Couch Surfing On The Edge of The Jungle

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So much has happened since I wrote last. We have been gone for 7 days but it seems like longer. We left Caye Caulker on Thursday. We had planned to stay one night and ended up staying for 3, it was delightful. We missed our boat ride back to Belize City and had to take the 1:30 boat which was kinda a bummer since we wanted to leave at 10:30 but such things happen. When we arrived back to Belize City we walked from the dock to the bus station and caught our first bus to our couch surfing host's place outside Belize City. We were a little nervous about missing the bus, the way they do things isn't very clear but it seems to work. I really don't understand how they know when to stop, people get on and off the bus all the time at what appears to be random places. We just have to be sure we tell the conductor where to drop us off at and that he tells us when to get off because most of the time we have no idea where we should be getting off the bus. They are so nice and helpful though. The busses get super full, people are standing and you can't help but bump into people, the men generally offer women standing their seat which is sweet. We have to put our enormous packs in the storage area at the back of the bus which has been fine so far but I can't help but wonder if people will steal them or take stuff out. We made it to Andrew and Tania's house, they live on the edge of the jungle and are from Kazakhstan. Tania speaks pretty good English and Andrew speaks some, he seems to understand more than he can speak. After living it up on the island it was a bit of culture shock to stay with them. They didn't have much of a kitchen but they had a toilet that flushed and a warm shower which was nice. We slept in a big room upstairs which had 3 mattresses on the floor with mosquito nets hanging above each. We were told they have a pet snake and iguana that come in the house sometimes. They don't mind because they eat the bugs. Thankfully I didn't see either in the house. I had visions of waking up with the snake in my bed. I did see the iguana crawling up the outside of the house, he was quite large! We helped paint a room while we were there, Dan spent quite a bit more time pain ting than I did. Our second night we had a campfire and you could hear the howling monkeys, they said they were at least a mile away but it was loud. They have lightening bugs and the birds make so much noise. It was a very clear night and you could see the stars well, it was very nice except the damn mosquitoes were horrible and something else was biting me. They even got thru my long sleeve shirt. That close to the jungle the bugs are pretty bad. Currently my legs are covered and it's all I can do not to itch them. I look like a leper. I am so thankful that my face doesn't look like that. We stayed two nights there and caught the 7:40 am bus back to Belize City on Saturday, I was smiling when we got on and I realize they were playing Christmas music. We are almost completely oblivious to the fact that Christmas is coming up. I can just picture my friends and family back home scurrying around preparing for Christmas freezing their tales off. I do envy your non-itchy skin though 😉 We got a bus in Belize City to the zoo, stupidly we only had a roll and half a banana each for breakfast and there weren't any food vendors at the zoo so we went thru a little more rushed than I would have liked cause I was famished. The Toucans at the zoo were the most beautiful birds I have ever seen. I sat and stared in awe of them. The parrots were a bright green and hilarious. I wanted to talk to them forever. They made animal sounds and said words, we tried to get video but of course when you pop out the camera they quit. They had quite a few tapers and other native animals. Theirs eagles and storks were beautiful! A lady who works at the zoo was having one of the jaguars walk up some logs, she fed him little raw chicken legs or something like that when he was done. Just handed it to him right thru the fence and pet his paw. It was pretty cool to watch. They then sprayed Calvin Kline's Obsession on a log and he went to the log and started rubbing his head on that spot, he was hooked. Apparently there is something in their that they love. They have tried knock offs and he doesn't respond, it has to be Calvin Kline; such a posh jaguar.

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Comments

[Isabel]

Loving your blog and missing you....
Ate lunch with your folks and R worked on T's computer. She mentioned she had sent you photos of the property in AZ. R suggests you ask for the local remedy for the bites. While in Chile I used a lotion made of lettuce! For some silly reason the portion about the toucan brought tears to my eyes and I had a hard time reading it through out loud with R. We send you so much love.