A few phots

Caye Caulker, Belize

Quintana Roo, Mexico

First thing I did on return to PV?
Buffet.

Belize backtrack

Behind again... partially due to lack of computer availability and partially due to laziness.

Took an expensive bus last night, which is the quickest option from Guadalajara - but meant it

left at 12.30am and arrived at 5.30am. I am very tired.

I got offered Cocaine this morning, but more on that later. Later: So I starting walking from the Bus station, without info about where the highway was. It was dark and confusing, being 5am, so I wandered. And wandered. I eventually was in this village... a man there was all nice and took pity and offered me a drive as he was going into town for 'work'. He then was asking if I want, what seemed to be, his hand. On that hand was powder. I was confused at first, coz I couldn't see anything and he started rambling 'Oh, I have been drinking and smokin" and I'm all 'Wahhh?' and offered to drive. He got out to use the bathroom, leaving me there to panic. He came back in and was all 'I am not a bad person', and 'I will tell you a secret..I am a dealer'. I was all, 'That's not good'... and he rambled more about how it is bad, but hard to get work, cocaine is easy, supports the fam... 

He was a nice guy, but how much he changed from the guy lifting my bags into his car to the drunk?high? rambler, I was not trusting of his sober-state. As soon as we got on the highway (him still rambling), I was all 'My bus stop is the next one!', asked if he wanted a tip, but saying he probs shouldn't drive people around. I was grateful, but torn. 

BACKTRACK TO BELIZE:

The next day in Belize we really did nothing but wander the island and swim.

THE NEXT DAY HOWEVER, we took a tour with the lady who gave me all this stuff to use on my nail (after she saw me hobbling down the road wincing.. what a nice lady), the Barrier reef is very close to the island actually, so we did not have to spend an hour and a half on the boat like in Aus, it also cost around $30 NZ, not $120 Aus, that is another bonus. It also did not kill Steve Irwin.

In conclusion, I liked the 2nd largest reef in the world better than the titleholder.

I love snorkelling, muchly, but find that it is pretty much the same everywhere you go... lots of the same fish and coral. But I still loved it, I just don{t know how to differentiate between different countries.. BUT the 2nd stop, was CRAZZZZY.

The driver man, assited by his 9 year old son - Kevin - who is the next generation of tour leaders, ripped up fish and put them in a tube. Seconds later, about 15 stingrays and 6 Nurse sharks were all around the boat. He jumped in and was petting them, touching them everywhere to show they are friendly... we got in one by one, Roisin was swearing her head off in her thick accent. This American (from the South) lady did not stop screaming and was going {BABBBBYYYY) to her husband everytime one was coming near. It was her first time snorkelling - she was thrown in the deep end alright.

It was terrifying and thrilling at the same time. I was trying to watch from a distance, but at one stage about 5 stingrays came up around my feet and I jumped up, in a ball on my back, furiously wading in the water. I had my eyes closed and geniuinely freaked out - blood chilling it was. Knowing that they do have powerful stings and will attack if touched on.

The nurse sharks are quite funny looking, all there features are round and they have light brown skin(?).. their fangs actually look quite comical. I was patting them a bit, this Spanish guy was clowning around... trying to be all tricky with his feet and such - not worth the risk I reckons.

Later that day I caught the ferry back to Belize city, alone. Boy, was I sad to leave my Irish Parents.. I was really casual with them but then when I was in the ferry I found myself quite upset!

I was out of money so needed the ATM, where I walked to once back in bay... I was a bit more scared than I was the morning I took this walk, as the sun had just set and it was getting dark. Men are everywhere.. just sitting or standing around... how people in these countries don{t get bored, I have no idea.

Near the bank is the ´square´ where I knew to find the taxi drivers, as it is where they sleep. One short, jolly-Santa man waved me down from a block away so I went straight for him.

He had a Previa. I love Previas... aka Bretheran vans. One day when we were in our old one up near the Bretheran school, they all tooted and waved at us - thinking we were one of theres. It felt good to be accepted.

My jolly bus driver told me about how the City used to be a bright, quiet and safe place, but now there is a lot of drugs and therefore thievery... he doesn´t like living here much anymore. I felt bad for him and the good people of the city - such things we don´t really have to worry about. I thought it was a great shame, as it does look like it was once a pretty city. The government is also very corrupt, he told me, even Obama sent a message about how corrupt it was - they really like Obama here, I´ve noticed. Lots of people bear the T-Shirts in the city, I guess it is because the city is mainly a community made up of African Slave ancestory. I think Belize looks up to USA quite a lot too....

Anyways, I went to the bus station - very different to the classy ones of Mexico - everyone stared at me from the moment I walked in to the second I got off the bus. Most of it was outside, but sheltered, with lots of food stalls. Every 2nd person asked where I was trying to be and pointed me the way. A lady came on with hot clove bread and I got some of the. Wish I had got more - it was so fresh, so nice. The ride was very interesting. I took the bus all the way to Corozal, so I must have been on it for a good few hours. There was a back door to the bus, men kept getting out to use the bathroom then quickly running and jumping back on when the driver was yelling to close the door. It was on the highway, but through neighbourhoods. I saw a LOT of Chinese supermarts and restaurants. Even the non-chinese ones, are all named with the person who runs it name. I like this. Most the businesses are ´Andrea´s´ or ´Wong Fu´s´... I like it coz it´s like - ¨I did this, I am gonna make sure everyone knows that it´s mine´.

When I got on the bus, it was 100% (bar me, obviously) black people. When I got off the bus, it was 100% Mayan or Mexican. Some of them ARE Mexican, the bus driver was speaking Spanish, some of them are not - but the boarderline is quite faint up the north there.
I didn´t actually realise this until we stopped in a city - Orange Walk´- up North and the bus driver put on a Mexican music CD. I wondered why he was only busting this out now, when he could{ve put it on hours ago, when women got on the bus to walk the aisle selling Corn and Tamales (the fave Mex snackS) ...I looked around and saw only Mayan or Mexican Belizeans - on the bus, in the street.. Spanish was what people now speaking. It opened to my eyes to Belizean Culture... there is more to it than meets the eye.

IT ws an expensive effort to get back across the boarder, as unfortunately it was now about 10pm and all the buses for the day had stopped. I try to be a budget traveller, but there are good tricks I am learning for the next trip I go on. I had to Taxi there in a van... I was scared for my life for a few minutes there. Not because the van was unsafe, but because my partyman driver was BLARING the music (latest RnB, classic) but driving RIDICULOUSLY fast - but not really paying sticking to his side of the road. At all. This made me particularly queezy when we were going around the various bends on the wrong side .. that with the fact that there were no lights on the road.. it was now black so I had no idea what was ahead of us. Early on I was furiously grabbing for the seatbelt, couldn´t find the bottom bit and he reached over to try and help - meaning taking his eyes off the road and bending right to the ground - I was like ´´It´s okay - you drive, I will look for that.´He was all ´We don´t use seatbelts in Belize´, I was ´Even in this car? DRIVE PLEASE´. I got the buckle eventually, but it had obviously not been used for a while.
I walked through the crossing, with about 20 people all heading to the Casinos in no-mans-land. Once I got out into the middle part, I took photos of myself in front of each country. I got a whistle and looked toward the Belize side. The guy was waving his arm casually at me. I took another photo. ´No!´he yelled, must of thought i was working for some government. He probably thought I would put the photos on some blog, or something. I have found I have looked like a bad-ass on a few occasions here, because their ´´You are not meant to be doing that´´ signals and messages are so weak that I just think they are waving, like this guy. He was leaned back in his chair, one ankle up on the other leg, with his hand behind his head. It looked like a ´See ya, Thanks for coming to Belize, mon.´

Caye Caulker...

Is the name of the most beautiful place I have seen in my life.

The island can only really be realised properly either first hand, or really with some good photos.
Although I doubt it, I hope the photos will look half as good as it did in person.
Driving up on the boat we knew we had now REALLY reached the Carribean. There were a lot of plank wood docks leading up to the ocean, one of many we got off at. The ocean below was a clear slighty minty green, I almost lost a jandal looking down because the gaps between wood were large (some of the docks are quite ´rustic´, one very weathered one has a 4 person maximum. The Island ´Captain´(aka one of the laid'back young guys wearing the CC Ferry tops and jandals, with ´Captain´printed on) said ´Don´t worry, we got plenty o dose here (Jandals)´ as he easily threw my bag onto the trolley that he would later pull down the dock to the mainland..¨Go slow, you´re in Caye Caulker now¨ (this is the islands catchphrase).

I stood on the dock for a few minutes (I take pictures of everything) as my Irish Parents had various Golf cart taxi drivers and hostel owners keenly (but not aggressively, or pushy ..unlike their Mexican neighbours). The three of us sat on the back seat of the cart, which gave us a great view of all we passed. This took us down the main road, where the Basketball court is (miniature... i don´t think even half size), along with the resturants (none are fancy, all with swing seats and plastic chairs), some shops (a tourism shop, 2 togs shops, a book shop'internet cafe.. about $7 NZ an hour!), about 3 small Chinese'run supermarts (this is what I am now calling the small supermarkets... even in Mexico there are either the small ones, or the huge Americana beasts), then various accomodations...the best of which being stilted, wooden, colourful and classic Carribean. The island really caters from camping to a fenched in modern place with a pool.. the first place, hotel-pizzaplacebar, we stopped at didn´t have available rooms for us (A Canadian guy had taken over the place and was just opening... he literally put up the sign later that day, we went there in the night and all they had was two types of beer, which they were sending a local stoner to the supermart to buy).

The next place was where we ended up. I haven´t managed to taken in any of the names of the places we have been staying, but it was basically on the beach, the family lived upstairs and then have extended to have a quite tacky looking wooden building - something you would expect on a trip to Colorado. I didn´t mind where we were at this point, the Irish wanted to stay somewhere nice and my birthday is the one day I let the money flo´a lil. People who pass me on the street on Oct 21 are like, ¨Hey, Big Spender!¨.

We dropped the bags and headed for ´´the split´´ where there isn´t much beach, but awesome water with beautiful fish you can see from the bay. At around midday the stoners and hangers'around come from the Chinese supermart to here.. i think in the hopes tourists will buy them drinks. I wondered why these guys spend all day at the Supermart (always saying ´Where´s the party at´), one of them even has a permanently placed chair. I think it they take advantage of the fact that the Chinese people are too scared to tell them to leave, but also they have the attitude ´This is my country!´. One of the supermart owners can´t really speak English either, so even if he tried - I think he is stuck with them.

When one of them (David) learnt it was my birthday, he was all ´Well the party must be somewhere´ but then asked me the next day.. ´Where the party at, Birthday Girl´´
I replied ' ´Dunno. My birthday was yesterday´, he said ´Ohhh Sorry, I may have taken some drugs´.

My favourite person on the island was a guy we encountered quite early on... I don´t think we ever learnt his name, but he was only known as ^The Tamale Guy^.
I still don´t really know what tamales are, a bit sad seeing it is one of the most popular street food here. BUT, it is made out of corn (the is the bit I don´t really get... how corn becomes this soft, heavy texture) then with herbs through... or chicken and veges apparently. It is wrapped in a banana leaf. I had only had it with herbs in Mex, but theis had more going on. I meant to try one of the Vege ones on the island, but forgot .. but I tried some of Padraic`s on his first Tamale encounter. It was very good, mainly thanks to the sauce.

We spooted this guy because we werhearing a very long-winded tour explanation (an AMerican lady who has married a Belizean), she talked for ages... giving detail to the sillyest things.. I made the mistake of mentioning Steve Irwin(which everyone does at on hearing ``Swim with the stingrays``) and she went off on a huge tangent about how you don´t grab them from behind, the location of the stingers, it is sad because he has a family....saying all this with no sympathy I might add. She didn´t really have emotion at all now I think of it.. but anyways, she was then droning about cheap eating option (which we discovered, don`t actually exist, in comparison with Mexico) when she mentioned the Tamale Guy - don`t worry, you won`t miss him.
Within seconds we heard the loud and enthusiastic boomb ``HAT Ta-ma-LES get your HAT TAmaLES.
He swaggers up the road in his blue shirt, cap, sneakers with his socks pulled up, pushing his cart. ``Hey guys!!! - I got Tamales... Chicken AND Vegetarian`` we didn´t know this at the time, but this is really all this man says. Apart from a few other words, he really puts a lot of energy into making te Tamales sound hot, chicken, vegetarian -and boy, does he do it with enthusiasm. He also does hilarious rants, before we talked to him, somewone was waving him down off a pier. He was like ``They betta be buyin sum`ìn, you donçt make the Tamale walk retrace his steps fo nuthin``... when he was selling to us he mentioned Ì come out 2 times a day, at about 12.30, I walk the main road then pause at the split for 30 mins, then walk back to my house. I walk out of my house again at 5.30 - with Hot TamaLES`
Later on he was like ``Hot Tamales, quick before I leave`and I was all `You don`t leave! I have seen you 8 times today`` (not in a rude way). He replied `You only see me twice actually. Once at 12.30 and then at 5.30`.

After watching a beautiful sunset, taking photos of myself infront of the sunset of this glorious 21st.. some holding the camera and others dancing around (providing a comedy show for the fishermen - note: they fish and eat and sell CONCH here, which I found interesting. Mainly because I didn´t know conch had meat... not sure it is legal in NZ because of the cultural value...), then hit up the main local stree. Again, not much there.. .another Chinese Supermart (named China Town), a-the bank and the bakery. I looked for something that resembled a cake, a return with a cinnamon loaf - with the softest, freshest bread ever. This was my first birthday without a Chocolate cake, but I will have one - that is the joy of the word `Belated`.. we could technically all celebrate our birthdays all of the time.
In desperation, I stopped off at a Burger Bar place for a cupcake.. any kind of CAKE was necessary. It was a takeaway restaurant, but as the Americans outside told me, they were ``out`` of all the other items on the menu (aka either someone had not bothered to do the shopping, or the boat hadn`t arrived with the food).
My Irish parents found a great restaurant on the beach with a vege menu, although they didn´t actually bring me what I ordered, I was happy to eat it because it was the first time I had seen Broccoli and Cauliflower for months. It was a deep fried pita wrap with lots of veges, hottish sauce and runny beans.. i splashed out (Hey, BIG SPENDER) on a side of mashed potato (no existe in Mex) and a fizzy drink because they have the cool, big glass bottles...may as well celebrate the decade in which I was born.
I then felt bad with my erratic spending as my Irish Parents insisted on paying the bill. The restaurant also brought out an Ice Cream sunday for me - very nice, good news is that Belizeans make ice cream a HELL Of a lot better than the Mexicans. Mexican´s mean well, but miss the `cream`element of it. Although we can´t really blame a country without real milk, can we?

This is when we went to the `bar` with the two beer types, the crazy Canadian gave us his life story (classic overworked and divorced.... moved here to chill out) he told us that Cocaine is okay if taken infrequently and insisted we wrote on his wall - if we return, he promised, we need to point out our wall scribbles and he will give us a free drink (to which I said I only wanted if he had more options.. they couldn`t even give me lemonade.. or water).
He wanted me to draw something, so I put a few sad looking flowers, `Maria 21 on 21-10-10`and `Arohanui ` on the wall, for some New Zealand Flava.
Glad I got to leave my mark in Belize!

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.