Trip to Belize

My journey  to Belize began Jan 5th. After I got off work, I ran around town to collect the last needed items and then Sam and I headed out to Columbus. After about 3 hours of sleep, Chia-Hao drove me to the airport and I was met with a very thorough security check.

My carryon bag and I were x-rayed and then we were both searched by hand in a small room off to the side. I was questioned as to where I was coming from and where I was going. What I was going to be doing there. They pulled out the Kingston locks in my bag that I had gotten from the campus at the last minute. They were for Dr. Skon to secure the laptops that we were taking down. Luckily what I had already told them made sense when they found a box of metal in my bag, so the TSA let me go.

I was able to watch the sun rise as I continued my trip with an abnormal amount of connecting flights going South across the US. I unfortunately didn’t have much time between flights to grab much to eat so I missed breakfast and my lunch was spread across the whole day with an $8 sandwhich. By the time I reached Belize my blood sugar was beginning to drop and I wished I hadn’t worn a sweater and a jacket.

 
The air reminded me of being in Maine because it had an ocean type smell to it. I had a lot less difficulty getting into Belize than I did leaving the US. I was surprised at the lack of interest in what I was carrying in my extremely heavy bags. I was met by Brighton at the door leaving the airport. It was good to see somebody I knew because this was the first time I had left the country and also traveled all by myself to get there. As we waited around for the education majors to arrive, I shared a snack with Brighton and took pictures of palm trees for the first time.

The education majors finally arrived and our bus pulled in front of the airport. Scott and Brighton helped pack all our luggage and we boarded the bus for our next destination.










As we entered the bus I met the all too famous bus driver and guide Mr. Tillet that Dr. Skon had told me about. Mr. Tillet said it was an hour to camp.

 We hadn't arrived yet when the sun began to set and I was really hoping we would eat soon. We arrived in Belmopan at around 8pm. I wasn't sure about the time because the hour change had confused me which clock I had was correct. They had a spaghetti dinner waiting which we all devoured. At this point I had only food on my mind and it took a while to get my blood sugar back up. The people who had already been there for a few days were quite talkative and full of questions for the new arrivals.

When we arrived the internet was down for the whole country. There was a BTL (not to be confused with the sandwich) employee onsite that confirmed the internet was down everywhere. I spent the night in one of the girls’ cabins in a bunk bed above what was supposed to be the worst snoring person on the face of the planet. This of course ended up not being even close to what I’ve had to endure on camping trips with my dad. I hardly even noticed the noise. What was the real difficulty was getting in and out of my bed because there wasn’t a ladder. I practically had to scale the wall to get up. When I got into bed I hoped I didn’t need to get out during the night. If an intruder dared to enter the cabin during the night though, I was prepared to jump attack from the ceiling.