Belize Arrival: Tuesday, June 2

4:40 a.m., SeaTac

The coffee shop just opened! How often are we somewhere before the coffee shop opens?

A latte, coffee, croissant, granola and yogurt – over $12. Good grief! The latte was terrible, too. I think they might have forgot the shot of espresso...

I saw the kids' picture on my phone and was holding back tears – I missed them already! Just before boarding the plane in Dallas, we took a minute to call my mom and say “hi” to our daughter. She was happy and said she was having fun.

We liked the people mover at the DFW terminal – when you walk while on it, you get to go twice as fast. We had our last bite of American food for a week - McDonald's – for lunch.

(a sign at DFW that just isn't seen up in the Pacific Northwest...)

We arrived safely in Belize and got through customs easily. Walking out of the plane was like hitting a wall of humidity. New smells, tropical bird noises... A nice but slightly pushy man helped take my suitcase across the parking lot and to Thrifty car rental. We thought we should tip, but we got busy once inside the little room/office. First big surprise: pay all $ upfront for rental ($550 US for the week). It felt uncomfortable, but they are trying to protect themselves. (By the way, you still can't use any debit cards – even VISA ones! Even paying cash, the policy is to take an imprint of a credit card in case something happens. We don't own a credit card, but Dean had a business one that worked for this purpose.) The lady clerk was very nice. The same man loaded our bags into the rental Trooper (1997) and walked away while we were getting our orientation. The gal gave us some BZ coins for the gate to get out. By trial and error, Dean discovered you start with the big coins. But the last coin would not work. We drove back for help. The luggage man ran up and said he would help in exchange for his tip – a US dollar bill. (No one wants US coins.) We got it all worked out and easily found our hotel.

Yay! Our room has A/C. We could have eaten Chinese right there, but headed to Belize City to explore. Didn't get to BTL in time to get a phone book, which Dean had hoped for, but say a bit of Belize City. The streets feel more like alleyways – narrow, often, and crowded with people and bicycles. Most of the people are black, with a wide variety of attire. There is plenty of casual dress, but as we passed by banks and such, just closing for the day, people were dressed very formally. We had read that the attire is quite casual in Belize, but all in all, we found people dressed nicer than we had anticipated.

Following a suggestion of Lan Sluder's, we ate dinner at Nerie's, serving Creole food. Dean had curry chicken, I had stewed chicken, each with rice and beans and a bottle of water. Grand total: $10 US. It was very good and filling. We each had a piece of fried plantain on our plate and enjoyed the new food. For sale in a cabinet next to our table was lotions, perfumes, etc. A bottle of Bath & Body Works lotion was $24.95 BZ! The restaurant had an interesting decor – some appeared to be Mayan art, but a couple wall hangings were from/about Scotland.

We then took a drive by the ocean and stopped at a pull out. There was a strong wind coming off the ocean that was warm – a total difference from the Washington Coast! We would have froze! Another nice thing about the Belize coast – the cayes must break all the big waves, and as a result, you don't get that coating of sea spray all over your glasses and windshield. We enjoyed the views on Princess Margaret Drive, then headed back to the Global Village Hotel.

Dean turned on the TV – they have a very international cable package: Spanish, English, Chinese, Middle Eastern, Indian. I guess it fits the hotel theme! (The owners are originally from Taiwan.)

The A/C is helping, but it's certainly not cold in the room!

By 7:40 p.m. we were exhausted, it was dark outside, and we chose to just take it easy. We watched a show on Animal Planet about Costa Rican crocodiles.

The shower was warm, had lots of water pressure, and felt great! We were not provided with washcloths, which I discovered was the norm for Belize hotels. We made do with hand towels. Oh, and no toilet paper down the toilet! And yes, we had to pay in advance for the room.