Now, a few Friday ago (5/3), at work, I was thinking to myself that I needed to get away. Someone called me predictable earlier that week and it might have had an impact on my decision making process. I then decided I needed to go to Belize. I then talked myself out of it because it was irrational and more pricey than I would have liked. I told Saryah about this thought and she was like "dude, go for it" It's not like i have any current financial obligations or responsibilities. I'm single, and have every right to pick up and go galavanting across the world if i want to. With that reasoning, I agreed. Tuesday (5/7)....I booked my ticket and started planning. it's going to be legendary. It's been a while since I took a solo vacation, but luckily, I have a few friends who have been giving me great advice on what to do and see. One of my cousins gave me a hotel recommendation, so I'm going for it. I'm going to book a dorm to force me to be social. I've forgotten how fun it is to meet people and hang out with them knowing you will probably never see them again, and I cannot wait to rediscover the joy. #yolo
Needless to say, this was a much needed getaway. I dont think I even realized how much it would be needed when I purchased it, but I am currently forever grateful to my past self for this vacation. Leading up to this trip was a series of unfortunate events, and I had my fingers crossed that my trip to Belize would not follow that same pattern. The night before I left (5/23), I packed and stayed up late (like I always do before trips) watching Rookie Blue (my new summer tv show).
I woke up with only a few hours a sleep underneath my belt and headed off to the airport. After going through security, I sat down and started reading my book, A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Baeh. Read it on the airplane. Caught a taxi to the water taxi terminal. Then I read as I waited for the water taxi. Read on the water taxi, which was a good accomplishment for me because I was nervous it would make me sea sick, but it was all good. Then I arrived. Caye Caulker. The "caye" is pronounced "key". A little fact that surprised me about Belize, everyone speaks English. It's the language the learn in school, but they speak English with a Jamaican accent. They also speak their own dialect, Creole, which they learn at home and use to speak to each other. Personally, I think they like speaking Creole, because they know people can speak Spanish, but none of the tourists speak Creole.
I got on the island and they have taxis....which are men driving golf carts. People get around the island by walking or bikes, with the option of their golf cart taxis. It was adorable. My hostel was about 50 feet from the dock. It has a magnificent view of the Caribbean Sea.
When I got on the island, there were a couple of things I needed to do...like finish booking my ATM Cave tour from the island and book a night tour. I went to book a night tour, but the group I went to, was not doing tours that night, so they referred me to another group. I started walking to where they guy directed me, but as I was walking this random guy sitting on the side of the sandy road hollered after me, "Where are you going so fast?"
I was like, "errrr. excuse me?"
He said" Don't walk so fast. Go slow."
Words of wisdom, i didn't even recognize at the moment. (the island's theme phrase is "Go Slow") I went to book my cave tour, but they recommended I pay in cash. I explained how I don't know my pin number and they explained that there was a bank on the island that would give me cash from my card if I had my passport, but it closed in an hour. I rushed to my hostel to pick up my passport and then went to the bank to get cash. It was then in all the rushing I trying to determine which tour group to go with for my Hol Chan Reserve snokel that I realized I was overthinking it. It made me think of when Saryah and I were in New Zealand and I was overthinking everything, and she was relaxed and zen-like telling me to stop worrying. I did. I let go of the rushing around. I went and booked my ATM Cave and Hol Chan snorkel at the same place so I wouldn't have to worry about it. Then I went back to my hostel and laid out on a hammock until it was time for me to go on my night snorkel. I was the first person to show up so it was me and Javier just chatting. I thought the place was cold, so I asked him to turn off the fan. Eventually we were joined by two other couples and one of the girls said "oh man, it's so hot in here". I told her that I asked for the fan to be turned off...but we eventually realized that she was from Cali and just wasn't used to warm weather. lol. It was a really good nighttime snorkel. We saw lobsters, two octopi, and some other cool nocturnal animals. It was pretty legit. After the night snorkel, I went to find some dinner, with my book, and then went to bed early so I would be able to make my 6:30am water taxi ride.
Saturday (5/25) started off very early. I was sleeping in a 4-person dorm, on the top bunk so I tried not to wake up the guy sleeping on the bottom bunk. I failed. I felt horrible. But I made it out for the 6:30am water taxi to Belize City where my driver, Tom Minor, was waiting for me. He brought his girlfriend along for the ride, which was fine with me. We had a really good chat and it turns out my name, Natasha, is a lot more common in Belize. He said he had a few friends with the name Natasha and he calls them Nat. Personally, i *HATE* that nickname, but was fine that he was going to call me that since we were going to have a pretty short time together. He drove me to meet up with the tour group I was going. I changed cars and my tour group consisted of a nice English girl with a lot of piercings, who I completely clicked with, a guy from the Bronx who looked like a total frat boy, and a couple who kept to themselves. Needless to say, I hit it of with the Brit. We were on our way hiking to Actun Tunichil Muknal (Cave of the Crystal Sepulchre), where photos are no longer allowed due to a Frenchman dropping his camera on a 1500 year old skull. Our adventure started off with about a 45-minute hike in the forest, where our tour guide, Aaron, was showing us pretty interesting stuff, as me and the Brit decided to find out his pretty cool life story. (He wants to become an archaeologist, focusing on the Mayan people). The entrance to the cave was amazing. after the hike you go down and see this cave entrance over a blue lagoon.
You are not allowed to bring cameras to the cave anymore because a tourist dropped his camera on a 1500 year old skull, which is stupid. The tourist. Not the new rule. Because of the lack of cameras, I think the tour was probably more magical, since you are paying attention to every detail rather than focusing on what to take a picture of. You walk up to the lagoon and have to swim across it to get into the cave where you are hiking for a while through tight spaces and through a stream of water that is sometimes just a tiny stream and sometimes goes drops and goes all the way to your chest.
Our tour guide asked us if we wanted the touristy path or the "jaguar" route. lol. we chose jaguar, and it was epic. It's really hard to explain, it's something you have to try. After traipsing through the stream you have to climb up this rock onto a ledge about 15 feet above you. You take off your shoes and walk around an ancient Mayan area, which is a current archaeological reserve, looking at human bones and lots of broken pots. It was truly legendary. 'm really glad Mego recommended this to me. I really feel like this is a unique experience that cannot be replicated anywhere else in the world. At one point the tour guide stopped us to draw "ancient Mayan symbols" on our face. lol. it was great. You can still see some reddish-orange smudges on my face from when the rain washed it away. We ate lunch after the tour and got to go back to the parking area and change into some dry clothes.
While we were waiting, everyone was being poured a cup of rum punch, and I was talking to the Brit. She found it very interesting that I did not drink and immediately inquired about it. I explained that I was Mormon. She explained she didn't believe in anything but knew about the LDS church's missionary program. I told her I was a missionary, and it was the most amazing thing of my life. Very sincerely, she asked how I felt about spending time trying to convert people to my religion. It was a very thought-provoking question for me as a very personal mission-related experience happened to me pre-Belize. I tried to convey the best I could how I never thought of it as a converting-people-thing. It was a 'I have this amazing truth that has blessed my life in every aspect, and I want to share it with the world' thing. I tried to explain how we believe that after Christ and his apostles were killed, we believe the truths they taught eventually were changed and distorted, thus leading to the existence of so many churches nowadays. I told her that after centuries of that state, God called a prophet to restore all the truths that were lost and that we have a living prophet who guides the church today through inspiration and revelation from our Savior. This is where she got confused. She thought that I was saying that the current prophet was more Savior than prophet. This is FALSE. I was trying to explain myself better, but then we started loading the bus again, and the moment was over. I wish I could have had one more minute to explain. It's better that people don't believe actual doctrine than don't believe because of misunderstood doctrine.
After this, we drove and met up with Tom Minor and his girlfriend. On the drive we saw a lady selling mangoes on the side of the road. They had told me about this on the drive up and got really excited when they saw it. So excited that Tom hit the breaks in the middle of the road, and started driving in reverse about 100 feet to get some. It was a great deal. 7 mangoes for 1 Belize dollar. That's $0.50 American! I got some mangos to eat. They were so good. They also taught me to peel off the mango skin, instead of having to cut up the mango, as I've done my whole life. And the mangos were smaller than the ones I grew up on too! Adorable.
I made it back to the island and met my new dormmate. She's Canadian, but very social and nice. I decided to have a nice walk around the island and go tell the tour people that I left my tennis shoes at the ATM Caves. Then I went to dinner to with my book, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea. I had a nice quiet dinner went back to find her still hanging out in the room. She was going out partying with some German guys, and I thought about joining, but I was tired from my day and read a little before bed time.
Sunday (5/26) started lovely. I had breakfast at Amor. I also decided to read my scriptures at breakfast. I was reading in the Book of Mormon in Helaman chapters 1-5. Honestly, I cannot remember what verse I read and cannot find it when I search for it again, but I was reading about how the the people choose to become unbelieving and as a consequence of their actions, the Lord no longer protected them. In these five chapters, I remember thinking about how this happened gradually. Their unbelief didn't switch off like a light switch, it was a gradual process of allowing the bad to come into your life. It made me think of all the insanity that had been leading up to my trip to Belize, and wondered if during the chaos, had I allowed any bad into my life? As I was pondering on these thoughts, I began to read Helaman 5:12 and felt incredible peace.
After my very enlightening breakfast, I started walking down to the side of the island where my tour was going to take place. I stopped at a restaurant to take a picture of this sign. I snapped a photo and started walking away when I heard someone yell after me "Natasha!" I stopped and turned back thinking that it was someone I've met on the island, since it is a small island and I've been meeting people and seeing them throughout the day. I looked at the guys and felt guilty that I didn't recognize any of them but someone obviously knew who I was. One of the guys joked, "were you taking a picture of my bike" to which I responded "of course. its' a very nice bike."
Then another guy asked "what is your name?"
I said "Natasha" in a puzzled way; after all, they were the ones who called after me, right?
They started laughing and saying "no way! we just guessed!" and "it's our lucky day!". Someone asked my age because they were going to go buy a lotto ticket now. hahaha.
After that moment, I knew it was going to be a good day. I had to wait around on the beach for the tour to start, and apply sun block.
The tour started, and we headed out to try and see some manatee. No luck. We then continued onto the Hol Chan Marine Reserve. On the boat ride over to the area, the water was super choppy and it was a little painful going over the water and hitting hard on the way down. We snorkeled and there was one couple who was super prepared for this snorkel. They had an underwater video camera constantly rolling and a professional underwater camera. They were deep snorkeling to get close up pics of everything. It was a little intense. At the first stop, I saw cool fish, but the best part was seeing a crab hanging out underwater. I've eaten crab, and seen in on the beach, but never in the ocean hanging out. I saw an eel, who I'm pretty sure, was about to attack the male counterpart of the intense couple going up to it to take a picture. I also swam with sea turtles. Truth: this picture took a lot of effort to capture, because the girl I asked to take the picture seems to have disabilities in the picture-taking-realm of life.
Monday morning, I had breakfast, I finally got wifi, which was not happening all weekend. I wandered around the island and then spend the rest of the morning on this dock reading. It was glorious. I took the afternoon water taxi off the island and it was super full. After the taxi ride, where I read the entire time (take that sea sickness!) I met up with the Austin girl and we caught a cab to the airport. We checked in and had some lunch together. We bought postcards and then got separated when she went to go find something in one of the stores and our previous seats had been taken. Instead I found a new seat and read. Boarded the plane and read. Landed back in America. Had to unload my carry-on and repack it for my business trip the following morning to Illinois.
It was a wonderful and much needed vacation. Coming back I feel so rejuvenated. I felt like I hit nirvana; I was at peace. I felt like all my previous worries from earlier that month were gone. When I explained this to Jon who I got to have dinner with up in Illinois, he rephrased it, my life got the reset button. It was wonderful. I felt super happy all week without a care in the world and without a stressful moment that could catch me.
I woke up with only a few hours a sleep underneath my belt and headed off to the airport. After going through security, I sat down and started reading my book, A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Baeh. Read it on the airplane. Caught a taxi to the water taxi terminal. Then I read as I waited for the water taxi. Read on the water taxi, which was a good accomplishment for me because I was nervous it would make me sea sick, but it was all good. Then I arrived. Caye Caulker. The "caye" is pronounced "key". A little fact that surprised me about Belize, everyone speaks English. It's the language the learn in school, but they speak English with a Jamaican accent. They also speak their own dialect, Creole, which they learn at home and use to speak to each other. Personally, I think they like speaking Creole, because they know people can speak Spanish, but none of the tourists speak Creole.
I got on the island and they have taxis....which are men driving golf carts. People get around the island by walking or bikes, with the option of their golf cart taxis. It was adorable. My hostel was about 50 feet from the dock. It has a magnificent view of the Caribbean Sea.When I got on the island, there were a couple of things I needed to do...like finish booking my ATM Cave tour from the island and book a night tour. I went to book a night tour, but the group I went to, was not doing tours that night, so they referred me to another group. I started walking to where they guy directed me, but as I was walking this random guy sitting on the side of the sandy road hollered after me, "Where are you going so fast?"
I was like, "errrr. excuse me?"
He said" Don't walk so fast. Go slow."
Words of wisdom, i didn't even recognize at the moment. (the island's theme phrase is "Go Slow") I went to book my cave tour, but they recommended I pay in cash. I explained how I don't know my pin number and they explained that there was a bank on the island that would give me cash from my card if I had my passport, but it closed in an hour. I rushed to my hostel to pick up my passport and then went to the bank to get cash. It was then in all the rushing I trying to determine which tour group to go with for my Hol Chan Reserve snokel that I realized I was overthinking it. It made me think of when Saryah and I were in New Zealand and I was overthinking everything, and she was relaxed and zen-like telling me to stop worrying. I did. I let go of the rushing around. I went and booked my ATM Cave and Hol Chan snorkel at the same place so I wouldn't have to worry about it. Then I went back to my hostel and laid out on a hammock until it was time for me to go on my night snorkel. I was the first person to show up so it was me and Javier just chatting. I thought the place was cold, so I asked him to turn off the fan. Eventually we were joined by two other couples and one of the girls said "oh man, it's so hot in here". I told her that I asked for the fan to be turned off...but we eventually realized that she was from Cali and just wasn't used to warm weather. lol. It was a really good nighttime snorkel. We saw lobsters, two octopi, and some other cool nocturnal animals. It was pretty legit. After the night snorkel, I went to find some dinner, with my book, and then went to bed early so I would be able to make my 6:30am water taxi ride.
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| ATM Cave Entrance from http://belizetravelpoints.com/blog/belize-hotels/romantic-luxury-jungle-beach-resorts-in-belize |
Our tour guide asked us if we wanted the touristy path or the "jaguar" route. lol. we chose jaguar, and it was epic. It's really hard to explain, it's something you have to try. After traipsing through the stream you have to climb up this rock onto a ledge about 15 feet above you. You take off your shoes and walk around an ancient Mayan area, which is a current archaeological reserve, looking at human bones and lots of broken pots. It was truly legendary. 'm really glad Mego recommended this to me. I really feel like this is a unique experience that cannot be replicated anywhere else in the world. At one point the tour guide stopped us to draw "ancient Mayan symbols" on our face. lol. it was great. You can still see some reddish-orange smudges on my face from when the rain washed it away. We ate lunch after the tour and got to go back to the parking area and change into some dry clothes. While we were waiting, everyone was being poured a cup of rum punch, and I was talking to the Brit. She found it very interesting that I did not drink and immediately inquired about it. I explained that I was Mormon. She explained she didn't believe in anything but knew about the LDS church's missionary program. I told her I was a missionary, and it was the most amazing thing of my life. Very sincerely, she asked how I felt about spending time trying to convert people to my religion. It was a very thought-provoking question for me as a very personal mission-related experience happened to me pre-Belize. I tried to convey the best I could how I never thought of it as a converting-people-thing. It was a 'I have this amazing truth that has blessed my life in every aspect, and I want to share it with the world' thing. I tried to explain how we believe that after Christ and his apostles were killed, we believe the truths they taught eventually were changed and distorted, thus leading to the existence of so many churches nowadays. I told her that after centuries of that state, God called a prophet to restore all the truths that were lost and that we have a living prophet who guides the church today through inspiration and revelation from our Savior. This is where she got confused. She thought that I was saying that the current prophet was more Savior than prophet. This is FALSE. I was trying to explain myself better, but then we started loading the bus again, and the moment was over. I wish I could have had one more minute to explain. It's better that people don't believe actual doctrine than don't believe because of misunderstood doctrine.
I made it back to the island and met my new dormmate. She's Canadian, but very social and nice. I decided to have a nice walk around the island and go tell the tour people that I left my tennis shoes at the ATM Caves. Then I went to dinner to with my book, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea. I had a nice quiet dinner went back to find her still hanging out in the room. She was going out partying with some German guys, and I thought about joining, but I was tired from my day and read a little before bed time.
Sunday (5/26) started lovely. I had breakfast at Amor. I also decided to read my scriptures at breakfast. I was reading in the Book of Mormon in Helaman chapters 1-5. Honestly, I cannot remember what verse I read and cannot find it when I search for it again, but I was reading about how the the people choose to become unbelieving and as a consequence of their actions, the Lord no longer protected them. In these five chapters, I remember thinking about how this happened gradually. Their unbelief didn't switch off like a light switch, it was a gradual process of allowing the bad to come into your life. It made me think of all the insanity that had been leading up to my trip to Belize, and wondered if during the chaos, had I allowed any bad into my life? As I was pondering on these thoughts, I began to read Helaman 5:12 and felt incredible peace.
And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.
Then another guy asked "what is your name?"
I said "Natasha" in a puzzled way; after all, they were the ones who called after me, right?
They started laughing and saying "no way! we just guessed!" and "it's our lucky day!". Someone asked my age because they were going to go buy a lotto ticket now. hahaha.
After that moment, I knew it was going to be a good day. I had to wait around on the beach for the tour to start, and apply sun block.
The tour started, and we headed out to try and see some manatee. No luck. We then continued onto the Hol Chan Marine Reserve. On the boat ride over to the area, the water was super choppy and it was a little painful going over the water and hitting hard on the way down. We snorkeled and there was one couple who was super prepared for this snorkel. They had an underwater video camera constantly rolling and a professional underwater camera. They were deep snorkeling to get close up pics of everything. It was a little intense. At the first stop, I saw cool fish, but the best part was seeing a crab hanging out underwater. I've eaten crab, and seen in on the beach, but never in the ocean hanging out. I saw an eel, who I'm pretty sure, was about to attack the male counterpart of the intense couple going up to it to take a picture. I also swam with sea turtles. Truth: this picture took a lot of effort to capture, because the girl I asked to take the picture seems to have disabilities in the picture-taking-realm of life.
Yeah. That really happened. We then went to another area, Shark Ray Alley, to snorkel with nursing sharks and sting rays. It was a little intimidating having to see these dark shadows in the water swimming around and jumping into it. I had to psych myself up and think "dont think, just do it" and I was the first one to go in! It was cool.
We then went to another area to look at fish and coral. Then to try and see some more manatees and then we went to try and find some sea horses for the intense snorkeling couple. It was nice. One of the great parts of this tour was the company. There was an English guy who you could do laundry on his abs. #yesplease He was working at an art museum in NYC. There was a German girl who's boyfriend was scuba diving that day, and they were on the tail end of a 6-month trip in South and Central America. I got to ask her a lot of advice about going to visit the Galapagos Islands. There were two girls who grew up together in Alaska for a bit, but one of them was living in Austin, TX. It turns out that the Austin girl and I were going to be on the same flight home the next day and coordinated catching the water taxi together so we could split a cab to the airport and have some company. It was super fun and we all had a great time getting to know one another. We got back to the docks and the English guy pointed out a stingray and a starfish off the dock. It was nice.
When I got back to my hostel I realized I was severely sunburned. I did not realize, and I forgot to reapply. Wow. It was painful! Luckily, I brought at maxi dress so it was long a flowy and covered all my sunburnt areas, so I wouldn't get any more sun exposure. I was walking down the road to follow up on my missing shoes and ran into Javier from my night time snorkel. We stopped and chatted. He thought I was dressed up very nicely for the evening. I told him how I was very sunburned. He told me he was swinging by his house and would pick up some aloe for me. I went to talk to the other tour group and they hadn't managed to get my shoes back, so i told them not to worry about it and make sure it gets donated to someone who needs them.
On my way back, I went by the Scuba Sensation shop to wait for Javier. As I was approaching, this rasta looking guy was like "where are you going?" I said "to this shop" pointing right in front of me, about 5 feet away. He gave off a super creeper vibe and said "can I come with you?" I said "no, I think I'm good." and walked closer to Zac, the guy who was my night snorkel guy. I chatted with him waiting for Javier to come back. He did, and brought some aloe with him, part of the plant. It was awesome. Something my mom used to do. We ended up talking for a while. We shared music tastes, I got to ask questions about Belize culture, talked about bad relationships, and we experienced a very great cultural exchange. They brought out a chair for me and we just sat our in front of the Scuba shop talking for about 2.5 hours. At one point in the conversation, Zac started asking me about what I believed in. I shared a little and listened to him tell me about his belief in the goodness of people but his disillusionment caused by people being Sunday-Only-Christians. I listened as he shared his life story, and understood the sadness he felt over the hypocrisy of some religious people. I regret not sharing more about the truth I knew, about how church is hospital for sinners. You don't go there because you're perfect. Alas, it because dark, and I became hungry. I was grateful at Zac's expression of gratitude for sitting and talking with him. He expressed his awe in someone who can sit and have a good conversation , especially without the need of any alcoholic assistance.
That night I went to eat at Rosie's or Rose's, I cannot remember. I ordered the fish shish kebab and waited at my table alone, with my book. As I was waiting, the power goes out on the island. Luckily I have a flashlight app on my phone, so I was not too worried. This also happened the other night too, while I was in my hostel reading. It was a relaxing night, even though I was in serious pain as the back of my legs were super red. I got back to the hostel after dinner to find my Canadian dormmate chatting with an English couple who was also at the tail end of a 6 month travel around the world. I chatted with them for a while heard about their adventures. Then the three germans she met up with the night before came down to see meet with us. They went out to get some beer and got me some water. My sun burn thanked them. The germans, of course, were gorgeous. #ilovegermanguys One of the guys was curious to why I didn't drink, and I explained that I was Mormon. He had no idea what that was. I had a mind blank on how to describe mormonism to someone who had zero exposure to the religion. I'm pretty sure I gave a terrible explaination, but he was satisfied. We stayed up till the enforced quiet time came, when they went out to the bars and I went to bed.
It was a wonderful and much needed vacation. Coming back I feel so rejuvenated. I felt like I hit nirvana; I was at peace. I felt like all my previous worries from earlier that month were gone. When I explained this to Jon who I got to have dinner with up in Illinois, he rephrased it, my life got the reset button. It was wonderful. I felt super happy all week without a care in the world and without a stressful moment that could catch me.
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