The Icing on the Cake

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Well, hanging out with Berne was bound to lead to some interesting things...
Let's see, we ended up hanging out most of the rest of the day after spitting some flows in the park. Berne asked me if I wanted to go to the rehearsal for the concert and do some filming for him. I definately wanted to see it, so I went with him to the Roomba room, where the concert was to be. He got on stage and started doing raps, dancing real crazy. He was a Garifuna, they are the funkiest dancers. I did some filming. He turned out to be a real nice guy, down to earth.

We did the rehearsals for about an hour, and then got some real tasty stewed chicken with rice and beans. It was my first real meal in Belize, and it was worth waiting for! It was so good, cooked right on the street by a nice lady, good homestyle cooking. Then Berne bought all of us sundays, and it was one of the best sundays I had ever had. He also got it for the ladies that cooked, and some others hanging out. I was telling a lot of people about the show, and they asked me, "are you playing?" cause I was walking around with my guitar everywhere. I told them maybe I would do a little. Then berne and I walked home, and we stopped by the casino. They wouldn't let him in because he had a black mesh wife beater on, and it wasn't appropriate. I thought that was pretty funny.

We shared a few raps on the walk back, and Berne tried to remember one that he wrote, but hadn't learned yet. He couldn't recall, so I told him to read me it when we got back to the hotel, he had it in a notebook. Turned out we were in the same hotel. So we got back there, and he got his notebook, and it was the exact same as the one as I'd been writing in my whole trip--a blue one, same brand and all. He had it all full with raps, and I had a few in mine too, though also journals and songs, and mine was filled. I was like, man, we have the same one! And I went and got mine. He read me a rap from his upcoming album, it was cool. Then I read him a little bit, and played him one of mine from my mp3 player, so he could hear the recorded product. He said, "that's tight" or something. Then he said, "You know what you should do? You should go onto hollywood boulevard and just sell them on the street there." And I thought, "wait a minute...when me and Tess and Shelby were on Hollywood, we saw this guy that looked just like Berne, and we walked by him twice, and he said, "Hey guys, give me a shot, it's my original stuff." I kinda wanted to go talk to the guy, because he looked friendly, and he just looked like a classic rapper. From his soft spoken voice, I wondered what kind of music it would be, and what kind of person he would be. But we just walked by, and didn't talk to him.

So it hit me. I said, "Wait, did I see you on Hollywood? And you said, "Hey guys, give me a shot."?" And he was like, oh yeah, that was me. So that was the icing on the cake, and it was a really funny coincidence. Having the same notebook was one thing, but this was just too much and I just started laughing. I thought it was too funny. So that's another star we saw in hollywood, in addition to Paris Hilton and her sister.

Next day Berne and I went out for breakfast, and he bought it for me. I was very grateful, and it was so delicious, eggs and fried jack, a classic breakfast homecooked again. It was nice of him to buy it! I forgot to mention that before, when I first met him, he had to pay his friend some money and he pulled out a huge wad of money, american dollars, mostly twenties, (maybe hundreds too, who knows) about three inches thick. He explained later that he really didn't like to flash it, but for liking to be discreet, he sure flashed it a lot! I think he actually liked to show it off.

Then we went and played some chess, it was the day of the big concert. So, the day before, he beat me, but it was more of a fluke, and I had to buy everyone drinks. This day, I won the first game, then he wanted to play for 10 belize dollars. I got him two more times, and made ten US bucks! Once I get my game back, I don't make those dumb mistakes. We just kinda kicked it that day, waiting for the gig. Finally, came time for the gig. I was raining pretty hard, and we all went up to the Roomba room. No one was up there. The guy doing all the promoting was there, rudy. He had a few music videos, he told me, and before I told him I wanted to see one. He was playing it, so I checked it out. It was him standing around, bobbing his head with flags in the background. It was pretty hilarious, even funnier than my rainbow video. Ten oclock berne was supposed to go on. Nobody out there. Just me, Berne, and two more friends chillin in the VIP room, sippin beers. The rain must've deterred people, also there was a cover of 15 belize. 11 rolled around, then 12, and berne still wouldn't go on, but I tried to convince him. I was about to go out and steal the show, but there was no show to steal! So turned out I saw the show the day before at rehearsals.

Berne was pretty quite, not his usual boisterous self. We were all kinda sad for him. He told me he played the biggest concert ever in Belize city, just in september. But some things he told me were pretty hard to believe. But maybe...anyway, I think it was just unlucky. Yet the next morning, he was back to his charismatic self. He turned out to be quite the character.

So, that day I went to Caye Caulker, a nice island. Berne and John and Aaron were supposed to come too, but I took the bus, and they were driving. I didn't think they'd make it, they were so slow. There, I ended up hanging out with John a lot, he was from Boulder. Met some other chill people too. I did my first snorkeling, and it is amazing all the fish down there. I went to the barrier reef, the biggest in the northern hemisphere, and second biggest in the world. It blew me away! Other than that, lots of chillin on the beach, relaxing, and a little partying. Right now I am just exhausted and that's why I sat down to write this, I can't do much else. I'm beat. I'm on Ambergris Caye, in San Pedro, but I don't really like it, it's too resorty. I don't know where I'm going tomorrow, but somewhere else. Belize is great, just a little more expensive.

I was just on Caye Caulker for five days. It was cool...where I'm off to next I don't know, but I need some rest, because you need to do that sometime to get ready for the next stretch. Whew. So I just gotta rest up. In Caye Caulker, I hung out with a bunch of kids, and it always ended in a party. They would party real long, but I usually turn in early. I get tired of parties around 1 or 2 usually. People keep drinking and I just can't do that. Last night I got back to the hostel, my friends went on to the bar. I was supposed to come, but the hostel was so quiet, I just stayed and wrote. Soon after I went to bed, they came back. I couldn't sleep so I came and said hi. They were all so sloshed, weaving all over the place, it was pretty funny. Good thing I missed that party anyway!

So yah, I'm gunna rest up, wish me luck with that. Because chillin on the beach here in San Pedro, I saw a guy who I met at the Roomba room in Cayo. He is with a crew and wants to party, so I'm trying not to. It's funny just knowing random people. Sometimes it's hard to just relax, and you have to make an effort. So, g'night!

oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention how the rest of that day, I played all kinds of music. First I let some locals play reggae on my guitar, we were all jammin out and dancin in the street, with just a few good people. Then later, John had a fiddle he was learning to play and we busted out some bluegrass on our porch! Later, I let john play bluegrass on my guitar. He did it a bunch, and it was funny on the island where you'd expect reggae or something. But people liked it, even locals!

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Photos

.me n berne in battle
after taking me for drinks the first day, I won 20 belize. We played a bunch of games. I was about to beat him for another 10 when he had to take care of something, and he wanted to call draw. I let him and figured I´d use the money to buy us food anyway.

.Biodeisel
All these guys were working on a biodeisel project in Belize. This is Aaron

.Caye Caulker
This is the pace of Caye Caulker, it´s true! When I got there, at the end of the dock, the local showed me this...

.snorklin
I went snorkeling my first time. Nice spot to do it right off the island. I was amazed by all the fish! Easily impressed.

.snorklin at the reef
I took a trip out to the great barrier reef, second largest in the world. Man that was something else...

.The hostel crew latenight
It´s the night I stayed back and wrote raps.

Comments

[idobelizeweddings]

Your trip to Belize
Thank you for sharing your blog! I enjoyed reading it. "I DO" BELIZE WEDDINGS!