Linda Left today and am solo....

Friday evening, January 21, 2011

The island is finally getting a bit of a respite from the hot day as it is raining as I write this passage.

I got Linda off and I was sad to see her go as she gets five stars for people to travel with! 

From the first day we were here to now it appears a little slower, but then that’s their motto, “go slow”.  This island has a population of approximately 1500 people.

My new neighbor is from Israel.  She’s a young female, 29 years old by the name of Sivan.  She is the second female I met traveling alone.  And while we really haven’t had much time to get acquainted she is a very friendly woman.

The other woman I met here on the island is from Australia by the name of Mandy.  She’s kind of fun to do my Steve Ervin impression on.

I was trying to find in the Lonely Planet book the size of this island but I’m thinking it can’t be much more than a mile long, maybe two.  There’s three main streets that run north to south and about 15 streets running east and west. 

I didn’t have much luck getting my video uploaded this afternoon as the signal was relatively low.  Perhaps I’ll have better luck tomorrow

Friday, January 21, 2011

Linda took off for home at 10am this morning and I’m solo now.  As it was her last day yesterday we spent time down at the split during the afternoon hours.

It was a gorgeous day with a soft breeze and many people scattered about active in various activities like snorkeling, canoeing, sailing and sun bathing.

As luck would have it, some locals brought out there drums and were playing on into the later part of the afternoon.  I did get footage and will be incorporating that in the future.

As I just downloaded a new program to edit some of these features and am learning the new software it is a bit tedious but I know some good shorts will come from it.

I should mention that where I’m staying there’s a soccer field right across the street and there’s practice every night except the weekend.  It is a range of boys to men and quite entertaining.  Their good!  I will definitely be incorporating a feature or two of this fun sport.

It is a warm day today with not much breeze and so to save on the equipment I have to pick and choose as to the best times to try and get on the internet but as I regroup and organize I’m excited to bring some very interesting aspects of the country as well as the numerous people I’m coming in contact from all over the world.  For example, while sitting a top of the I & I, a local bar waiting for the sun to set a couple was across from me and notice how they were enjoying taking pictures and commented to them how beautiful it was from this vantage point.  And the woman asked where I was from and when I told her Minnesota she exclaimed that I was the first Minnesotan they had met on their vacation.  To me it is so amazing how many different countries come here.  You can be walking about and hear a range of languages from Russian, Italian, Spanish, French, Creole and more.  And although I’ve been listening very hard to the Creole language it’s just not coming to me.  But I’m going to try at any rate.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Linda and I are at

Sandy Lane

right now although, Linda leaves tomorrow.  The days speed by very quickly.

We moved over here on Tuesday, the 18^th.  I’ve made a decision to stay in this location for the duration of my stay.  The room is clean, secure (for the most part unless I do something idiotic) and my landlord is absolutely wonderful.

Elma and Rico Novelo are the proprietors of this establishment.  When we moved in I told her of my plight and how I very much appreciate the safeness of being here.  Elma is a retired principal from the island.  I was originally booked until Feb. 12^th and was very disappointed that I would have to move once again and she told me not to worry I wouldn’t have to move.  It brought tears to my eyes with happiness.  And so, while tragic things may fall upon us, I know by keeping positive there are always the good out there that will help us all get back on track.

Yesterday, Linda, Alaric (our guide) and I took a water taxi over to San Pedro.  I will need to get an extension on my visa while here and this island has an immigration office there.  This will be much easier than heading to Belize City where it’s a larger city (pop. approx. 64,000) and you definitely need to be cautious on many different levels.  At any rate, from what I observed San Pedro on Ambergris Caye (pop. Approx. 11,500) has to be the tourist capital.  It’s as busy there as any typical tourist town.  It was especially hot over there and we took a couple different brakes by the ocean to rehydrate.  By the time we got back about 4pm I was totally exhausted.  I had a couple errands to accomplish upon my return, showered, had supper and it was lights out for me by 9pm.

Mornings are amazing here.  I like going over to a place called the Happy Lobster for my coffee in the morning.  I sit on the deck outside with the warm ocean breeze gently brushing my skin and it is great time to regroup and listens to the natural sounds.

Well, it’s about noon here on Caye Caulker and as it is my good friend’s last day here, we’re going to spend a portion of the afternoon swimming and snorkeling.  I’ll write more later……

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Well we left Placencia early Saturday morning heading to Caye Caulker via bus and water taxi.  The road is now paved from Placencia.  But even though this portion is an improvement it does take time by bus.  From Belize City, the water taxi is about a 45 minute boat ride.  I think it was around 3pm we got off the dock.

The island was hopping to say the least.  People were all over the place.  It was not the Caye Caulker I remembered. 

It took Linda and I a bit of time to find a room and we managed to find one at the Rainbow Hotel.  They are not anything like we were staying at in Placencia and at this point paid through Sunday.

After we found a room went down to the split for a beer and check things out.  It was very crowded and the music was loud.  There were lot of bodies planted along the ocean edges.  We moseyed back and had a fine meal at a vender along the beach side.