On our way to Belize

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December 20, 2005 (It's my Birthday!!!!)

So, me and my girlfriends ( D, Y and another Y) decided to take the cheap route and purchase tickets from LAX to Cancun, Mexico to get to Dangriga, Belize.
We arrived at the airport 1:30pm (Cancun, immigration, passport, luggage, customs) uh oh, D's luggage is missing...."Are you sure? DAMN, DAMN, DAMN!!! D's luggage was lost....and BOYYY.. was she not happy. All of us we're bummed out. We paced for a bout an hour until customer service gave us a number:<

We took a taxi to the bus station which was about 25 minutes way. When we arrived at the bus station, we noticed that the bus we wanted to get on was departing, so we had to wait 4 hours. In the mean time we're thinking that the luggage would soon arrive for D but it didn't and just think, this was her first time leaving American soil, but her american clothing did not want to go... Finally hours later we get on the bus to Chetumal. Hour', pon', hour', pon, hour, we finally made it to chetumal bus station, arriving maybe at 11:59pm. We caught a taxi to the border. Oh yeah, our driver couldn't pass so we had to get out and walk across the border bridge like refugees with Y's 3 fully loaded suitcases, D's long face with no luggage, and the other Y's exhaustion and my irritating energy and excitment and back pain from carrying another one of Y's other suitcases....
(Yes that's the way she travels...:0 An outfit for every wind, How you doing??- NORBIT.
Our ride (Y's nephew) was to meet us at the Belize border to take us to Dangriga, but we think he may have thought we were'nt coming and decided to leave us. So he did.

Walking across the border was an experience. I noticed the weather difference, the humudity was more dense...the smell of rain over vegetation, the sound of insects, and crickets and warmth...the sounds of reggae from afar at the border casino, people laughing oh and did I mention reggae on little radios, you could just feel the love. We waited and waited and waited until finally some lovely mayans 2 guys and three girls in a van offered us a ride to the heart of Corozal to get a room.. They wouldn't even take a tip. this was mind bogling to me considering everone had there hands ready for tips in Mexico.
We stayed the night 30 minutes away from the border at Las Palmas in Corozal. A nice clean place and the owner was very cool, an American I think, I hope to visit again.

December 21, 2005...(It's not my Birthday.)
The following day, we ate breakfast at a local spot. Our ride finally arrived ( A friend of the family)and we were on our way to (b)Dangriga(/b).
When we arrived in Dangriga four hours later, we caught the last of rain. At first it was a bummer because I was expecting sunshine and reggae music, etc. Upon waking up the next morning, we were greeted with such. The sun came out here and there along with fluffy clouds, and gave us all a nice shiney welcome.....What a breeze!!!!

Question:So was it worth it to catch a plane from LAX to Cancun to wait four hours at the bus station to catch a five hour bus ride to Chetumal to cross the border on foot with much luggage and a long face who's luggage was lost to get left at the border to hitchhike a ride from the friendly mayans to spend the night in a strange motel room with three other people to have to drive an additonal four hours to Dangriga to discover rain????
Answer: It was a wonderful experience, it was worth it, but next time I'll just pay the money ..... More to come on Belize and it's sweet water.

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