Monday, 9/14/09, While I was sitting at Cocotal Inn and Cabanas getting my sun and rest on in the pool and on the dock, the maid pulled me aside and said, “Ma’am, Beaulah needs to see you in the office.” “Eeek!” I think to myself. I was actually at that moment walking back to the bar to write down on the sheet of paper that I had drank a beer. I totally forgot to log it at the exact moment I took it from the fridge. With the maid stopping me and telling me that, I immediately think to myself, “Oh Crap, I didn’t log the beer right away and it’s an hour later and Beaulah totally knows I didn’t and thinks I didn’t and is going to yell at me!” Mind you, Cocotal Inn and Cabanas has a really nice open air bar- it’s an honor bar. That means, you take what you want (Belikin beer, Sodas, etc) and you mark it down to pay for it when you leave or to be invoiced on later.

I walk into the office and Beaulah doesn’t yell at me about the beer at all, but instead, informs me that Courtney had called me earlier from Ecologic Diving and she walked around the grounds to find me but couldn’t. At the time she was looking for me, I was actually next door at White Sands grabbing lunch. I say “phew” and explain to Beaulah I thought I was in trouble for the beer (funny, I know) and she laughs and just says, “Let’s call Ecologic and see if we can catch Courtney before his last dive.” She promptly dials Ecologic Divers whom I catch the owner on the phone and she mentions “Courtney requests your presence for a night dive tonight. We will pick you up on the dock at Cocotal at 5:15 p.m.” “Okay, great!” I say as I hang up the phone. I head back to the room and take an hour nap. It’s about 3:15 when I wake up. I go back to the honor bar and grab a coke Light. Yeah, not a diet coke, but a Coke Light (it’s equivalent in Belize to a Diet Coke). A few minutes later, I hear a boat pull up to the dock at Cocotal and see Courtney walking down the dock towards me. I’m quite excited. We had spent the day apart and I had missed him and I was glad to catch some alone time before going on our night snorkel and dive. At this point, Courtney gathers himself in the hotel room and we decide to go to the nearest grocery store, Lulu’s, to try and grab some food for dinner after the dive and for breakfast. We wander over to Lulu’s (a short walk from Cocotal) and see that the store is “closed” but to go see a server at the front bar and they will assist you to open the shop. (they are open normal hours as any store is but in the low season it doesn’t make sense to have workers sitting in there when no one is around). We walk to the front bar right on the water and beach and walk in on a PARTY! We are greeted by a few who ask us to stay but we insist we can’t because we have to go on a night dive/snorkel. They ask us to return after our night dive. We showed up about 8:00 p.m. when most everyone was already at their limit- but we still had a blast!

Honestly, the pictures do the talking, but I wanted to thank Victoria for her hospitality and also all the wonderful people we met that night at Bella Vista.

I would just like to point out two of the most inconvenient parts of our trip.

#1. The Car Rental (Dun Dun Dun!) We knew from the beginning with the car rentals giving us problems and canceling the week before to saying that all car rentals in Belize were sold out of the “high clearance” vehicles when we needed them that it could possibly be a problem when we arrived. When we hopped in the taxi cab in Belize City Wednesday morning at the swing bridge we told the taxi cab driver to, “Please take us to the International Airport. We need to be dropped off at Belize Car Rentals.” The taxi cab driver took us to the airport directly (with a very interesting story) and dropped us off where all the car rentals are. Now this could be partly our fault and/or partly the cabbies fault. We walked around and could not find “Belize Car Rentals.” Courtney runs into Crystal Car Rental and for thought that was who we booked through. (this is our fault, we forgot to write/print out our confirmation and address) and we just assumed Crystal Car Rental was the one. After being there for a few minutes they say we do not have a reservation with them and that they are unsure of where Belize Car Rental is. Then, after some more convo, we learn that Belize car rental is located about half a mile from all the rest of the car rental places, but still at the International airport. They then proceed to call Belize Car Rental to come pick us up. We waited there for about 30 minutes for the ride and I sat there giving Courtney the “Stank eye.” Not because I was mad at him but more frustrated at the situation and that the cab didn’t take us to where we asked him to. And the fact that all this time was draining out. After almost giving in to Crystal Rentals sweet talk and renting a car with them, the Belize Car Rental driver showed up and was actually VERY nice. We went back, signed away on the vehicle and we were on our way about 45 minutes later. The car at first was the biggest “hoop-tie” car with over 115,000 miles on it. But it got us through our trip and since it was already quite the beater, we didn’t feel bad taking it on the “worst road in Belize.” The pot hole haven road.

#2. The Time Share. We got conned into going to a timeshare after Courtney pulled a “1 week vacation for you and 5 other friends” from a white envelope if promising to give 90 minutes of his time to a time share salesperson. After biking there and paying the toll for the bridge in San Pedro (yes, Beware! a toll to go North of San Pedro, we did not know this!) we spent about 45 minutes before I started giving Courtney the stank eye and attitude for wasting our time on our trip.We talked about it briefly when the salesperson walked away that Courtney wouldn’t even get the timeshare and the person probably won’t let him walk away or give him the prize unless he purchased a timeshare and this could definitely last longer than the 90 minutes he was obliged for. I then turned and stripped down to my bathing suit and jumped in the pool while the sales person walked off with Courtney.After I jumped in the pool and waded around (jump, psh- it was a measley 3 foot deep bath tub) Courtney returned about 10 minutes later after using me as an excuse as the decision maker and that I obviously wasn’t interested (which is totally cool, I just wanted to enjoy our Sunday morning!) we then proceeded to move along to pick up groceries and head off for snorkeling.

I was more so just frustrated because these two time sucks were a waste of our time. They con you into doing timeshares so easily so BEWARE! And as I said in previous posts, time is money. Both these things were a waste of time that could have been avoided if approached correctly.

I don’t know that Liz and I will make it a habit to post every morning, but on this day, we just so happened to be awake before everyone else is and have the luxury of a few minutes to relax and gather our wits about us. Much of this may have to do with the 8:30 bedtime last night! We were so exhausted by the end of our journey yesterday (OK after we kayaked out to the reef, climbed a tree, drank coconut rum punch and ate a wonderful dinner), that we simply couldn’t stay awake any longer.

But going to bed at 8:30 leads to an early rise, even after ten hours sleep! So we got up, walked to the dock, laid in the hammocks for a couple of minutes and are now prepping or a trip to forage for food.

One new travel tip: ALWAYS stick to your plan. Liz and I got too excited to stop and grab groceries on our way to Cocotal yesterday. We were indecisive on what we should do and ultimately skipped it. Would have been easy to cook up some grub and roll out the kayaks first thing this morning. Lesson learned.

Old Travel Tip: Pack a few clothes into carry on items! A nice couple from Birmingham shared our flights but not our fortune as their luggage didn’t arrive. They are staying at a private island with the clothes on their backs and a tank top Liz insisted the lady borrow. I feel bad for them, but on the bright side, they do have all the privacy in the world on that little island!

Here is our itinerary. We likely won’t be able to post on any of these exciting activities while we’re gone, but you can follow along with what we are doing each day anyway. Hopefully we can post here and there, but for now, this is what we have.

Our Hot Card arrived today! We’re set for savings and maximizing our adventure return. We’ve identified several different places where we can get everything from 15% discounts to free cocktails.

I’m planning to capitalize on the 15% discount for cash exchanges as Ecologic Divers in particular. Lizzy and I have them booked for a Sunday snorkel and manatee encounter on Sunday. I’ll be diving with them on Monday and Tuesday. Those three bookings combined should total well over the $50 cost of the card. We’ll follow that up with a visit to a few of the area restaurants and bars for discounts and complementary wine and cocktail options each evening.