Tom Eppenberger Jr’s blog

Or, at least this is what Phil and Shelly were calling me by the time our trip was ending.

On our way home, while in the Int’l airport in Belize City, Phil decided that my nickname should be changed from buffet to quarantine.

This is it, our last day. And, it was a busy day at that. Packing, cleaning, sorting, etc. When nine people settle into a house for as many days as we have been here, things get pretty spread out.

The major concern of the day was getting everyone, and all of the luggage, to the airport. This would have been simple, but we also had to get the golf carts back into town. The folks at Cholo’s agreed to meet us at the airport to return the carts, but they were not willing to drive all the way down to the house.

We ended up devising a plan that called for Phil and I to drive the golf carts back, with one kid on the back of each and as many bags as we could fit on them. This would guarantee that everyone else, and the remaining bags, could fit into a single taxi.

The big problem was that we couldn’t find a number for a taxi company. The house’s caretaker was supposed to arrange for a cab for us, but he lost the phone number for his friend’s service. Finally we found the number for some random taxi place in one of the Belize books that we had brought on the trip. The cab was arranged, and we planned on leaving about 30 minutes prior on the golf carts to get a head start…

Then the taxi showed up 30 minutes early. So much for our head start. Griffin rode with me, and Dante with Phil. Griffin and I spent nearly the whole trip laughing as we watched Phil drive his wonky golf cart ahead of us…

When we arrived at the airport, we were 90 minutes early for our flight, which is unheard of in these parts. However, we assumed that it would take awhile to get Cholo’s to the airport, and we were right. They closed for lunch between 12-1p, and it was 12:05p…

We wandered around town and picked up a few last minute souvenirs before we hooked up with the folks from Cholo’s. Phil ended up having to pay $60 for the damage to his golf cart. They tried telling him that he must have crashed it, but Phil disagreed. He had to pay regardless.

The flight from San Pedro to the Int’l airport was much quicker than our previous flight. However, it was a lot bumpier. I sat directly behind the pilot, which I really didn’t enjoy. Being able to see the co-pilot’s steering wheel move as the pilot reacted to every bump and gust of wind only served to ensure that I felt every bump and gust of wind for the entirety of the 15 minute flight.

Once at the Int’l airport, we got checked in and had the opportunity to buy even more last minute souvenirs. Then we had to go through customs, and pay $45 US per person to leave the country. How’s that for a how do you do? And, yes, Lane was full price.

Once through customs, we sat at the gate for about two hours before our flight. More duty free shops, more last minute souvenirs, etc. We hadn’t eaten lunch, and so you can only imagine our excitement to see a sign for a “full-service snack bar.” Just our luck, this turned out to be a bar that served hot dogs… nothing else, just hot dogs and alcohol. We ate doritos and cookies for lunch.

We then flew to Dallas and got to go through US customs and immigration. This went surprisingly fast, and we were through both lines and again waiting for our plane within 30 minutes.

It was just after 9p local time, which meant all the restaurants were closing, and we hadn’t eaten anything of real substance since morning. Luckily for us, a  Mexican restaurant let us sit down as the last customers, but the menu was anything but vegetarian-friendly. The waiter was nice about it, and helped us order some dishes that could be made without the meat. It wasn’t great food, but it was something.

The flight to SF was uneventful, aka the best kind, and we then sat outside in the freezing SF cold, waiting for the shuttle back to the hotel where our cars were parked. It finally showed up, and by 2 AM, we were back home.

Out of concern of bringing sand fleas or whatever with us, we pretty much stripped down on the front porch, and took showers before heading to bed. I even threw a load of laundry in before bedtime! Tomorrow will feature lots of laundry and recovery.

This was the best day on the island, at least for me I woke up feeling much better, and pretty much headed right out the door to go on the snorkeling trip with Phil.

The boat was supposed to pick us up at a pier two houses down around 8:00 am, but they asked that we be ready a few minutes before that. Well, at 7:50 am, Suzette saw a boat speeding by and so we ran out the door and over to the pier thinking that perhaps we were missing our ride. It turned out to be for nothing, as the boat cruised back by a few minutes later and told us that our boat was running a few minutes late.

This ended up being nice because we got to hang out on the pier, which extended about 50-75 feet out into the ocean… well past all the nasty, murky water and into a section where we could see lots of fish hanging out. Our boat finally showed up around 8:45am and we were the last people to get picked up, so we headed dead East of our house to our first stop, the Hol Chan Marine Reserve.

Once we got the boat anchored to a buoy, everyone was given a life jacket and we jumped into the water. We snorkeled as a group here for about 30 minutes, and saw lots of really colorful and LARGE fish. The water was the deepest at this spot, so there was a lot of coral to see, and a couple of moray eels that came out of the coral to check us out.

Back on the boat, we headed about 10 minutes South to a spot called “Shark Ray Alley” (this spot is technically now part of Hol Chan Marine Reserve, but it seems to be so well known that nobody associates it that way). The boat parked in water only about 10 feet deep, and seeing all the sting rays swimming below the boat did make me think twice before jumping in, but Phil and I were the first two in the water. The rays are pretty harmless and keep to themselves, even when only a few feet below you! One of the guides made friends with a sting ray and brought it close to the surface of the water so that everyone could pet it and get a closer look. It seemed to be a pretty gentle creature. There were also nurse sharks in the area, and a guide wrestled one and held it upside down, stroking it’s belly so that it would “go to sleep.” Again, this allowed for everyone to get a closer look and pet the shark.

Once everyone was back on board, we thought that we were done for the day. Turned out that because the owner of this company wasn’t on the boat today, we would make a third, unscheduled stop. The guides had seen some of their buddies that were cleaning conch shells near the reef, halfway between Hol Chan and Shark Ray Alley. We pulled the boat up and parked next to four or five other boats that were all there with snorkel tours. Lots of sting rays, large fish and a turtle had all gathered near the fisherman because they were dumping the guts of the conch into the water — it was lunchtime for them! Phil and I were again the first two in the water, and within a few minutes of navigating our way between boats and anchors, we were watching a huge turtle fight the other fish for food. It was a really, really cool experience, and worth the price of the trip all by itself.

After about a half hour, we headed back toward our house. The advantage of being the last ones picked up in the morning meant that we were the first to get dropped off, which was really nice since we were so tired.

The rest of the morning and early afternoon was quiet. Shelly and I spent some time out on the pier, and I got to show her that there was more to our “ocean front” surroundings than the nasty, murky grass that we saw from our backyard.

Around lunchtime, we had some visitors. Suzette and Linda had made arrangements to have Robert’s, the house’s caretaker, wife and sister-in-law come over and prepare some Belizian cuisine for our dinner. They made three kinds of panada’s (chicken, fish, and bean), another dish that resembled a tostada, and a delicious cabbage mixture that also contained cilantro and lime that was served on top of everything it seemed. They made more than enough food, but even though it was meant for dinner, half of it ended up being consumed for lunch.

Once Lane got up from his nap, we decided to make the trek into town and try to find Boca del Rio park, which we had read a lot about before the trip. The pictures of this park depict a playground that is half underwater, which obviously looks like a lot of fun. Think monkey bars, swing sets, slides that are all in shallow water! All we had to go on were the pictures that we had seen, and a spot where the park was supposed to be on a local map. We also knew that much of the park was said to have been ruined by Hurricane Mitch (back in 1998), but it was to be rebuilt.

Phil, Griffin, Zeke and Dante joined Shelly, Lane and I, meaning that we took both golf carts out. We got to the Boca del Rio bridge, which was shown as being next to the park on the map. To our disappointment, there was a park next to the bridge, but it was just a basketball court and some old run down slides, no where near the beach or water. Oh well.

After that disappointment, we decided to simply head back to the house. We were really bummed out.

The only bright spot at this point was the comical state of Phil’s golf cart. Something happened to the front wheels which caused it to drive anything but straight… with the left front wheel pointing in an entirely different direction from the right front wheel. He was having some problems driving it, but looking back and laughing at him did help with our mood and state of mind!

On the way back to the house, we again stopped at Fido’s and got some food to go. Phil stopped with us, and all the kids discovered Fido’s beach bowling lanes. While Phil and I sat at the outdoor bar and shared some laughs with the bartender, the Shelly and the kids really enjoyed themselves bowling. Lane might have had the most fun, wreaking havoc by knocking down the pins just as quickly as Dante and Zeke could get them put up…

Woke up at 4:00 AM today, and was sick. Crapola. I ripped apart our bathroom looking for the allergy medication that we brought, but came up empty. So I went back to bed and hoped that somehow I would wake up in a few hours and feel fine so that I could go snorkeling.

Woke up again about 6:30 AM, and felt worse. No snorkeling for me. I called and canceled, and was also told that the tour was delayed because of the storm that was rolling through. After breakfast, I went back to bed for a few hours.

I drove Shelly into town for her massage appointment in the afternoon (she got a Mayan abdominal massage and ear candling done on both ears), and then took Lane back to pick her up a few hours later. We got some ice cream in town and then stopped at a local souvenir store on the way home.

After taking some allergy drugs, I was feeling better and got to hear from Suzette and Griffin what a great time they had snorkeling. They also mentioned that there was an opening in tomorrow’s tour, so I have decided to take a chance on getting bronchitis, and take the trip. Phil will be joining me, so it will be a good time regardless.

Suzette and Linda also made arrangements to have the wife of the house’s caretaker come over tomorrow afternoon and help them to make homemade panada’s and tortillas. It should be really cool.

I got even more bites today, and my legs, arms and elbows are all starting to look like I have a really, really bad case of the measles.

Today was another pretty relaxing day. We took Lane into the backyard and played in the sand, including finding some really cool white (nearly incandescent) sea shells.

While Lane napped, Suzette, Griffin and I signed up to go on a snorkeling trip to Hol Chan and Shark Ray Alley, both not very far South of our house.

After Lane got up from his nap, we headed North and went into San Pedro Town to explore. We looked through a number of tourist type stores, local art stores, street vendors and what not. In one of the local stores, I picked up some Skin Therapy hemp seed oil, which is “jungle proven” to help stop itching and burning of insect bites.

We couldn’t find anything to eat in town, so we headed back toward home hoping to find a local restaurant. On our way, we came across a Tortilla and Panada stand. I bought a pound of fresh corn tortillas (I watched her make them the entire time — very cool), and Linda got two Chicken and Potato panada’s.

Finally, we stopped at Fido’s Sandbar to get some food. It wasn’t long before we started seeing lightning off in the distance, and the storm clouds came rolling in. While waiting for our meals, we started getting eaten alive by mosquito’s (among other things). So, we got our food to go and ran back to our golf cart.

The ride home was interesting, because there we no street lights for long stretches of time, but at least our cart had headlamps!

Once home, I jumped in the shower and washed off my bite covered legs and elbows. Then immediately applied the hemp seed oil. It sure did stop the itching and burning. I was so badly bitten that it was starting to cause me to freak out a little on the inside, anxiety attack type stuff, so I was very happy to be in doors.

About 30 minutes later, the clouds opened up and sheets of rain began falling. I was sure glad that we decided to get our meals to go, or we might have been driving our golf cart home in the middle of this rain.

After the shower, and devouring my meal, I was totally exhausted and fell asleep before 8:30 PM.