The most amazing storm either of us had ever witness happened during the night. It was as loud as a train at a point which had Mike thinking it might be a possible tornado. The sound of thunder was spectacular and a bit frightening. While the power went off, the resort’s emergency generator had it back on within minutes but we later learned that the town of Hopkins lost all power, not that many of the homes there have it anyway, but the businesses do.
We woke up at 7:00, finished packing and had a quick breakfast before saying goodbye to the Hamanasi staff and hopping in the van that would take us to the airport. We chuckled to ourselves as we watched it rain, happy that we weren’t subject to any unwanted rain during our stay. Peggy was the only other guest checking out with us today so we were treated to her passionate talk about birding (was it still considered a treat or was it annoying now?) all the way to Dangriga. The three of us waited in the tiny airport for about an hour before we boarded our small, 6 seater plane. The plane flew between 900 and 1100 feet the entire way to Belize City, just under the clouds that were still threatening rain. The low altitude offered some great aerial views.
We arrived in Belize City and by the time we got our flights all worked out (there was some confusion with our connection flight), we had only a few minutes to board the plane that would take us to Houston, Texas.
The flight with Continental Airlines was nice as far as flights go. We were served a sandwich, chips and chocolate bar which, after eating so well for the past 11 days felt so terribly wrong to consume. We sat next to a chatty old lady that just couldn’t comprehend the whole “I have headphones on and would like to tune you out” thing. Every time I would press play on my ipod to listen to my audio book, she would start talking to me and I would have to press stop again. This happened the entire way to Houston with the counter on my book reaching an astounding 3 minutes! Oh well, she was nice enough.
As we got off the plane we knew we’d have to haul ass to catch our connection flight to Detroit. We ran to the US immigration gate and breezed through without hassle. We had to wait to retrieve our baggage, then had to go to the ticket agent of North West Airlines who jus happened to be at the terminal that was furthest from the one we were currently in. We ran to the airport train, waited and waited and waited for it to get to Terminal A and then ran again, all our bags in tow, to the ticket agent who informed us that we had just missed the flight.
Not to worry though! She transferred our flight to Air Canada so we scurried across to their short line and got our boarding passes from their ticket agent. Instead of flying through Detroit to Ottawa, we were destined to Toronto. We had enough time to scarf down some food and make a quick call home before boarding the plane to Toronto.
Unfortunately we didn’t get seats together for this 3.5 hour flight, but it really didn’t matter, the plane was stacked with entertainment. The seats each had their own individual screens and earphones and with touch-screen controls each passenger picked their own entertainment. Games, TV, Movies, News….. I was actually hoping to catch some Zzzzz’s so I put on what I though was the dumbest of movie offerings. I am almost too embarrassed to share this with people, but I selected “Wild Hogs”. Several of the passengers surrounding me did as well. For the duration of the movie, I could hear laughter throughout the plane at close, but not the same, intervals. We were all laughing out loud at the same parts, but moments apart. Good movie actually, well good parts and the beer at altitude probably helped it out a tad.
We arrived in Toronto, grateful to be on the last leg of our journey. It was now 9:00pm local time. We cleared Canadian customs, retrieved our bags again and had to go through our fourth and final security check of the day. We had about a 5 minute wait until boarding the final flight to Ottawa.
Once again, we were seated next to a very nice, chatty lady from Windsor who shared the stories of all her children’s weddings and even supported it with some video! The flight was short and as I got closer and closer to home, my heart started getting more and more excited to see our dog Abbey, to see our kitchen, our hot tub, our own bed, my garden and just sit on my sofa in front of the TV.
Our longest wait of the day was about to happen. The Ottawa airport was as packed as I’ve ever seen it. Four flights worth of people were all waiting for their bags around the still conveyor belts. We waited and waited and waited for baggage to start pooping out of the chute. We were so close to home and this felt like torture! It was 25 minutes before the belts started moving and another 10 before our bags actually surfaced. It felt like winning the lottery when we saw them. After waiting for the bags we had to wait for a cab, but once we had one it was a quick and exciting drive home.
We turned the key to our door around 1:00 in the morning, and Abbey lazily got out of her bed to see who it was (nice guard dog). When she saw it was us she licked our face for about 5 minutes and even as I type this out 18 hours later, she has yet to leave my side. I know she was well taken care of, but it’s nice to know I was missed!
It’s been a great trip. As I look around my house at all the tropical plants I have, I will always recall how the things I know as plants here can actually be trees in Belize, hundreds of times bigger than I can grow in a pot in our environment. I already miss the foliage, the flowers, the fruit, the sound of people conversing in creole, and of the ocean waves. I miss prancing around in a swimsuit 80% of the time, I miss lounging lazily by the pool. I miss the sight and sounds of the geckos and the fresh, jungle air.
I do not miss the mosquitos.
We woke up at 7:00, finished packing and had a quick breakfast before saying goodbye to the Hamanasi staff and hopping in the van that would take us to the airport. We chuckled to ourselves as we watched it rain, happy that we weren’t subject to any unwanted rain during our stay. Peggy was the only other guest checking out with us today so we were treated to her passionate talk about birding (was it still considered a treat or was it annoying now?) all the way to Dangriga. The three of us waited in the tiny airport for about an hour before we boarded our small, 6 seater plane. The plane flew between 900 and 1100 feet the entire way to Belize City, just under the clouds that were still threatening rain. The low altitude offered some great aerial views.
We arrived in Belize City and by the time we got our flights all worked out (there was some confusion with our connection flight), we had only a few minutes to board the plane that would take us to Houston, Texas.
The flight with Continental Airlines was nice as far as flights go. We were served a sandwich, chips and chocolate bar which, after eating so well for the past 11 days felt so terribly wrong to consume. We sat next to a chatty old lady that just couldn’t comprehend the whole “I have headphones on and would like to tune you out” thing. Every time I would press play on my ipod to listen to my audio book, she would start talking to me and I would have to press stop again. This happened the entire way to Houston with the counter on my book reaching an astounding 3 minutes! Oh well, she was nice enough.
As we got off the plane we knew we’d have to haul ass to catch our connection flight to Detroit. We ran to the US immigration gate and breezed through without hassle. We had to wait to retrieve our baggage, then had to go to the ticket agent of North West Airlines who jus happened to be at the terminal that was furthest from the one we were currently in. We ran to the airport train, waited and waited and waited for it to get to Terminal A and then ran again, all our bags in tow, to the ticket agent who informed us that we had just missed the flight.
Not to worry though! She transferred our flight to Air Canada so we scurried across to their short line and got our boarding passes from their ticket agent. Instead of flying through Detroit to Ottawa, we were destined to Toronto. We had enough time to scarf down some food and make a quick call home before boarding the plane to Toronto.
Unfortunately we didn’t get seats together for this 3.5 hour flight, but it really didn’t matter, the plane was stacked with entertainment. The seats each had their own individual screens and earphones and with touch-screen controls each passenger picked their own entertainment. Games, TV, Movies, News….. I was actually hoping to catch some Zzzzz’s so I put on what I though was the dumbest of movie offerings. I am almost too embarrassed to share this with people, but I selected “Wild Hogs”. Several of the passengers surrounding me did as well. For the duration of the movie, I could hear laughter throughout the plane at close, but not the same, intervals. We were all laughing out loud at the same parts, but moments apart. Good movie actually, well good parts and the beer at altitude probably helped it out a tad.
We arrived in Toronto, grateful to be on the last leg of our journey. It was now 9:00pm local time. We cleared Canadian customs, retrieved our bags again and had to go through our fourth and final security check of the day. We had about a 5 minute wait until boarding the final flight to Ottawa.
Once again, we were seated next to a very nice, chatty lady from Windsor who shared the stories of all her children’s weddings and even supported it with some video! The flight was short and as I got closer and closer to home, my heart started getting more and more excited to see our dog Abbey, to see our kitchen, our hot tub, our own bed, my garden and just sit on my sofa in front of the TV.
Our longest wait of the day was about to happen. The Ottawa airport was as packed as I’ve ever seen it. Four flights worth of people were all waiting for their bags around the still conveyor belts. We waited and waited and waited for baggage to start pooping out of the chute. We were so close to home and this felt like torture! It was 25 minutes before the belts started moving and another 10 before our bags actually surfaced. It felt like winning the lottery when we saw them. After waiting for the bags we had to wait for a cab, but once we had one it was a quick and exciting drive home.
We turned the key to our door around 1:00 in the morning, and Abbey lazily got out of her bed to see who it was (nice guard dog). When she saw it was us she licked our face for about 5 minutes and even as I type this out 18 hours later, she has yet to leave my side. I know she was well taken care of, but it’s nice to know I was missed!
It’s been a great trip. As I look around my house at all the tropical plants I have, I will always recall how the things I know as plants here can actually be trees in Belize, hundreds of times bigger than I can grow in a pot in our environment. I already miss the foliage, the flowers, the fruit, the sound of people conversing in creole, and of the ocean waves. I miss prancing around in a swimsuit 80% of the time, I miss lounging lazily by the pool. I miss the sight and sounds of the geckos and the fresh, jungle air.
I do not miss the mosquitos.
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