We started the day with Becky declaring that if it was storming again today we would have to pull her onto the boat. She couldn't take another day like yesterday. Luckily, the sky was beautiful and birds were chirping when we woke up. We were supposed to leave at 8am but at dinner the night before they said it was pushed back to 9:30. I was a little skeptical but we appreciated the extra morning time.

As I was up and hanging out in the lodge I started putting 2 and 2 together. We were supposed to take the boat at 8 to go down the river and get to PG that way. Probably because more wildlife was out then and it was a good time. Chris must have decided to take the boat somewhere instead. (Seeing a pattern) so we were put back into the van to get to PG. We got there and sure enough there was Chris with the boat. We were trading vehicles. We jumped in the boat and looked off into the horizon. The sun had disappeared and clouds were rolling in. Dark ones. I thougt Becky might cry. Just then Chris said "I think you guys are going to have a great day!" and I was very scared Becky or I might shove him into the ocean. (Chris hasn't really impressed us as a hospitable owner - unlike Jeff and Holly who helped set up everything from the US). He smiled and off we went.

Today Alex was our guide. He works for CTL and took us out himself. I think he is a pretty avid fisherman. Why he didn't take us for the fishing trip.... He explained that he thought the weather would break once we got out to where we were snorkeling. About a 45 minute boat ride up where we fished the other day. We got to our first spot and he started giving us instructions. I'm not sure why he changed his mind. We were a bit slow to move and he said. Okay, I'm going to give you a special treat. I think we have enough gas. That's comforting. I was very skeptical now thinking this is some sort of trick they do with all guests to make them feel good. In actuallity he was telling the truth. By this time it was raining on us and I could care less where he was taking us. He started the boat up again and off we went. He said we were going to Lighthouse... I was so confused. I hadn't seen a lighthouse before and the well known Lighthouse Reef was quite a bit further north. Like a LOT further north. Two islands later he came to a stop and told us we would be jumping off the boat and would need to stay along side the boat. He would guide us where to go. Is this normal? The only two snorkeling trips Josh and I have done were that chaotic one in Costa Rica with zero instruction and the one in Jamaica with about zero fish. Whatever I would do what he said.

Flashbacks to the sea lice incident in CR came flooding into my head. I was the last to get in. I think Alex had to almost push me in. As soon as we went under we were amazed at the reef. So much coral. It was very shallow and there were fish everywhere. Becky said it was the best snorkeling she has ever done and that's saying a lot. They just spent their honeymoon in Fiji. She even told Alex it was better than the diving they had done the day before. We saw a huge school of parrot fish, sunfish, sea urchins and tons of other stuff I have no clue what it is. Luckily, Randy and Becky have an underwater camera and got some pics.

About 10 minutes into our snorkel I popped up my head to check on the boat. There was Alex turned looking away from us at the sea. Then he turned to me and started motioning me to the boat. You don't have to ask twice. I started booking it. The others came up and started making their way in too. He kept looking over his shoulder and the motioning got quicker. No one taught me how to get up the ladder in flippers. When Alex reached down and lifted me out of the water swiftly, I knew something was wrong. Josh was in the back and almost pushed Randy up the ladder. Once we were all in the boat someone joked, "what are there sharks or something?". Alex turned his head, pointed and said yes right there. What! Not too far away we saw two black points splashing around in the water. He said he had never seen this before. It must be two sharks mating. We all got situated and then Alex decided to go check this out. As we got closer and closer the sharks started looking a bit weird. We were all wrong. It was one gigantic manta ray that was swimming. He was so big his fins were coming out of the water. We followed him around for a while and tried to get some pictures. He was super fast. After that we went back to our coral and started exploring more.

I must say that Josh and I are not the most adventurous people in the ocean. It actually scares the crap out of us. We thoroughly enjoyed this trip though. I think having Randy and Becky along gave us a lot more confidence. Becky even impressed Alex wither snorkel diving ability. She was chasing fish all over underwater. I would have drowned if I had tried that.

After about an hour we got back on the boat and got some towels. It was still overcast and chilly. Alex told us that the reason they don't usually take people to that spot is that it is dangerous with the waves. The coral is close in and it doesn't take much to get swept towards the island. The sea was so calm that day that he felt it was safe to take us there. We left East Snake Caye and headed over to the West Snake Caye island for lunch. The island was a deserted beach. Apparently the rangers had planned to post some guys there at some time but never did. There is an empty building and a lookout tower. The island was pretty but covered in bugs. It took away from the appeal for me.

Josh was obsessed with learning how to crack coconuts so Alex taught us all about them. We tried a gazillion different types. The water. The apple (the center). The gel. The milk. You name we tried it. Josh tried to kill himself learning to break the them open but he finally got the hang of it. Alex offered him a spot in the coconut breaking competition that they hold each year. We hung out on the beach a bit and then loaded the boat back up. Alex said we could go snorkeling at this Caye but we said we had had enough. He told us it wouldn't come close to what we had explored that morning.

On the way back we took the long route via boat. The Moho River, that the lodge is located on, feeds into the ocean south of Punta Gorda. We took the boat up the river and stopped occasionally to look at stuff. We saw one howler monkey and followed him along the banks for a while. A lot of birds. An iguana here and there. The coolest part was Boom Creek, a nearby village. He had driven through it on the road but didn't realize that a bulk of the village was on the actual river. We saw tons of folks fishing in canoes or wading in the river to do their wash. Josh got us in trouble when he took a picture at one point. Apparently that is frowned upon. It was very neat to see that side of the village life. The ride back was almost 2 hours and I was exhausted and freezing by then.

After another shower and getting into somewhat clean clothes (everything was starting to smell by now) we hung out at the lodge. I had my new favorite Chocolate Martini and Randy, Josh and I got into some heated games of Bananagrams. I think I found a new birthday present for Randy. He was quite the fan.

In the middle of dinner the tarantula fire spinning couple asked if we wanted to do the night hike with them at 8. (She is a fire breather and walked down the aisle spinning fire. They also found a big spider in their bed and after killing it decided that they should take it home to an artist friend who makes pieces out of insect legs!) Becky and I were ready to go to bed and said no. We felt bad because they had been asking all week and the lodge wouldn't take only 2 people out. A while later at 8, the tour guide came in and we felt very guilt. Somehow Becky and I were back 5 minutes later with headlamps and long pants to go trample through the jungle in the dark. I'm not sure what we were thinking.

It wasn't until we were in the jungle with rubber boots on that tarantula girl (who was hiking in a leather jacket) told me this was a 2 hour hike. Uh, no way. The hike wasn't what we thought. I'm sure the lights, 7 people and the dog with us scared all animals away. We didn't see anything other than the forts the guides had built beforehand to demonstrate survival skills in the jungle. Becky decided to test out one of the beds and said it worked well. I will take her word for it. We were almost back to the lodge when we somehow ended up by the horse pasture. All at once a million tiny gnats attacked our faces. It was like a horrible horror movie. The guide told us to turn our lamps off and that helped. We had already snorted in the insects and had them stuck in our noses though. About then we heard a squeal from one of the horses in the pasture. We shone our lights and saw all the horses together. I joked and said, "I wonder where Penelope and that baby are." We couldn't figure out what was going on. We found out the next morning that Penelope was giving birth. Yes, four days after I was cantering with her she was giving birth. Crazy.

The hike came to an end. I was still alive and after another shower I was fast asleep too.

Becky and Randy were scheduled to dive today. Josh and I contemplated riding along with them but changed are minds. Partly because of the whether. Partly because there is just so much we want to do and not enough time. The other guests were headed to Blue Creek but we are scheduled to do that Saturday. Josh and I asked if we could go to some waterfalls so they got us a guide to take us to some ruins and then on to the Rio Blanco waterfalls.


We really had no idea what was in store for this. This seems to be a common thread throughout our trip. They told us we didn't need to be ready until 9:30. Since I wake up by 6 at the latest every morning I had a lot of time to send emails, skype with my parents and Holden and just take my time getting ready. Randy and Becky were gone early at like 7:30 am.


We first headed to some Mayan ruins about 45 minutes away. The roads started getting really bad. We gave an older man a ride on the back of the pickup. This was apparently the first of many rides we would give this day.


The ruins were much more interesting than we expected. We learned that you should never agree to a ballgame with a Mayan. If you lose you have to kill one of your family members. Not our kind of game. Only about half of the site we visited had been excavated. I'm not sure what the hold up is. We saw two of the tombs and a bunch of building remnants. Our guide, Marcus, showed us a bunch of plants we could eat. I'm wondering when Josh will learn that just because you can, doesn't mean you should...


He warned us that the drive would be an hour and a half to the waterfalls but it was brutal. I'm not sure if it was the roads, our truck, our driver or a combination of them all. Many hitchhikers later we ended up at the Rio Blanco National forest. It was marked by a ranger station on stilts. We grabbed our cooler and had some lunch underneath it at the picnic tables.


A few minutes after we arrived a group of about 10 arrived. I knew they were searching for a bathroom but I didn't know what would follow. Josh blurted out "don't look over there". I was confused and of course looked over "there". Not a good idea. There was an older woman crouched down, pants down, peeing in the middle of the open. Apparently there were two outhouse options. One was an enclosure with a hole in the ground but no toilet. The other option was a toilet with no enclosure. Strange and disturbing. Josh kept trying to convince me to use the toilet in the open. I told him he lost his mind.


After lunch we started to hike a bit. It wasn't a huge hike. Marcus made some excuse about needing to hike off our lunch. I think they believe a lot of wives' tales here. After a while I started thinking he was just a bit of a chicken. Maybe not the best combination for a tour guide in the jungles of Belize? Just saying. As usual we had no idea where we were going. We heard the waterfall. We saw where the waterfall was as he pointed to all the people. We went the opposite direction. Okay. We head towards the water and Marcus points at a swinging bridge up in the air and says we are going to go on that. It looks normal to me. We head back up to the path and get to a tree with a ladder built onto it that takes you up to the bridge. He kept telling me not to be scared. Josh and I thought he was trying to work me up or something. It really wasn't scary. We got to the top and I realized this bridge was a little stranger. The bottom was comprised of single board planks that often didn't touch. The cable railings were made for a 5 year old - or a Mayan I guess.

Marcus went first and went VERY slow. Again, Josh and I thought that he was trying to scare us or make us think it was a bigger deal than it was just to mess with our heads. Looking back, I'm pretty sure Marcus was terrified. I started when he was halfway across and finished directly behind him. It made for some good pictures and we went back down so that we could get to the good part. Waterfalls!

We hiked back and found the group of 10 that likes to pee in public. One of the ladies was standing on top of the rocks wanting to jump but too afraid. We got our clothes off (suits were underneath) and were poised with the camera while she was still hovering over the top. Finally she went or Josh pushed her out of the way. I don't remember which. Marcus kept saying to go straight in like a pencil so you don't break your arms. That's comforting. Josh set the camera up so I could quickly take multiple shots. Josh completely ignored Marcus and went flailing into the water. Luckily, no arms were broken.

I was next but tried to talk Marcus into going first. He told me he had to wait 5 more minutes to let his knee cool off. What? I asked him if he was the bionic man or something and he said his knee had been next to the transmission in the truck so it needed to cool off more. This was getting strange. Whatever. I went to the edge and Marcus went right up next to me. I'm pretty sure he thought I wouldn't go. Twenty feet is much higher when you are up there. My legs started shaking so I just jumped. My form was perfect. My bathing suit hold not so much. I went under and realized I felt a lot of water straight on my skin. Probably beause the latch on my top had completely come undone when I hit. I stayed under for a sec to grab my suit. Now this took some skill. I came up but the water is crystal clear and I have 10 random strangers staring at me. My arms were covering my top half while my legs were keeping me afloat. I think they thought I was drowning. After I explained that yes I could swim and was breathing I had to quickly figure out how to put a bathing suit top on while swimming and keeping myself covered before I floated to the rock I was to get out on. Skill I say. Everything turned out fine and Josh was very impressed with my fearlessness.

Now it was Marcus' turn. Josh said he wanted to see tricks. I told Josh if he himself did any tricks I would kill him first. Marcus said he didn't do tricks. Apparently, Marcus doesn't jump off the big rock either. He came over to the other side with me and decided to jump off the little jump. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have jumped but he felt like he had to impress Josh. Josh had just jumped again and was downstream getting out. Marcus really wanted Josh to watch and was screaming for him. I'm not sure why but all the Belizean men here love Josh. Josh said he thinks he should get a shirt made that says "I'm funny in Belize". I'll be doing something and a guide will say "are you Josh's wife?" How in the world do they all know Josh?

So Marcus jumped off the wimpy jump. He tried to make up for it (or hide his fear) by jumping from the small waterfall itself. Josh wanted to try but I convinced him walking through a waterfall edge was not a safe thing to do. A few jumps later and we were tuckered out.

The ride back was an hour instead of an hour and a half so I was relieved a bit. We were glad they set up these two activities for us. We wouldn't have picked them on our own but we had fun and had our own personal guide. Becky and Randy had a bit of a rough day. They went out diving and it poured rain on them. Their towels got wet on the way out and they had no dry clothes. They were using blue tarps to keep warm on the way back. Just the luck of the draw in terms of days I guess. Becky said the island and spot they went to was really pretty and would have been perfect on a clear day.

We got back to the lodge and low and behold Chris the owner and his crew showed up at dinner time. They brought what looked like all the supplies in Honduras back to the lodge with them. How they fit all those people and stuff in the boat I have no clue. I'm not sure what we had for dinner. All the food is started to blur now. I do know that I taught the bartender how to make a chocolate martini. They have what I call a cheat sheet for their drinks. Their drink menu gives no indication of what the drink is. Just some fluffy description. The bartenders (who I don't think have a clue how to make drinks) read this cheat sheet and go. I saw them using it and now everynight that is how we pick our drinks. I had to smell the Vermouth for them and explain which one was a Sweet Vermouth. They didn't think they had any so weren't making a number of the drinks. Becky's favorite drink was the Moho River Splash.

According to the chalkboard at the resort, I must be celebrating my birthday everyday. However, today was my actual 30th birthday. It will definitely go down as one of the most memorable birthdays ever. As it should be right? I marked a new decade in my own style.

When we were planning this trip I was adament that I wanted to volunteer with Sustainable Harvest International on my birthday. Google them if you haven't already. They are an amazing organization that teaches farmers in Central America how to farm using sustainable farming practices. They offer Smaller World trips which are typically week long volunteering trips. They partner with our lodge, Cotton Tree in many ways. The Belize volunteers stay here, but SHI has also set up their demonstration organic garden on the Cotton Tree Lodge property. Its a great garden with an abundance of fruits and vegetables. They bring farmers here to teach them. The garden also provides much of the food for the lodge guests.

We woke up and had our normal breakfast. Eggs, ham, yogurt and the sort. I successfully got on Skype very early and was able to video call my parents and see Holden. He was very happy but a bit confused with the computer. I'm not sure if he was trying to eat the computer or see me, but it made me happy. He made all sorts of sounds for me. Josh was still in the room so he missed out. I took a few snapshots on Skype to show him how dapper our son looked in his polo shirt. We talked for a bit and then my parents had to get him ready for daycare.

We were told to be ready at 9 to be picked up. Right on time, Candido, with SHI showed up in the main lodge. He invited us to take a quick tour of the gardens with him to learn about their practices and how they set up the garden and work with CTL. He said that we would be helping with an organic garden at the local school today. This sounded really cool and we were excited. The tour was great. We learned about how they do natural "fertilizer" (lots of poop) and rotate their crops. A lot of the plants are outside the garden itself, too.

After the tour we jumped in the truck and headed into Punta Gorda to go the school. We pulled up to a very cute school. The Benedict RC (Roman Catholic) School. It is an elementary school. We were greeted by the principal, handed some tools and headed to the back to the gardens. While the SHI staff talked with the principal and teachers about what they wanted us to do that morning we watched as some other volunteers (not through SHI) played games with the kids. It was a special treat for the kids. The kids were adorable in their uniforms and running around playing.

A few minutes later we were shown our project. They wanted to till and prepare two new beds for the kids to plant. They were going to vote on what to plant. I think the options were cucumbers, onions or jalapenos. I'm pretty sure cucumbers won but I might be wrong. We got the beds done pretty quickly. Two of our guys plus two SHI guys. Becky and I were pros at using the machetes to cut up the clumps. The boys are obsessed with all the machetes down here. Seems like a dangerous obsession.

We were quite proud with how quickly we finished our project and were ready for our next assignment. About that time we were told the kids were coming over for their "garden session" with us. We weren't sure what we would be doing with them. Then we were told to grab some tools and follow the SHI staff. The theme of this day should be confusion. As we headed back to the truck the students lined up and in unison said, "Hi Mister. Hi Misses. Welcome to Benedict RC School." It was super cute.

We piled into the truck. Lots of bags in the back. What were these bags for? Candido (laughing) said we had to pick up the soil additive for the students. In the US pick up means go to the store. Not here in Belize. Yes, they literally had us PICK up the additive on my birthday.

The truck quickly came to a stop in the middle of a dirt road with nothing but lush jungle around us. Where were we were going. The other SHI guy grabbed a machete and told us to follow him. He started cutting away foilage and led us to a barbed wire fence. He apologized for the lack of a gate. What! They guys held the barbed wire apart and had us climb through it. Oh my word. I'm going to get arrested in Belize on my birthday.

The next part is why I will never forget this birthday. They had us spend 45 minutes climbing through tall grasses searching for cow poo and loading it into bags. I'm not kidding. The SHI thought this was hilarious. When I told them to put us to work I never imagined this is what they had in store. Candido's favorite phrase was "Rebecca! Poo! Poo here!" Then she would have to run and scoop it into his bag. I got lucky and was paired with Randy. We chose not to compete in the "which pair can scoop the most poo" game. We still got a lot though.

After we filled all our bags we piled the poop into the truck and delivered it back to the school. While we were gone one of the classes had chopped up the soil into small pieces. The SHI folks gave instructions to the teachers on adding the manure. They were big on not doing everything for the school, farmers, etc. Rather, they wanted to teach them how to do it themselves.

We were bummed we weren't given more to do. We told Candido we had blocked out the whole day for us so he said he would keep us busy. We headed over to a nearby restaurant for lunch. It was the restaurant where the SHI used to be located above. A guy from St. Lucia had moved to the area and opened a vegetarian and seafood restaurant. Apparently he is known all over for his cooking and is taken to other places around Central America to do teaching instruction. I must say it was probably the best meal we have had the whole trip. Some sort of spiced (almost like an Indian spice) shrimp. Rice wtih cabbage, onions, cilantro and carrots and vegetables. We all devoured it.

After lunch, Candido drove us around Punta Gorda and gave us our own personal tour. We saw where everything was. He even took us to the Fajina (pronounced liked fajita) Arts Center where the local Mayan women sell their arts. I picked up something for Nina's birthday and a little basket for my wedding rings at home. We tried to find these baskets we saw the folks using at the market but couldn't find them. We finally felt guilty for making Candido be our personal guide and headed back to the resort.

We got back around 3, got cleaned up a bit and then decided to take a kayak trip. No rest for us! We were smart and paddled upstram so we didn't get stuck. It was eerie how calm and quiet everything was. When we stopped paddling we could just hear the animals in the jungle. It was super cool. We went a good distance but didn't find any villages or anything. We must have gone the wrong direction for action. The sun was starting to set so we headed back to the resort. The cotton tree loomed over the jungle so we took some couples pictures with it in the background. Can't wait to see those on R&B's camera. Thank goodness for their camera.

The funniest part of the kayaking was that we decided to not wear our bathing suits but stay in our clothes. We weren't planning on swimming. What Becky and Josh didn't realize is that their kayaks had wholes in the bottom. Nice. They were both drenches as soon as they got in. Randy and I were quite wet too from the paddle splashing. One of the guys challenged us to a race back to the resort. Last one there had to go off the rope swing in their clothes. I think Randy lost because Josh and I tricked him into taking a photo of us downriver, but we all ended up in the river. We were already wet anyway. The other folks here I'm sure think we are nuts. Randy is still the only one who can successfully make a full swing. The rest of us drag through the water. I'm sure this will be Josh's mission for the rest of the week.

We were freezing by then and headed in for showers before dinner. I hurried to get back to the lodge to try and check my email before dinner. No service. Are you kidding me? I missed my skype call and was getting very frustrated. Of all days with no internet! Don't they know I'm waiting on an email. Josh messed with the phone that kept cutting out, calling cards, etc. and finally go through to my parents. We gave them my yahoo password and told them to keep checking. For some reason we could occasionally get emails on Josh's Outlook even when we couldn't log on to the internet. We told them to email it to him when it came through.

Dinner started and I was distracted. It was a so-so stew dinner. Josh ordered champagne. We all cheered my birthday. Josh gave me my present. While I was looking through it (a tour book a homemade trip brochure for London!) he disappeared. When he came back he whispered in my ear "It's a Girl." What? I asked him if he was joking and he said no. The internet popped on for just a second and he got the email from the agency. No other internet all night. Crazy. We were shocked and excited. Then the staff started signing happy birthday and brought a chocolate cake they had decorated for me with a candle burning. Everyone sang. It was all pretty amazing. The four of us capped the night off with a bonfire by the river and called it a night.

That's one different and amazing birthday!