CHOCOLATE!!! and bus rides

It’s almost been a week since my last post and I apologize for the long gap. Time slipped away and after a long weekend and being busy with different projects I’ve found the time to update everyone on what’s been going on here in Belize. So strap in readers, cause this might be a long one. This past weekend was a 3-day weekend because Monday was Commonwealth day. So the group decided to head south for Belize’s annual Chocolate festival. Yes, a festival of chocolate.

We left Saturday morning at 5:50 to catch a bus to Belmopan (the capital) that left at 6:00. We got on the bus and got cozy for the long 6 hrs of Belizean bus rides in front of us. The hour to Belmopan went by quickly enough and after a brief wait in the terminal we boarded the next bus that would take us down to a place called Punta Gorda, or as Belizeans referred to it… PG. We made about 50 or so million stops along the way picking up all sorts of people making their way South.

Around 12:30 we finally caught view of the beautiful Caribbean beckoning us to leave our sweat-stained and indented seats to walk around in the sun with a warm tropical breeze on our faces. It felt pretty good to be off the bus sharing a seat with only God knows whom, and to be walking around stretching our legs. We found the festival in full swing and jumped right in to the festivities. Chocolate was everywhere. Chocolate milkshakes, chocolate fudge brownies, Belizean Kriol chocolate, Mayan dark chocolate, frozen hot chocolate, chocolate and banana smoothies, chocolate covered bananas, chocolate bbq sauce, Mayan cacao drink, chocolate cheesecake, the list goes on but needless to say I said “yes please” and enjoyed the chocolate. I also was reminded firmly of a Spongebob episode where he and Patrick sell chocolate bars and have some crazy fish dude scream “CHOCOLATE!!!” running after them, I was that fish dude.

CHOCOLATE!!!

The festival was crazy, filled with dancing from local groups and a few fun scam games I lost $3 on. While enjoying all the craziness we were supposed to meet up with the owner of the hotel we were staying at. Kristina had handled all the arrangements up to that point and apparently one of the owners told her the festival was only 2 miles away from the hotel. That would have been fantastic had she informed us that it would have been the next day but for now we were 2 hours away by bus from the hotel and the last bus that direction was getting ready to say adios. So after the confusion the owners said they had some jungle casitas and lodges near where the festival was currently and that we could stay in those for a higher price. It went from $18 to $30 so not too bad.

The owner’s name was Lee and he was Canadian that owned a hotel down here with his wife. We met up with him and dropped off our backpacks we had been lugging around all day in a place where they would be safe. We enjoyed the festival some more, watched some very awkward white girl try and dance like she was some tribal native and then enjoyed more reggae and chocolate.

We found a bike rental shop near the end of the street and we all rented bikes for 3 hours for only $10 Belize. We rode around PG for a while going into the back neighborhoods and up and down hills on beach cruisers. Those things go surprisingly fast. I ended up turning in early as my bum knee was giving me trouble but the rest of the group kept going. Later on Trellany and Danielle arrived with their bikes and then we waited an hour for the rest of the group, whom had gone off into the jungle in search of Howler monkeys, only to come out with bug bites.

When the bikes were returned we went to grab some grub (even though we were overflowing with chocolate) and went to a local spot that we heard was good called Asha’s kitchen. It was out by itself far from the main town but it was filled with people, and the food smelled great. We found out after waiting in line that they were out of food and nobody else would be getting any. Darn. So we ended up going to some other bar place. That was a mistake. The food took an hour and a half to make and they had the music from the boom box on the counter turned up so loud I couldn’t hear anything anyone said. I got a fish, and not a fillet, they gave me the whole fish, head, gills, eyes, tail, spine everything. I picked at it for a while and then was glad when we headed to our lodge for the night.

We took some taxis to our lodge to once again meet up with Lee the Canadian to check in. He showed us to our rooms one of which was a jungle hut. Kind of cool but the girls took it. We got a smaller room that seemed nice, the AC was broken but I’ve been without AC for a while it didn’t even faze me. Although the room was nice, I was faced with a nice large wolf spider on the wall near my bed that frankly, I was too tired to kill. I watched Randy poke it with a stick like Steve Irwin and was waiting with sleepy eyes for it to attack him. Unfortunately it didn’t and Kristina came in and just killed it. So much for a show before bed. I turned down my sheets and was greeted by about 10 mosquitoes under the sheets, some dead some still zipping around looking for blood, literally. Wonderful I thought. I brushed the dead ones off and added to the body count, by killing those that remained. Then I was greeted by the welcoming arms of sleep. I took a shower somewhere in there but it was just meh.
            The next day we checked out and headed out to catch the bus that would take us a bit northeast to the city of Independence where we’d take a water taxi to the peninsula where we’d stay in the beautiful beach town of Placencia. On the bus we talked to another Canadian named Will all about sports. It made the bus ride go by quickly and we were soon in Independence. There we walked about half a mile to the waterfront to catch our water taxi. When the short but fun water ride was over we got out we walked around in search of where we’d be staying for the night. Again it ended up being a little further away than we thought. This place was found by using one of those sites where people rent out their couches and homes for travelers. We just so happened to come across one of the coolest people for ours. Kristina called him on the phone and he was 12 miles away but said he’d be down soon to pick us up. Hallelujah, no more walking with heavy packs.           

Caribbean breeze

We grabbed a bite to eat at a place called Detach that was literally on the beach overlooking the Caribbean, very cool. We each got a burrito the size of my forearm. They were pretty huge but delicious. Soon after we met up with McKinley, the guy we’d be staying with. He was from South Carolina and had moved here last year with his family. He had 4 little kids who were very excited to get to play with new friends. They were pretty cute kids and full of energy. I think the oldest was 8 but he may have been a little younger.
            So McKinley and his wife, whom we didn’t get to meet, had been on a show called House Hunters International and we all watched the episode they were in when they moved to Belize. He gave us some behind the scenes info, which was fun to see how the show played out certain scenarios. And it turns out the house they “chose” on the show wasn’t even the one they actually got. We stayed in a huge house that was right on the beach and had a sweet pier out into the water.

The pier from McKinley's house

The best part of the night was when Kristina, Trellany, and I were on the pier late at night just talking about our lives. I won’t say exactly what we talked about but a lot had to do with my family and some personal things that I was able to share with my cousin.

The next day was a party day at the resort that was right next to McKinley’s house. We walked over there and played some beach volleyball and then swam with McKinley and his kids in the largest pool in Belize. We swam and had a good time for hours playing pool games.

Around 2:00 we all said goodbye to the kids and McKinley drove us back into town to the water taxi. The water taxi was full so we opted to catch the next one and get some food. We searched around for a good place to eat but due to the holiday (Commonwealth Day) most places were closed. We ended up eating at Detach again and it was still good. After that we thanked McKinley for his generous hospitality and friendship and boarded the water taxi to Independence.

When we got off in Independence Randy and Kyle sprinted to catch the bus we needed to be on and hopefully hold it. Unfortunately we barely missed it so we had to wait ‘til 5:30 for the next one. We waited at a park watching some locals play basketball and we threw a Frisbee around for a while and had some ice cream and Fanta.

Finally the bus came and we got on to head up to Belmopan. Along one of the stops in Dangriga a whole slough of people boarded the bus and we were all literally being marinated in humidity and body heat. It was gross, but I couldn’t help giggling at the sight of about 50 people standing and sitting on top of each other in the isle while the rest of us were smushed 3 to a seat if possible in little school bus seats.

Freedom came in the form of a bus station in Belmopan where we exited the sauna bus and boarded one with spacious leg room and tired faces from a long day of traveling. After 5 hours of buses we finally reached San Ignacio and hobbled back to our apartment, happy to see our beds.