Well I've been back in Ottawa four days now, and I've been putting off writing about the last few days of my trip because it just makes me sad I'm not still in Guatemala!
I left off when we were on our way to the border. Crossing was easy, even though the Guatemalan border made us pay 20quetzels each to get in (NOT required, and they wouldn't provide a receipt, but when they have your passport in their hands, what choice do you have, especially when it's only like 4bux Canadian?). Caught a collectivo minibus to take us to El Remate, which was a little bumpy but only cost us 25quetzels each. It was hilarious to see how many people they can jam into a minivan, we had 21 in there (including children). Goes to show how ludicrously stringent so many North American safety standards are.
Arrived in El Remate around lunchtime, and I've never seen such a beautiful landscape. Beautiful lake, gorgeous sun, mountains in the background, it was fucking heaven. Found a rustic place to stay, with free internet and clean beds, that also could set up our shuttle van to Tikal in the morning: total for accomodations AND the shuttle? 400 quetzels. Thats about 50bux. Total for all three of us. AMAZING!!!!
Unfortunately the food was NOT so amazing. Went to a pretty nice looking place and ordered fajitas, took two bites of the chicken and had to go barf. Awesome. Also got scratched by the nail that held the door closed. Go me! This, combined with the roosters who woke me up at 3am and wouldn't shut up, caused me to be barfing on the side of the road when the shuttle came to take us to Tikal at 5:30 the next morning. Not a good start to the day! Luckily though, after we finally found the restaurant on Tikal National Park and ate a good breakfast, my health improved and we spend the day climbing Mayan temples up to 187 feet in the air. SO INCREDIBLE. While hiking through the rainforest we saw howler monkies, spider monkies, woodpeckers, these weird turkeys that look like peacocks, and something that looks like a ferret crossed with a raccoon. I can't even begin to describe how amazing this entire day was. It was funny to see how scared of heights Sarah can be, we climbed Temple V and she couldn't move off of the wall, this one even made Robin nervous and he'd been climbing all over everything with me all day. Didnt' faze me, I sat with my feet dangling off the edge, looking around and soaking up every second of it.
My last evening with Sarah and Robin was spent drinking many beers on the porch outside of our room, chatting with the various travellers staying at the same place as us. It's pretty cool the mix of people we met. One couple in their 30s, she was Quebec and him from Scotland, who met while traveling twelve years ago, and still have the bug so badly they just went to Tikal with their 3-year-old daughter, and their 6-month old son. A young couple from Oregan who felt that everyone in Guatemala should be nicer to them, because they're tourists and clearly the people who live there would have nothing without the money tourists bring in. Hahahaha WHAT! Such righteous little kids, vegans too of course, who took off pretty quickly after Sarah and I both laughed and said we went back to meat-eating after ten years of veganism because we'd both stopped giving a fuck. Also met an interesting Brazilian guy who'd gotten a motorcycle in Vancouver and traveled the world on his bike all the way to Guatemala. He seemed pretty cool, and very clearly was interested in me, he was clearly disappointed when we said we were tired and drunk and heading to bed. Sorry dude, not interested!
The next day I caught a collectivo at 8am and headed back to Belize. Driving through Guatemala, I swear my heart was actually breaking, realizing I was leaving. It was so goddamn gorgeous. Two days there - NOT ENOUGH! I wish I was with Sarah and Robin still, they're in Flores right now, soaking up the beauty. Goddamn.
Oh well. I'm back here, and my kitties are currently in my bed, without me, so I think I'll go snuggle them, and when I wake up I should start making plans for what I'm going to do while in Cuba next month!
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
CAMMAN Australia!
Got my ETA (Electronic Travel Authority) approved today, which means I can visit Australia for up to three months. Debating on whether or not I want to apply for an actual visa or not. If I do, I can stay for up to two years, and get a job while there. If I just keep the ETA, I can only visit, and have three months max. NOT getting a visa is probably better, because then I have to come back. But is that really better? HMMM!!!!! Three months should be enough... right? GAH! What if I never want to leave???
Monday, December 20, 2010
Planning planning planning
Picked up a copy of 'Australia on a Budget' today, so I can start planning my trip. I'm going to have to keep looking for flights every week and hope for a deal, it's SO fucking expensive to fly there! The shitty part is, I've been thinking of buying a one-way ticket so I can return whenever the hell I want, but a one-way runs around $1200-1400, and a return can be found for only about $300 more so it would be a HUGE waste of money to have to buy them separately. BALLS!!!!
One good thing is I could work whle there if I got my visa, so I'm thinking of applying for that this week. It likely wouldn't come in before I want to leave though, and if I got it, I know I'd run the risk of just not coming back for the two-year duration of the visa, and if I was gone that long I know my She-Ra would either die of a broken heart, or murder my roommates while they slept.
One good thing is I could work whle there if I got my visa, so I'm thinking of applying for that this week. It likely wouldn't come in before I want to leave though, and if I got it, I know I'd run the risk of just not coming back for the two-year duration of the visa, and if I was gone that long I know my She-Ra would either die of a broken heart, or murder my roommates while they slept.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
San Ignacio, Belize
We left Caye Caulker the morning of December 10, 2010. This became the day I knew things had changed and I'd never want to stop seeing more.
Waking up that day was a BITCH. I'd fallen into our room around 3:30am, a smile on my face and my tights full of sand, and was woken up around 7:30am by the alarm clock going off - we had to catch the 10am water taxi if we wanted to get moving that day, and we couldn't leave the island without hitting up the cat sanctuary! Unfortunately that part was a little disappointing. As all three of us are Crazy Cat Ladies (well, Ashley is crazy about ALL animals, it's Sarah and I who are obsessed with les mews), this was part of the attraction of the island. The place stunk like cat piss and most of the kitties were kept indoors. Not great. Oh well!
Although earlier in the week, I'd made the decision to leave the island early, and join Sarah and Robin for San Ignacio, when the morning to leave came I felt like maybe I'd made the wrong decision - could I leave this island paradise? What the FUCK was I thinking?
Am I ever glad we did though. The whole ride out to San Ignacio (about two and a half hours), I just stared out the window and soaked up every second. We were no longer in a tropical heaven, we were now heading into real life. And I loved it. San Ignacio is a pretty small little town (about 20,000 people), and there isn't much that sticks out about it to be honest, except that it was all beautiful, and once I got off the bus with my backpack on I knew I had to keep going. Our first day there we trekked up the hill to check out Cahal Pech, the 'Little Ruins'. It's nothing compared to what we saw in the following days, but as our first Mayan artifact experience it was pretty incredible. It's what made me start to think I couldn't fly home in two days, without tagging along with Sarah and Robin when they headed to Guatemala.
So I knew I had to continue, but I could see Ashley was dying to get home. I know she had an amazing time on the island, but the hiking around in the sun, and staying in places with communal bathrooms, wasn't really her thing. As I mentioned in my first post, it's weird to see that someone you share so much with can differ from you in these big ways. But to each his own! We'll have to stick to hot beaches and blended drinks from now on when we travel together - mmmmm daquiris.
Anyway! The Cahal Pech trek was Saturday, December 11, and that evening while having drinks at Greedys, we met E, a dude from Seattle who was on a two-week trip, and it turns out he'd just arrived there from Caye Caulker as well. He was there for a couple of days before heading to Guatemala for Tikal. Tikal, Tikal Tikal. Not being one for Mayan history, I'd never even heard of this before the trip. I first heard about it from J, (of the drunken sandy beach adventure), who'd gone there before Caye Caulker. I remembered him saying that watching the sun rise there was fucking amazing. The night we arrived in San Ignacio, a travelling couple were saying it was the best part of their trip. And SArah and Robin were going there once Ashley and I left on Monday. And now I'd met another person going there! FUCK! Soooooo, a bottle of Caribbean rum later, I pulled out my cell phone (I don't even want to think about how much that call cost), and called my airline. A $215 change fee later, I had changed my ticket from Monday the 13th to Friday the 17th. FUCK YES!!!!
That night I had a bit of a panic attack, thinking what the fuck had I done??!!! Extending my trip meant I had to send Ashley home by herself, then travel back from Guatemala to Belize by myself, and either spend the night there alone (NOT a good idea, not a safe city), or decide on another place to stay by myself. Having never travelled alone before, and realizing these weren't the safest areas, I kinda freaked out. Once I woke up though the panic was gone and I was so fucking excited.
Our second day in San Ignacio, Sarah, Robin and I caught a bus to San Jose Succotz to see the Xunantunich ruins. This place blew my fucking mind. We climbed to the top of El Castillo, about 130 feet in the air, with a gorgeous sky behind us and a beautiful landscape surrounding us. Sarah discovered she was kinda scared of heights and kept getting mad at Robin and I for wanting to climb all over everything and sit near the edge, hahah.
These two days of walking and climbing all day in the sun were making me so fucking excited to do the same in Tikal! Monday morning Ashley said goodbye to Sarah and Robin, and she and I bussed back to Belize City so she could catch her plane. We stopped in to pee at the water taxi office and ran into J and his friend T. As I've mentioned before, that water taxi office is fucking popular! Only once was I in there and didn't run into someone I know, and since I only knew about five people there in total (including the three I was travelling with), it's pretty random! Anyway, got Ashley on her place and, after cabbing back to the water taxi (and once again running into J & T), I hopped on a bus back to San Ignacio. Well actually it was San Jose Succotz, we'd decided we'd done all we could in San Ignacio so Sarah and Robin had moved up a little closer to the Guatemalan border and I met up with them there. Found them at a totally beautiful spot called the Trek Stop, with individual cabins and a butterfly exhibit. Didn't have time for the butterflies, but it was a very pretty, relaxed spot. Definitely a perfect spot for traveling hippies, but for one night we enjoyed ourselves.
In the morning, we threw on our packs and walked up to Benque, Belize, and then some dude with Jesus stickers all over his truck offered us a ride and he brought us up to the Guatemalan border. That's it for my Belizean adventure, next stop: Guatemala!
Back in Ottawa
As I sit here, I think I've realized the thing that made me fall so in love with my travels: the quietness, the overall peace. Not that it was all peace and quiet of course, the people who got mad at us drunkenly careening through the road in Caye Caulker can attest to that, but it's an overall feeling of calmness. I've been back about three hours now, and all I want to do tonight is quietly relax, write about my trip, and snuggle my kitties. Unfortunately at the moment I feel like my head is going to explode because all I can hear is the music and voices coming from downstairs. Don't get me wrong, I adore my roommate Sarah and her boyfriend Paul, but the last thing I want to hear on my first night back is loud drunken noise. I want to readjust. UGH! It is Saturday night though, and there are a lot of parties tonight, so of course they're not doing anything wrong, but I've been wanting to write about my trip for about an hour now and can't get my mind to focus.
So many things stood out to me on my way back to Ottawa today (notice I don't use the word 'home', because Ottawa is not, and has not ever been, my 'home', I have yet to find that). Walking down the aisle on the greyhound bus, I noticed that at least two people in every row were using some kind of electronic device: an ipod, a laptop, a gaming system, a phone. Where I've been, not one person was using anything, except occasionally a cell phone would ring, and a quick phone conversation would happen. What struck me as weird today was not that people could go without, but that being without seemed normal - so THAT seemed weird. Shouldn't life in Ottawa be normal to me, and the opposite be weird? Why does being somewhere else so easily seem to be where I belong?
Getting home has been a bit of a pain in the ass. Was subjected to my first thorough searching at the airport in Belize City (no body cavities at least). When they opened the door to the gate where my plane was leaving from, a person walked right up to me, grabbed me by the arm and said 'You're on this flight?' and when I confirmed, I was marched outside, firmly held by the arm, and brought outside where I had to take off my hoodie and shoes, and have my bags opened and searched completely. All in front of everyone who was getting onto my plane, and all of the employees of the airport. Awesome. Good thing I am a smart traveller and had no contraband on me!
Fly into Montreal last night, got to hang with Dusty which was awesome as we haven't spent time together in ages. Took a cab to the Fattal lofts, and when there was no answer at Dustys I walked over to Deathhouse, Manik's place, and found himn ia pile of punks hitting the beer bongs and partying St Henri style. So, I started my day yesterday doing yoga on a roof during a Caribbean sunrise, and ended it slamming back shots in a dirty punk house in Montreal. Best of both worlds? I think so!
Funny thing: when I stepped off the bus in Ottawa today, the very first billboard I say was advertising trips to Cuba - where I just happen to be going in less than three weeks! hahaha awesome!
So many things stood out to me on my way back to Ottawa today (notice I don't use the word 'home', because Ottawa is not, and has not ever been, my 'home', I have yet to find that). Walking down the aisle on the greyhound bus, I noticed that at least two people in every row were using some kind of electronic device: an ipod, a laptop, a gaming system, a phone. Where I've been, not one person was using anything, except occasionally a cell phone would ring, and a quick phone conversation would happen. What struck me as weird today was not that people could go without, but that being without seemed normal - so THAT seemed weird. Shouldn't life in Ottawa be normal to me, and the opposite be weird? Why does being somewhere else so easily seem to be where I belong?
Getting home has been a bit of a pain in the ass. Was subjected to my first thorough searching at the airport in Belize City (no body cavities at least). When they opened the door to the gate where my plane was leaving from, a person walked right up to me, grabbed me by the arm and said 'You're on this flight?' and when I confirmed, I was marched outside, firmly held by the arm, and brought outside where I had to take off my hoodie and shoes, and have my bags opened and searched completely. All in front of everyone who was getting onto my plane, and all of the employees of the airport. Awesome. Good thing I am a smart traveller and had no contraband on me!
Fly into Montreal last night, got to hang with Dusty which was awesome as we haven't spent time together in ages. Took a cab to the Fattal lofts, and when there was no answer at Dustys I walked over to Deathhouse, Manik's place, and found himn ia pile of punks hitting the beer bongs and partying St Henri style. So, I started my day yesterday doing yoga on a roof during a Caribbean sunrise, and ended it slamming back shots in a dirty punk house in Montreal. Best of both worlds? I think so!
Funny thing: when I stepped off the bus in Ottawa today, the very first billboard I say was advertising trips to Cuba - where I just happen to be going in less than three weeks! hahaha awesome!
Friday, December 17, 2010
Caye Caulker, Belize
I've just arrived back in Belize City, after taking the water taxi from Caye Caulker, where I spent my last night of vacation back in paradise. The caye is where this vacation both began and ended.
Ashley and I arrived in Belize City mid-afternoon on December 6. Got a cab to the water taxi, where we found Sarah and Robin waiting! That was awesome, as we'd been planning on somehow finding each other on the island. The water taxi office is a pretty busy spot, every time I've been in there since (with the exception of this morning), I've run into people that I've met along the way. Pretty cool.
Anyway. We arrived on the island just as the sun was setting. As soon as we got there, as I mentioned in 'The beginning', I knew I didn't want to spend my whole week there. It was unbelievably beautiful, but my dream vacation has always been to hike through the Australian outback, so while the beach was great I didn't want to sit around in the sand for 7 whole nights.
We spent our first full day, Tuesday the 7th, on the island soaking up the sun and swimming in the Caribbean sea. So amazing. The evening brought much, much rum, and we ended up at the best reggae bar on the island, the I & I. By 9:30pm we were all so plastered we stumbled back to our room, me and the girls chasing a random kitty down the road, hahahaha.
Wednesday we went on a snorkelling/manatee adventure. I wish so much I'd taken a waterproof camera. Manatee watching sucked, they barely come up and you can only see their snouts. We did manage to see a few dolphins though. Snorkelling was GORGEOUS. Loved it. Everyone had a great time. Thursday, Ashley and I left Robin and Sarah for a day of ziplining through the rainforest, and then we went tubing through a Mayan cave. The best part of this day was how many times Ashley looked at me and said "I can't believe this is our life. we're fuckign HERE!'. Thursday night was our last night on the island, so we went out to get SMASHED. I succeeded in a big way, as we stumbled out of the I&I at closing time, I made a new friend, J, a boy with an adorable smile, and we grabbed my bottle of rum from the hotel, drank it in a boat, then rolled around in the sand til about 330am. Best way to end my time on the island!
Friday we hit the cat santcuary to roll around in kittahs before catching the water taxi off the island, so we could head to San Ignacio. But since I ended up back on the island eventually, I'll skip ahead to the last day of my trip so I can wrap up my island experience.
My last full night of vacation was my first night travelling alone. Since I had to fly out of Belize City, and there is NOTHING there to really see or do (except maybe get murdered), I decided to head back to Caye Caulker for one more night. Sadly, J, the cute Brit, was gone, but I ran into E, and American we met in San Ignacio, at the water taxi office, so I at least had some company on the trip to the island, but we split up as soon as we got off the boat.
My night was fairly relaxed. I arrived with about 3 hours left of sunshine, but it was terribly windy, so rather than swim I sat in the sun and dipped my feet in the sea. At sundown, I sat on a swing at a restaurant and met a fantastic couple from Texas, who were back on Caye Caulker for their upcoming wedding. Jealous! I wanted to go out that evening, but a morning of traveling combined with an afternoon of drinking made me pass out by 9pm. LAME!!! However, falling asleep so early finally gave me the chance to do what I'd wanted to do all week last week: I woke up just before the sunrise, and joined a few others for yoga on a rooftop, with the sun rising above us. Absolutley AMAZING. Something I will never, ever forget.
As I left the island this morning, I didn't feel any of the same sadness I felt when leaving Guatemala yesterday. Despite the fact that it was a tropical paradise, and I had some of the most amazing experiences of my life there, I'm not sad to leave it. I need to adventure more. Sitting in the sand and drinking is great, but I'm ready to get out there and explore!
I'm on my way back to Montreal today, and once I'm back in Ottawa tomorrow I'm beginning to plan my next big trip, and my first solo vacation: Australia. I'd been thinking of doing a month, now I'm already thinking of going to New Zealand as well, and only buying a one-way ticket so I can stay until I feel ready to come back. We'll see what happens.
Ashley and I arrived in Belize City mid-afternoon on December 6. Got a cab to the water taxi, where we found Sarah and Robin waiting! That was awesome, as we'd been planning on somehow finding each other on the island. The water taxi office is a pretty busy spot, every time I've been in there since (with the exception of this morning), I've run into people that I've met along the way. Pretty cool.
Anyway. We arrived on the island just as the sun was setting. As soon as we got there, as I mentioned in 'The beginning', I knew I didn't want to spend my whole week there. It was unbelievably beautiful, but my dream vacation has always been to hike through the Australian outback, so while the beach was great I didn't want to sit around in the sand for 7 whole nights.
We spent our first full day, Tuesday the 7th, on the island soaking up the sun and swimming in the Caribbean sea. So amazing. The evening brought much, much rum, and we ended up at the best reggae bar on the island, the I & I. By 9:30pm we were all so plastered we stumbled back to our room, me and the girls chasing a random kitty down the road, hahahaha.
Wednesday we went on a snorkelling/manatee adventure. I wish so much I'd taken a waterproof camera. Manatee watching sucked, they barely come up and you can only see their snouts. We did manage to see a few dolphins though. Snorkelling was GORGEOUS. Loved it. Everyone had a great time. Thursday, Ashley and I left Robin and Sarah for a day of ziplining through the rainforest, and then we went tubing through a Mayan cave. The best part of this day was how many times Ashley looked at me and said "I can't believe this is our life. we're fuckign HERE!'. Thursday night was our last night on the island, so we went out to get SMASHED. I succeeded in a big way, as we stumbled out of the I&I at closing time, I made a new friend, J, a boy with an adorable smile, and we grabbed my bottle of rum from the hotel, drank it in a boat, then rolled around in the sand til about 330am. Best way to end my time on the island!
Friday we hit the cat santcuary to roll around in kittahs before catching the water taxi off the island, so we could head to San Ignacio. But since I ended up back on the island eventually, I'll skip ahead to the last day of my trip so I can wrap up my island experience.
My last full night of vacation was my first night travelling alone. Since I had to fly out of Belize City, and there is NOTHING there to really see or do (except maybe get murdered), I decided to head back to Caye Caulker for one more night. Sadly, J, the cute Brit, was gone, but I ran into E, and American we met in San Ignacio, at the water taxi office, so I at least had some company on the trip to the island, but we split up as soon as we got off the boat.
My night was fairly relaxed. I arrived with about 3 hours left of sunshine, but it was terribly windy, so rather than swim I sat in the sun and dipped my feet in the sea. At sundown, I sat on a swing at a restaurant and met a fantastic couple from Texas, who were back on Caye Caulker for their upcoming wedding. Jealous! I wanted to go out that evening, but a morning of traveling combined with an afternoon of drinking made me pass out by 9pm. LAME!!! However, falling asleep so early finally gave me the chance to do what I'd wanted to do all week last week: I woke up just before the sunrise, and joined a few others for yoga on a rooftop, with the sun rising above us. Absolutley AMAZING. Something I will never, ever forget.
As I left the island this morning, I didn't feel any of the same sadness I felt when leaving Guatemala yesterday. Despite the fact that it was a tropical paradise, and I had some of the most amazing experiences of my life there, I'm not sad to leave it. I need to adventure more. Sitting in the sand and drinking is great, but I'm ready to get out there and explore!
I'm on my way back to Montreal today, and once I'm back in Ottawa tomorrow I'm beginning to plan my next big trip, and my first solo vacation: Australia. I'd been thinking of doing a month, now I'm already thinking of going to New Zealand as well, and only buying a one-way ticket so I can stay until I feel ready to come back. We'll see what happens.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
The beginning
Honestly, I never would have thought I'd begin blogging again. Livejournal was a big part of my internet life, years and years ago, but I haven't put any thought into blogging in many years and never would have thought I would again. However, my life has changed recently, so much so that I absolutely HAVE to document it. I don't care, in any way at all, if anyone but me ever reads this. In many ways I would prefer to write this by hand, however in the years since I've finished school my handwriting has become chicken scratch and my hand would probably get cramped in about two minutes, so the internet beats hand-writing. At the same time, while I say I don't really care if anyone reads this, if people choose to, fuck yeah, hope you enjoy it and feel free to comment or whatever. Meow.
So, until two weeks ago, I'd never really traveled. Although even as I type that sentence I realize it's not really true. But let me begin there. At the moment, I live in Ottawa, ON. At the moment, I am typing this from Caye Caulker, Belize. What prompted me to start this blog was my drive this morning. Today I left Sarah and Robin in El Remate, Guatemala, where they were heading to Flores, and I had to get back to Belize to catch my flight out of Belize City tomorrow afternoon. While I was sitting int he passenger seat, starting out the window of my shuttle bus, I actually felt my heart break a little. Staring out that window, I knew I had to see MORE. This little taste I had of Guatemala couldn't cut it. I want to see more, do more, NOW. Driving out of that country was excrutiating, even though I knew I was headed to the island paradise I'm currently sitting in. I need to see more.
Before this trip, I'd only ever been outside of Canada about a dozen times. Three times to las Vegas (incredible fucking fun), once to Los Angeles (pretty much hell, except Hollywood), and many times to New York City (my favorite place in the world, felt like home the first time I stepped out of my taxi in Manhattan). The trip I'm on now came about as a result of me jumping onto a trip my friend Sarah and her fiance, Robin, had planned. THey're backpacking around Central America for three months, and invited me to join them. Sarah suggested meeting them in Belize, so we could hang out on a beach. While I've never been keen to the idea of a resort vacation, Iw anted to go somewhere, so I said YES PLEASE. I also decided to treat my best friend to (what I thought would be), an amazing Christmas gift, so I brought her along.
This brings us to Monday, December 6th. I'd say that's the day my life changed forever, but I know it's not exactly true. Thats the day we got to the island. Caye Caulker, Belize. An absolute tropical paradise. However, the second I got here, I knew I didn't want this to be the entirety of my trip. If I was in Central America, I wanted MORE. So I asked Sarah where they were planning to head after this, and could they begin a few days ahead of schedule, so we could tag along? She said yes, of course, so the plans were set in motion to head to San Ignacio, Belize. Once we got there, I knew at once my life was changed. I was a traveller. Unfortunately, for Ashley, my best friend, it wasn't the same, and she was unhappy. It's a very strange feeling to have someone you're close to in so many ways feel to different from you in something.
Anyway. That's enough for now. The sun has almost set to my right, and this is my lastnight here before I head back to frozen Canada. When I'm home I'll write up my adventures, which include some sandy fun with an adorable british boy, lots of hiking, and some birds who tried to kill me.
So, until two weeks ago, I'd never really traveled. Although even as I type that sentence I realize it's not really true. But let me begin there. At the moment, I live in Ottawa, ON. At the moment, I am typing this from Caye Caulker, Belize. What prompted me to start this blog was my drive this morning. Today I left Sarah and Robin in El Remate, Guatemala, where they were heading to Flores, and I had to get back to Belize to catch my flight out of Belize City tomorrow afternoon. While I was sitting int he passenger seat, starting out the window of my shuttle bus, I actually felt my heart break a little. Staring out that window, I knew I had to see MORE. This little taste I had of Guatemala couldn't cut it. I want to see more, do more, NOW. Driving out of that country was excrutiating, even though I knew I was headed to the island paradise I'm currently sitting in. I need to see more.
Before this trip, I'd only ever been outside of Canada about a dozen times. Three times to las Vegas (incredible fucking fun), once to Los Angeles (pretty much hell, except Hollywood), and many times to New York City (my favorite place in the world, felt like home the first time I stepped out of my taxi in Manhattan). The trip I'm on now came about as a result of me jumping onto a trip my friend Sarah and her fiance, Robin, had planned. THey're backpacking around Central America for three months, and invited me to join them. Sarah suggested meeting them in Belize, so we could hang out on a beach. While I've never been keen to the idea of a resort vacation, Iw anted to go somewhere, so I said YES PLEASE. I also decided to treat my best friend to (what I thought would be), an amazing Christmas gift, so I brought her along.
This brings us to Monday, December 6th. I'd say that's the day my life changed forever, but I know it's not exactly true. Thats the day we got to the island. Caye Caulker, Belize. An absolute tropical paradise. However, the second I got here, I knew I didn't want this to be the entirety of my trip. If I was in Central America, I wanted MORE. So I asked Sarah where they were planning to head after this, and could they begin a few days ahead of schedule, so we could tag along? She said yes, of course, so the plans were set in motion to head to San Ignacio, Belize. Once we got there, I knew at once my life was changed. I was a traveller. Unfortunately, for Ashley, my best friend, it wasn't the same, and she was unhappy. It's a very strange feeling to have someone you're close to in so many ways feel to different from you in something.
Anyway. That's enough for now. The sun has almost set to my right, and this is my lastnight here before I head back to frozen Canada. When I'm home I'll write up my adventures, which include some sandy fun with an adorable british boy, lots of hiking, and some birds who tried to kill me.
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