120 Seconds In A Belizean Minute

I swear that time moves slower in Belize. It's kind of an amazing thing though - nobody here is ever rushed and they just take things as they come. Nobody is ever in a hurry. I'm going to admit though, this lifestyle definitely stresses me out. I always like to be doing something "productive" - and just chilling out can be a little difficult. I'm trying though - I promise!

Friday's activities revolved around going snorkeling. Lauren is terrified of sharks, so we opted for the Tres Cocos and Mexico Rocks dive sites vs. Hol Chan and Shark Ray Alley. We were the only first time snorkelers on our trip, so we were a little bit terrified of just putting on some fins and jumping off of the side of the boat. However, after getting used to occasionally inhaling salt water and getting yelled at for kicking to closely to the coral, I must admit that it was a pretty baller experience. It's crazy to see what's going on underwater.

After this, we went out to Wild Mango's and experienced amazing smoothies and margaritas. The night eventually ended up with me unsuccessfully scaling a palm tree and beating a coconut with a lawn chair until it finally fell out. I attempted to drink it but that didn't work out. After this I briefly visited the Jaguar club by myself, but left because the mouth door wasn't open yet.

Saturday was a "hang out on the beach and tan" day. However, these festivities didn't last very long considering three factors:

a. Lauren and I are the whitest people on the island, and only turn red rather than tan
b. There is limited swimming area in the ocean due to moss
c. We have really small attention spans


So, our plans only last 1 hour rather than 6 left us with nothing to do. This is when we really started to experience the true meaning of the Belizean minute. We would look at the clock, thinking that an hour passed by, but it would really only be ten minutes late. It was absolutely nuts.

I decided to pool hop next. This kept me occupied for about 20 minutes until I got disturbed. I swear it seemed like an hour.

There were these three small local children who nicknamed Lauren "San Pedro Belize" due to her baller shirt she purchased the says "San Pedro Belize." She invited them up to drink smoothies at Wild Mangos. Unfortunately, this ended up only occupying 15 minutes of our time. We were back to the drawing board.

This eventually led us to exploring the "other" side of Ambergis Caye. We discovered that there was about one other restaurant on the other side of the island called "Sunset Grill." However, this restaurant had a special activity - you could feed TARPON. I didn't really know much about the fish prior to this event, but now I know that they are a prized by fishermen, not really eaten by humans, and can grow up to eight feet long. I'm telling you, these things were massive.

They sent Lauren and I over to the other side of the restaurant and put us on this low dock right next to the water. We waited in anticipation for 15 minutes (I didn't mind, I was excited to see time passing by) until we were given a bucket of raw fish scraps. Lauren asked what kind of fish it was, and they answered "Oh, you know, a lot of different types of fish that were lying around." Delicious.

So, now it was time to feed the fish. I must admit, this was one of the highlight of my trip. I would take a piece of raw fish (keep in mind that I hate fish) and stick half of it into the water. The tarpons would literally swim right up and take it out of my hands - it was nuts. It was kind of frightening, and Lauren would scream every time a fish would jump up and take the bait out of my hand. Lauren got in a few feeds as well, but I handled a majority of the scraps. Those giant fish got me soaked, but it was pretty awesome.

Next, we went over to Elvi's, which was amazing. I got Mayan chicken and red rice and beans...absolutely amazingly tasty. Mmmmmmmmm.

Then we decided to sit out on the beach after dinner. We were just hanging out and discussing the toilets at Ruby's. Good times. Then all the sudden, these four children approach us. Really cute kids, and one of them had a small animal in his arms. As Lauren reached out to pet the "puppy," she realized it was a baby raccoon. We freaked out and asked where they got the thing, and the children answered "around." They then proceeded to run up and down the beach while manhandling the raccoon. The animal didn't really seem to mind though.

Around 9pm, we decided to head to bed because we had to get up early the next day for our Mayan Ruins field trip. However, about 10 minutes later, two local girls were knocking at our door for two reasons:

a. We were playing Jesse McCartney
b. They were trying to sell us tamales

We let them in for a little while to discuss life and the kinds of music they liked. Both girls were avid Jonas Brothers fans, so Lauren ran them over to the internet cafe so that she could show them a few photos she had with the guys. It's so cool to be able to talk to people in different parts of the world about the same band. Truly magical - one of the reasons why I love my job. Music is universal - and I realize it the more and more I travel.

The girls eventually left our hotel room, and we decided that we were going to move hotels the next day due to a combination of:

a. Lack of air-conditioning
b. We didn't have a separate bathroom in our hotel room, but rather a stall.
c. Fear of small gypsies

We ran next store to the Sunbreeze Hotel, where we made plans to check in at 6:30am - right before our trip to Lamanai. Or so we thought....

The Lamanai trip will get a separate blog. It was that baller.