belize adventures day two: the "laidback island"

i wake up at 6 am and decide to walk along the beach and take pictures while the bolshevik is still sleeping. at 6 am belize is just "normal hot" instead of "ridiculous hot."

i get back to the hotel room and the bolshevik and i head out for our first belize breakfast. and that is when we discover the glory of fry jacks. mmmmm .... fry jacks. they take tortillas and deep fry them and then i think they add some powdered sugar. sooooo good. they're especially good with apricot jam.

after breakfast we decide to go parasailing, which is cool but not the best activity post-breakfast. it is at this time that i realize that i am just going from one form of motion sickness to another.

we take a little breather and sit out on the beach in the shade, then we go snorkeling again. we pet sharks and sting rays and we swim with a cute little sea turtle. then we swim around this coral reef and there are all these waves crashing and we're seriously bobbing up and down. now i never knew you could actually get sea sick from being in the sea without a vessel, but apparently ... you can. that's right, i got sea sick from swimming.

i'm secretly a bit happy when snorkeling is over, due to my sea sickness and all. but on the boat ride back our boat suddenly dies (transportational breakdown #2). luckily we are close enough to shore to drift over to a dock, where i promptly jump out of the boat and contemplate throwing up.

now, at this point it's like 4 pm and we're supposed to be taking the last ferry at 4:30 to this other island called caye caulker. our tour guides keep telling us that caye caulker is "really laidback." which makes me wonder what could possibly be more laidback than this little island that is 5 blocks long and has no cars.

so our tour guides call another boat, which picks up our luggage and seriously speeds us to the dock where the ferry is leaving from. as we approach we see that the ferry has already left the dock, and is on it's way into open water. so our boat just speeds up even more and then our boat blocks the ferry and our guides tell them they have to let us on. then they take our luggage and throw it onto the ferry through this little window. then they point to the little window and say "get in." so we actually had to climb out of our boat and then through this little window of the ferry. and of course we tumble inside the ferry to a boatload of people wondering who these crazy tourists are climbing through the window. it's all very exciting.

when we get to caye caulker there are a bunch of "taxis" waiting at the dock. and by taxis i mean golf carts. they ask us if we need a ride, which is rather absurd since the island is less than a mile long and the ferry lands smack in the middle of it. we can only be 1/2 a mile at most away from anywhere else. we tell them the name of our hotel and they inform us that it's "to the left" and we should walk along the beach until we see it. so we walk along this little sandy beach path along the water, and i'm towing my little wheely suitcase behind me. then i realize that this is actually a "street" on the map, and i begin to understand what they mean by "laidback."

we get to our hotel (shown left) and it is super cute and i immediately lie down because yet again i am on the verge of puking. after a little rest we decide to explore caulker and have some dinner.

i feel much better on the walk over and soon we are on the "main street" of caulker. the main street (there are only 2 real "streets") is a big dirt road with lots of cute little shops and restaurants and wild dogs running around and people selling little tropical animals carved out of wood.

we find a cute place to eat that has a view of the water and i quickly find out that sitting somehow causes my motion sickness to flare up. poor bolshevik. he's such a trooper for putting up with me. i rush through dinner and then go outside to walk around and get fresh air, even though the restaurant is in the open air. the bolshevik meets me and again as soon as i'm up and about, i feel much better. so i immediately buy us some ice cream. it is at the point that the bolshevik and i make a vow to eat ice cream every day of our trip.

on the walk back to the hotel we discuss potential activities. we can either go to a reggae bar or we can drink bailey's on hammocks on the dock in front of our hotel. now, the bolshevik is a big fan of reggae and i really wanted to go and experience local flavor with him, but i was NOT well. so i ask the bolshevik, "do you mind if we just drink on hammocks?" to which he replies, "i don't need to go to a reggae club. there's reggae clubs back home. but there are no hammocks back home."

and that is why i heart the bolshevik.

even though i am slightly fearful of hammock-induced motion sickness, we grab the bottle of bailey's that the bolshevik so cleverly puchased in the airport while i was puking post-airplane, and we walk down the dock and lay in hammocks and look at stars. and all is finally peaceful and calm on the laidback island.

and thus concludes day two in belize.