Girlie Swot

So, a day of DVD watching in a shack built over the Carribean sea, I have been on harder courses :-)

In the evening we munched down on some local food which was excellent - even if the owner had a somewhat acquired taste of a sense of humour.

Another early night to wake up to ...

Pissing rain. No, really really hard rain. Warmish, but by the bucketful nonetheless.

Trudi momentarily forgot she wasn't in that fancy London and tried to flag down a black cab to take us the ten minutes up the beach to the Dive School. It turned out to be a golf buggy. Hey-ho.

After many hours hard work and cramming, both of us passed our theory tests. Which means we just have to avoid death over the next three days to get our tickets! (Trudi is concerned about the number of mentions of death in the Dive Manual - our instructor, Michelle, says that nobody's died yet on one of her courses. We don't want to buck the trend.)

We are now in the world's most expensive Internet cafe - but they do bring beer to you - so it's not a complete wash-out.

Double Dinner

After a scrummy meal at Wish Willy's, we headed for an early night. However it appears that there were two meals going on at the same time, whilst I was feasting on lobster, a few sand flies were feasting on my left leg. Ouch.

Scuba lessons start tomorrow with a day of watching DVD's. We were supposed to do some reading homework. Nuff said.

Hammock Tales

For the last few months, Trudi's mantra has been "When I get to Belize, I want to do nothing but lie in a hammock for two weeks". So it should have come as a bit of a surprise that almost exactly one hour after settling down for a nap, the words "I'm bored now, what are we going to do" came floating from the hammock direction.

Funnily enough, it wasn't as much of a suprise as it could have been :-)
So, we set off in search of diving schools, trips and snorkelling tours. After deciding to take our PADI open water certificates with Frenchie's (they do there first day in the water in something that doesn't, in Trudi's words, smell of poo) we then booked an afternoon snorkelling.

Snorkelling was great fun, we both had a go at the first stop and then Trudi decided to relax in the boat for the second and third stops.

We saw some pretty funky fish, including Barraccuda, Stingrays and a puffer fish (which blended amazingly well into the reef.

First Sunrise

Waking early in the morning, we went to the beach (a good 100yds from our room) to watch the sunrise. After a nice breakfast, back to the hotel for a nap. It's a hard life.

Caye Caulker Arrival

During our wait, Trudi went out and foraged for BBQ food - yummy. I was befriended by Roger, he helped carry bags and get us onto the (very crowded) water taxi. When we got to our hotel, he asked if we smoked. Trudi misheard him and replied "No, we are from London", which I chuckled at.

We checked into the lovely Seaside Cabanas and went out to see the sights (get a couple of beers). At the princely time of 4:30pm, we dragged ourselves into the room and a well deserved 13 hour sleep.

Arrival in Belize

Woke up to a thunderstorm in Houston. Oh how we chuckled, knowing we were soon to be in bright, sunny Belize.
Checkout was painless, and after a brief whiz on a Disneyland train, we were at the airport ready to check in.
The airline were most concerned that we were trying to leave for Belize for 6 months without a Visa. We hoped that the guide book was right, that we could stay for 30 days at a time and then get our entry visas renewed. After a few minutes of phone calls, they finally allowed us to check in. Which was nice.
Some of the smugness disappeared as we were read the Belize current weather - 72F and overcast. What?

Arrival in Belize was greeted with rain, which did not go down well with one of our party. Never mind, we caught a cab to the Marina to wait an hour for the water taxi.

Houston

This foreign travel lark isn't all it is cracked up to be.

It is absolutley persisting it down here in Houston. Not a hammock in sight.

Luckily we don't need to go outside, so we won't get wet.

Belize better be dry, or a certain young lady I know will be in tears.

Churchill

Latin America is too hot for Polar Bears, so Churchill had to be left with his granny. I am sure he will be well looked after.

A Nattering

The last Saturday before we left, we met up with a selection of Trudi's Fancy London friends. We had a lovely meal at a tapas bar and much nattering was done.

When coming to title this picture, I felt that the English language was clearly missing a collective noun for "Fancy London Friends". I have decided to coin the term "a nattering".

Now, does the Fancy act as an adjective to London or to friends - that I leave for the reader to debate.

In Yewston

So, we have done the first leg of our travels and are in a(nother) airport hotel - this time at George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH - or Houston, Texas to you).

Our room overlooks some lovely planes - which is nice.

It appears that we are drawn towards revolving restaurants - this was our second (after Winnipeg). I somehow doubt that there will be any in Belize.

Righty ho then - bed time.

On our way

So, we are finally at the airport, waiting to set off on our journeys.

The last few days has been spent catching up with people and saying our goodbyes. It does seem strange that it'll be six months before we get back to Blighty!

It looks like my house has been let - which is good. However, www.ford-hutchinson.com has just died and been re-built - badly as far as I can tell. Which is a right royal pain.

Two days ago it snowed in London, it was cold.

Yesterday saw us having our last two jabs each (Rabies and Hep B), we celebrated finally getting this far with a bottle of Moet at the Wetherspoons at Gatwick S terminal.

As it was Burns' night, I had haggis for my tea:-)

So, flight Continental 5 at noon from Gatwick S terminal beckons.

Wish us luck

New start

OK - Trudi vetoed the "little reward" blog name and so we've started Latin Reward.

Enjoy.