DAY ONE: We welcomed the boys from the viewing deck at the runway with my mummy. We took some pictures and then said our farewells to mummy. Off to the Belikin Brewery. It was a mere $30 BZE for a tour and then 45 minutes of all you can drink...including soda! Katie and
Adam joined us and we had a great time catching up. Steve also handed out gifts of fun dip and pack towels. The best part of the tour was the bottling line. It was like Mr. Rogers for big kids! While hanging out in the bar, we had all to ourselves, we decided to make a stop at the zoo before heading to the final destination of the day...Benque Viejo. We took the boys on their first ever bus ride, on an express.
Only to find out that Expresses up north go straight to Belmopan with out stopping so the driver took a chance and let us off. We had to stand up and wait while the bus was speeding along and then jump off while the bus was still rolling. Oh Belize. As soon as we got off we were bombarded by swarms of super mosquitoes. They laughed at our bug spray and followed us in swarms on our walk to the entrance. Once inside we promptly held snakes and then bee lined to JR. the jaguar. He did some tricks for us and mainly looked like "one cool cat" to quote Sam. We had to keep moving or the mosquitoes would begin their slaughter. They got to feed the tapir and hear the howler monkeys go off. We also had a good time watching the spider monkeys. We practically had the whole zoo to
ourselves too. We walked back out to the highway to wait for
another bus to Benque Viejo. We got there around 7 or 8 and as the bus stopped the taxi drivers started yelling and fluttering around the windows like bees on honey. We walked off into the feeding frenzy and after about 20 minutes, some kriol negotiation we managed to get a ride to Emily's house. Greg and I had only been to Benque once before during training and I was amazed at the different look and feel of the town. The main language is Spanish and it has buildings and a street layout of a real
hopping town or city. Lights sprinkled the valley and there were
huge luxurious houses along our walk to Rodger's. We settled in for the night. The boys took their first (and much welcomed) cold showers and we were out.
DAY TWO: We woke up early (they were 2 hours ahead, and we...well we're on village time) so we headed over to Emily's work, The
House of Culture and got a little tour. There was an art exhibit oh display; 29 years, 29 artists and we toured their museum which was the former jail. Greg and Anthony also got to dabble on
the marimba...like a big wooden xylophone. Off to Xunantunich!
Mike, Steve and Anthony were good luck for Iguanas because we saw around 10 medium sized ones and one HUGE one! I'd never seen so many. We came over on the ferry with a football team and other than them we had the place pretty much to ourselves. We ate our lunch of bus station chicken sandwiches and water on the top of the main temple looking out at Guatemala. It was very warm and we drank so much water. Steve found a hacky sack that said BECZE on it, the lady quietly took it away
after he showed us. Anthony cut open his water bottle to give a
dog and we left happy. After a delicious lunch in San Ignacio (where Anthony bought a fan for himself) we were off to Belmpoan. We had some local food of panadas, salbutas, and burritos at a tiny shack. During our meal it started to downpour and we moved tables and found ourselves jumping and, okay so I screamed, because the lightning was INSANE! There were two cell phone towers in the field behind us and they just took turns getting
struck with ear splitting aftermath. Greg managed to hail a taxi and we booked it back to the bus station to wait for the express (AC and reclining seats) down to Silver Creek. Our express bus was the one with a TV and we watched a bootleg Beyonce concert for 2 hours.
Arrival in the Village: We arrived at the Silver Creek junction at around 8:30 and began the walk into the jungle, Steve even donned his headlamp. We warned them to walk away from the tall bush (as to avoid
snakes) and we soon heard a vehicle. Greg said that we should
catch a ride, "what with some stranger!" was Anthony's response. But since we live in a village of 500 rarely is there a stranger. It was Luis one of my teachers and his family in the truck. We all climbed in (the truck was packed already). As we're settling in saying hello we start to hear a squawking sound. It
Seems to be coming from Anthony. I look at him and say, "Um...I
think you're sitting on a chicken." To what Anthony replies, "What?!" with marked concern and confusion in his face. He looks to Luis's son who just nods and then jumps up. The squawking stops as the boy picks up and cradles the small chicken. While we're in the truck Angelica asks
which one is Greg's brother. "Oh but he is fatter than Greg." It's
begun. The truck comes to a halt and as we're unloading villagers begin running out to see these new people we've brought. We have to reintroduce them several times and there is much giggling of the women (I later found out they all thought Anthony was handsome). Flashlights were flickering from face to face as they all stood in a line staring at these new 'saq eb' (white people).
The boys had quite an adjustment to the latrines and the chickens... I wouldn't say it
was a very restful first night.
DAY THREE: The boys mainly napped and ate while I washed their clothes at the creek and then washed the latrine. Finally we went on a little village walk.
We didn't visit anyone because it was so close to lunch and they
would have to feed us (all 5 of us) so we went back to the house. Not two minutes after arriving a girl comes selling tamales for a dollar. Lunch! We nap a little more and play with the kids then head off to do some visiting. Each house we were served a large glass or bowl of coffee and one house even gave us fresh bread.
The three houses were perfect because they showed the spectrum
of culture. From a mix of traditional and modern at the first house to Super traditional at the last house; we were ushered to the kitchen to sit with the man of the house and the women served us but did not speak. We wanted to visit more but the boys weren't used to the amount of
liquid you have to consume so we cut it short. That night I baked 15 tortillas. Margarita was helping me pat tortillas as usual but then Mrs. Cecilia sent in Lynette too because she knows what it's like having to cook for so many boys with no daughters! We had lots of fun, Lynette was making fun of me because my dough was sticky!
DAY FOUR:The next morning we woke up at 4:45 to walk in the dark rain to the junction. By 8:00 we'd taken a bus and a boat and had arrived in Placencia.
We had a breakfast of Belizean hot dogs ( mayo, onions, ketchup and mustard) and headed out to the beach. It was cloudy and covered in trash from the storms of late and I found quite a lot of treasures. We ate fried chicken for lunch and then went down the way and found a beautiful beach and an other PCV, Miguel who told Anthony about a man who does fishing tours. We made spaghetti
in our cabana with the rest of the calaloo we bought from Santiago's brother. We did have a tragic accident...Anthony's pictures thus far were erased. There was much reminiscing and morning.
DAY FIVE: Anthony went out fishing at 5:45 and we had a lazy morning then walked around. We also got a papaya shake to see if Steve and Mike had the gene that makes it taste like vomit...they don't. The sky began to get dark and Anthony calls saying he's coming
in early. Greg goes off to meet him. Steve, Mike and myself go to
get some more of those tasty hot dogs. It starts to downpour and lightning. This old man starts to talk to me. Soon he is telling me about his 16 yr-old son who was beat to death by baseball bats last week.
Yup. What do you say to that? We said our condolences then ran in the
storm back to the cabanas. Greg and Anthony appeared with a pig
tail bucket filled with 32 barracuda steaks! We texted Fermin and told him we're bringing dinner tonight! All the Coh's came over and as I and the women baked, fried fish and also prepared lancha (spicy fish in waha leaves) the boys went off to collect coconuts. We had a really fun time with the whole Coh family.
The kids were climbing in the rafters, Morpheus was dancing for
us and the ladies were all gossiping around the fire hearth. I found out that all the villagers were talking about how cute Anthony was and that they even knew a woman who was not married that would leave tomorrow with him!
DAY SIX:
We went in town to watch the world cup finals and then stopped back at Bill and Beth's to play some guitar and show off their awesome house.
We had a great last night in the village playing with all the kids. Margarita couldn't understand a word Anthony said. Sheldon loved
Steve. I think he called him Mike or Steven though. Everyone liked Anthony's facial hair and when they talked about him they would clarify which one by pinching their chin.
DAY SEVEN: Our final day with everyone was quite interesting. Steve had a reaction to Dramamine and was vomiting all morning.
Then we came in the rain to town to try to go on our fishing/snorkeling trip. I forgot my bag with my bathing suit, Steve was still feeling kind of sick, and the weather wasn't looking great. We had a pretty wonderful day despite all that though. The snorkeling was great we saw many a strange fish and got to snorkel as long as we wanted. The clouds helped us not to get sizzled and Anthony caught a large stick and some fish too. I got sick, again, surprise and so the boys went out with a bunch of our Peace Corps friends for their final dinner before their 6:00 bus up north and back home:(
The Visitor Surveys will come soon...it was a great trip with great people. Thanks for visiting Anthony (Bra Li AKA Brother in Law in Kriol) and Mike!!!!! (Steve is staying for another week!)
FRIDAY
