Leaving Belize – December 15, 2010

What a sad day…

I got up early to watch the sun rise one more time on Caye Caulker.  Then I finished up my packing.  The whole time, I was bummed.

After packing, guess where I went to get breakfast…yep, the local bakery.  For some reason I went to Sobre los Olas for another breakfast of very yummy french toast.

I ran into Leon and Ramsey and gave them hugs good-bye.  I really hope they remember me; I will definitely remember them.  I bought a couple more gifts from the local vendors and then checked out of my room.  I stopped by Raggamuffin to leave Kimani a note and his tip for the snorkel trip since he didn’t show up at I&I the previous night.

I hung out at Pizza Caulker for a while and chatted with Greg and then said my good-byes to him as well.  While I was swinging on the tree swing at Raggamuffin, Poppy and Blaine and Kathleen and Al stopped by for a good-bye.  I also found Charlie and said good-bye to her and told her I would definitely be back.

It’s strange to remember back to how many people I said good-by to that day…

At about 1pm it was time to head to Mara’s Place to get my bag and then I found a golf cart taxi to give me a ride to the airport.  My plan was to have the driver stop by the bakery so I could take some fabulous pastries home, but I completely forgot they closed in the middle of the day.  I was so bummed.

My flight left Caye Caulker at 215p.  Seriously my eyes started to water.  I really, really should have stayed longer.  I had the time off.  It’s a regret I still have.  I was surprised to find that I was the only passenger on the flight…just me, the pilot, and my bag.  I was so mesmerized by the beauty and how smooth the flight was, that it never occurred to me to take a few pictures.  The water below was breathtaking.  When I stepped off the plane in Belize City, one of the ground crew jokingly asked me if I had chartered the flight.

While waiting for my flight to leave Belize City, I was entertained by the owner(?) of Jet Bar.  He was about 4 feet tall and almost as round; he walked around joking with people and trying to get them to come to his bar.  I was hungry and he said there was food, so I thought ‘why not’.  Turns out the only food was hotdogs…but, heck they were supposedly the best…I’m not sure by what standards.

The flight to Houston was uneventful until I started filling out my immigration and customs paperwork and then ‘it’ occurred to me.  As mentioned in my previous post, I spent my last night in Belize in a club called I&I where there was plenty of pot smoking.  And, since it was my last night in Belize I obviously did not do my laundry.  I started wondering, ‘can a drug sniffing dog be that good?’  Now it seems completely hilarious to me that I would worry about that.  First, I can’t imagine they would pick up pot smoke on clothing that wasn’t actually worn by someone smoking.  Second, I hadn’t smoked pot so even if I did get stopped I could clearly state that.

To be expected, both immigrations and customs was just fine.  At about 730pm I was officially back in the US of A.  An hour and a half later I was on my flight to Phoenix.

Then the bad…I was back at Travellodge.  Seriously one of the worse places I’ve ever stayed.  I had to change rooms at around midnight because when I turned the heat on, it sounded like it was going to explode.  When I called them about it, they made me take my pajama-wearing body outside in the middle of the night in a bad part of town to get a new room key.  And, they offered absolutely no assistance whatsoever.  I hardly ever write reviews on travel sites, I was so pissed at this place I took the time to let Expedia know.

It was very late by the time, I finally passed out for the night.

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