I made it!

After delays, seat mix ups, broken planes in Houston, gate changes, etc. I made it to Ambergris Caye. The 15 minute flight from Belize City was one I will never forget. 10 of us packed in a single prop Cessna that took off SIDEWAYS due to the howling winds. My knees were actually digging into the co-pilot's back. But there were unbelievable views of the barrier reef edge. It is the 2nd largest barrier reef in the world after Australia's.

I touched down around 5:30 (no daylight savings here...so I'm just 1 hour later than you guys)...sideways again...on the tiny sandy runway surrounded by mangrove swamps and people riding their bikes and walking dogs accross the runway between planes landing. I wandered the streets for a while taking in the area and fending off the aggressive drug & women dealers who also double as hotel & restaraunt hustlers. I found my modest guest house and took a load off and found some dinner at a nearby restaraunt. I eventually ended up at the end of a long pier in an open-air bar called "The Tackle Box" with blowing onshore winds and a beautiful full moon. I met a few guys from Seattle, one of whom lives in Belize with his Mexican GF six months out of the year. We hung out and drank Belikans (Belizean beers) for a while. We then walked up the beach a ways to a place called "Crazy Canucks" where there was a reggae band...but after an hour we were ready to call it a night.

My room is right over the main street...so at 6am it get's loud and the aromas of the restaraunts cooking up breakfast gets too much to sleep through. I found a dive shop who lent me a mask and snorkle for a morning swim out off the longest pier off of a super ritzy resort, past the evergrowing eel grass that surrounds the island making swimming from the beaches unpleasant. There were tons of colorful fish and reef bits out there. Afterwards, while drying out, I met 4 British military lads on leave from their post outside Belize City. 3 Royal Marines and a RAF pilot. After chatting about how lame Bush and Blair are and other political rantings. We started jumping off the palapa roof into the water but the security guard for the resort that owned the pier came down and spoiled our fun...actually kicked the Brits off the pier. Luckily he didn't know I was a co-conspirator with them...so I got to snorkle around a bit more. Then some cracjheads showed up and I didn't feel my sunglasses and things were safe on the pier anymore...so I bailed.

I got a bottle of the local rum and some Diet Cokes and read Noah Levine's "Dharma Punx" up on the rooftop deck of my guesthouse...until I decided to come here, to the internet cafe, and write down my adventures so far. I'm off to the beach...or the roof again! Lates!