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2003-05-28 ~ 10:05 p.m.
Caribbean Days THREE And FOUR
WHAT I DID ON MY SUMMER VACATION!
DAYS THREE AND FOUR
This entry will actually have two days. I have a lot of pictures of the third day, but we went to hang out on a beach the fourth day, so we took our little disposable camera instead, so I don't even have the pictures developed yet. It won't stop me a bit from telling a bunch of crappy stories.
This is the day that we cruised into Belize. Belize City, Belize precisely.
Ha, made you look at my ring again. :)
Ok. Forreal. As we were pulling into port, Betrothed, Rally Edition was trying to figure out one of the functions on his camera. He was trying to take a series of pictures for an action shot. Digital cameras don't take pictures that quickly, so there was one picture where I was smiling, then the next picture where I'm looking at him like, "What in the world is this jackass doing?" This is that picture. It made me laugh.
ME AT THE BEGINNING OF THE DAY
This is a rather poor country. Their tourist industry is becoming their number one industry. Hopefully for them, that will bring in enough revenue to update a few building here and there. They had stories how something or other was going to be built, but then the money had to be used to take care of damage from a hurricane.
The city isn't actually ready to take in big ships in their ports, so we anchor at sea and take what is called a "tender" to the island. A tender would be a water taxi, pretty much. 6 places from the boat to transport 2000 people off of. It kinda sucked. This picture is our first look at Belize. The boat in the foreground is a tender. It looks like a little speedboat, but it is actually big enough to carry about 50 people.
I'm not kidding, "You better Belize it" is on a few t-shirts that they sell. Someone was taking a picture and one of our tourguides said, "NO! SAY BELIZE!"
We went on a shore excursion that the cruise line plans on this day. We went to Altun Ha, which is a Mayan ruin. There were a few more, this just happens to be the one we went to. We got a few postcards from the other Mayan ruins at the Mayan ruins that we went to, which 2 of you will receive that explains that those were specifically the Mayan ruins that we did not, in fact, go to. So, following will be pictures of the ones that I did go to.
The good things about going on tours is all the useless information you find out. The useless information that I can pass along to you.
Such as....
There's a statue in the middle of town of the "Coconut Man." I don't remember the guy's name, but he made millions of dollars exporting coconuts from there.
There was also another guy whose coffin is a monument. He paid the Belize government 1.2 million dollars a very long time ago to have himself buried by a lighthouse out there. I don't think I was in Belize long enough to see the beauty of the country, but if someone was willing to pay money to be buried there, I have to believe there's something wonderful about it.
There are 4 stop lights in the entire country of Belize. All of them are in Belize City. I got to see all of them, but I didn't take any pictures. (I'm just not as much of a picture freak as I was when I was younger-a week long trip to New York called for 450 pictures.)
I didn't take pictures of the villages that we passed by on the way to Altun Ha. Another shame from my journey. They were rather interesting. Mostly they really made me grateful for living in the (comparitive) mansion that I do live in. In the city, they live in house-like things. Some were two stories, I'd say 50' X 100' maybe. A lot of the houses were on stilts. Belize is actually 1 or 2 inches below sea level, so flooding is a problem.
In the villages, though, families live in dwellings made of concrete blocks. 20' X 30'. Very tiny abodes. There was an electricity wire that went to the roof of the house, and this pipe that came out of the house, which I would assume was either plumbing or water. Maybe both. The reason they were made from concrete was because of the termites there.
Children and teenagers often waved at our bus as we went by. I kinda imagined that they waved at us because of their hopes to go to better places.
This picture is from our bus. We stopped in front of a place to look at the iguanas.
Yeah, I can't see it either. But he was there, mon. They also grow cashews out there. I did not know, but cashews come from a fruit. You can eat the fruit also. I believe she said it was a little tart. You have to kinda roast the cashews out. The nut is actually surrounded by poisonous crap around it that you have to roast off... or something. They make cashew wine. I was going to buy a bottle so that I could call home and say "I BOUGHT WINE WITH CASHEW NUTS!" But I forgot...yet another shame.
The one thing that I did notice is that everyone who drives (at any of the places we went to) knows EXACTLY how big their car is. We squeezed through spots that I'm not sure I would have even tried if I were walking through. The not-so-main-but-not-so-side streets were extremely narrow. The bus that we were on would have to do a 3 point turn just to turn left. AND there were cars parked on both sides of the street. There was a bridge that went over water and vehicles would go head on and be barely able to pass each other. Our bus played chicken with a little car, but I hear another bus played chicken with another mack truck.
Our tour guides, besides being city folk, were Creole. They're not Creole like our French Creole. I believe they said it was African Creole. She taught us how to say "I went to Belize" in Creoile. You ready? "I gonda Belize."
I guess it's time for another picture. We took this after we actually made it to Altun Ha. I think this is what they called Site A. I don't really remember though. Now that I'm thinking about it, I don't even remember how many sites there were. Ah, bugger.
This next picture is interesting. It's of a face. When I was there, it didn't look like much of a face to me, but looking at it now I see it. The Mayan people of Altun Ha found flat foreheads and crossed eyes to be the most beautiful physical features. They even took steps to get their children to look this way. I bet this really pisses off a few people these days.
This next picture is very interesting. It's a tree. But if you look on the trunk of the tree it looks like another tree is growing over a tree. That is precisely what is happening. It's called a Strangling Fig Tree. These trees grow around another tree and eventually kill the host tree.
TREE!! TREE!! I'M A LITTLE TREEPOT!
We took a picture with one of our tourguides. Miss L, I think she wanted to be called. We are on top of a temple. I learned that Mayan temples were originally built so tall. Mayans believed that temples were only good for so long or only for a specific purpose. So, when time was up for a temple, they would seal it off and build on top of it. When a priest died, he would be buried in the temple and built on top of. The reason the steps to the temple are so wide is because, generally, only the priest was supposed to go to the temple; however, if a villager needed to go to the temple for any reason, to praise, or ask for help from the gods (which they believed in up to 100 of them, if I remember correctly) they would climb the steps on their hands and knees. So, they had to fit on the stairs.
VIEW FROM A TEMPLE WITH A TEMPLE
The temple that we were on top of was 54 feet. This is a picture of some of the decoration in front. Also in the above picture, you'll notice a lot of the surrounding temples or abodes are covered in grass. That's just the wear and tear of time. So, the reason that the rock in this next picture looks so white is because it is. Everything here was made from limestone which deteriorates, but they are redoing all the ruins to keep them visit-able. (There's a funny anecdote about ruins by the time this tour gets to Cozumel. Remind me if I forget.)
This next picture is a GREAT example of the Strangling Fig. Not quite sure how long the palm tree is gonna last. Makes for a really neat picture, though.
Belize was the biggest exporter of Mahogany wood. They finally had to stop becaue they almost pushed Mahogany to extinction.
Gas prices in Belize are between $3.50-4.00 a gallon. The competition of the gas stations is based solely on their location. The gas is priced the same everywhere. The news reports how much the gas is each day.
The children are all required by law to wear uniforms to school. The uniform tells what school the child goes to, and all the schools are religious.
What I did like about Belize is that everyone was so proud to be from Belize. The tourguide said that they all loved each other. I got to see what she meant. There wasn't a lot of aggression towards each other. The sales people were VERY aggressive. But, people were otherwise very polite on the street. Not "proper", but interestingly polite.
For instance, there was a guy who I believe was a bum. He had dreads, his beard even seemed to be dreads. (Most everyone in Belize was Black. Black and with the caribbean accent.. which would be what we would recognize as Jamaican if we didn't know any better.... which I didn't until this trip.) I smiled at him and he said, "I like your smiling." And this woman was passing us....she would have been the equivalent of our white trash in a ratty t-shirt, torn stretch pants, and slip on shoes. And she said, "Someone should be shooting you in the face before you think you should talk to the Cockney lady." And he laughed. And she laughed back. No, "fuck you, cunt." or anything like that. Just laughing. I liked that. It helped me understand what my tourguide said.
Since coconuts are a major export, they also use a lot of coconut in their food. They even have a coconut festival. The tourguide told us of a restaurant we could go to to get some of the ethnic food. There's a certain meal that they eat once a day and twice on sunday. It's rice with beans mixed in, made with coconut milk and chicken cooked in coconut oil. SO good. I really enjoyed it. If you're ever in Belize, be sure to stop at the Cock and Bull.
There were people who had stores at the pier, people who had carts. ALL OF THEM pissed me off. I just hate high pressure sales. I don't do well with them. I don't need people saying, "Hey lady, my turn, give me a chance. In here. It's $15...but for you... I make special deal."
I NEED PRICE TAGS!!!!
And a lot of the local ladies would come up and say, "Hey gargeous.. Let me braid your hair," everytime I passed them. AND, you say no to one, but when you take two steps either way, there's another one to ask. These people just don't let you alone. They weren't rude though. That was nice.
It was really damn hot there. I mean, no hotter than Vegas. But hot. I didn't mind it so much being what I'm used to. On the way to Altun Ha I noticed a painted guy banging on a drum. After the tour, we went to explore a little of the city and saw the same guy. He also wanted money. BUT he was a photo op.
There was another guy that was double jointed everywhere. There were kids across the street yelling at him to be all bendy. (I think he buys them candy to do it.)(I also think I saw him on a news report on Belize.) He then told us how much the kids liked him to do it, but watched us the whole time. Then he asked for a small tip. Yeah, sure, I gave him $2. For kids' sake. (Which is 4 Belize dollars.)
The Belize 2 dollar bill has history on it. It has the Queen of England on it, first of all. Though they claimed independence from England in 1982 (I think) they still respect that they would have otherwise been a Spanish country in Central America. (They are not Spanish speakers.) The bill is purple, red, blue, green. On the back has what Mayan ruins it has; Altun Ha, Xunantunich (which all Mayan women had to make their pilgrimage to once in their life because she was the fertility goddess) and Lubaantun. It also has a mahogany tree, black orchid, aardvark, and a toucan. (National tree, flower, animal and bird.) It's a really neat bill.
I think this is all of this city and nation that I know. The tour was definitely worth it. Fortunately for my friends with ADHD that this was the only tour that we went on. We made tours of our own, but I didn't learn nearly as much anywhere else. So, that is the other lesson: When going on a cruise, take the excursions.
We made our way back to the boat. Had dinner. Saw the show. The show was actually pretty good that night. There was a fiddler. I don't remember his name, but I bought his CD. He was a nutcase on stage. I thought he was really funny. I got to talk to him when I bought his CD (he was pompous enough to autograph it without being asked.) I called him a freak of nature. It seemed that his sense of humour that she showed on stage would have illicited a humourous response. I just got a "Oh.. ok. How do you spell your name?" There were only two or three of us that bought his CD. It's not like there were crowds gathering around. The guy of the other couple went to tell him how much in awe he was because in Oklahoma they get a few fiddlers, but he hadn't seen one with as much skill as him. Fiddler just kinda nodded. Pff.. artists.
Following the fiddler was a magician. I don't think I have ever seen a magician as bad as this one, and I know a few. I briefly dated a magician, and there are little magician gatherings at pubs around the city, so I've seen some REALLY bad magishing. This guy had NO right to be on a stage. He did that one thing where he puts the girl in a box and stick swords in it. Well, the box wasn't even big enough to fit her in the FIRST place. There were a lot of people just kinda looking around and clapping because they knew they were supposed to, but not believing that they were actually doing it. Eh.. maybe that was his magic. They also did that one where the chick locks him in a box, she stands on the box, use the big curtain thing, and all of a sudden he's on top of the box.......we saw them switch places. Yep, saw her jump down and him take hold of the curtain thing. Just BAD.
He did one where he got three guys from the audience, laced a rope through one of their clothes, made knots, whole bit, and then voila! the rope wasn't knotted and no longer through the guy's shirt. Well, the guy of the couple we were hanging out with got to go onstage.
The towel that night was folded into a frog. We forgot to take a picture of it. I suppose we're better off.
The next day we pretty much just hung out at West End Beach in Roatan, Honduras.
I don't have any pictures of this day, again, because we used the disposable camera. We're getting the pictures put online, so I'll put them here after Friday. Probably make a whole new entry for them.
This was, however, where I got my first full effect of white sandy beaches and clear, blue water. I even got to see some fish hanging out in the shallow are. Just chillin. I should have gone snorkeling this day. I heard it was beautiful. I was just too chicken to try something new that day.
One of the ladies did finally talk me into getting my hair braided. I got the front half done. This turned out to be a VERY bad idea. She pulled it really tight, so it hurt anyway. Something I didn't even think about was that now there was skin being exposed to the sun that is usually covered by hair. Pieces of dry scalp have been falling off my head since Friday. Kinda nasty. I looked cute for a second though. I took them out that night because my head was uncomfortable from it pulling so much and for the RED HOT BURN.
We did a small bit of shopping. Our dollar equals about 17 of their "Lempiras". We've heard that real estate is fairly cheap. 5 acres for about $10,000, and I think we heard that the average income was $600 a year. A YEAR. That's about 10,200 Lempiras. It's another fairly undeveloped island, though they were prepared for a big boat. Everyone there spoke English and Spanish.
Hundreds of cabs line up outside the pier to take people places. They don't do it by the quarter mile like they do out here. It depends on where you are going, and then they charge by the person to rent the driver and car all day. So, a 20 minute drive, plus the 3 and a half hours we were at the beach, and almost the whole ride back cost us $15 a person. The taxi driver's name was Tex. He said his dad thought that he was a cowboy. :)
He didn't take us all the way back to the boat because the rear tire broke an axle.....or something. It was so sad. He will probably have to spend a lot of money to fix it, the car itself is his only source of income, and he was almost completely unfettered by it. He just said, "I am so sorry. I will find you a ride back." We were like, "ARE YOU KIDDING??" He actually wanted to keep driving the car until we convinced him that it would cause even more damage. We had no problem walking, it wasn't that far. We don't think he took our advice to not drive though. Send out good thoughts for Tex.
I don't remember what the entertainment for the night was. I *think* it was this rather "husky" Black lady who sang and was supposed to be funny. She had a good voice, but the show was crap.
When we went back to the room, our towel animal was an elephant. :) I was drinking one of the many Pina Coladas that I had on the vacation, so we put the paper umbrella on its head, and, hell I offered it a drink. You can see my braids a little. But LOOKIE!! You can see our freaky Titanic corner light! The picture right after is a close up of the braids.
I think, perhaps, we took entirely too many pictures of this particular towel animal. Then the picture after that is after I took my braids out. Yep. We were kinda lacking in interesting for the pictures for Roatan.
I am glad I went to Belize and Roatan. I do not think I would go back to either one. I just really hate that pressure sales thing. On the beach on Roatan, they have kids trying to sell bracelets and necklaces. You're laying on the beach and they come up with their damn eyes saying that it's $10 for a necklace AND a bracelet, which, by the way, I saw cheaper at Wal Mart yesterday. Also with the shopping in either city, every place had the exact same thing.
I did try my relaxing pina colada on the beach there, but I was sitting on sand with lots of ants.
No... I don't think I would go back...
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