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Hi All
I'm now in Belize and have limited access to the internet (only at weekends) and signal to my mobile! :-(
The trip over was ok, but I was sat next to an old couple from LA to Dallas who wanted to go to the loo all the time, so I was disturbed most of the flight! I just about made my connecting flight from Dallas to Belize City by running to the boarding gate - just as well I didn't have to claim my baggage back and check-in again, I then had another flight to catch from Belize City to Punta Gorda. When the time came I was taken to the 14 seater propeller plane which was already jam packed with people anyway, so I squeezed my bottom between the 2 people on the back seat. There was a few hairy moments when the pilot made the plane wobble and my heart sank! After 15 mins the plane landed and I thought that that was a quick flight not realising that we had touched down at another airport to drop off and pick up other passengers, so I ended up seeing a fair few airports on the way... eventually I arrived at Punta Gorda at 6pm and at the house for 6.15pm.
I was shown around the house and at first I was not liking it at all - it's very basic here, but thank god its only the weekend house as I'll be spending most of my time on the private island of Frank's Caye. It just felt strange and also there was nobody else there, so I was spending the night on my own (the guy that picked me up lives in the house downstairs with his wife, so he was on site).
The following morning Brian (one of the Marine Biologists here) and I set off early to meet the marine military to catch a ride with them to the island. The ride took 1.30 min and it wasn't too bad. I got to the island and was shown to my very own cabana (Belizian style beach house on stilts) - it was cool and started to feel alot better about the whole place and knew that a week on the beach would be perfect (except for not having mobile and pc access)! :-( That day everyone went off diving and I had a day to chill and soak up the sun, unpack and catch up on some sleep as the dogs and roosters kept me away all night at the PG (Punta Gorda) house.
So far Belize has a good feel to it and it seems relatively safe here. Our typical day/week looks like this:
Mon leave PG and travel to the island
Tues
Up at 6.00am get ready for yoga for an hour (optional), followed by a fun morning dive from 7 - 7.15am back to the island for breakfast
out at 10.30am for the marine survey (which is actually good fun and all data colected gets used by the Belizian Fisheries)
back at the island for lunch
out at 2.30 - 3pm for the third dive
back at the island and RELAX! until 6.30pm for dinner
BED for 7.30pm cos you get shattered with all the diving.
The 2 Marine Biologists here are husband and wife from the States who have been working with Reef CI since October now. As an added bonus April is also a yoga teacher, so we get yoga classes in too - how cool is that? having a yoga class facing the ocean as we listen to the sean in the background...it's beautiful.
I've spent this whole week on the island helping on the marine and reef conservation projects I'm involved in for the next month...not just counting lobsters!!
The group is a really nice small group. We have Sam from Coventry, but lives in the States, Mike from Canada, David from the States, but going this weekend, ML from London and Polly and Colin the Reef CI owners. Brian and April are the Marine Biologists. A good group to be with for the month, so that's very fortunate.
A couple of us have discussed about doing some trips together. We're planning on going to Guatamala for a weekend. Going to stay at the Cotton Mill Lodge in PG which is supposed to be lovely cruising up the river and doing some jungle walking and seeing some waterfalls and if I have another weekend free is to dive the Blue Hole and do the jaguar reserve park.
It's lovely and warm here right now so I'm off to sit by the pool and sip a fruit cocktail.
Missing you all so much.
Love Teresa xx
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