Ruby's Hotel San Pedro

... there until Sunday evening, but I've got two all day buses to get me to the airport first, then a flight to New York with another overnight stop. Tom's been able to put his return flight back by a week. He's off to do some diving, then heading south to Placenta and getting a ferry to Livingston in Guatemala, before cruising back to Guatemala City on a boat up the spectacular Rio Dulce river. I wish I didn't have a job!

... there was a dog barking incessently outside, and a bird.... There was a bird talking. At first I thought it was like a myna bird or something, but after I went out on the balcany off the hallway (my room has none) I saw that it was in fact a caged parrot just outside my room, one floor down. That made more sense. I had to wonder who'd been teaching it to speak, though... his vocabulary runs from meowing (quite convincingly) like a cat, yelling obsenities like ...

... greatest form as he'd just heard that his cousin had been found dead, but he still let us take one out. <br>I used my video camera for the first time to try to get some underwater stuff. Not too many big fishes around so we kayaked into a shallow bit where I chased a small spotty fish around for ages and got some quite bad footage!! Ah well!<br>When we came back there was a huge crowd gathered outside our cabana complex - people were crying and ...

... are alot of similarities in the civil planning of towns and cities, the road rules and crazy driving behaviours, the languages spoken and the infamous 'chicken &amp; rice' meal deal, there are astounding changes beyond the physical landscape across land borders seen in local expressions of artesenal artifacts, traditional dress and customs. As we say goodbye to Latin America, we hope that one day we can return to conquer some more of it's unchartered territory.

... Belize city is the place that our parents hoped we wouldn't end up when we took off on this adventure. lol ! It was terrifying, (Ted says; "it wasn't that bad") there were bars separating the cashiers at the grocery stores! So we then retreated to our hostel where there was a possibility of getting tetanus from busted bed springs lol But we woke up REAL early and hoped on a super fast water taxi to Cay Caulker which is ...

... on the beach and the sand blown street populated only by golf carts doesn't seem to warrant shoes. Snorkeling today at various sites around the island by boat we saw stingrays, sharks, flying eagle rays, and various and sundry coral and tropical fish.

... this long. The water was grey and rather murky, but we still managed (between blows to the head from people in life vests) to spot huge (4-5 ft) sting rays, spotted rays, moray eels, and a giant turtle, like those we saw last year nesting in Costa Rica. Sarah took some pictures with a disposable underwater camera that turned out surprisingly well, with much more of a blue tint than the water had in reality. We swam around for about 45 minutes before Rene got us back into the boat ...