Happy Holidays!

So, my last day in Mexico was a nightmare. We spent the majority of the day looking for Costco in Cancun...a task apparently only undertaken by the zealous of spirit. The best of the day was the 10 minutes we spent at the beach. The waves were about a meter high, which was amazing after the sheltered beaches of Playa del Carmen, and when they hit the rocks I was standing on the water splashed up and soaked the clothing I had originally meant to keep dry.

The flight home was boring, as airports and flights usually are, but at least it wasn't delayed or canceled like every other flight headed to/from YVR...since when does Vancouver get snow that stays on the ground for longer than a day, let alone close to two feet?!?

When we were waiting for our baggage to come down the carousel, I was sitting with the bags and I look over to my right to see this young guy standing beside me smelling a piece of paper with an expression on this face that had, at that point, become all too familiar after waiting for the washroom on a plane full of white people leaving Mexico...a mixture of confusion and urgency. When I looked at him with a bewildered look on my face he proceeded to explain that the paper did not "smell right" and, in fact, smelled of garlic. At a loss of what to say, I expressed my concern regarding the strange odor and attempted to distract my self with Peter Mansbridge's discussion of ships.

Anyway we got home around midnight to a drive full of snow that had to be shoveled, resulting in my current state of being wet and cold and intense desire to go to sleep.

Good night!

When did Mexico get so cold?

There are these little birds on the beach and I want to take one home with me. They run along the beach and go up to the water after a wave crashes on shore, I assume to eat what said wave leaves behind, but then when a wave crashes on the shore they run away from it...never fly (though they can), just run away with increasing speed...accelerate away.

Sunrises aren't pretty without pollution

So I'm in Mexico, joined by my loving brother and doting father. We went out for dinner last night and Thai food in a Mexican restaurant while listening to a folk/jazz singer named Cooker John (I bought his cd...look him up). Now my brother is attempting to learn how to snorkel in the condo pool (I've never understood the appeal of a pool two feet from the warm Caribbean sea) with a mask that's too big for him. But anyway...

Belize was lovely! We spent a day in Corozal a border town to Mexico. We stayed at Seabreeze, a "budget" hotel run by a Welsh man named Gwyn (I love names without vowels), who appears to only tolerate people's presence for the sole purpose of subtly mocking them. This is not to say that he is an angry man, au contrare, he was a highly entertaining and socialable person.

Then we went by water taxi to a tiny fishing village called Sarteneja. We stayed at Fernando's Guesthouse. Then we went to the local restaurant and found that it was run by Fernando's sister (Toni) and her son (Tino). The Shipstern Nature Reserve nearby was fantastic and we had an awesome tour guide (Damien) who was friends with Tino. Essentially everyone we met in this village of 3,000 people was related in some way. Then when we took the plane to go to San Pedro (the party city) and Tino drives us out of town to a runway, where he proceeds to leave us saying if he doesn't see a plane in 30 minutes, he'll drive back to get us (pictures to come). The plane came.

After Sarteneja, San Pedro was very busy with golf carts and the occasional car whipping down the narrow streets. We visited one of my dad's old high school friends here. He went to Belize to work for a month on route to Malaysia and has now been there for 20 years. His family was so welcoming, not unlike everyone in Belize.

The last city we visited was Caye Caulker, which we were told was a much more laid back, friendly version of San Pedro, which it was. We rented a kayak and took it around the island, which took about 2 hours. It was amazing to be out there on the water and a lot of work getting around the whole island...who knew ocean currents were so strong. The next day we went snorkeling on the local reef (apparently the second largest after the Great Barrier). Our guide was possibly the sweetest person we met and definitely my favourite. His name was Carlos and he was from El Salvador, but had lived in Belize for most of his life. (if anyone reading this happens to go to Caye Caulker, say hi to him for me). He took us out and told us the names of all the fish and coral, then let us play with stingrays and go out on our own :S

Anyway, I left Belize with an awkward tan/burn and the knowledge that nothing is actually made in Belize, it's all brought in from Guatemala.

p.s. sorry mocha gurl, these are going to end up being long.

"This waterpark is located on an ancient, sacred Mayan site"

For some reason all of blogger.com is in German for me except this page...odd.

My mom and I took the red-eye flight to Mexico and arrived yesterday morning at around 8:30. This must have been the first flight I´ve taken in 10 years where they actually gave us a meal...it was a horrible meal, but there was food and cutlery (even little plastic knives)! Unfortunately, the last thing you want to do when you get on a plane at 1:30 in the morning is have a full meal and sit with the lights on for 6 hours trying to digest it. The meal consisted of balls of processed chicken byproduct covered in flour and deepfried then dipped in a sugary presumably sour syrup with soggy rice in the same syrup fried with an unknown cubed white vegetable. And for dessert to follow the tradition of "Asian cuisine" was a fortune cookie.

The fortune cookie is probably my favourite part. Ok work with me on this one...shut your eyes and imagine your flying to a tropical destination, ok stop and go get a friend to read this for you....i´ll wait here....hi, friend! ok now shut your eyes and imagine. So you´re all relaxed and excited for being more relaxed and then you get a fortune cookie...how sweet, you love fortune cookies. Your neighbours open theirs; "You will soon feel the sun caress your face", "You are going on vacation". Awww the airline made them all travel related to ensure that the fortunes of their lovely clientele will come true. Then with fingers trembling with excitement you open yours; "You will soon be gently rocking in the sea". IN!!! the sea?!?!? and how soon? The last thing you want to hear if you have any concern that the plane you are on could make a detour into the sea, is that you will soon be gently rocking in said sea.

Oh and we met this security guard at the bus station in Playa del Carmen, who essentially told us his life story...I´m so sad his potential future girlfriend left the country to pursue her singing career right after he lost his job. Some people are so inconsiderate.

One two three

I'm a drive away from the airport
...a flight away from Cancun
...a long and arduous bus ride away from Belize

So few steps and yet so far

Hi

Hello world,

Why does an exciting life always come at the expense of so much stress? You'd think I could just be happy about going to South Africa, but no...there has to be tons of paper work and deadlines involved.

Ok I lied, I'm really really happy. Still stressed, but it will all get done in the end...I should just get excited about going to Belize and Mexico with my family. I hate how pretentious this sounds, "oh my life is so hard I get to go all over the world"...really I'm not like this. I live a pretty standard life. Ok I should say bye, I have to get ready for work (ie. walking people around campus at night...ie. the best job a student could have!)

Best wishes!