Friday morning came early. EXTREMELY early. Our flight was to start boarding at 6:45, and on big trips like this I become overly cautious about ensuring I get to the airport on time. My alarm went off at 3:35am, and I began waking up the girls hoping to leave around 4:15. After receiving the tremendous news 2 weeks ago that Uber was extending its service area to Mt. Juliet, I was looking forward to curbside pickup. However, with the new service expansion I was a little nervous about the availability of drivers so early. When I woke up, I opened the app and saw there was a driver only 12 minutes away. Awesome.
We proceeded to gather our last minute items, while moving in slow motion due to only 3-4 hours of sleep. As we were close to ready, I opened the app back up to call Uber, and got the disheartening "No Cars Available" error. Uggh! I gave it a few more minutes continually trying, but kept getting the same message. I figured we still had some cushion, and got myself completely ready, as did Kalyssa, and thought, I'll give it one more try, and if not, we'll go for the traditional cab. Success! An Uber car was only 16 minutes away. I quickly requested a pick up.
We got to the airport, and we were early, but it was absolutely packed. I still have Gold status with American, so that got us through a bit quicker. We spent a good bit of time in the security line nonetheless, with Allie fielding many questions from nearby passengers about the new "Toe Shoes" that she purchased and was currently wearing. Going through the airport, I typically anticipate seeing people I know as my neighborhood social circle leans very heavily with TSA and other law enforcement. Sure enough, on the way out of security, I ran into my neighbor Chris, who is a metro Nashville cop, and stopped to chat a bit, before heading to Starbucks for breakfast for all of us.
Starbucks was packed, with the line wrapping around the entire store and out the door opposite the register. It was fortunate that they were fairly efficient as always though, since I don't take too kindly to 20 people getting between me and my coffee...especially at 5:00am. After getting our morning sustenance, we relaxed while eating, and tried out the selfie stick that Allie borrowed for the trip, with our first official selfie of the Belize trip.
A couple hours later it was time to board. As we were getting ready to taxi, the captain got on the intercom, and let us know that we didn't need to be concerned about the plane next to us, with all the law enforcement and other official looking vehicles around it, as it was just that Jimmy Carter was in that plane. Huh! Who knew. I did have to explain to Allie and Kalyssa who that was, and later in the evening during dinner Allie admitted to having absolutely no idea, and thought he was some old rock star or something that happened to be in Nashville. Sigh.....
We got to Dallas-Fort Worth around 9:00am, and had a little over 2 hours to kill. We wandered for a bit and ultimately found a Bennigans, and sat to have lunch, since it felt like half the day was over...alas, they were still serving Breakfast, because apparently the rest of the world, was only just waking up. It seemed like the day was half over to us.
After eating, one of my daughters (name removed to protect the innocent) decided she needed to use the restroom and was going to be awhile. When she returned awhile later, she was a bit traumatized by a dual assault from plumbing innovations and janitorial staff. While she was sitting on the commode, the automatic flusher apparently began repeatedly flushing over and over again. At the same time, outside the stall was a woman meticulously mopping every other stall in the bathroom. At one point, my daughter could see the mop sitting directly in front of her stall against the counter (flush....flush....flush). Apparently tired of waiting, the custodian picked up the mop again, and began mopping the floor in my daughter's stall from underneath the walls and door, requiring her to dodge the mop from hitting her feet (flush....flush.....flush).
After a decent second breakfast, we headed over to our plane, boarded, and got ready for the 2.5 hour flight into Belize City. When not filling out the immigration paper work, I slept as much as I could, but did wake up for the drink service as I was quite thirsty. I asked for a coke, and the flight attendant pulled out a can, and looked at me fairly seriously: "Are you a GrillMaster?" With that she displayed a #ShareaCoke can with the name "Grillmaster" on it. I stuttered a bit, and said, "Well, I don't know if I quite qualify for the level of 'master'..." Somewhat disgusted, she said, "I'm definitely not convinced," and stashed the can back in the drink cart, pulling out another one, checking the label, and said "Hmmm, I think this one will fit you much better." She handed the can to me.
Allie and Kalyssa agreed, yep, you're definitely a "Bro."
As we all began to feel the plane begin descending, the anticipation began to well up in all 3 of us, and we cocked our heads back and forth to try and see between each other's heads, the wing of the plane, and the clouds, to get a glimpse of the new country we were about to experience a few thousand feet below us.
Once we touched down we gathered our belongings, and headed for the gate. The International airport contains one runway. (The entire country only has a population of 350,000 so the airport is tiny), and we deplaned onto the tarmac. Immediately the heat and humidity hit us. Not much different than what we left in Nashville, but I knew we would not have much relief provided from air conditioning anywhere, as this is a very poor country relative to US standards. We entered the terminal, and while it was cooler, it was still probably low 80s, high 70s at best.
The line was fairly slow, but we made our way through immigration, grabbed our luggage from the baggage claim, and went across the street to Budget Rent-a-Car and picked up our car.
Being a very rural country, Belize has 2 major highways that exit Belize City: Western Highway (which later shoots off into Coastal and Southern Highways), and Northern Highway. We were to take Northern Highway for about 16 minutes to get into the very edge of Belize City, where our lodging awaited. As we exited the airport/rental car parking lot, we had to wait for a stray dog to casually get up out of the road and let us pass. An access road led us to Northern Highway. This "Highway, looked more like a hard packed gravel driveway that had been sprayed with tar than a "highway. It was wide enough for a car to drive in each direction...barely. Most of it had no center line, and the paving was extremely coarse. This of course is the most travelled section of the highway, so clearly as we traverse the countryside for the rest of the week, we will be missing this luxurious road.
As we drove down the road, it did vaguely call up images of driving in Cambodia and India, on a much lighter scale. Loosely followed rules of the road, no lane markings, and occasional bikes with multiple passengers. Allie navigated and as we got close to where our lodging was, we turned off the main road down an urban gravel street with more potholes than paving. Fairly ramshackle buildings of various types lined the side of it. At one point the intersection of the street we needed to turn onto was closed, and a make shift "detour" went up over the sidewalk and through the grass. At the very end of the street was our lodging: D'Nest Inn.
This is a small family owned bed and breakfast. As we walked in, one of the owner's, Gaby, met us with a very slow deliberate walk and limp. After showing us up to our room (the Parakeet Room), he somewhat awkwardly turned and went back downstairs. I began to follow him, not sure if he was still giving a tour or not. Finally I asked "are you done with us?" He somewhat shyly said "Oh yes, sorry, you are fine." The room had a small wall air conditioner unit, which through a little cool air into our room, otherwise, it was extremely humid and in the mid to upper 80s. Later in the evening we met Gaby's wife who admitted Gaby was very nervous that he had to greet the guests by himself, as she usually takes care of the socializing. A few minutes later he returned with a pile of towels, and suddenly he was sweating incredibly. He was clearly very self conscious about it, and apologized, and said that ever since his hip replacement, he sweats like crazy when he gets excited.
We were all getting hungry, but the girls decided to shower before we headed to downtown Belize for dinner. Once they were ready, we jumped in the car and headed into the city. As we drove the 15 minutes or so towards the other end of Belize City, the "highway" got even narrower, and at a couple points we barely fit between parked cars and utility poles. As my guidebook had warned me, Belize City has a very rough look to it. Buildings are crowded together, and all look fairly dilapidated, there is a lot of graffiti (much of it seems to be representing the Latin Kings), and most buildings have bars on the windows. We were approaching the restaurant that I had researched: Neries. The building didn't look much different than the rest of the cityscape, and the girls looked at me very apprehensively and said "we're going to eat....there?" I assured them that my research showed this to be a great place for authentic Belizean cuisine, and that the neighborhood, though one to be appropriately cautious in as in any big city, was in the "touristy" sector of Belize. (Though from physical appearances, one would certainly not have guessed it.)
Interestingly, Belize City is split geographically by the Haulover Creek. Guides warn that while North of the creek (which makes up about 1/3 of the city's footprint) is "safe" for the most part (aside from any typical big city precautions around street crime/theft/etc.), and most of the crime in the city occurs south of the creek. In fact, 4 neighborhoods have been designated by the government as "crime ridden areas" which allows the government to waive many civil rights for the residents in those areas, and enables the law enforcementfairly unrestricted searches and can limit peoples movement into or out of those areas. Gang and drug trafficking are rampant in these very small areas (some are one square block and have all of about 10 buildings in them.) All of our touring of the city will remain north of the creek, for obvious reasons. Our dining venue was well to the north of the creek.
Walking into the restaurant, we were the only patrons (though it was only just before 5:00 I believe), and the feel was somewhere between a family's kitchen and a small restaurant. The waitress seated us and went over the menu with us, and we started by ordering the local beer: Beliken. Allie took advantage of the fact that the drinking age is 18 in Belize, and had one also.
As we discussed the menu further with the waitress, there was a bit of confusion, as she said the meals come with rice and beans, or you can get them with stewed beans and rice. Allie looked at the waitress trying to process what she just heard....so the options are rice and beans or beans and rice?
The waitress tried to explain this further. My guidebook had also warned, that this is the pervasive side dish option throughout Belize, and that the two are different.... I have not yet fully figured them out though....I believe all 3 of us ordered rice and beans. As the main dish, Kalyssa ordered curried lamb, Allie ordered curried chicken, and I ordered the stewed lobster. (Lobster is a very common dish down here. Apparently the crustacean looks much different alive than it does in the North, but tastes very similar.) All 3 of us devoured our food, and everyone was very satisfied with their meal. We asked about the deserts, but our waitress disappointed us by telling us they were out of all the deserts. Fortunately, google maps to the rescue, and there was an Ice Cream Shoppe right around the corner.
I told the girls we'd walk over there. They were again apprehensive, but I assured them it was less than a block away, and just on the other side of where we parked. We did have to navigate around 3 or 4 stray dogs, but found a very quaint little ice cream shop, with a cute sign in front. The neat and tidy inside looked very out of place through the window contrasted against the hodgepodge of buildings outside. I went to open the door, and couldn't get it to open. I then realized the door was locked, and a security guard stood inside, who opened it for us. (this too was explained in the guidebook as fairly common place in Belize City). We each ordered a scoop or two of ice cream and returned to the car.
The last stop for the evening was to reach the point of the peninsula, as this offered a view of the
ocean and a lighthouse. This was only a couple blocks away, and as you get the coast itself, things are a little bit more developed and maintained...a little bit. There is a Radisson hotel, and a walkway along the ocean that provides some nice views. We parked and walked along the ocean to a lighthouse, and spent a few minutes there while the sun began to set. We decided we better get back in the car and back to the hotel, before it began getting dark, (as recommendations in Belize City, and Belize in general, are that attempting to drive after dark is not the best idea...as much for road condition safety as for petty crime concerns. We got back to D'Nest at dusk, and began unwinding for the night. It was only 7:30, but it seemed much much later.
As we debriefed, Allie was somewhat disappointed as she was expecting more of a lush tropical landscape around us, vs. the "third world" urban feel of Belize City, but was optimistic about seeing the rest of the country, drawing comparisons to her initial reaction to Phnom Penh Cambodia, 3 years ago, where she saw it is a dirty place lacking any cultural value, until we ventured out to the country side where it quickly became one of her all time favorite destinations.
As the girls began cooling off and relaxing in the room, I grabbed the laptop and stole myself out to a couple tables and folding chairs out in the garden, where I found a place to sit, 8 feet from Haulover Creek, to sit and type out my blog for the evening. The weather is beautiful tonight, with a fairly strong breeze keeping it comfortable and surprisingly few bugs (actually I've not seen any, aside from a curious spider that keeps climbing my laptop to see what I'm doing.) As I sit here, however, I do ponder the urban landscape of this interesting city. I'm sitting looking at a creek that is about 15 feet wide, and probably about 3-4 feet deep, that divides the city. Similar to the concept of being "on the wrong side of the track," I guess I'm on the "right" side of the creek, looking over to the "wrong" side which I could almost jump to. I'm also about a mile up-creek from the worst parts, but it is interesting to be sitting in this serene landscape nonetheless and admiring this natural dividing line. Dogs are barking in the distance, the soft sound of guitar is coming from somewhere, leaves are rustling in the wind, and an occasional splash can be heard of fish jumping in the creek, and I sit here looking forward to an exciting week ahead...
We proceeded to gather our last minute items, while moving in slow motion due to only 3-4 hours of sleep. As we were close to ready, I opened the app back up to call Uber, and got the disheartening "No Cars Available" error. Uggh! I gave it a few more minutes continually trying, but kept getting the same message. I figured we still had some cushion, and got myself completely ready, as did Kalyssa, and thought, I'll give it one more try, and if not, we'll go for the traditional cab. Success! An Uber car was only 16 minutes away. I quickly requested a pick up.
We got to the airport, and we were early, but it was absolutely packed. I still have Gold status with American, so that got us through a bit quicker. We spent a good bit of time in the security line nonetheless, with Allie fielding many questions from nearby passengers about the new "Toe Shoes" that she purchased and was currently wearing. Going through the airport, I typically anticipate seeing people I know as my neighborhood social circle leans very heavily with TSA and other law enforcement. Sure enough, on the way out of security, I ran into my neighbor Chris, who is a metro Nashville cop, and stopped to chat a bit, before heading to Starbucks for breakfast for all of us.
Starbucks was packed, with the line wrapping around the entire store and out the door opposite the register. It was fortunate that they were fairly efficient as always though, since I don't take too kindly to 20 people getting between me and my coffee...especially at 5:00am. After getting our morning sustenance, we relaxed while eating, and tried out the selfie stick that Allie borrowed for the trip, with our first official selfie of the Belize trip.
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| The First Selfie of the Trip....at Starbucks |
A couple hours later it was time to board. As we were getting ready to taxi, the captain got on the intercom, and let us know that we didn't need to be concerned about the plane next to us, with all the law enforcement and other official looking vehicles around it, as it was just that Jimmy Carter was in that plane. Huh! Who knew. I did have to explain to Allie and Kalyssa who that was, and later in the evening during dinner Allie admitted to having absolutely no idea, and thought he was some old rock star or something that happened to be in Nashville. Sigh.....
We got to Dallas-Fort Worth around 9:00am, and had a little over 2 hours to kill. We wandered for a bit and ultimately found a Bennigans, and sat to have lunch, since it felt like half the day was over...alas, they were still serving Breakfast, because apparently the rest of the world, was only just waking up. It seemed like the day was half over to us.
After eating, one of my daughters (name removed to protect the innocent) decided she needed to use the restroom and was going to be awhile. When she returned awhile later, she was a bit traumatized by a dual assault from plumbing innovations and janitorial staff. While she was sitting on the commode, the automatic flusher apparently began repeatedly flushing over and over again. At the same time, outside the stall was a woman meticulously mopping every other stall in the bathroom. At one point, my daughter could see the mop sitting directly in front of her stall against the counter (flush....flush....flush). Apparently tired of waiting, the custodian picked up the mop again, and began mopping the floor in my daughter's stall from underneath the walls and door, requiring her to dodge the mop from hitting her feet (flush....flush.....flush).
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| Selfie on a Plane |
Allie and Kalyssa agreed, yep, you're definitely a "Bro."
As we all began to feel the plane begin descending, the anticipation began to well up in all 3 of us, and we cocked our heads back and forth to try and see between each other's heads, the wing of the plane, and the clouds, to get a glimpse of the new country we were about to experience a few thousand feet below us.
Once we touched down we gathered our belongings, and headed for the gate. The International airport contains one runway. (The entire country only has a population of 350,000 so the airport is tiny), and we deplaned onto the tarmac. Immediately the heat and humidity hit us. Not much different than what we left in Nashville, but I knew we would not have much relief provided from air conditioning anywhere, as this is a very poor country relative to US standards. We entered the terminal, and while it was cooler, it was still probably low 80s, high 70s at best.
The line was fairly slow, but we made our way through immigration, grabbed our luggage from the baggage claim, and went across the street to Budget Rent-a-Car and picked up our car.
Being a very rural country, Belize has 2 major highways that exit Belize City: Western Highway (which later shoots off into Coastal and Southern Highways), and Northern Highway. We were to take Northern Highway for about 16 minutes to get into the very edge of Belize City, where our lodging awaited. As we exited the airport/rental car parking lot, we had to wait for a stray dog to casually get up out of the road and let us pass. An access road led us to Northern Highway. This "Highway, looked more like a hard packed gravel driveway that had been sprayed with tar than a "highway. It was wide enough for a car to drive in each direction...barely. Most of it had no center line, and the paving was extremely coarse. This of course is the most travelled section of the highway, so clearly as we traverse the countryside for the rest of the week, we will be missing this luxurious road.
As we drove down the road, it did vaguely call up images of driving in Cambodia and India, on a much lighter scale. Loosely followed rules of the road, no lane markings, and occasional bikes with multiple passengers. Allie navigated and as we got close to where our lodging was, we turned off the main road down an urban gravel street with more potholes than paving. Fairly ramshackle buildings of various types lined the side of it. At one point the intersection of the street we needed to turn onto was closed, and a make shift "detour" went up over the sidewalk and through the grass. At the very end of the street was our lodging: D'Nest Inn.
This is a small family owned bed and breakfast. As we walked in, one of the owner's, Gaby, met us with a very slow deliberate walk and limp. After showing us up to our room (the Parakeet Room), he somewhat awkwardly turned and went back downstairs. I began to follow him, not sure if he was still giving a tour or not. Finally I asked "are you done with us?" He somewhat shyly said "Oh yes, sorry, you are fine." The room had a small wall air conditioner unit, which through a little cool air into our room, otherwise, it was extremely humid and in the mid to upper 80s. Later in the evening we met Gaby's wife who admitted Gaby was very nervous that he had to greet the guests by himself, as she usually takes care of the socializing. A few minutes later he returned with a pile of towels, and suddenly he was sweating incredibly. He was clearly very self conscious about it, and apologized, and said that ever since his hip replacement, he sweats like crazy when he gets excited.
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| The Parakeet Room |
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| Balcony Outside our Room and Haulover Creek |
We were all getting hungry, but the girls decided to shower before we headed to downtown Belize for dinner. Once they were ready, we jumped in the car and headed into the city. As we drove the 15 minutes or so towards the other end of Belize City, the "highway" got even narrower, and at a couple points we barely fit between parked cars and utility poles. As my guidebook had warned me, Belize City has a very rough look to it. Buildings are crowded together, and all look fairly dilapidated, there is a lot of graffiti (much of it seems to be representing the Latin Kings), and most buildings have bars on the windows. We were approaching the restaurant that I had researched: Neries. The building didn't look much different than the rest of the cityscape, and the girls looked at me very apprehensively and said "we're going to eat....there?" I assured them that my research showed this to be a great place for authentic Belizean cuisine, and that the neighborhood, though one to be appropriately cautious in as in any big city, was in the "touristy" sector of Belize. (Though from physical appearances, one would certainly not have guessed it.)
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| Nerie's II Restaurant |
Interestingly, Belize City is split geographically by the Haulover Creek. Guides warn that while North of the creek (which makes up about 1/3 of the city's footprint) is "safe" for the most part (aside from any typical big city precautions around street crime/theft/etc.), and most of the crime in the city occurs south of the creek. In fact, 4 neighborhoods have been designated by the government as "crime ridden areas" which allows the government to waive many civil rights for the residents in those areas, and enables the law enforcementfairly unrestricted searches and can limit peoples movement into or out of those areas. Gang and drug trafficking are rampant in these very small areas (some are one square block and have all of about 10 buildings in them.) All of our touring of the city will remain north of the creek, for obvious reasons. Our dining venue was well to the north of the creek.
Walking into the restaurant, we were the only patrons (though it was only just before 5:00 I believe), and the feel was somewhere between a family's kitchen and a small restaurant. The waitress seated us and went over the menu with us, and we started by ordering the local beer: Beliken. Allie took advantage of the fact that the drinking age is 18 in Belize, and had one also.
As we discussed the menu further with the waitress, there was a bit of confusion, as she said the meals come with rice and beans, or you can get them with stewed beans and rice. Allie looked at the waitress trying to process what she just heard....so the options are rice and beans or beans and rice?
I told the girls we'd walk over there. They were again apprehensive, but I assured them it was less than a block away, and just on the other side of where we parked. We did have to navigate around 3 or 4 stray dogs, but found a very quaint little ice cream shop, with a cute sign in front. The neat and tidy inside looked very out of place through the window contrasted against the hodgepodge of buildings outside. I went to open the door, and couldn't get it to open. I then realized the door was locked, and a security guard stood inside, who opened it for us. (this too was explained in the guidebook as fairly common place in Belize City). We each ordered a scoop or two of ice cream and returned to the car.
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| Outside the Ice Cream Shoppe |
The last stop for the evening was to reach the point of the peninsula, as this offered a view of the
ocean and a lighthouse. This was only a couple blocks away, and as you get the coast itself, things are a little bit more developed and maintained...a little bit. There is a Radisson hotel, and a walkway along the ocean that provides some nice views. We parked and walked along the ocean to a lighthouse, and spent a few minutes there while the sun began to set. We decided we better get back in the car and back to the hotel, before it began getting dark, (as recommendations in Belize City, and Belize in general, are that attempting to drive after dark is not the best idea...as much for road condition safety as for petty crime concerns. We got back to D'Nest at dusk, and began unwinding for the night. It was only 7:30, but it seemed much much later.
As we debriefed, Allie was somewhat disappointed as she was expecting more of a lush tropical landscape around us, vs. the "third world" urban feel of Belize City, but was optimistic about seeing the rest of the country, drawing comparisons to her initial reaction to Phnom Penh Cambodia, 3 years ago, where she saw it is a dirty place lacking any cultural value, until we ventured out to the country side where it quickly became one of her all time favorite destinations. |
| Vandals spelled her name wrong, so she's adding the 'K.' |
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