From Belize to St Louis

Vacations. Adventures. Things we look forward to. Whatever it may be, it is so tempting to idealize them. Like a sailboat trips through the Caribbean to the Belize coral reef. Sounds idyllic. The night before the bus ride to the coast I got sick—bad. Twice I buckled to the sidewalk in pain. Nathan had just arrived and was wondering what in the world happened to me—“what’s in the water down here?” he must have thought as I was on the verge of passing out.

We reached the coast to reunite with some friends and embark on our perfect journey to paradise. But why was it raining? That wasn’t part of the plan. It’ll let up in a hour or so. An hour or so later—it’ll let up by tonight. That night—no worries, it’ll fine by tomorrow. Tomorrow—certainly it’ll clear up soon. Soon—nope!

We hunkered down in belly of the ship playing Texas Hold ‘em as the captain and crew braved the bad weather and pounding rain. It wasn’t the most perfect situation, but it actually worked out well as I got to know the other passengers quite quickly: a fun couple from England, two in peace corps, one dude from DC, two affectionate girls from Sweden, my two Oregonian friends, a Kentucky, and Nathan. We sailed across the lake to a river winding its way through the jungle with steep, densely vegetated walls rising out of the water on either side.

The rain lasted two days before it cleared up. We were anchored right on top of the Belize coral reef, less than 100 meters from the continental shelf which is a wall dropping strait off 2200+ meters. I snorkeled and scuba dived in the clear Caribbean water. And for the first time, skinny me could actually float! We fished off the side of the boat and all our food was caught the day of---usually the hour of; now that’s fresh seafood!

A highlight: I saw my first live shark, actually two of them, and my response was much different than I anticipated. Sharks are large animals with big teeth. These sharks were about 2 meters long. So what was my reflex when I looked off the edge of the boat to see those vicious animals? The same thing anyone would do: I quickly grabbed my snorkel, fins, and underwater camera and jumped in after them!! True story.

Upon my return, we stayed in a small hostel cloistered in the jungle growth. In fact, it was only accessible by small boat. As we motored down the lake heading directly toward the shore, I turned to Nate asking where he thought we were going. Shortly later, we saw a small river inlet heading into the jungle. We squeezed the boat up the river, sleeking through the jungle past a turtle and up to the hostel. Needless to say, it pretty much rocked.

After dropping Nate off at the airport, I headed north with five friends to the relaxing paradise of Semuc Champe. It was a full day of travel ending with about an hour along a bumpy dirt road to this secluded hideaway. We enjoyed our first day tubing down another jungle river hoping that weird animals weren’t lurking beneath the surface.

Then came one of the most adventurous days of my life. It’s hard to describe. Perhaps you should just go. We took a bus from our hostel, El Ritiro, (which by the way has great vegetarian food) to the caves of Semuc. Here we slipped into swimsuits, strapped on our sandals, grabbed a candle, and hiked up to the caves. It is here where a small river weaves its way under the mountains. So we lit our candles, climbed into the water, and swam upriver through the caves. I can’t tell you how amazing it looked to see twenty or so people swimming through underwater canyons seeing only a trail of small flickering flames silently echo off the steep walls rising to nowhere. It was surreal. We swam and waded, climbed ladders and slid through waterfalls.

A personal highlight was about half way into the caves when I was the sole person holding a lit candle since everyone else had extinguished theirs in one way or another. We came to a waterfall where we needed to pass through it and around the back side to get across the river. I handed the candle to a buddy and yelled to him over the loud rush of the water “don’t let it go out!” When I reached the other side, I signaled for him to throw it to me, convinced that it would never make it alive. The candle soared in slow motion precariously through the fall’s mist as the flame shrank down to hug the wick. I reached my wet hand out, snatched the candle, and quickly cradled it under my body absolutely stupefied that it was actually still lit. The group gave a quick and (admittedly) well-deserved round of applause and then continued.

When we finished, I couldn’t believe what I had just done. I mean, I never even dreamed of doing something like this. I didn’t even know it existed. We proceeded to a rope swing that launched us into the water and then stepped it up to jump from a bridge (which I willfully observed).

We continued to the beautiful pools of Semuc Champe. These blue-green pools sat in a pristine jungle valley surrounded by no one and nothing. That was the beauty of it. Sure there were a couple tourists, but not many. No big luxury tour busses packed to the max with retirees taking pictures of everything and paying way too much money for everything else.

The main part of the river forcefully plummets into an underground cavern for about a quarter mile or so before plunging back on the surface. It is truly an awesome sight to see the river’s power as it surges into an abyss of blackness. People had fallen in, but no one ever survived. On top of that cavern rests the calm pools of Semuc Champe filled by some streams that meander down the steep valley walls. Each pool gently cascades into the next, silently resting to invite passersby, like myself, to take a relaxing swim. So I did. In fact, I took the most relaxing and enjoyable swim of my life. I felt like a little kid again when we had to leave. “I don’t want to…. You can’t make me…. Just one more dive mom…..no, one more….”

The minibus was waiting to take us home and it was nice to sit shotgun for the rare legroom offered in Guatemala. “This day was unforgettable” I though to myself. We soon rounded a corner to find a huge truck struggling to make it up the steep hill directly in front of us. Upon further investigation, Guatemala decided to do some repaving that afternoon on that hill. So, everyone had to drive on the dirt—no, the muddy shoulder. So the big rig was stuck, even with about twenty small Guatemalans trying to push it. We tried to get our minibus up the steep, but got stuck as well. After a half hour of watching, laughing, and pushing, we started our walk. They said it was somewhere between 5-10 miles back to town, but they are chronic under-estimators. The first half was all up hill, the second all downhill. After about an hour and a half of walking on a dirt road at night through the jungle, we finished the up hill and started making our decent to our hostel. Of course, it was then when our minibus caught up to us to bring us back home. I was grateful, but wished I could have ridden the bus uphill, and walked the downhill!

After four flight changes, I made back home safely but my bags didn’t. I enjoyed my short stay in Seattle with my folks. Thankfully I made it back to Seattle to go to my dear friend Heidi’s beautiful wedding. It was a blessing to see her again. Now I am in St Louis where I spent Christmas and where I will be until Tim’s wedding. I’m looking forward to the birth of my nephiece (it’ll be a surprise). This next month holds many decisions, particularly as to if I’ll be going to seminary and back to Alaska. Thanks for reading.