So you know how Maylee wanted to stow away in our suitcase and come with us to Belize for our ten year anniversary? Well, Olaf must've overheard because he did just that! I found him when I reached in for some snacks waiting at the airport in Salt Lake City!
We got to SLC quite early for our flight (imagine that!) but it was late at night and we tried to get a little rest before we boarded for our long trip out of the country.
We flew to Miami, then to Belize City for a total of 7 hours on a plane. More time waiting in the terminal... Then FINALLY to our destination this morning. This is Olaf checking out all of the palm trees there are in Belize!
We stopped for lunch at a place that was like a giant gazeebo with a thatched roof. We thought G-pop might like to see the construction. (Don't mind all of the unedited pictures... I'm working on my laptop sans photoshop here...)
Olaf considering a career as a sugar cane farmer...
More of the roof:
We drove a couple hours across Belize and saw some interesting things along the way... Like several above-ground cemeteries.
Brightly colored houses (all with porches and/or roof-top terraces... like all of them)
...Except for all of the houses with no roof at all. It seems like 90% of the construction is cinder block and a LOT of the structures no longer have roofs.
Lots of the houses are also on stilts. Belize is about 60 miles wide and is right on the Caribbean (which is a prime location for tropical storms)
One of the nicer schools we saw. All of the kids wear very clean, sharp, matching uniforms to school.
Most of the houses have rebar sticking out of the top. We've heard a few different reasons... One being so they can add another level later (it seems like even the simplest homes are more than one story and the stairs are always slapped onto the outside of the home... Dennis says it's generational per level) and the other being that they don't have to pay taxes if the construction isn't complete.
Did you know there are lots of Mennonites in Belize? They have their own town called Spanish Lookout. It's like night and day driving through here than the rest of the country. They are very modern, very clean, have large mowed lawns, have several tractor dealerships, large stores...
Lumber yards (we're told they do a majority of the new construction and produce up to 75% of the crops in Belize)...
The animals have beautiful green pastures. The Mennonites have cleared away a lot of the jungle for their farms/ranches.
A tree-lined driveway...
These Mennonites are a little more modern than the ones in Idaho. The little girls don't always wear dresses and they must be up to date with their social media.
Olaf was glad our bus stopped at this ice cream shop. He was going a bit soft in the 70-something heat +humidity!
We saw lots of Brahma cows.
This cemetery looks to have stacked tombs on top of each other.
This is the entrance to where we're staying tonight. We just got back from walking into town to find some dinner. It was shady. I'm glad Dennis is big. I found horchata. We bought crackers and peanut butter for lunch tomorrow. In the morning we'll go get some fresh fruit from the market.
Our hotel has three floors plus several cabins/cabanas out back. We're in one of the cabins and Olaf loves it.
He's got the window seat all to himself.
I think I may have slept a total of 1, MAYBE 2 hours last night. It's 8:00 local time and I think we're ready to hit the sack!
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