For most of our school days we rode big lumbering yellow school buses to big lumbering schoolhouses.
We walked to a designated bus stop and waited, in all weather, for a driver to swing open narrow doors, and then saw faces of other kids who were just as thrilled as we were to go to school, take notes, write papers, give oral book reports, and deal with cretins.
This tour to Lamanai, I get to visit school days again.
Our bus isn’t yellow but it is the same Bluebird series that we rode in with Puritan seats, windows that move up and down on metal tracks, an emergency exit in the back that meant sure death if you were caught opening it by a bus driver who meant business and had power to make you walk to school instead of ride. This bus has religious modifications but the driver is attentive and we drive north from Belize City on a roadway that is part of the Pan American Highway.
On this bus ride I don’t have Rasta music or Reggae or salsa or even Garifuna drums as traveling music. There is no radio. Wind coming through open windows cools us on a sunny morning.
Field trips were always the funnest part of school, but we didn’t have many.
School was never as fun as it should have been and riding that bus was like a prisoner going to the electric chair.
There are as many tour companies in San Pedro Town as there are bars, restaurants, or lodgings.
The day tour from San Pedro Town to the Mayan ruins at Lamanai on the Belize mainland, including drinks, transport , food, a guide and park fee is $150.00 U.S . We are gone an entire day, from 7 in the morning till six in the evening and see Belize by boat, foot and bus.
Our trip starts as a tour boat picks up guests at the end of piers where they are staying. There are twenty of us,this trip, young and old. The boat captain is Erin and our guide is Gustavo.
On the way to the mainland we get educated about mangroves, weather, ecosystems, navigating sand bars, pirates, and answers to any questions we ask.
As often is the case, guests are not asking questions but Gustavo tells us history and habits of those who live here. He makes himself available but not obnoxious. A good guide opens the book and points you to good parts, explains, but doesn’t read the words to you.
Even though this is a Sea-Rious tour we all go home, at the end of the day, smarter than we started and with smiles on our faces.
Evenings, if you get bored, you can play pool at the Average Joe Bar down the street from Chez Carib, next to the Caribbean Fuels gas station in San Pedro Town, Ambergris Caye, Belize.
Pool is a good game to know how to play, and, like riding a bicycle, you get rusty in your skills but you don’t forget how. In a new place it is a way to find friends, meet and make new friends, or keep the friends who already know how to put up with you.
This evening the game is eight ball and, since there are six people who want to play, we partner up. Four of us play and then the winning pair of each game keeps the table and plays the pair that sat out.
Jack and Kristi and Greg and Mark were here when I dropped in. Walter and I make a team this particular game though I’ve never met him before.
I start well but lose ground.
This night there are good shots, bad shots, some erudite comments, and chatter.
Beer and good shots do not have a good relationship, but beer lets you think you are better than your shots prove you are.
A palapa has a thatched roof that lets rain run off it like water runs off a duck’s back.
The shape and structure of these traditional island buildings is functional, not complicated to build, and uses local materials. In a big wind the whole thing creaks and moves because wood and thatch are flexible. High ceilings catch cool breezes and hold them. You can see this well known San Pedro Town palapa at the end of its own pier from land, water, or sky and it is always a crowd favorite.
On Sunday afternoon, on a road trip north driving our borrowed golf cart, Rabbit and I visit the Palapa Bar and Grill for a look even though we have beer in our cooler for emergencies.
The Grill has been here as long as most can remember but it has been recently sold and the old owner is opening a smaller place in town. The new owner has already been labeled “aggressive.”. Apparently the right price was paid, and it must have been good, because this place is packed this balmy Sunday afternoon.
The Palapa Bar and Grill incentives are cool breezes, no mosquitoes, inner tubes to float on, good food and plenty of drinks. The place looks and feels like a great location for a beer commercial for a postseason NFL football game.
When you are in San Pedro Town longer than a few days, you grow tantalized by gossip, rumor and speculation. It is the quantity and quality of gossip that keeps glasses filled, entertainment flowing, and customers sitting on their bar stools.
The ladies in inner tubes are combining the best of drinking, tanning, socializing, and gossiping.
Civilization is out there somewhere.
We all wave as it sails past.
Golf carts are in, in San Pedro Town.
Some of the carts are old; others are new. New ones cost from nine to fifteen thousand U.S. dollars depending on what they have under their seat, and, while the carts aren’t complicated mechanically, mechanic shops around town are busy. Unpaved roads and cobblestone streets play hell with front ends and suspensions.
Rabbit’s cart was loaned to him by a female friend going back to the states for a month. On the way to the airport it broke down and they had to get a taxi and she missed her flight. Her mechanic towed it to his shop and when Rabbit picks it up it still doesn’t seem right. When you push the gas pedal the cart hesitates before engaging in gear.
” It’s a solenoid under the gas pedal, ” Rabbit says, and, not being a mechanic, I can’t say that isn’t the problem .
When you ride in a golf cart here, you have arrived. Knowing they are an expense, and continual problems, you are still glad to have one.
When you got wheels, women find more to recommend you
Bicycles beat walking and golf carts trump bicycles.
If this baby breaks down again, you can bet his woman friend is going to pay the bill and we are going to drink all the beer.
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