GO SLOW!!! That is the moto for Caye Caulker and it was definately enforced. Let me catch up with a little more details first.

We flew into Guatemala City, got out of there as quickly as possible, and headed to Copan, Honduras, where we stayed for two nights to go to some really cool ruins. We spent the morning at the ruins, and some of the afternoon, a little in the rain which acutally felt great because it was so hot. Here.s Garrett doing as the locals do (can you see the guy farther down he.s got his broom next to him, but it was raining too hard so he just was taking a nap)But seeing the ruins was really neat. I was blown away by the inticate work and can.t wait to see the others that we.re headed for. Then we spent a day traveling to Belize City, probably about 700 km of road travel and 50 km of boat, and just like everyone else said, it wasn.t worth staying there. We did have to stay one night in a pretty stetchy, run down hostel, but what.s one night.

The next day was Independance Day for Belize so there were fireworks that night out over the ocean and that was cool to see but we were really happy to get out to Caye Caulker. Our hostel there had a totally different feel than all the others. Way more relaxed and there was a dorm and much more of a hang out atmosphere.We did happen to get there just in time for the parade for Independance Day on the island and it was great. It took hours for it to acutally happen, and the whole island is only like 1 km long and the main strip is like 4 blocks so it was fuuny, but awesome that we got to be there for that.

One of my main reasons of wanting to go to Belize was to scuba dive. So the next couple days I dove in the mornings. It was really cool. I got certified in Panama last year, and haven.t been since. I got a little spoiled there because there is so much different wildlife and coral, but it was cool here. I did see several nurse sharks, and a couple sea turtles and tons of amazing fish and coral. When I was walking one morning to the dive shop, I was a little late, and walking at normal somewhat fast pace and got reprimanded by several people for walking too fast, it was great. Our hostel had a free canoe that we could take out and Garrett and Mark had taken it out one morning and went again when I got back out to the reef. (I guess where we weren.t supposed to go without a guide woops! ) It took about an hour to paddle out there and it was really cool. Almost as much to see there as on my diving that I was paying a lot more for. At the end of the island there is a place called the split where a hurricane cut through the island and now boats can get through there and there.s a cool dock and diving board that is slanty and slippery but really fun to play on.And watch the sunsets from, which since it.s the rainy season, the clouds are amazing and the sunsets and rises are amazing!!!Yesterday, on our last day there, Garrett and Mark had talked to some locals and were going to go out on thier fishing boat. I was thinking about doing this dive called the Blue Hole which some say is amazing some say not so much but it.s like $200 and is three dives, but the thought of being out all day snorkeling and spear fishing was more attractive, so I went with them. It was really great. We dropped some of the locals off at their parts of the reef and went to a different part. They only had one spear gun and it was weird for me to go from one day with the diver mentality: don.t touch anything, only look at the beautiful fish, to hanging on the coral to keep yourself down looking in all the holes to find fish to kill. But it was cool. We only got a couple, and two lobsters, but the fun we had made it successful. I also came away with an extremely burned whole back side. I had sunscreen on my back, but my shorts line up is fried!! And it.s my own dumb fault, and I.m reaping the benefits of the uncomfortableness of having to sit on a bus all day today. Also, the mosquitos were pretty bad and I am terrible at harnessing my zen powers to not itch them, so I.m going to have some serious scabs from them. Hopefully they won.t be so bad from here on out.


So, now we.re in a bus station, just over the boarder into Mexico. We hadn.t originally planned on going to Mexico but decided we needed to go to Palanque if we were here so that.s where we.re headed. We.re taking an over night bus there. We.ll have spent like 6 hours in this bus terminal but we tried to go out to the city and no one had any idea of something of interest and it is really so hot. I don.t think I.ve sweat so much in the last 6 months, even in the Grand as I have in the last week. But it.ll just make coming home to dry fall - winter of SLC even better! Mark and Garrett are great traveling partners! We have all been on the same page about making decisions and I was worried that they were going to want to be going all the time and always pushing to be doing something, but we have all been in the same mood for stuff and it.s been great. They are great about looking out for me and I don.t think anyone wants to mess with the three of us. Anyway, I.ll let them get on here, but we.re having a great time, and thanks all for reading and I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the nice, cool fall for me!