Happy Thanksgiving!

Central America Caribbean » Belize » Belize Barrier Reef » Ambergris Caye
November 22nd 2007

Published: November 22nd 2007

Happy Thanksgiving! Or in Kriol it might go something like Hopy Tanksgivin.
Well, well, well..... a lot has happened since I last posted a week ago. Instead of riding with my friend from Tulum, I decided to leave a day early because they were getting busy at the spa and needed me. So, last Friday morning, I woke up at 8, decided to leave, and went to the bus station for a 8:30 bus. Turns out the first class bus was booked at that time, so I decided to wait for the 10:30. I could've taken a 2nd class bus, but it would've stopped in each town, and there would've been no bathroom on the bus. Since I would add an hour, I decided to wait. This gave me time to wonder around a bit more, buy some fruit, take my camera out to take some pictures, only to realize that I left my memory card and card reader in the computer I used the night before. And of course they haven't shown up. So I guess I will have to return at some point to take all the wonderful pictures I had taken to share with you!
So, on the bus at 10:30 from Tulum to Chetemal. Chetemal is the second largest city in Quintana Roo state in Mexico. Cancun is the largest. The bus was nice with American children's movies in spanish playing, and a fairly clean bathroom. Although, I must say, none of the bathrooms in Mexico are really clean. The ride was 3 1/2 hours, so I arrived at 2. Because all my connections have been so painless so far, I assumed I would be able to hop off this bus, and on another to Corozol in no time. Not true. The next bus was not until 4:45. And since my whole goal was to get to San Pedro that day, that threw a little wrench in. And Tulum and farther south in Mexico is different than Playa, Cozumel or Cancun in that you really do need to know some spanish to get around. Because they don't speak english. But it has been great to be forced into practicing. Anyway, I realized there was a cab station right outside, so for $20US, I took a cab from Chetemal to the border. At the border, the cab driver stopped as I got out with my passport to show the guy on the Mexico side, and give him a piece of paper I had from immigration at the airport. Thank goodness I still had it! I thought it was a throw away. I just hadn't cleaned out my purse yet! Then I got back in the cab and he drove me a little further, past the duty free zone, to immigration. Immigration was very simple. There was no one in line, so I was able to go right up. This was where the language changed right away. It's a line in the sand, but the language and the people changed right away. In Mexico, everyone was Mexican or a gringo. Cross the border and everyone is Mexican, but a little darker, or black. The energy also changes right away. There is a little more attitude, playfulness, and casualness in Belize, right away. And you think they are speaking english at first, but it's Kriol, and after being in Mexico, it was much more difficult to follow Kriol English than it was for me to understand Spanish. They checked my passport, and then asked what I had in my bags. Did I have any food, fruit, cigarettes, wine, booze. I had a banana and a orange which they took, and then I was through.
On the other side was a place to wait for bus's. No organization really. In Mexico there was organization, such as a sign might show you where the bus will pull up to, or there were scheduled times to arrive. In Belize, there was a dirt parking lot with no signs. After a couple minutes, a local short bus pulled up and the guy assisting the driver hopped out to chat. He was heading to Corozol I learned, so all my luggage and I hopped on board. The bus was packed and then the white girl with all her luggage squeezed in. But the driver was nice and we chatted quite a bit. The bus fair was $1.50 BZE which is 75 cents, so you can't really complain. In town, they called over a cab for me who took me to the airstrip. The airstrip is literally that. A short strip where tiny 6 seater planes can land and take off. Not really enough for 2 planes really. Luckily, I reached there at 4:00 and was able to buy the last ticket on a 5:00 flight.
To kill some time, I walked half a block to a little 'restaurant' to buy a bottle of water. Ok, so the first business I enter in Belize is a little hole in the wall, very similiar to other business's I have now been, but not even close to anyplace I or anyone I know would go to if it was back home. But as i've been reminded everytime I leave the house, I'm not in Minneapolis anymore.
So this 'restaurant' had little plastic lawn tables with red lace tablecloths. The walls were decorated with pic's of naked white women. Each shelf behind the bar was lined in different colored christmas lights with tinsil. There was a shelf designated as an alter with a pic of a young man and many fake red roses surrounding his picture. And a black velvet painting of a doberman hanging above. The 2 ladies working were wearing bright blue eye shadow colored all the way up to their brows and red lipstick. As I sat there, drinking my water, a little puppy ran by. I started ooing and awing about the puppy, and as the lady noticed, she came up to talk to me about the puppy. I don't know if she was speaking spanish or kriol, but eventually I got the message that she was telling me sometimes people come here, like the puppy and take it. Would I want to do that? I decided that being I had been in the country only 20 minutes, it was not yet time to buy a puppy!
Back at the airstrip I met a couple people also going to San Pedro who became my friends. And as it turned out, they did overbook me on the flight (how they can overlook something like that on a 6 passenger, i'm not sure.) There was another flight with 5 school children I could join. As I was standing in line waiting to board, this old man comes up with a little 4 year old boy, and asked if I could watch him and make sure he get's to his parents who would be picking him up in San Pedro. Uh, oh, was someone trying to give a kid away now too?
I was shown to the front of the plane where they had me sit right next to the pilot. We were so close, our legs were almost touching. And I had a steering wheel in front of me. He said he falls asleep a lot, so if I could just take over when that happens! It was dark by now (5:30), so I was not able to see the beautiful colors of the water, but I knew it was there. From the air, you can see Belize city, San Pedro and Caye Caulker all in the same view. Flight was only 20 minutes, and we landed on an airstrip slightly bigger than the one we took off in. In the confusion of where my bags were, the little kids were ushered off to their parents, so hopefully my little boy did too! It was hard to tell because I had to do many things all at the same time, and was so overstimulated by this whole experience, that I think (hope) he just found his parents right away like the other kids.

I have so much more to say about Belize right now! I will have to finish later. I am off to Thanksgiving dinner, Belize style. It is not a holiday here today, but we have the afternoon off to cook and celebrate. Monday was a Belizean holiday called National Garifuna day, so there has been a lot of celebrating around here.
More soon!

Jennifer

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