can you belize it?

(Yes, the title of this post is corny. People said "belize" instead of "believe" oh so many times on this trip.)

Well, I'm home from Belize and I'm procrastinating unpacking, so I'll update my blog. I think reading about people's vacation is borking, so I'm only going to mention a few highlights here.

1. Tikal. Tikal is actually in Guatamala, so I really got two countries on this trip. (Two passport stamps too.) It's a place with a lot of Mayan ruins and it was very neat. It was a long, dusty van ride there, but very worth it. Plus, we went zip lining afterward and our zip line guides let me go upside down.

2. Ed. We met Ed in Tikal. There were 7 of us girls on this trip and for reasons I won't go into here, Ed decided to attach himself to our group. (Perhaps he was looking for a hookup, not realizing that a group of Mormon girls is the wrong place to find that.) He was a very nice guy and with a group of 7 girls and 1 boy, we got a lot of stares and comments. (My favorite: "Is that a family? That's not a family....")

3. Snorkling. We took a lovely skiff ride out to an teeny little island and went snorkling. We all lathered on sunscreen and still got fried on our backs. I have a lovely little sunburn line all aroundy my face - especially on my forehead - where the mask was. And I lost my CTR ring in the Caribbean Sea because I forgot to take it off before we went. And I loved every minute of it.

4. Dotty. Dotty was this crazy old lady who was staying at our guest house. (The good kind of crazy, which made her really nice.) She would give us all sorts of advice and tips about Belize. (She is an American who has a house elsewhere in Belize.) One day, we bought some bread from John the bakerman and accidently dropped a loaf on the floor. Dotty thought we were crazy for not eating the bottom of the loaf - the part that touched the floor - because "Belize doesn't have any germs - the sun bakes them all away" and the owner of the guest house mops the floor every day, anyway. (Dotty also went snorkling with us, when we told her we were going.) (Dotty is 79 years old.)

5. Gelato. The town that we were staying the second half of the trip in had the most amazing gelato. There was a little shop owned by an Italian couple. We went every day, sometimes more than once a day. We were in that town 3 and a half days and I think we went 6 or 7 times. (One girl went 4 times in one day, but hey - we're on vacation.) The first day, I think Lorenzo (the owner) was a little annoyed by us, but since we just kept coming back and spending more and more money, I think he warmed up to us by the end. (Also, everything is cheaper in Belize by half. So when the sign says the gelato was 4.50Bz, it really meant $2.25 US. What a steal!)

So there you have it - the highlights of the trip. Belize is a lovely place and we are all not contemplating ways that we could move there. I highly recommend it to anyone.