Today we crossed over to Belize. Our hotel's name is Tropical Wings trek stop and it is literally about 5 minutes away from the Guatemalan-Belize border. This is the hotel I was warned about. It is, in a sense, similar to the jungle huts we had stayed at in Tijax (Guatemala)...except, not only did this place have a communal toilet/shower area shared amongst all of the guests, these toilets were biodegradable. I applaud the forward-thinking of the owners; Tropical Wings trek stop has won several awards in the previous years in regards to it's eco-friendliness. Unfortunately, the number of awards and certificates presented to the hotel do not mask the smell rising up from the lined-up holes in the ground. Neither do the woodchips that we are requested to toss into the holes once 'business' is adjourned.
After a brief introductory meeting from the hotel owner, Deborah and I walked into town to see what this place was about. It seemed like a ghost town. There were no other people really around and a many of the stores/restaurants were hidden. It was almost creepy...think, ghetto meets the jungle. We followed our ears and found a high school band playing outside. At first we thought it was a pep-rally type deal, but there weren't nearly enough people gathered around for it to be. Maybe it was just them practicing. Either way, we were too apprehensive about it all to get a closer look or ask someone. Before going back to the hotel, we stopped by the largest grocery store in town. This store was...wait for it...owned and operated by Chinese people. As far as I can tell, the woman running the cash register could barely speak English, didn't speak a bit of Creole, and knew not a lick of Spanish. Yet they were the biggest store and thriving.
We got back to the hotel and I decided I would just lazy around and watch a dvd in the open air restaurant. I popped in Darjeeling limited. About halfway through the movie, I decided to head to my little cabin to take a nap - there wasn't much else to do and I'd seen this movie before. On my way there, I met a guy who was taking photographs of some birds. His name is Nathan. He quickly finds out that I'm Canadian and calls for his friend who was coming out of their cabin. Steven is also Canadian - he's from Toronto. After a quick getting-to-know-you, the boys invited me to come along to see the mayan ruins nearby. Without hesitation, I went to my cabin and grabbed my camera and we were off. We passed by Sid and Otto who were still watching the dvd I had popped in at the restaurant. I told Sid that I would be going to see the ruins and would be back shortly. He looks at me puzzled and tells me that the site is closed for the day. Nate and Steve decided to head into town to have some food and so I went back to my room for a nap as I didn't want to venture back into the ghetto-jungle.
I got up just in time as the boys were heading back into their cabin, which happened to be right next door to mine. Nate calls me over and I could tell he was going to ask me something he didn't want anyone else to hear. "You're from Vancouver so you probably smoke pot don't you...?", he asks. Steve chimes in, "dude, she's from Vancouver, of course she does".
Of course I admitted to doing so. We decided that we would wander the property of Tropical Wings trek stop to find the unexcavated mayan temple and smoke pot as a reward. I was pretty relaxed with my rolled up jeans, flip flops, and light jacket. With nothing but my camera in my hand, we took off. With the excitement, neither of us had realized that the sun was setting pretty fast. Neither of us even had a flashlight...no map...nothing. It was inevitable, we got lost.
You know when you're scared, for some reason it feels like your senses are heightened? I wasn't cold that evening - i was freezing. After some convincing, the guys decided to follow me to retrace our steps back towards the cabins instead of trying to follow the sounds of the highway. Later on, the guys had admitted that they were stoned. I sighed in relief.
We got back to our cabins and on our way in were stopped by Tito, the hotel owner. Where are you guys coming from, he asked. We told him what had happened and he just looked at us in disbelief. I don't want to know what he was really thinking. He reminded us of the meeting the tour company was going to be having at 7pm that evening and suggested we all listen and pick up the ATM adventure. We had about half an hour before it was presentation time so we headed to the boy's cabin to hot box.
I was pretty baked. I headed back to my cabin afterwards and just chilled for a bit until it was 7pm. I made my way to the restaurant where the tour company was meeting us up when it was time. I was so cold that my main concern was remaining dry and warm for the next 2 days. Every adventure the representative had explained had some kind of water activity involved and we would get wet. Being baked, I decided i would rather stay in my cabin the next day and just be warm and dry. So i decided i wouldn't sign up for anything. Ashley felt the same way.
I kept mostly quiet, ate my warm vegetarian chili soup for the remainder of the night and wrapped the day playing asshole with the regulars until my pillow called my head.
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