My love letter to Belize

Well Belize, you did it again and stole my heart once more. There is something about your country that resonates with me – that fills my soul and makes me happy.

This was my third time being back, and I really feel like I got a good grasp on what this country has to offer and was able to dig in deeper to all of the guts and glory that lies within Belize. And when it comes down to it, there is some pretty dark stuff going on here, but to me, all of the light and goodness of this country outshines the dark and makes me love so many aspects of it.

So where do I start with my love letter to Belize? Well, I guess I will start with what I love most. I love the people. I love how friendly and welcoming they are and how they greet you with their eyes and make eye contact while talking to you. I love the fact that when I walk down the streets in the evening that everyone greets me with “Good Night”, and I especially love that my response is “Good Night” back to them. I love how Belizeans answer the phone with “Tell me” and how they say “Rrriiiiggghhhttt Nnnooowwww” in their long, drawn-out Belizean accents. I love that it is a melting pot of people, with the Mayans, the Rastas, the Creole, The Garifuna and even all those crazy old ex-pats. I love the different languages that are sometimes all mixed into one, and I love that I can hear reggaeton, Spanish music and Michael Jackson all blasting from different houses on the same street. I absolutely love that all of the grocery stores are referred to as “The Chinese”, and I love how no one is politically correct in this country. I love that I don’t have to wear shoes and that my feet are constantly dirty, and I love how I can sit barefoot on the windowsill of a bar, drinking my Belikin, while talking to an old friend and feeling completely happy and content. I love that I have gotten addicted to coconut water and how drinking it is a daily part of my life here. And I love those thick, white flour tortillas that you can’t get anywhere else except for Belize. I love that I can swim in pristine, beautiful waterfalls and have no one else around, and I love how I can sit alone on top of a Mayan ruin and overlook Belize and Guatemala at the same time and feel the spirit flow in…. I love the beauty and intensity of the jungle (though I hate the damn bugs that come with being in paradise), and the way that life just seems so good and sparkly when I am out in nature here. And finally, I love how comfortable that I feel here. How I feel like I am at home. How people tell me that I “walk strong” when I walk down the streets - for that is the ultimate compliment - as it shows that I feel at home, that I am comfortable, that I know what is going on and that please, don’t mess with me, cause I am no longer your average, white tourist.

There are so many more things that I love about Belize – but this love letter has to end sometime. So to Belize – thank you for everything that your country has to offer. And to my friends in Belize – thank you for sharing your goodness and love with me and for opening my heart once again to all of the sweetness here. I can’t wait to come back and see you all again. Bless.

So this is life....

I just posted about how our trip was beautiful, and amazing and flawless. And it was – until we got home. We arrived home late Monday night, when I got a phone call asking Jonny to call the States, because one of his good friends had died. When he called home he found out that one of his best friends from high school had died in a car accident over the weekend. Hearing that news was so sad and was so hard for him. So that night, as we were reflecting about life, we both decided to write a little bit – and here is what I came up with – it’s nothing special, but I thought that I would share it with you.
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Life is precious. The joy if it, the love it brings, the integrity that comes with being alive and sharing that life with others. Being able to appreciate others physical time on this planet is so important. To take those moments where you feel truly alive and cherish them. We forget how lucky we are and what a blessing this life is. I thank God that I am still here appreciating each moment, learning, loving and at some point finally completing. This past weekend I really lived my life and I was able to share in it with a wonderful person. I am so grateful that I was able to share my experience with him – because without Jonny there it would have been less sparkly, because the joy would have been more inward and because of that – less magical. Life is about so many things, but to me the relationships that we have in our life and how we share our expressions with others is key. In this moment, I am appreciating my life, but even more so appreciating all of those that I share it with who make my life worth living. May God bless my world and may light be sent to all of the beautiful souls out there. I am so grateful for all who have made my life and will continue to make my life grand.

Lago de Atitlan

The day after the volcano excursion, J and I went to Lake Atitlan, which is a beautiful lake that is surrounded by volcanoes. This day was much more chilled out, which was nice as the two days before it were jammed packed with excitement. At Lake Atitlan we took a boat around the lake and stopped at different villages, shopped around, went to markets and really just relaxed. It was super nice and a great way to end our trip.

One note about our trip – it was by far the best spontaneous vacation that I have ever been on in my entire life. We went without a guidebook, not knowing where we were going – let alone staying. We had never been to any of these places before and in a sense it could have been kind of risky to set off on this adventure with a complete lack of information. However, the entire trip went flawlessly and the Universe provided for us in so many ways. We were always taken care of and everything was so easy and it all just fell into place. Everyday we were amazed at our good luck and how beautifully our unplanned day had gone. We both agreed that it couldn’t have gone any better – part of that was because we were with each other, but the other part was just that it all fell into place and because of that we experienced some amazing things in those 5 days of our trip. I wouldn’t recommend traveling like this often, as I am sure that it always doesn’t work out this well, but in this instance, the spontaneity of it was great….

Living the dream....

About two years ago, I heard that there was a place in Guatemala where you could climb a volcano and roast marshmallows over lava. As soon as I heard about it, this activity of roasting marshmallows over lava went to the top of my bucket list. Jonny and I daydreamed about going there together – not really thinking that it would happen – but then when he came back to Belize, we decided to go on vacation together, and we changed plans to go to Guatemala, we realized that our dream was about to come true and we got so excited.

We left for the volcano around 2:00 en la tarde and started hiking around 3:30. It was a long hike up, but totally worth it. As we got closer to the lava and the volcano, we could start feeling the heat underneath our feet and see the steam coming out of different areas in the ground. When we finally got to the area where we could make our lava-roasted smores, it was hot and intense. We had carried sticks up from the trail (as obviously there are no trees on an active volcano) and put our mallows on the sticks and placed them right over the lava. They started on fire instantly and we let them burn for a few moments, before we blew them out and put them with graham crackers and chocolate. And that was by far the best damn smores that I have ever eaten in my entire life – hands down. Nothing will ever compare with that ever again. Being up there on the volcano was so much fun and by far one of the best days of my life. I was livin’ the dream folks, and it felt good.

After we got our fill of lava, marshmallows and melted shoes, we started the hike back down. During this time, it turned dark and as we looked up at the peak of the volcano, it started to erupt and we were able to watch hot magma (think Austin Powers here with the word magma) blast out of the volcano. They said that it only erupts about once a month and so we were really lucky to be able to witness it. Seeing that was also another dream of mine that was fulfilled (I kind of have an obsession with lava – it’s so cool!) and was a great end to a perfect day.

P.S. My favorite quote of the day was "Did I just hear someone say 'holy shit - there's lava??!!" hahahahaha

Semana Santa - Guatemala Style...

So last weekend, Jonny and I were supposed to go to Honduras, but we literally changed plans last minute and decided to go to Guatemala instead. We were supposed to take a boat to Honduras, but last minute decided to take a boat to Guatemala and then take a bus to Honduras, and then once we were on the boat we decided to scratch Honduras completely and just go to Guatemala - and we are so glad that we did as it ended up being one of the best vacations of our lives.

When we were on the boat, we met this guy who was driving to Guatemala City and he offered us a ride, so we jumped on it and drove to Guat City with him. I've never been to Guatemala City before (or hitched a ride with someone I have never met in another country) and everything that I have heard about it is that it is so dangerous and that you just want to get in and get out. However, on the boat ride we also met this girl who was going to Guatemala City and then down to Antigua and she said that she was staying in a really safe part of the City, so we went with her and stayed in the same hostel and it was great - super nice and felt pretty safe.

The next morning we woke up at the butt-crack of dawn we went down to Antigua for Semana Santa. Antigua is famous throughout Central America for it's Easter celebrations and rightfully so as it was one of the most amazing Easter celebrations that I have ever witnessed. They cover the streets in these elaborately designed flower carpets and then they have these massive processionals where they walk through the flower carpets, and then they just make new flower designs throughout the day - it is so beautiful and a phenomenal cultural experience.

During the processionals, everyone is either dressed in purple, black or another color. The people in the processionals carry these massive, extremely heavy floats on their shoulders that sometimes weigh up to two tons and they carry them for hours to represent the pain and struggles that Jesus went through. One thing that I loved about this (among many) is that the men all carried a float, and then the women all carried one just as big and as heavy. A lot of times in Central American countries, women do not have as much importance as the men do and therefore wouldn’t participate in something like this – however in every single procession, the women were right there alongside the men – working just as hard and carrying almost as much weight – and I loved that.

I don’t think that my words or pictures can do this experience justice, as it is something that one has to experience in person. With that, I highly encourage all of you to someday make the trip to Antigua, Guatemala for Easter as it will by far be one of the most profound Easter celebrations of your life – it was for me anyway.