In April of 2008, I embarked on my 4th visa renewal trip, my second to Belize. Thankfully, there were no impending hurricanes, although I am grateful for the previous trip to Panama which resulted from such. Unlike my previous trips to Belize and Panama, this one was relatively calm with few glitches...unless you count having a stomach bug the entire week, which I did. Bummer!
I traveled to the small Latin American country with 4 Orphanage Emmanuel volunteers--2 from Denmark and 2 from the States. The first day, we traveled partway and spent the night in Puerto Cortes, Honduras, at a girls' home run by a former Emmanuel volunteer. This home has 15 residents of all ages, and my heart was captured by an 8-year old in a wheelchair named Gaby. Thankfully, Gaby is in the middle of the adoption process by a North American couple so that she will be able to receive the physical therapy and special care she needs for paralysis that she has as a result of fused vertebrae.
The next day, we left Honduras on a boat called the "D-Express." After about a two hour ride, we arrived in Placencia, Belize. Funny that this was the original planned destination for my first trip to the country. I must say that I kind of enjoy the long bus rides, but in its own way, by boat was definitely much better! No 32 hours straight!
Upon arrival in Placencia, we took a taxi to "The Nautical Inn." Emily and I had found this hotel on the Internet and fallen in love. Key phrases like "reading in hammocks," seaside pool, and Wednesday night "coconut bowling" had done the trick to capture our attention. Thankfully, there was no need to worry about availability, as we became the only guests at that time. The hotel was as nice as it looked on the website, the only disappointments being that it was pretty far outside of the main activity area--restaurants, shops, etc., and that they did not have coconut bowling scheduled for the week we were there. =( The first evening, we headed into the town of Placencia to check it out and to get something to eat. We ended up at "The Purple Space Monkey." Gotta love those beachside names. TPSM was a happening restaurant complete with coffee shop, free internet service, and Wednesday night karaoke which we participated in later in the week. (well, Emily that is) We ended out the night with Italian gelato from a gelateria run by a true Italian from Rome and a nighttime swim back at the hotel.
Highlights from the rest of the week were mainly the places we ate and time spent at the beach. Unfortunately for me, and rare at that, the stomach bug hit me the morning of our first full day, and it stayed with me the whole time, putting a slight damper on the trip. However, I was by the ocean, and that is always a happy time for me! Plus, it was wonderful just to have a break. The weather was actually pretty cool, cloudy and windy, until, of course, the day we left to come back when it was perfect. We had hoped to take some side trips to the rainforest or snorkeling, but those were a little too costly. The night we returned to Honduras, Emily and I spent the night with my Honduran family--my friend Ethel and her relatives.
View photos at: http://tammyelrick.myphotoalbum.com/albums.php
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