AN UN-BELIZE-ABLE WEEKEND!!!!!!

Well it’s been another wonderful week in the beautiful country of Belize. I can finally say Matthew and I are getting use to barking dogs in the morning. Some people have roosters but San Ignacio has dogs. Every single day when the clock strikes 5 a.m. there is s dog across the street that starts to bark like it is dying. So, me and Matt decided that we will set an alarm so we can watch what happens to this dog, because his bark is so on schedule every morning. I will get back to that when it happens but we are determined to find out. Its gotten to the point where I will wake up moments before he barks and Matt and I will just looks at each other and laugh. Who needs alarm clocks?

This week has mostly consisted of constant appointments trying to get projects started and writing up project proposals, so a lot of paper work. However, we got to swing by the Belizean Botanic gardens again, and that was a lot of fun. Matthew and I were in charge of painting signs. Can I just say if you have every tried to dry paint in humidity you will understand what I mean when I say this, you can’t. Not to mention we had to constantly do touch up because little bugs would land in it and get stuck. Anyways it was frustrating but what can you do. I was the painter and Matt was the delegator. He would tell me, “ Maybe you should make the letter bigger” or “ Are you sure that will turn out good.” After much debating I am glad to say that the signs turned out pretty good. We were able to go take a dip in the river to cool off. When I say cool off the only time you are cool is when you are in the water, but as soon as you get out your sticky, sweaty, and smelly again. We got the workers discount on food witch was about two American dollars for rice, beans, and a small portion of chicken. The food is good here but Matt and me have been getting pretty sick of the rice and beans. Matt keeps telling me anytime I mention missing food from home, “That eating the same thing here everyday is part of being humbled”. I always reply, “ You were never humbled with food on your mission you ate the best food in the world everyday in Italy.” That pretty much works every time because he smirks and has nothing left to say. Sometimes I think that he refers this as to a mini mission for us. I guess that can only mean one thing, I have the best companion in the world.

To top things off at the end of the week, Matt surprised me with a get away for our anniversary weekend. Matt and our supervisor had been planning it during the week and I had no idea. That’s one thing I love about Matt he is constantly making things special for me all the time, and is always so thoughtful. Friday we took off we packed our snorkeling gear, swimsuits, and clothes. We hired a taxi guy by the name of Tim he has been a good friend to us while we have been out here. As we were driving Matt divulged to me where we were going, Caye caulker. I was immediately excited because me and Matt has done lots of research on this place prior. Caye caulker is a remote island off the coast of Belize next to the coral reef, which is ranked the second best reef scuba diving in the world. Our journey was not too long it was about 2 hours to get to Belize city and from there it was a 45 min ride on a water taxi to get out to the island. Matt had been correlating everything with a lady on the island by the name of Tracey and she was awaiting us on the dock when we arrived. She greets us both with a warm bear hug and a huge smile. Her curly dark hair was all over the place as she took us on a tour of the island. Literally I am not joking when I say this that once you are on the dock you can see water on the other side of the island. It is not very large but it is beautiful. Matt and I got so excited after we got off the boat we had completely forgot about the luggage. Thank goodness for Tracey she ran right over there and got a hold of our luggage. When we arrived to our place it was beautiful it was a seaside cabana right on the ocean. 

I couldn’t believe Matt had gone through all this trouble for me, when the best gift I have ever received was him. We got settled in and were off to eat. We had the best shrimp ever!!!! A nice treat to get away from rice and beans. Than we just watched as the sun slowly settled in this place that feels like paradise.

The next day we decided to book a scuba excursion. We were just so excited we hardly got any sleep the night before. This was going to be our first ocean dive. We had got certified prior to coming out to Belize. Tracey found us a good place to go to called Hochan reserve, and boy was she right. It was beautiful at first it was a little nerve racking because we had to flip out of the boat backwards but it was fun. Its incredible how much life is in the ocean we saw sharks, barracudas, tiger fish, turtles, and much more. It was all very exciting. During our surface interval things started to get a little shaky. Our stomachs started to turn. We were both got sea sick. All my excitement left as I was throwing up the remainder of the boat ride. We still had one more dive left and I was determined to go. So I pushed threw but the whole entire time I was throwing up under water in my BC, and Matt was taking pictures with the underwater camera. Once we headed home Matt held me the whole way to keep me out of the sun. Once I took a nap I was okay. Matt felt so bad. I reassured him it wasn’t his fault and I was just thankful to go. The experience was still amazing. Later on that night we visited Tracey’s jewelry stand on the island, where Matt bought me the most beautiful pearls ever.

Also on the island we were able to rent bikes for the day and tour, it was so much fun. We realized the further we got away from the water the less of a breeze we had. So we tried to ride by the ocean as much as we could. Not to mention it was easy to jump in the water and cool off just about everywhere.

 Sunday was our anniversary. We had a go-slow day, and were just enjoying our time together. Tracey stopped by our cabana and delivered a gift for me. A bouquet of local fresh flowers she had spent all morning picking. She slipped Matt some pearl earrings that she had someone make for me to go with my necklace. She is the most thoughtful, sweetest lady ever.  When we arrive back in our room after walking the beach I noticed balloons and a sign that read “ Happy 25th Anniversary.” 

Matt had some how got back in the room and set this all up. I was laughing so hard when I read that it said Happy 25^th. Matt explained to me that he got it in the states before we left and could not find one that said happy one-year anniversary. I loved it all the same, this is what I mean when I say he is constantly making things special. My suggestion is if you want romance marry an Italian men. As the day came to a close me and Matt sat on the balcony in the hammock over looking the ocean Matt turned to me and said. “ I really messed up didn’t I”? I quickly comforted him thinking he was referring to scuba trip thinking he ruined everything. However I quickly understood what he meant when he said.” I’m never going to be able to top this anniversary next year.” I nudged him and we both broke out into laughter. Oh how I love him so much. I realized quickly that this place feels like paradise but really anywhere is paradise when I am with my eternal sweetheart Matthew. Marriage isn’t about what you get from the other but rather what you give, that makes your love grow. 

The weekend of adventures

             On Friday we headed out to our first project idea the Belizean Botanic Gardens. There they have over 40 acres of land that they need to maintain, and believe it or not they only have 8 people working on it. So Help was needed. Matt had a heavy job duty as to gather wood, send it through a woodcutter to make malt. I watered all day long and potted as well. The Gardens are beautiful there; there are so many different types of plants with so many different purposes. After a long days work in the gardens, we were able to kick back and relax as well as cool off in the river near by. At first I was afraid to get in the water because it was very murky and I couldn’t see to the bottom. Thank goodness I have my personal chaorriot Matthew because he carried me around in the water everywhere. Later on I asked one of the natives if there were crocodiles the water. He said no, I asked him how he knew there wasn’t. He said because he had never seen one in that area before. We realized how the Belizeans think, the animal doesn’t exist in the area until you see it there.

Saturday was our day off so as a group we decided to head out to the Mayan ruins of Xunantunich.  The ruins were only about 30 minutes from where we live. You had to take a little water taxi if you call it that across the river. When I saw water taxi it’s basically a wood panel connected to wires that you crank that get you across. Hopefully the pictures I post will show you what I mean. When we reached the old myan city it was breath taking, the city was estimated to occupy 7-10,000 residents of the Mayan culture. It was beautiful. Xunantunich is actually one of the last ruins you can actually climb on. We got some great pictures on top but the pictures do not do justice to the beautiful view. As we were leaving the ruins the tour guide pointed out the Howler Monkey family above. I have always wanted to see monkeys before and it is incredible to seem them in the wild.  The baby howler was so cute clinging to her mother and copying everything she did. The tour guide told us that their monkeys are very territorial in nature and when other monkeys come near by they have fights to the death. Such aggressive animals for being so fury and cute.

             Sunday was also our day off and it was our first venture to church. We had to walk about a mile, which took about 20 minutes. Due to the heat, we arrived as wet as if we went swimming to greet the members. When we arrived we met the cutest sister ever, Sister Kaye, who pretty much runs the church here. She welcomes everyone at the door with her warm hugs. I was shocked by the church building cause it seemed to be the nicest building around, but still was tiny, extremely hot, and located in the jungle. Our group basically made up the whole congregation. Also I have never heard members sing so loud in my life other than Italy. So I was quick to learn that the Belizeans take the Mormon standard of late to an extreme here, lets just say that the members love to talk here. Sister Kaye taught Gospel Doctrine and she was quick to call on anyone who had their hand up or not…you were bound to participate in the lesson. She loves Matt and remembered his name right off the bat. As for me I was called Matt two because I was always with him. She joked with me constantly in Relief Society that I was not going to survive one hour without my precious Matt. I love her so much already. After church she came over to our house because she is also our Sunday chef. She whipped up a great meal, potato salad, veggies, rice, beans, and some yummy chicken. Her goal she said was to get everyone fat. After dinner we took a Sunday drive in our luxury mini van that wobbles as it drives and has doors that want to open only on certain occasions with Kyle and Lindsay (The Director and his wife). It’s so wonderful to have another married couple out here among all the singles. We were trying to find this resort but soon found out from a hitchhiker we picked up that it was another hour in. We had already been driving for 45 minutes, so we found the hitchhiker another ride headed on our way back. On our way back we came across a small trail that lead to a lodge and decided to head up there. We were so glad that we did too because it was beautiful, it was dark there when we arrived but the pathway lit our way with tiki torches. We met the owners and they let us tour the site. While we were out we saw what we thought was a glowing bat but soon came to find out it was a glorified fire fly. It was so beautiful, big and green glowing in the moonlight.  With the quietly smooth running river, with the fireflies and jungle sounds we thought for a moment that we were on the Pirate’s of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. After that we headed home on the dirt road in our mini van. What an adventure this has started out to be so far. 

The Journey Begins

The journey began at 1 am leaving on a flight from Salt Lake City.  We arrived in Atlanta here hours later and had a three-hour layover, from there we were off to Belize to start our 6-week adventure.  When going threw immigration the officer joked with us asking us if we were moving to Belize with how much luggage we had. I think the luggage was jut about as tall as I am.  Out of the airport we pilled in a van that took us to the bus station.  Before arriving to the Bus station we stopped at a local fruit stand.  Best cantaloupe I have ever had in my life!!!!  There we had a 2-hour bus ride to a city called Belmopan.  There we took a connecting bus to San Ignacio also called Cayo here.  That ride was about an hour and a half.  By the time we reached Cayo we had been traveling 13 hours with not very much sleep.  Matt was so funny making sure he let me know that today felt like he was on a mission again and our directors were our trainers.  He keeps telling me this is a mini mission.  Also he is not shy to include every time I say something about humidity that he suffered it for two years.  I learned to not voice my opinion too fast anymore. Thank goodness the food is so wonderful here it made up for it, not to mention the watermelon drink!!!  The place where we are staying is so beautiful and seems like a mansion compared to all the other places.  So far my favorite part of Belize are the people.  Always smiling and happy to help although they live in such poverty they are cheerful an optimistic.  However nothing tops the children they are so cute dressed in there school attire joking around.  They are always waving to you and being extra loud to catch anyone’s attention.  One thing that scares me is the stray dogs everywhere.  One followed me and matt around and its ear was all chewed up and bloody.  Every time we told it to go away it followed us closer, but finally it left us alone.  At dinnertime we ate the same thing we ate for lunch beans, rice, chicken, and Coca Cola in the bottle.  Coca Cola is so good out here for some reason.  Anyways we are so thankful to be out here and to see what adventures await us, so far so good. J