were happy to stay where we were!

1/03/08
I woke up that morning having dreamt that i had been washed away in a flood so i was just happy to be alive!ha We had an awesome breakfast and then the six of us walked into the city centre. There was a lot of head turning (due to the girls!) and a lot of begging along the main street. We then took a walk along the sea front and had lunch at in a restaurant where we gor soaked since the heavens opened up and the wind was blowing the wind in horizontaly! On the way back to the the hostel we bumped into a friend that we made on the bus journey. He was a local man and intoroduced us to his family including his mum who he called, "the boss!" We spent the night on the balcony playing drinking games and the girls were awful at them. Which made the night even better for John and I! One of the rules was that you cant drink with yor right hand...Sahra downed so many drinks just on this rule alone! The gilrs were saying that i looked like Hugh Jackman but they were slightly merry so i think it was affecting their eye sight!

2/03/08
I woke up to my heart pounding away. I had dreamt that I tried to recover a kid that drowned using CPR but failed. I was cryin in my sleep...i have no idea why i was having such harsh dreams! The only thing we had to do this morning was to be ready for the midday ferry...which the girls couldn't manage! We ended up getting the 1.30pm ferry. I don't know why they called it a ferry as it was more like a power boat! John and I were sat at the back with the sun drying the sea spray as soon as it hit our skin. We did joke that it felt like we were on Miami Vice! I remember feeling like i was the luckiest person in the world at that point. Our German friend from the hostel, Jan, who had joined us had booked us accomodation at Tinas Guesthouse. A guesthouse that had "come and be lazy," almost written all over it. It was situated right on the beach with palm trees and hamocs everywhere. John, Jan and I shared one room and i go the large bed due to winnin paper, scissors stone. They had bunk beds! We baught a few beers and walked to the other side of the island (which took about 2 minutes!) to watch the sunset. We ended up back at our hostel sat on the balcony drinking rum and coke and sharing stories having plenty of laughs...mainly at many of my embarrasing moments or recent! I went to bed at 1am leavng the rest to carry on drinking. I did get woken up by John asking if he could share my bed which got me worried but then he explained why. He came in to find a stray dog sleeping in his bed and the dog and pissed all over it! John and I took our friendship to a new level that night!ha

3/03/08
We had a all day sorkel trip planned today and on the way to the shop we all had the pleasure of taking the piss out of John about the dog making his bet wet! I did see the guilty dog in the morning lying outside with a smug look on its face and it was the most disturbing looking dog i have ever seen. It looked like something out of a zombie film! We jetted off on another super fast boat around 10am and it wasn't long till we were jumping in with our masks and snorkels. On our first stop we swam with Nurse sharks, Reef sharks and stng rays. It was amazing. The girls took a bit on convincing to jump in but they did and loved it. The local guides were holding on to the sting rays and swimming wit them on the sea bed so not wanting to miss out I done the same which was awesome. After that we stopped off at a reef where we saw eagle rays (which are one of my favourite things on the planet) and huge Great Barricudas. We pulled up to a small island and had a bbq lunch on the pier and then jetted out to another reef. We also got to snorkel over a shipwreck which was shallow enough to free dive and have a look underneath it. The reef we stopped at after that had a underwater cave which you could swim through if you fel like you could hold your beath long enough and that was wicked as well. I was really in heaven! We got back by 4.30pm and w all had an amazing day. The day was so good i decided not to pay the money to do the diving the next day as it was going to be really expensive and plus it would be hard to beat what we done today anyway! Today was one of the best days of my life! Later that night we went to a Reggae bar that was situated on the beach but the girls were getting a lot of hassle from blokes so we decided to go back to the hostel and have our own fun there. We met more people on the way back who decided to join us. In the end there was about ten of us playing drinking games. John came down with something that night and spent the night in bed but he was never alone. I think there was always atleast two people with him throughout the night in our small room. We finally went to sleep around 4am...i dont think any of us wanted the day to end!

4/03/08
Us boys were up by 11am, done our food shopping and was making scrambled egg for lunch by the time the girls showed themselves to the outside world. Today was going to be a lazy day anyway. We spent it lying on hamocs, spread out on the pier, sat on beach chairs...basically anything that looked lazy we done it! Jan was falling in love with a German girl we met at the hostel so it looked like we were one man down. Us men are so weak!ha I decided to have an early dinner as i wanted to have an early night and the Norwegien girls kept me company...not in bed but to dinner!

5/03/08
I woke up feeling refreshed so done some exercises in the morning on the pier (before people woke up so i didnt look stupid!) and then went food shopping with Jan. It was another lazy day. Even more so thatn the day before. Two guys walked in to see if there were any rooms available and commented "everyones dead!" It was the hottest day so far and John was acting like a typical English person. While everyone else were reading in the shade John (who is pale skinned anyway) was sprawled out on the peir drenched in sweat. It was hilarious. I did manage to crawl under the pier and scare the hell out of John and the girls to which i took great delight to hear their screams. We took part in a quiz night at a bar come night time and we gave ourselves the team name of "The Horizontal Travellers." We all thought it was very fitting as we had been so lazy over the past few days. We then realised once we handed it in it might sound like all we do is spend our time having sex in bed with each other!ha We came fourth but if our friend Jan was there and wasn't t busy chasing the German girl we would have definitely would have come first...we were not jealous at all?!ha I didnt feel like drinking and was in bed by 11pm. I knew i had a long day ahead of me and that for most of it I was going to be travelling alone so I didn't want to feel hungover. Was not looking forward to saying goodbye to my friends even though they were coming to visit me in Utila to do some diving after travelling around Guatamala together.

6/03/08
We all got the ferry back to Belize city at 11pm and waved a sad goodbye to a small island that gave us so many happy memories. When we arrived back on the main land I said goodbye to my friends hoping to see them again soon. I say that becuase you should have seen the taxi I got picked up in. It had blacked out windows and a dodgey looking driver but to be fair to the bloke, not only did he not kill me but he even waved down the bus i needed as we approached the bus station. I said goodbye to James, my scarey looking but helpful taxi driver, and jumped on the bus. I got a lot of attention and looks being the only white person on the bus! It was a six hour journey and for half of it i didnt see a single other foreigner. Towards the end of the journey i was the only person left on the bus and then we pulled up at a bus station that looked to have been abandoned for years. The driver told me to get out and then he would pick me up in about 20 minutes. What can you say? I questioned it but he assured me i would get picked up. I waited in the seating area in the terminal whilst being checked out by a gangsta wannabe wearing a yellow bandana and jeans down by his arse. I honestly thought he was going to try and mug me and that was one of the only times i felt threatened. A different bus arrived and after speaking to the driver I got on that bus which he said would take me to my destination. He said that the other driver told him about me on the radio...see things always work out. I did have my doubts though! Mr gangsta wannabe got on my bus as well whic was great?! I was the only non local on the bus still until we picked up five English people along the way. One of them sat next to me and his name was Marco. One of his mates, Howard had the pleasure of being sat near "gangsta wannabe," at the back and imagine his delight when that bloke picked a fight with another local man. Luckily nothing happened. We ended up on a dirt track not being able to see a foot out of the window and the worrying thing with that was that the driver was driving like a racing car driver still! We finally arrived at Punta Gorda at 7pm and it was getting dark. I introduced myself to Marco's other friends, Howard, Sam, Natalie and Julia and eneded up booking a cabin with them that night. The cabin cost $65 but between the 6 of us it worked out cheap. They did say to me that it was obvious that i was an experienced traveller which was pretty cool to hear. We went shooping for the essentials, food and rum! On the way to the shop we were accompanied by a few local children who asked if they could join our gang!ha We bumped into an American couple in the shop and after speaking to the bloke he mentioned to me that he was in the music business. I didnt recognise him but he said he played in the 2006 Superbowl...so he must be pretty huge in America! We had a few drinks on the balcony getting to know each other and they were all suprised when they found out i was 27. They all thought i was between 21 and 23...for that i liked these guys even more!ha

We were getting the 9am ferry to Honduras and from there I would be jumping on the next available ferry to Utila where I was going to start my Divemaster course on Monday the 10th. I had loads of time to get to Utila, get settled and start my course. Or so i thought!
I had a great time in Belize and would recomend it to anyone. I can see why people say "things always happen for a reason." If John and I hadn't missed our first bus in Mexico, we would have never met them four great Norweigien girls and our time in Belize would have been completely different! It is strange how things work out but im not complaining, life is awesome!ha

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Photos

Having breakfast.
From left to right : Me, Line, Linn, Monica, Jan, John and Sahra.

On the way to Caye Caulker.
Miami Vice baby!ha

Leaving Caye Caulker waiting for the ferry.
Very sad to be leaving the island.

My new friends.
Boys at the back L-R : Marco, Howard and Sam.
At the front L-R : Julia, me, and Natalie.