Renewing the Visa

Thankfully that doesn´t mean my credit card.

Its been 90 days. Maybe I should reflect in thirds, but right now- I am still trying to piece together my last week and 90 seems daunting. I traveled to Tikal, the Mayan ruins. All I really have to say is ¨Damn how´d they do that?¨ Answer: slaves. It was big, it was beautiful, it was hot. I missed the bus (felt like all 4 years of college flooded back to me in an instant) and walked around the small town trying to find it. I found the bus company and met two people who lived 10 miles from Phil. Weird. I spent the rest of the day with Karen, Dave, and Phil. Cool people, she traveled a lot and said I had her son´s spirit. So I got that going for me. We saw howler and spider monkeys. Both deserving of their name. A kid kept screaming at the howlers. Made my day.

It was really nice to sit on the roof of our hostal in hammock and eat avocados with my jalepeno cheesy bread. But we had to leave Tikal. On to San Ignacio. I got Indian food and watched tv. That is all. And I found a rope swing, on a wild goose chase to try find falls in Bullet Tree Falls, they have a river, no falls. WTF? My side still hurts from multiple belly whoppers.

Onto the better part of Belize. Placencia- a beach town with nothing to do. Word from our friends was we could find Bill and Lisa and camp on their beach. With terrible directions we walked about the whole island to find it was a camping place, not friends who would let us camp on their beach. We made friends with two Geographists from Vancouver, traveling by bike. They had good travel advice. I spent more or less the entire next day finishing my book- The Thunderbold Kid, swimming, and making a sandcaslte. We met some Brits on the way their, as naturally one would in a bus where people are prohibited beyond the white line in the US, but there you pack 7-10 people in front of the line. Capacities don´t exist here, only limits to your comfort. So we went out to get drinks and I had a Belizian long island with- get this 10 types of rum. Yum rhymes with rum for a reason. They speak Creole (lazy unrecognizable English) in Belize. Did you know rum also makes blood squishy and therefore it is easier to sleep on sand, but it doesn´t stop you from waking up to rain on your face.

We went on a nature hike the next day. I saw leaf cutter ants, some cool and really big trees, and one of the plants they think may help fight cancer. Then while tubing, I made friends with more Brits, a couple and 2 kids- Kye and Cici. They loved shakeface and my really bad elephant jokes. Cici (8) said with a confused face ¨You have funny jokes (meaning peculiar and not funny). Then we did some rock sliding on smooth rocks into ponds. the guide went first. After Kye went he said, ¨He made it look really fun, but it wasn´t! I miss kids, british accents too.

Then I renewed my faith in Gelato, and traveled for 12 hours home to Esquipulas. On the way home I read, The Jaguar Smile. It was good, but Salman Rushdie is a man of fiction. Merry Christmas. 4 days until I see my family. I love it.