Belize part 2

I missed out an important note. Faithful followers would have caught the part about me slamming a door into my toe on the way to Merida. Now, loading onto the bus to Belize, on my NZ birthday, (my birthday here in my mind lasted about 36 to 48 hours) my toe got beautifully ripped all the way up. Pain once again, but now permanent.

Don´t worry It is all bandaged and alcoholed and I change it 2 to 3 times a day. This British woman who was helping me with it (an expat married to a Belizean) thinks it will drop off. I am nervous about this.

Belize. So, after the stop off at the ATM where the Taxi driver got out to watch Padraic withdrawl money, he took us to a hostel that was mentioned in their book. I don´t know the name of it but it was a big old wooden building (unkept, like all the others here) ran by a French Canadian. The taxidriver charged us $12 US for the trip ' it was around the corner. But everyone here in Mexico says Belize is expensy so we were slightly prepared.
Padraic wanted to argue but Roisin shut him up, happy that no one had died yet.
The French Canadian was accidentally hilarious. Apparently he smelt really bad, I didn´t actually smell him, but that may have been thanks to the overpowering non'aluminium deoderant I wear with loyalty.
Padraic said it was so strong that he smelt when this guy walked past our room (door closed)... anyways, what we thought was hilarious was the 80´s net'vest he was wearing, with his middrift showing. Wish I had a photo.

Back to the story, we got ´dinner´from the shop across the road because now it was really dark and we had all been scared (taxi driver ´don´t leave your house tonight´). The shop was run by Asian people, I think Chinese, which suprised us all. It wasn´t really a shop either.. it was more a jail with all the food behind bars. We came to discover that all the small supermarkets and dairys and most the restaurants too, are all run by Chinese. I have spent a lot of time trying to work this out in my head.. I guess there are more opportunities for poorish Chinese to earn money in a place like this, where they like MADE IN CHINA for the cost and they don´t have as much work ethic.
I don´t mean for that to sound as harsh as it does, but it reminded me of Fiji where Indians suceed in the stores more... I guess then the Chinese people call up their cousins and friends and before you know it there is a large community here. I was wondering Why Belize but 1, it´s a 3rd world country, corrupt so easy to get into, 2: I think this is the only, or at least one of, countries with ENGLISH as the official language.

Our dinner consisted of Peanut MandMs, the only thing here that is cheaper than in Mexico, and some Onion chips. Our room was predicably crap, but I think it only cost about $6 NZ each. Padraic paid for me to..I was going to go find my Scotia Bank but if tough lookin Belizeans tellin me not to go outside, ya girl aint goin outside!
Although I did the next day - the 21st of October, my birthday over this side. I actually left without saying nothin, freakin my Irish parents out a tad. But I needed the bank, and couldn´t sleep anyways - between the pool-pub place in the neighbours house, the building in the other neighbours yard and the various horses trotting past (I figured they were for tourists, but was unsure why tourists would come around here.. turns out we were in the centre of town aka there is NOTHING in Belize Citttaaaayyyy *say like a gangsta).
I walked up a road, past Uncles´s shop aka the Chinese jail dairy, a church, a school, a few boat shops (we were right on the river) and a few shops that I am positive weren´t 100%, or even 30% legal.

I then walked over the main bridge, at this time not realising it is the main tourist attraction in the town. Only until later when I spotted it on all the postcards did it click. Although, it was far from a `silly me`moment - as the bridge is ugly, plain, maybe from the 70s but apparently moved for boats every now and again.
Right over the other side of the road (partially in 1st picture) was a sign stating `WE SELL DRUGS AND POISONS` which managed to take away from the pain of my toe for a second for me to find funny, and then realised that those poisons were exactly what I needed. One thing I loved about Belize is that all the signs are still paintèd like it is the 60s.
`Bienvenidos a las Setentas`or `Welcome to the 60s`, in case there are other HAIRSPRAY fans reading. After attending the musical in Spanish I feel so bilingual.
Back to it - I found the bank with ease, as this was the centre of town, but besides all the cute kids (girls with cornrows) hopping to school and all the men sitting on the streets, potentially selling `stuff`, or newspapers and other legitimate items, or still out from the night before (note: all the kids were of African-Belizean descent, along with all the men.. on later bus journeys I basically got the race lay-of-the-land). Everyone says something to you, whether high or friendly. I didn´t pass a person didn´t say good morning, others asked if I was lost (it was 8am) and some called out inappropriate comments - they met my deathstare, which I feel I have perfected while being here, but also I think it has become my normal facial expression (due to a few people asking why I was angry when I wasn´t).
I withdrew money from the ATM (this was when I realised I was in the centre of town as there was a small crummy park, with concrete benches with ``Together we can make a beautiful city`` etc written on, where all the taxi drivers were sleeping.. and a big map with a YOU A HERE.. I was disppointed, but glad I knew to not waste time wandering), then realised I wasn´t exactly sure how much the Belizean currency was.. no fear as the Bank guard was already looking at me like `Hey mon, I help yu` - he informed me it is double the US$.

I hit up the supermarket on the way home, ready to bust out big money on Bday treats. It was confusing as although the Belizean $ is about 6x the Mexican peso, everything was the same price as Mex. E.g a bag of chips is $10. Oh yes, you think, that is a dollar NZ. NO IT IS NOT!
It is over $5 NZ, it is just that you are in Belize, where food is luxury.
There was nothing to resemble cake, but that didn´t matter as the shop was out of both `2`and `1`candles anyway. Just my luck.
The more I think about it, those are the 2 most popular numbers needed.. for teens and all the sad ones in their 20`s like me (that still feels weird, even after a year) who can´t bypass all the fun, tacky decor.

Anyways, I spent way too much on very little and returned to meet up with the others (stern, but glad I was alive) and after spreading our cinnamon buns with Philadelphia using one of Padraic´s membership cards (see photo of them on bunk) we made our way to the ferry terminal... beside this `moving`bridge attraction. I bought postcards and stamps successfully (although the guy was trying to sell me 30c stamps for $1 a piece! I was all `30c stamps cost 30c`He was like `How do I make a profit` you don´t! They`re stamps.. no point now anyway coz I forgot to post them... only remembered just after I crossed the boarder (as the thoughts.. was there anything else I was supposed to do over that line? cross your mind), and then unsuccessfully looked for a newspaper with my 21st Birthday date on it... Fail because in Belize they only print they only print it once every two days... so my option was the 20th, or the Sunday edition that - on Thursday - had already been printed.