Wind and Water in Belize

Its been a while since my last entry (sorry mum!), partly because we were out of contact for a little while and partly because I have been waiting through the interminable process of watching O'Brien choose a laptop, which took 3 visits to the Apple store, two visits to the Sony store, one visit to Office Depot and countless coffee breaks to think about it, spread over a three day period.

Fortunately for everyone a decision was eventually reached and Kate has made the leap to a Mac, buying the exact computer she had planned on buying before the search started.

As you may have gathered from the above, we are no longer in Belize. The Central American leg of our journey has come to an end and we are now in Seattle, getting ready to start our road trip. The problem with leaving the blog for a while is that things mount up, and you have to either leave things out to catch up, or write entries longer than anyone wants to read. Both the lawyer and the history student in me feel that if you don't record it, it never happened, so I'm reluctant to skip too much. Accordingly, there will probably be a few entries coming in quick succession. Once again, I know most people reading this are either doing so from work, and so have nothing better to do anyway, or related to either me or Kate, and thus obliged to read the whole thing anyway.

We had two major activities planned before we left Belize - to learn Kite Surfing and to cross the border and visit the Mayan ruins at Tikal in Guatemala.

Someone, and I can't remember who, told me that because the wind pulls you up, unlike a snowboard, where gravity pulls you down, kite surfing is actually pretty easy. If I remember who that person was, and see them again, I will ask them to reimburse me for the money and time I spent trying to master this 'easy' skill. I was under the impression, reinforced by the instructor, that with 3, 3 hour sessions, I would be reasonably able to kite surf, at least to the point where I could go out by myself and practice if I wanted to. I will simply say that I did not reach this level. Kate, applying some wake boarding and sailing experience, got closer than I did, but she was also spurred on by the instructor, who was an Auckland boy and a sailor. Other than the prodigious amount of sea water I swallowed (if you don't control the kite correctly, it can very much pull you down), perhaps the most memorable part of the experience came from Kate's face at the end of day two. As you have to watch the kite constantly, you find yourself staring directly into the sun for hours on end. Add to that the reflection off the water, and the sensitivity to sun that anti-malarials cause, and Kite surfing becomes demanding on the skin. While she has refused to publish the pictures, Kate came off the water bright pink, but with white goggle marks that any skier would be proud of where her sunglasses had been. I laughed at the time, but soon realised that, while I had no goggle marks, my nose actually got so burnt that at one point, it peeled so fast it bled. So, in typically supportive fashion I nicknamed Kate goggles, she called me Rudolf, and then we agreed to stay away from nicknames for a while.

Following the kite surfing (mis)adventure, we had planned to head over and see some famous ruins in Guatemala. Kate, however, had by this point seen posters advertising a three day sailing, snorkeling and fishing trip around the cayes (which, as far as I can tell, simply means island) of Belize. Now, if you've read the previous posts you've heard me whingeing about boats enough to wonder why I would voluntarily spend three days on one. I was however given two assurances by the organisers. 1) the boat stays inside the reef so the water is always calm and no one ever gets seasick; and 2) we have a 'special' drug on board that has never failed for anyone, and even foreign doctors are amazed by how well it works. I was struck by the apparent inconsistency between these two statements, and I did wonder whether the special drug was in fact marijuana, which is certainly Belize's most common 'special' drug. But call it the willing suspension of disbelief - I wanted to believe, so I did.

Sea sicknesses concerns aside, we still had to choose between the ruins at Tikal and the sailing trip. It was one of those classic dilemmas you get when you travel, forcing you to decide between what you want to do (drink, lie by the beach, sleep in) and what you feel you should do (see that church, historical site etc). In the end I took an appallingly western, colonialist view point and decided that seeing Mayan ruins wasn't quite as important as seeing all those European cathedrals had been, and that anyway, it was probably similar to Incan culture, and if you've seen Macchu Picchu, you've seen them all. I should also add that, while this description sounds like I was making a choice, Kate had made up her made long before, so it was pretty much a moot point anyway.

After a day of lounging at the Lazy Lizard, possibly the coolest bar since tubing in Laos, we arrived at the wharf ready for our pre trip briefing, where we were informed that, due to high demand, there were going to be two boats sailing the trip this time. One boat was to be filled with the couples, while the other was to be the 'singles' cruise, because, as the organiser repeated a dozen times, couples don't mind singles, but singles hate couples. That (clearly well rehearsed) line didn't mean much, until we were informed that, as the couples boat was full, one couple was going to join the singles boat, and we were that couple.

So, early next morning we set off aboard the Ragga Queen, our 40ft, 3 sailed transport for the next three days, accompanied by 15 singles. Firstly, I think reports of the hostility of singles for couples were exaggerated - it seemed we were welcomed into the fold. In the end we were actually joined by another couple, a kiwi named Alex and his Canadian girlfriend, Leila, so we had some allies in case things turned nasty with the singles on the high seas.

As it turned out, the water was in fact quite calm, and day one on the boat passed without incident. After about 6 hours of sailing, including lunch and snorkel stops, we reached Rendezvous Caye, the island where we were to camp for the first night. After setting up camp and marvelling at the fact we were camping on island the size of a quarter of a football field, with no other land insight, it was time to join the festivities and get stuck in to Belize's favourite drink, Coconut rum and pineapple juice, known to the locals as a panti rippa. (The Belizeans do a roaring trade in disturbing drink names. There are others that cannot be named on a public blog).

Perhaps it was a sense of competition, coming out of wounded pride from being branded unacceptable to singles, but it was the couples that outlasted the party. As the others gradually trailed off to their tents (alone or together, who knows what those singles got up to), the couples remained sitting around the campfire, emptying jug after jug of 'rippa'. I have to admit, we did congratulate each other on out partying the singles.

The next morning however the congratulations had stopped. Cheap rum does not make for the best of hangovers. In fact, I think I can honestly say I have never felt worse. And the prospect of another 5 hours on a boat, calm waters and miracle drugs notwithstanding, did not appeal. After Kate packed up all our stuff (I was simply not functioning) we reboarded the Ragga Queen, reluctantly. I was surprised I made it as far as I did, but after about three hours, everything I had eaten in the past 24 hours was returned to the sea. Coconut rum and competing with singles, at sea, turned out to be a bad combination.

For the remaining days I kept pretty quiet. The main task anyone had by day two was to try and escape the relentless sun. With the shade from the sails falling on the water, there was nowhere on the boat to hide. I watched as my already brown arms and legs turned darker and darker, and eventually, inescapably, red.

There were also some great snorkel stops along the way, and the islands were beautiful. We saw dolphins, and a pair of mating turtles from the boat, and the people fishing at the back pulled in several huge Barracuda and King Fish. So it was a great trip, but I was glad to reach land, and shade, in Placencia at the end of day three.

Kate has posted some photos on facebook. Don't worry if you are not friends with her, I'll post some (probably the same ones) very soon.