Our Arrival

I'm still a little leary about uploading too many pictures here because the connection is so slow, but I can update you and tell you some of my first impressions of the country and our experience.

We arrived into Belize airport in Belize City a little after 4pm on a runway that looked too rickety even for the bravest of planes. We took an old school bus about an hour and a half inland to the city of San Ignacio where we are right now.

It's our base. We arrived at our lodging here at the Chiclero where the sleeping arrangements are not too bad. Steph Olson and I are rooming in a cabana with a real grass roof and a total of 6 bugs so far... one a scorpion we think.

That leads me to the bug and animal discussion. We had orientation last night where we discussed many of the country's culture an details. There is this animal called a Tepir (sp?). It looks like a cross between a cow an an elephant, but I haven't spotted any yet. It sounds like something from Doctor Seuss, doesn't it? We learned there are plenty of scorpions around and will very likely see one. There are also a ton of tarantuls we hear... none that we've seen yet, but apprently they are harmless. We've got the flurdelis (sp?) snake that we hope to never encounter. Smaller, but more harmless is the Botfly that can lay a beef worm egg under your skin. To get it out you have to find the hole from its entry (after it's been crawling around for a while), rub in some tobacco, an then use stick to dig it out. We all hope we don't get to experiment with that one.

Other interesting sidenotes on Belize:
No flushing toilet paper. All TP goes into the trash, but at least we have real toilets.
Traveler's Diarhea... no one has it yet, but we still aren't gonna drink the water!
Most roads are dirt roads. The highway is nearly a single lane unmarked road.
Dogs are not so much pets here. We have been told if we see a dog an it starts to come towards us to pick up a rock and raise our fist... if need be, throw it.
One of the leaders says gas prices were at about $13 a gallon until Obama was elected and it fell to $8.
People here like to take their oranges and dip them in salt.
There are really boa constrictors in the jungles.

Sounds like we have a lot to look forward to :-)