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Caye Caulker, BelizeHola compadres- To those of you who may not already know because I've been out of contact with you for an ungodly amount of time, I have set a course for Central and South America, and the starting gun went off four days ago. I began in Belize City, welcomed at the airport by my brother Eric, sporting a healthy traveller's beard, tan, ragged clothes, and a bag of spicy potato chips. After nearly killing what seemed like a dozen people in the taxi, we made it to the dock, and grabbed a beer and a boat to Caye Caulker, a Belizean island in the Caribbean. Caught a sunset, some more beers in a sand-bottomed bar where the shoes come off and the popcorn is free, and hit the rack in a piece of shyte hammock I picked up in Belize City. I couldn't move in this thing. Awoken by the sun at 6:00, the day begins. That's how it is down here. I hope all is well. If any of you have new email addresses you would prefer I send to, let me know. -BA |
You sleep and wake with the sun. Then I meet Eric's rasta friend he met before I got here. Marlon, a Caye Caulker local, is possibly the craziest person I've ever met. He seems like a cartoon character that I merely created through a hallucination due to the extreme heat. He's always running around bargaining people for things. I think all he eats are Snicker's bars, potato chips, and beer--all of which other people buy him. He ends up selling us on a boat ride out to the reef in his brother's boat. "We be cahrful doh mon, I have no license." OK sure, whatever. We grab some snorkel gear, a couple other travellers (one girl was from Austin), and hop in his tiny ass boat with a huge engine. Then the ride begins. We fly across the water, getting tossed around by the waves in this little ass boat with nothing to hold on to, Marlon is screaming and having a ball, and we're seemingly headed nowhere wondering what the hell we got ourselves into. Marlon fishes for some barracudas, we do some snorkeling, and then somehow get back to land. Mercy. That was day two, huh? Most of the rest of the day was spent lounging because it was so hot. I had my first chicken bus experience yesterday--a seven hour bus ride to travel 100 bumpy miles to Placencia, a small town on the Southern coast of Belize. No adventues here yet, but they are beckoning...