Alright Folks,

We were only due to spend 5 days in Belize but I liked the place so much I stayed there for 13 days. At first we went to San Ignacio which is just on the border with Guatemala. We stayed at another ?rustic? place. Luckily myself and Jacob got a decent room. The place was more of a eco lodge and was really nice. I won?t gross you out with the toilet accommodations, but think very rustic. The temperature made the rain water showers very nice, after logging around all day in the heat the last thing you wanted was a hot shower. When we were there we went tubing down a local river which was very relaxing and nothing like the tubing Sharlene and myself did in Venezuela. More like the tubing we did in Ecuador. Other than that I just chilled out with a few of the group and played cards and darts for two days. It is surprising how fast you improve in darts after playing all the time. After a few games my right elbow was really sore. I never thought you could get a sporting injury from darts. On the site of the hotel they have a Frisbee golf course. Our tour leader was telling us about it and making out that he was really good at it. And in fact was so good his name was up on a board of top scores. At the start to say he was condescending would be an understatement. All of that ended on his first throw when he lost his Frisbee! He was of the Happy Gilmore style of golf. After spending ten minutes looking for his frissbee the rest of had a go. We all took it as a laugh but I turned out not to be so bad and if fact by the time we ended I was on par and Bens? best score was four over ? ha ha! It was a good laugh other than the all ants that took a fancy to my feet.

From San Ignacio we headed for Caye Caulker. It is an island on the Carribean side and is so chilled out. The only car on the island belongs to the police. Everyone else gets around on golf carts. After two days there I decided to stay for a while longer and said goodbye to the group as the left for Mexico.

Belize is world famous for its diving with the same dive site being the Blue Hole. Unfortunately I pressed the wrong button and the picture for the Panama postcard is the Blue Hole. Nevermind. The Blue Hole is a huge cave that when the sea level rose the weight of the body of water made the roof or the cave collapse. You swim down to 40 metres and swim though the stalactites that were formed thousands of years ago. Due to the depth we could only spend 8 minutes at that depth before we had to come up to shallower waters. When we were down there we saw a group of about 6/7 Reef Sharks.

When I was in Caye Caulker I did my Rescue Diver Course and really enjoyed it. Other than learning how to rescue divers at the surface and underwater I redid my first aid and had a great time with the diving crew at Frenchies. I did about 15 dives while I was in Caye caulker and saw loads of cool fish and loads of Nurse Sharks and a few turtles. I would have stayed in CC longer but due to the Lobster Festival that was about to start there was nowhere to stay on the island. A few people offered me there floors but I took this as a sign to move on. If you ever want to go somewhere totally chilled out head for Caye Caulker. The only problem was the price of eating out was a bit expensive and the internet was $6 an hour. Everyone is so nice and friendly, even the Chinese shop owners smile at you when they charge you a different price every time you buy the same thing! The saying for Caye Caulker is ?Go Slow? which is more of a life choice for the island. However, Joerg, one of the diver masters at Frenchies had a more modern approach to the saying ?Go Slow ? But don?t think slow?.

And yet again that is another country under the belt. Next is Mexico and seen as I am still here I won?t have to do another postcard for a while, woopee!

Until next time, Em