On Sunday, Bridget and I made a feast of bacon 'n eggs, toast, veggies, coffee and oJ. We then shut ourselves in my cool house, hiding from the INTENSE heat of the day. It was well over a hundred on May 2 and many days before. Finally in the afternoon we trekked our way to Cahal Pech swimming pool and stayed in the water till about 5pm at which point we hitched a ride down the hill, caught a bus home and waited for her sister to arrive. That evening, we ate BLTs, I answered a million questions about my life and we all slept beautifully, even Abby who opted for the hammock!
Early Monday morning, las tres amigas set out for a true Guatemalan aventura! We taxied to the border, crossed into Melchor, caught a mini-bus to Santa Elena, took a tuk-tuk to Flores and checked into our beautiful hotel with cool air conditioned room and a stunning view of the lake. 10:30am we went for an early lunch at a cute Italian restaurant by the water where I had pasta salad and tons of bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar - a treat I haven't had since leaving home. How delicious!
A view of other "tuk-tuk"s from our own
After waking up from our siesta we were just in time for happy hour at another lake side restaurant and bar. In the evening, before sunset we went to the lake and finally went swimming. There were docks to jump off of into the deep and cool water. It was lovely. We watched the sunset, walked around some more and went to a traditional Mayan restaurant for dinner.
Top &Bottom: Street view, Flores reminded me some of Venice, Italy.
Middle Pic: Sunset from our happy hour location over the lake.
Middle Pic: Sunset from our happy hour location over the lake.
Tuesday morning, another early start, we headed back to Santa Elena, back through Melchor, back to my house in Benque, repacked our things, hopped a bus from Benque to Belize city, hailed a chauncy taxi driver to take us to the water taxi's, met up with Bridget's dad and we all caught a water taxi to la isla bonita, San Pedro.
This portion of my birthday vacation included a lot of the following... beach time, sunshine, dock time, swimming time, napping time, tv time, eating (lots), cervezas, beach time, bar time, walking, tanning, burning, swimming, and taking plenty of pictures. It was a beautiful vacation with Bridget, her sister and their dad. I became a part of the family and was well taken care of by them all.
Top: Look at all those beach chairs! Plenty of room for more visitors!
Bottom: Perfect dusk lighting, mangrove tree, children playing on the dock
Thursday morning we all grabbed breakfast and then saw Bridget off from the San Pedro airport. Abby and Art then went bike riding while I opted for more TV/Beach time. In the afternoon we shared some beers and lunch then all took a water taxi back towards the mainland. The remaining Lovett's de-boarded at Caye Caulker for another couple of days of blissful Belize and I headed home, traveling five hours by taxi's, buses and walking to come home to my beautiful house. My cat was crying, ants were everywhere, the sink had dirty dishes, dust has covered the counters, a roach was dead on the floor and so the cleaning began. But all was done in good spirits because I love my life. After such a week of paradise all I can think is, "How lucky am I?" This reality is awesome and there will always be ants. Even if Eric wants to wage and win the war against them, I've made peace... as long as they stay out of my bedroom.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! how fun!
ReplyDeleteand yes, that IS the best cake in the world. tate thinks I'm crazy but he has no idea. yum.