passports & pepto bismol

After another night of 9+ hours of sleep, we headed to the nearby coffee shop and to the front of the line just as a fresh batch of cinnamon rolls arrived. What luck! Nicole arranged for a late checkout which gave us an extra hour. Nevertheless, it was kind of a dead day. We sat by the pool for a spell and remarked at how quiet it was. I suppose the fact that it was 9am had something to do with that. Nicole read her book and I did some Italian. Boppita boopy! We watched numerous Cessna Caravans cross the sky above Mahogany Bay. Eventually it was time to go.

As Nicole was finishing up her packing, I walked outside and found a bunch of iguanas wandering around a field that will eventually be developed into further expansion of Mahogany Bay. A golf cart came to get us just before noon and we were soon on our way to the airport. When we tried to check in with Tropic Air, we were told to just wait for a few minutes. We waited around for about 15-20 minutes before eventually we were handed a laminated piece of paper that said, “PINK.” Evidently Tropic Air thinks it works better to tell people to queue up based on the color of their ticket compared to their actual destination. This did cause a bit of confusion for people wondering if they had perhaps missed their flight.

Little by little, orange, yellow, gold, and green were asked to board their separate aircraft. Finally, it was time for the pinks. Nicole being the first out the door was asked to take the seat next to the pilot. What luck! I’m not sure why, but Nicole looked a bit unsure of herself in that seat.

It was a quick flight back to Belize city, but perhaps Nicole thought it was a bit longer. In either case, we had a lot of time to kill in Belize’s international airport. There isn’t a lot going on inside the terminal. No priority pass lounge for one! Unacceptable. And the terminal was so confining and loud, we could have used an escape to a lounge. We made a few tchotchke purchases, but didn’t get any food. All the establishments looked a little sad. We were hoping for a business class seat on Alaska, so we could at least get a meal.

Luckily we did get seats in row 1, despite the gate agent not wanting to release the good seats to us for some reason. It’s tricky when you fly for an airline that gate agents in Belize may not recognize, but does in fact fly for the Alaska brand and enables us to get business class. While Alaska’s business class is nothing super posh, it’s nice to get a meal and a big cookie.

So with relative ease, we were able to go to Belize and back for a quick getaway within four days. It’s nice when things work out well. So then, how was Belize? Madonna has a song from the 80’s called, “La Isla Bonita” with a verse beginning with, “Last night, I dreamt of San Pedro…” While many have debated where exactly this is, Madonna even admits she has no idea what geographic location she was singing about. This hasn’t stopped people on San Pedro, Belize from genuinely believing that the song is about them. “La Isla Bonita” is on all the license plates despite the fact that San Pedro is not an Isla at all. I think the way the song has unintentionally become a slogan of a place it isn’t even about is a perfect explanation of things I observed in Belize.

Any conversation we overheard usually involved people heaping praise upon Belize as an idyllic paradise. For us, the beach was okay I suppose, the snorkeling was anarchy, and the food situation was frustrating to say the least. Most of that could have been improved by removing lots of people from the equation. From what I gather, Belize is virtually dead in the summer. That sounds . . .nice. Naturally, spring break isn’t the best time to go to a warm weather location and expect small crowds. Yet, nobody else seemed to be bothered by these things.

But as always, it’s rare to find anyone who will admit that their trip wasn’t absolutely perfect. We, of course, tend to scrutinize a bit more. But like the song, people hear and see what they want. Sure I can make my friends jealous by using magic eraser and eliminating 200 people from a turquoise water beach picture or just generating a picture of myself with the nurse sharks using A.I., but that’s not real. To paraphrase the Princess of Wales, like all amateur photographers, I dabble with a bit of photo editing, but enhancing a picture doesn’t change my actual experience.

To be clear, I don’t regret going to Belize or San Pedro for our mini break. It was a much needed escape even if there were some things that annoyed us from time to time. I liked the down time we had to just lounge about and relax. I liked sleeping consistently. I liked the warmth of the sun, but not as much as all the hundreds of sunburnt visitors we saw. Ultimately, I did enjoy going to the beach as well as swimming with the nurse sharks, but I can’t change the fact that I’m an introvert who gets easily annoyed and overwhelmed by large groups of people. I’m sure under different circumstances, it could have been more enjoyable, but I like to think that I keep it real here at Passports & Pepto Bismol. After all, Bricole have a lot to compare it to. We’d like to think that we’ve already been to La Isla Bonita; it just isn’t Belize. Just ask Madonna.