I Love You Sweet Baby, But You Always Take the Long Way Home 06-28-07

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.

Entering Tortilla Territory 06-27-07

A loud crash of thunder followed by the blue illumination of lightning woke me from my sleep at 2:30am. The heavy rain and wind shook the tree house and I woke Mike so he could enjoy the tropical storm with me. We fell back to sleep and by morning the storm was over, the sun was shining and we enjoyed another fruity breakfast.

As you’re probably sick of hearing, the food here is unbelievable. Because of this, several days ago we asked if we could please go into the kitchen and learn the art of flour and corn tortilla making. The staff here says no to nothing and Jessica kindly obliged our request and set it up for this morning. We joined Sharaden at 9:00am in her hot and tiny kitchen where we made the different doughs, pressed the flour tortillas out with our hands and used a tortilla press for the corn ones. Mike applied so much pressure to the tortilla press that it snapped and pieces went flying. We asked if we could replace it and they said that they would have to go to the other side of the country for a new one and that they would just try to fix this one. They didn’t make a deal over it and said it was okay, but I still felt terrible about it. The one and only time they have let people into their kitchen and we break their valued tools!

We cooked our tortillas on a well seasoned, worn and warped Kamal, a cast iron plate, until they were toasted and smelled good. Shariaden was so kind and gave us a ton of pointers that we are grateful to have learned and will apply in our own kitchen when we get home. We laughed and tried to offer her money which she refused. The fact that she came in to work an hour earlier than she normally would have to just to accommodate our strange request, took the time to print out her recipes and methods for us and stayed to clean up our mess was exceptional service and I felt bad that she would not accept a tip for it. But this resort, while it allows tipping, has tips built into the price and trains their staff on a very high level of service delivery. I’ve been thoroughly impressed with every single person.

After our lesson, Mike and I had huge smiles on our faces. We just love being in the kitchen! We grabbed a couple bikes and set off once again to Hopkins Village where we purchased our limit of One Barrel rum, Coconut Rum and hot sauces. We bought gifts for a few people and ourselves and leisurely peddled back to Hamanasi for a couple of Belikin beers and to begin packing our bags before lunch for our departure tomorrow.

For lunch I decided to cave in and have the burger and fries. The burger was really spiced up with flavor, it was so good and the fries were fries, but being dipped in Marie Sharps made them special. Mike had the chicken taco salad served in a tortilla bowl in honour of our lesson this morning. We chatted with Peggy about her birding experiences thus far and a conversation about herbal medicines and then we took the sea kayaks out for a tour of the coast line.

We set an ambitious goal, to see Hopkins village from the shore instead of the road, but biking it is far easier than paddling against the wind and waves. Even though the sea was relatively calm compared to most other days we’ve seen, it was still tiring and we gave up about half way and turned around. Sitting around doing nothing seemed much more appealing.

So that’s what we did until dinner time. We looked out at the water and watched the palms wave in the wind, feeling sentimental that we might never have this view again. We’ve been here longer than most people stay. The average stay is a week, so we have seen many people come and go and aside from Peggy and the staff we are the loners that we arrived as. We have enjoyed our stay here so much but feel as though we’ve done everything that we needed to do and experience and now we’re ready to go home to our dog, our own bed, our kitchen, our friends, family and our regular habits. Besides I am craving a caesar!

Dinner was our first repeat. We sat at the table we sat at on our first night, looking over the glow of the pool and the illuminated pier. We both ordered the broccoli soup and shrimp kabobs. Mike had the key lime pie for dessert and I had a sweet potato pudding with vanilla ice cream that was unique in flavor and to die for! If only we could have learned this recipe in the kitchen as well. MMmmmm. We posed for a few sad-faced photos, reflecting our mood about having to leave.

After dinner we took the remainder of our bottle of wine to the end of the pier. While it was beautiful and calm where we were, we watched several storms off in the distance over the sea. There was impressive lighting that reminded us we’ll be headed home to Canada Day shortly and get to watch the fireworks with our dog Abbey again. Maybe she won’t be as scared this year.

After some romantic moments at the end of the pier, we proceeded to the bar where we chatted with King, passed him a hefty tip for taking such good care of us during our stay and we played a competitive game of Uno with a newly arrived teenager named Graham, who just couldn’t catch a break in the game and after getting pummeled by both Mike and I (you can’t help it, you have to play what’s dealt man!) retreated to his room.

We finished the night off with a couple more drinks, a few more mosquito bites (did I mention we went through 2.5 cans of bug spray here?) and more reggae tunes. Leon, the front desk guy that we have come to really like since he’s into mixing music, did several magic tricks for me that blew my mind and semi-impressed Mike who used to do some magic himself. Then after hugs, handshakes and sincere salutations to King and Leon we retreated to bed for our final sleep in the jungle.

To the Bat Cave! 06-26-07

We awoke to another beautiful Belize day. The sun was shining and the breeze from the sea was beautiful. We showered and went down for some breakfast with Brian and Jennifer. We were fueling up for another adventure day while they were fueling up for their flight home. We exchanged contact information and wished them well before piling into the van toward St. Herman’s cave.

After about an hour drive, we arrived, loaded up with bug spray and headed on a short jungle hike. As we approached the magnificent opening, cave swallows flew around us and we secured our headlamps. St. Herman’s cave is a mile long cave loaded with stalagmites and stalactites and pottery shards from use by the Mayans. Mike and I have visited caves before and were impressed that this one has not been excavated the way the ones in Canada have. It is in its natural form and therefore there was no real comfortable path for humans to take. It was a rigorous journey up, down, over and through rock formations, some wide spaces and some tight spaces, some steady foot holds, some slippery. It wasn’t easy by any means, but we enjoyed the effort and were glad we were with people that didn’t slow us down.

As we exited the cave, we saw little black bats perched on the cave ceiling. That completed the experience! Looking around at our group we all laughed at one another, covered in dirt and sweat, we were a mess! Mike and I had gone through 7 bottles of water on this trek, afraid of becoming dehydrated again.

After the caves, we drove a short distance to Blue Hole National Park where we enjoyed a nice picnic lunch of chicken sandwiches, pasta salad, chocolate chip cookies and orange juice. I just love the juice here. It is so fresh and sweet. As we ate we watched hummingbirds feed from the bright red hibiscus flowers and leaf cutter ants carry leaves 10 times their size across the jungle floor. We even spotted a tarantula spider. Okay it was dead, but it was still a tarantula!

After lunch we hiked down a short path to the Blue Hole, a large, sapphire blue, 30 foot wide sinkhole fed by crystal clear underground streams. The sinkhole goes about 25 feet deep and surrounded by incredible rock formations and lush jungle. We wished we had brought goggles with us so we could have had a better under-water view of its severe drop off, but instead we simply enjoyed the fresh, cold water after a strenuous morning and it felt good to drive back to Hamanasi nice and clean.

When we arrived back we had a couple King Kong drinks from the bar (coconut rum, fresh banana and other stuff) and just chilled by the pool. We took another walk with Sasha along the beach, enjoying the breeze and watching the waves turn up the bottom and wash in sea grass, it was too rough for boats to go out and too yucky to swim in, but nice to walk along.

We got ready for dinner and wasted time on the porch of our tree-house sitting in jungle silence which is not silence at all, but rather is filled with the calls of birds, the rush of the ocean waves and the squawks of geckos. I thought to myself that there is no more peaceful place that I have been to and I hoped that I would be able to recall this moment, these sounds, this breeze, this feeling of peace and love, whenever my real life warranted an escape.

Dinner was the best one yet, if you can imagine. We were seated at the most romantic table, away from the dining room, secluded under a tree and a string of white lights, the breeze blowing our white table cloth over our place settings.

We started with a Jungle Salad with Conga dressing. Because we were only eating by candle light we had limited visual connection to our food and had to rely on taste and visceral senses. It was sweet and refreshing, a nice portion served in a half coconut shell. Avocado, tomato, pepper, celery, carrot, cilantro… ??? It was yummy and a nice start to the meal.

The breeze was incredible, the moonlight and candlelight was so romantic and the bottle of wine went down so easy, that Mike and I stared deep into each others eyes and had probably the best conversation of our stay. It was an incredibly romantic setting, meal and company and I could have stayed, talked, drank and ate all night, not wanting it to end.

Our main was lobster. Mine broiled, Mike’s grilled and it was served over rice with a side of carrot medallions. The lobster tail was enormous, twice the size as we have had in our experience, but it’s juicy texture and amazing taste allowed us to devour the entire portion.

For dessert we both chose the berry crumble cheese cake. This was he first meal that I completed in it’s entirety without waste. I was satisfied and drunk and after a few sentimental words and laughs with bartender King, we headed off to our tree house for our second to last night in paradise.

Don't Worry Mom, This Ends Well 06-25-07

By 1:00am I would have loved to be feeling the way I felt when I went to bed. It would have been 100 times better than I felt. I awoke to a wave of nausea, dizziness and a head so heavy I could barely move it or speak.

Freaked out by my condition, Mike went to find the Guest Services Manager, Jan. Jan inspected me for the signs of diver-related illness and malaria and ruling them out, she asked if I would be okay until morning when we could have a doctor from Dangrigia come out to assist me.

After Jan left, I proceeded to vomit for the next 4-5 hours, my empty stomach heaving, and my wonderful husband holding back my hair and wiping my face with a damp cloth. I had hoped “For better and worse” and “In sickness and in health” wouldn’t be challenged so soon, but I have picked the right man for the job. I feel as though I would have died last night without him around.

Once the nausea ceased, I stayed in bed, sipping water and trying to hydrate myself, dosing in and out of sleep. We had planned on doing an intense hike through the Mayflower Rainforest today including a rigorous climb to the top of a waterfall, but unfortunately I was in no shape to attend. Instead the staff sent me up a cup of tea and some fruit and I spent the entire morning in bed.

Feeling a bit better, Mike took me down for some lunch at around 2:00pm. The staff came to see how I was doing and offered their help to me in any way. They are all so sweet here that I will miss them when we go home. I ate a bowl of white rice to get my stomach going and shared a slice of pizza with Mike. After lunch I headed straight back to bed where I remained for the rest of the day, weak and tired, but relived not to be nauseous.

We never did ask the doctor to come out so I’m not exactly sure of the cause of my illness. The thing that makes the most sense to me is sunstroke and dehydration due to my 6+ hours directly in the Belizean sun yesterday. I sweat more than I drank I guess. A rookie traveler’s error and a lesson I will not soon forget.

My wonderful husband, who was up with me all night, spent the day in as tired a state as I did, he lazed around, napping a lot, listening to his ipod and just relaxing. I felt as though I had taken a day of vacation away from him, but he insists he didn’t mind.

Around 5:00pm I knew I was feeling better because I started singing. That was a really good sign! By 6:00 I was well enough to go for a dip in the pool and by 7:30 I was ravenous for dinner.

The starter was another incredible soup. It was a light broth of coconut, not the cream, but the milk. It contained pieces of snapper, a fish I am a huge fan of now, and two balls that looked like matzo balls but were actually made of plantain. They were sweet and delicious but I couldn’t eat it all, I was saving room for the main, which was lamb chops, cooked perfectly rare ad topped with what I think was a carrot confite. My first bite of lamb made me say “Oh shit, that’s good” out loud and melted in my mouth. Served with the lamb were two potato balls. They used mashed potatoes, rolled them and then dipped them into what most resembles the batter for Chinese chicken balls or a corn dog and fried them up. Mmmm. A yummy, sweet cob of corn, some cauliflower and carrots and I felt completely nourished and well on the road to recovery.

Mike had a banana cream pie slice and I had a key lime pie slice and then we returned to our tree-house with a bottle of wine, full and feeling great.

Too Much of a Good Thing 06-24-07

We rolled out of bed around 10:00am, too late for the breakfast buffet. I have come quite accustomed to having freshly squeezed orange juice, locally grown fruit (pineapple, papaya, kiwi, bananas, avocado, oranges and grapefruit) and the scrumptious, dense bread for breakfast and I missed it this morning.

Today, we did faaaaaaaaack all. We sat pool side, drinking drinks and flipping over occasionally. I don’t really know what else to say, it was hours of laziness. The weather her has been exactly as we have needed it to be. Cool when we are being active, hot and breezy when we’re being lazy, raining only when we’re asleep on under cover, in need of the cooling effect. We feel so blessed by the weather gods.

For lunch, which was actually our breakfast and made all the staff giggle and wonder what we got up to last night, Mike had the snapper sandwich. He enjoyed it as thoroughly as I had. I ordered the Belizean special again, convinced that I can not go wrong ordering the local fare. It was barbequed chicken, with rice and beans and it did my stomach well.

After lunch, we did more of the same (man this is going to be a boring blog – but man was it ever needed). We soaked up the sun, now looking pretty brown. I listened to an audio book by Jaques Pipin entitled “The Apprentice – My life in the Kitchen” and drooled over the French cuisine he described. As much as I am enjoying my stay, I do want to get home and read through his and Jullia Childs, “The Art of French Cooking”, both of which we are the proud owners.

Happy hour began with a bang, we ordered a “Blue Hole” and went for a walk along the beach. Sasha, the resort Golden Lab, joined us. She seemed to be cleaning up the beach when she picked up a discarded plastic cup and carried it during our walk. We passed by locals on their piers, baiting fishing nets with chicken skin in the hopes of catching blue crabs. One family had an impressive bucket of them and posed for some pictures for us.

Upon our return to the resort, we hopped into the pool for a refreshing swim.

When we got out of the pool and headed back to the tree-house to change for dinner, I began to feel strange. I felt instantly drunk, wobbly, and giggly. I counted the number of drinks I had consumed and since it had only been three, I tried to talk myself out of this silliness so I could be presentable at dinner. It didn’t work, I was still stumbling and not speaking properly and proceeded to become more and more hysterical and delusional. Since there was no way I was going to be able to go to dinner in this shape, Mike had a black bean soup brought up for me, but I could eat only one bite.

So there was no breakfast and no dinner for us today. I was in bed by 7:00pm feeling like shit.

Climbing a Mayan Temple

We climed El Castillo at the Mayan ruin site of Xunantunich in Belize. Here are some clips from the climb and the fantastic view.

We were lucky to get there before all of the other groups would ruin the scape.

Path to the Treehouse

Here's a tour of the path that we take to our Treehouse at the Hamanasi resort in Belize.