Belize Navidad

On our Wednesday, we traveled to Belize, Belize City in fact, to go on more excursion adventures. Lots of shops again at the port, but we weren't being haggled to much be people outside of stores. Our guide Taz took us on a great tour of the city by van before we headed out of town. He was very informative about everything to do with his country including the little things which I find are usually the more interesting ones. In the recent past Belize was called British Honduras and they are still part of the British Commonwealth. They are the only country in Central America with water safe to drink from the faucet. People only worry about crime occurring in the bad parts of town. The country's ambassador has no security, walks his dog and jogs out on the street alone, and flys on the regular airline. There are many orange orchards in Belize and they sometimes supply concentrate to Florida Orange Juice (those hypocrites). We hiked a mile and a half in the secondary rain forest to where we jumped into the cold water with our tubes and headlamps. Taz pointed out various trees and explained what the bark could be used for and mentioned that pharmaceutical companies have visited to find out information about the plants and trees and their uses.

I have never floated down a river in a tube while wearing a headlamp and I would do it again in a heartbeat. It was a lot of fun except for pulling some dead weight around with me. She looked really great in her tube-gear so it was worth it too. We got to see some interesting limestone formations and bats. I hated bouncing into walls and of course there is always the fear that something will grab me from below or bite at my ankles. I don't mind being underground, so that just wasn't an issue.

The zip line was a lot of fun although my wife thought that I stuck in the middle on a couple of runs because I was scared. I don't see the logic in that because getting stuck meant that I had to pull myself to the trees or the next person coming at me feet first would really hurt me. We were hurdling through the rain forest from great heights, but it wasn't as cool as I had hoped. I like great falls and these were safe and gradual. We did have a drop at the end, but when you land four feet off the ground and hang there for a while, it kind of removes the fear from the situation, if there even was any. Being a guy and wearing a harness just don't go together very well. Another reason I can't understand how guys can ride horses.

We watched karaoke tonight and I didn't sing because I was way too chicken to get up in front of a group of drunken people and open up on a microphone. I am not the best karaoke buddy because I take it way too seriously. Each song is like a performance which will judged harshly simply because that's what I do to the people doing songs. I remember just playing a song on my guitar while a friend played away on his saxophone at a camp one night just for fun. Another guy started making funny faces and I wanted to yell at him and take a few swings at him with my fender. Yeah, I didn't do it and knew that I couldn't just joke around with music while with the wrong people. Karaoke is a lot less intimate, so hopefully I will grow up a bit about it since most of the people doing it suck anyway.