To Belize and Back

Every three months, we have to leave Honduras to renew the tourist visas that allow us to stay in the country. Since Honduras is in a partnership with Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua called the C-4 Block, those neighboring countries don't count as "leaving the country." So visa trippers have to travel to a more distant land to fulfill their legal requirements. In our case, Belize is by far the closest and cheapest travel option, but closest doesn't always mean easiest, and what one gains in money savings, usually costs in convenience! We have been to Belize twice before, and we really enjoy being there. It has the sort of laid back culture most often associated with Caribbean countries, and they speak English, along with Spanish and Creole.

The trip to Placencia, the town in Belize we go to, is normally a direct shot by boat from Puerto Cortez in western Honduras. But this time, the seas were too high in the Gulf of Honduras, so no small boats were permitted to travel. So we had to go by taxi/bus to another little port town in Guatelema to catch a boat travelling to Belize closer to the shore and therefore out of the high seas. When we got off the boat in souther Belize, there just happened to be a puddle jumper at the teeny tiny airport headed to Placencia, so they waited for us, which was great. The return trip was similar, and actually went very smoothly considering all the connections we had to make. Here are a few travel shots...

That's a bus...with a stewardess. I didn't know such buses existed until we moved here.Our next bus, an oversized van actually, wouldn't leave until at least one adult sized living body was crammed into every possible seat. That's us snuggled up with all our backpacks and two German tourists. Next came the boat, which the girls though was a great time. Hadley's barbie enjoyed the trip, too.

Getting some fresh sea air! And this is my favorite! The air strip at the Placencia airport dead ends into the only highway out of town. The sign warns motorists that they must yield to planes. Seems reasonable.By far the best part of the trip was getting to see Josh's family! They met us in Placencia and we got to spend about 4 days visiting and toodling around the country. The weather was too cold to swim and too cloudy for good snorkeling, so one of the days we went to some Mayan Ruins with a crazy name I can't remember. The ruins we had visited before in Mexico were really touristy and busy, but these were completely quiet and peaceful and very interesting.

The whole clan at the ruins. Linzy, Tony, Guildy, Brianne with Owen and Oatus, Sydney, Mike, Cade, Lisa, Josh, and Hadley.

Tony and the kiddos at the ball court.

Aunties and nieces:o)

A stela telling about some important political or religious event.

We hadn't seen Oatus since he was pretty tiny. He's 5 months old and super sweet! It's always fun to travel and see new things, but nice to get back home and back to normal life. Josh is back at work, and I have my normal classes again this week. And the girls were happy to see Lyndi, their Spanish teacher/babysitter, on Monday.