Saturday was for travel. We started in relative comfort flying American from DFW to Belize International Airport.
We knew we had reached another country when we exited the plane at BZE and stepped down shaky stairs onto the tarmack and felt the warmth of the great outdoors. Landing this way is so much more interesting than "deplaning" via a giant-sized, air conditioned hamster tube.
From the airport, we took a cab which rattled through dusty streets past tired looking buildings to the Novelos bus station in Belize City. Oh boy. Why didn't we opt for the private transfer to our accommodation? Oh yeah. Adventure and cost savings. Where are the chickens? :-) OK, there were no chickens, although one man was transporting eggs. Doesn't that count? Anyway, the bus turned out to be a plush, air conditioned Greyhound-type affair on which every seat was taken, such that the talkative man transporting the computer had to set the monitor on his lap for nearly two hours.
After a brief stop in Belmopan, the end of the bus trip took us to San Ignacio. We had been told to walk to our resort's office in town, but the local cabbie said it was closed and was a long walk anyway, so we took his offer of a ride to Crystal Paradise for $10US. The ragged litte car creaked, groaned, and rattled, especially when the road lost its paving and became mostly dirt and rock. Many rides in Belize felt more like stage coach than automobile.
The structure of this bridge reminds me of that old, rickety thing that I-20 used to cross the Mississippi in the '70s. This version has a much nicer paint job, but it is strictly a single track.
We arrived at Crystal Paradise around dusk, tired and hungry, and so failed to take pictures. Luckily we were in time for dinner and to meet the other guests at the dinner table, who introduced us to the routine and the bats in the dining room. The bats were cute, what little we could see of them as they zoomed around. One would think there would be more bats to feast on all the flying insects.
Michael unpacked his holography equipment to make sure it worked and everything was just fine, no broken laser or leaking bottles.
After dinner we took a short walk to look at the stars. It was quite warm and very pretty on the grounds with lots of cricket noises and the odd frog thrown in for variety. There were also a lot of fire flies lighting up the grounds. Michael had fun playing with them with his laser as they seemed to react to the light when shone on the leaves of various trees.