A Big Break in Belize!

Saturday morning we were up and out the door at 5:15 AM to take a taxi to the capital and catch a double decker luxury bus to the border of Guatemala. We were headed for Belize to renew our visas and relax after 4 straight months of language school. The travel plan was to get off the bus in Puerto Barrios, take a lancha (motorboat) across the bay to Belize, and take a prop plane to Placencia. The best laid plans....Enter: 20,000 motorcycles! Yes, the day we chose to travel was Guatemalan Sturgis! How does a double decker luxury bus share the road with 20,000 motorcyles? Very slowly and cautiously! We arrived in Puerto Barrios 3 hours late and a half hour after the last lancha took off across the bay. So we spent the night in a dive and headed for Belize the next morning.

Renewing visas is hard work and requires lots of sand, surf, and seafood! Placencia is an peninsula in southern Belize. We were so busy having fun we didn't take any pictures of the beach! So here is a link to the hotel where we stayed: www.westwindhotel.com. The weather was perfect, our little hotel was perfect, such bliss until Tuesday morning when a palm stump jumped up and broke Becky's toe as she was heading into the sea. Oh the pain and agony! We had been planning to take another route home and go toTikal in northern Guatemala. Tikal is an ancient Mayan city and some of the best ruins in the country. We nixed this plan as it involved a lot of walking. So on Wednesday morning we traveled in reverse. Only the Placencia airport was closed to repave its one runway! The airline

provided a water taxi across the lagoon to the next nearest airport and we were up in the air for 15 minutes, then took the lancha across the bay to Guatemala, got our passports stamped, and road the bus back to Guatemala city in record time. We took a LONG taxi ride back to Antigua. Due to continual construction on the highway between Antigua and Guatemala City, traffic is really backed up from 3pm on. But we made it home and we were all sound asleep by 9pm.

The next day Becky went to the doctor. X-rays confirmed a fractured proximal phalanx of the great toe (that's just for you medical types). The doctor gave me some quick acting pain meds and arranged my toe and made a shoe-type cast. I got a prescription for Toradol for three days. Ahh, an end to the excruciating pain!

The whole doctor's works cost about $60 US. Pretty amazing, huh? But remember that for the average worker in Guatemala that is over a week's salary. When was the last time you paid over a week's gross salary out of pocket for a doctor visit and treatment? Some workers do have an employer paid Social Security plan that entitles them to medical care. However these state funded medical services can be slow and limited. If you need surgery, you may be put on a long waiting list. Sometimes the medications you need may not be in stock. And getting to see a doctor may mean showing up early each day for several days until your name gets to the top of the list.

Now, Rick is learning to shop in the market...all the things I have down. I might have a 30 day break from those market trips. He is pretty familiar with the market and should do fine.