A Letter To 2010 & 2011

Dear 2010 & 2011,

You rocked me hard. You shook me violently like a ragdoll for months and showed no sign of letting up. You pushed me to my physical, emotional and spiritual limits. It was to the point that I was numb to any emotion and there wasn't any other place to go. I visited multiple counselors, doctors, family, friends, priests, nuns and churches. My job wasn't even a safe zone. I walked in everyday with hate and fear and walked out with self doubt and tears. I felt betrayed and beaten down. I was sick. It was an emotional sickness that cut so deep it made my whole world ill.

I was scared to leave a job in a bad economy because it was required of me to bring my husband in from Mexico. But my happiness was on the line.

Then I got all Eat, Pray, Love up on myself. I decided to get the hell out and dedicated all my time to looking for a new job.....and then, I was laid off. No surprise there. The hatred was written all over my face. Usually losing a job means spiraling down into a deeper hole but this was a blessing from God. I then went to a retreat for 3 days and it was my chance to heal. My wounds slowly callused over and the bleeding slowed down. A month later I was offered 4 different jobs. I picked the best one and it's amazing how different it is. I'm treated like a human. A human with a soul and a mind.

I am thankful for my new job and the retreat. I can only hope that 2013 is way better.

Sincerely,
Christy

I am also thankful for these following happy moments that happened in the past year:

Traveled to Mexico City and stayed with a wonderful family.

Added two new ruins to my "been there done that" list.

Saw my first bull fight in Leon, Gto. Mexico

Became a Godmother at my first Mexican Baptism.

Took a stab at a dream and started a photography business called PhotoBox Studios with my sister. 

Took a girls trip to Belize with a good friend after I was laid off.

Ran right into this guy - Gene Simmons on the island of Ambergris Caye, Belize.

Let my sister experience the hipster vibe of Playa del Carmen and the beauty of the Riviera Maya.

Discovered how much I'm in love with cenotes and underground caves!

Took an express trip to Chicago with my mom and sister.

Had a fun anniversary road trip to Kansas City for an art fair. 

Took my dog Rico Suave to his first Woofstock. Then we made him do a dog race and he lost bad.

It's Friday!

Its Friday! I am so tired. I'm beat. My body feels as though it's been tortured. Or was that the "Rip & Ride" YMCA class that did that? Oh well, same difference. Tomorrow will be my first (and only) day off in two weeks till next Saturday. I need another vacation already! This photo illustrates my exact feeling once that 5:00 p.m. whistle blew. Anyways, I'm off to go find my massage slave.

This weeks links:
- Why us travelers hate the 9-5 (funny in a not so funny way)
- Beautiful shots of Havana, Cuba (the architecture!!)
- Hot air balloon goodness (it's on my bucket list)

The Split On Caye Caulker Belize

Soundtrack to this post: http://youtu.be/q46zIMnE92E

I think my friend Chance would have to agree with me that the afternoon we spend being lazy, sipping on cold drinks and cooling off in the light blues of Caye Caulker was the best idea ever. We had been staying the past couple days on the larger island of Ambergris Caye in the beach town of San Pedro but we wanted to see what else was out there island wise. So we took a 20 minute boat ride over to Caye Caulker, walked the quiet sandy town and didn't really find much of anything. For all the hype about this island I figured there would be more. The town just seemed to be rows of bungalows and gift shops and nothing more. But we were determined to make it worth the $12 boat ride.

Erika had read in her guide book the day before that there was an area called "The Split" that is said to have good swimming, tan bodies and good drinks. It was a part of the island that had to be cut so that boats can have their way through. After having misled a group of hippies a few minutes before (they thought we knew what we were doing) we finally found it. We knew we hit the spot when a large sign read "The Lazy Lizard" and behind it were all the bodies sprawled out sun bathing. Hot and sweaty from walking the entire town, we jumped in. 

After our body temps were set back to norm it was high time to quench the thirst. The Lazy Lizard bar ended up being anything but lazy. These bartenders were top notch. They found you beaconing from all corners of the bar, got your order, made it right in front of you with fresh fruits of all kinds, fancied it up with different colors and WALA! Heaven in a plastic cup. Why yes you can have a tip senor!

Now when they talk about atmosphere, this place had it. The ocean was two steps away, names were carved into the bar stools, Bob Marley music was blaring and the locals were gathering. One Rum Punch in and I'm feeling good....I mean happy.

The rest of the afternoon went like this: Sip our drinks, talk to hippies, take a dip, listen to music and repeat. As I floated on top the salty water I could hear the music echoing through the water and into my ears. My only worry that afternoon, don't float into that fisherman's line.

Now if only I could repeat the whole day.

Inspiration #3

As I filed through stacks of art in a local air conditioned art gallery on the beaches of San Pedro, I still found myself shaking my fist at the dang airliner that made me pay cash after they had lost my reservation online. If only I had that extra $70 I could have some delightful masterpieces. I fingered the measly few coins and salt water soaked Belize bills in my pocket. It ate away at the inner artist.

But nope. I settled for this brown handmade paper with brightly colored paintings of everyday life, festivals, and iconic figures. I'm fairly pleased with my buy and proudly march it home to add to my collection.

As I unpack, I unroll my newly precious gift to myself and look it over. Oh wait, what is it that the couple and the donkey are prancing around so merrily in the upper portion of the painting?

HA! I had to laugh, it just made itself into a conversation piece.

Next Time

So I thought I would jot down a small list of things I need to remember for the next trip or have regretted about the last:

• Bring a wrist watch. Carrying a large alarm clock around wasn't easy.
• Bring more cash just in case a reservation doesn't go through.
• Print and bring every confirmation (hotel, airlines, buses).
• Wear a higher SPF sunscreen (see above).
  
• Drink more beer earlier on.
• Bring personal snorkeling gear.
• Don't wear brand new flip flops and expect them to be comfortable.
• Don't buy bikini tops that end up flashing everyone when you get wet.
• Don't walk for long periods of time in wet shorts...hurts if you know what I mean.
• Rent a bike earlier on.
• Do more than 1 snorkeling trip.
• Bring more snacks for the long layovers at airports.
• And of course, like always, take way more photos.

Reluctant To Leave

So it was then our last day in Belize. We woke up extremely hung over and with only about 3 hours of sleep, no thanks to the partying the night before. We both weren't feeling so hot so I loaded up on some Imodium and Dramamine before heading out the door. We were in a slight mess. We had to return our bikes and then go do about a 25 min walk with our luggage down the beach to the water taxi, all in an extremely timely manner. We thought about just putting the bags in the bike basket and going from there. We soon learned that our balancing skills weren't that great with 20+ pounds added to the front. So we decided to walk down the beach looking like fools until some taxi driver felt sorry for us and picked us up....it worked.

We sat at the dock for a while with our tickets and tanned our sunburns some more. With the help of the taxi driver, we got there sooner than expected. For a while we were the only ones. Then when it came time to actually loading up, everyone and there baby were cramming onto the boat. We were 2 of maybe 5 non locals on the boat. That included the goofy tourist man in the middle of the photo. To the right of him were 3 criminals all handcuffed together. One of which we had seen walking the streets of San Pedro couple days before. But to say the least, they were the most happy go lucky cheerful criminals I had every seen. They even tried striking up a conversation.


After a 1 hour boat ride we docked in Belize City, it was like a whole new world. Think New Orleans but way more run down, cluttered, and weathered. Cool looking though I must say. I would have loved to take some photos. The other white couple on the boat offered to split a taxi ride with us to the airport, we were in. We so lucked out on that. If they hadn't of done that, I wouldn't have had enough money to exit the country. Gah it was pricey. Once again I blame Maya Island Air.

Of course the Central American Airport was a breeze to get through. But once again, coming back into America was a pain in the butt. Andrea slid right on through with a cheesy smile. Me on the other hand, I get in trouble....again. It was deja vu watching them dig through my luggage. Maybe being blond has something to do with getting off easy? Or maybe it was my burned face that looked as though it witnessed a nuclear bomb go off?

True Places

It is not down in any map; true places never are. ~Herman Melville

My sister took a small video of the club pre 1 am crowd.
And sorry about how dark it turned out on the blog.

La isla bonita

Tropical the island breeze. All of nature wild and free
This is where I long to be. La isla bonita
And when the samba played
The sun would set so high
Ring through my ears and sting my eyes
Your Spanish lullaby

On one of our last days Andrea and I decide to go shopping. It didn't turn out the way we liked. So with all that energy spent and disappointment looming over us, we decided it was time to give the bar/club scene one more try. Our objective of the night was.....to just blow the rest of our money on beer and hopefully party it up.


We started off with a chill dinner. We ate slowly, very slowly. It was only about 7 or 8 pm and we learned from last time that the party people don't come out till around 11 pm. We had been told by some locals that it was ladies night at Wet Willy's, so thats where we started. This bar was located at the end of a dock. We got in free and took our seats on the water with a Belikin beer.

For the longest time we were wondering if "Ladies Night" meant that there were nothing but females coming. We sat back and watched all the older white ladies dance, continued to be bored out of our minds, and then realize that the swimming fish were more entertaining. One of the bartenders saw our boredom and came to talk. As we talked he soon learned we were the girls he was waving at/hitting on from afar on the dock over earlier that day and he became embarrassed. We gave him a hard time and then he bought us drinks. He seemed to be the first guy we had met that had a good head on his shoulders. He soon had to go back to work so he introduced us to his friend Tino to make sure we weren't left alone and continued having a good time.

For some reason I told myself to just roll with it and really get to know this person instead of just brushing him off. We ended up completely hitting it off and had a conversation for a good couple of hours. Yes! Another guy with a great head on his shoulders and we had tons in common! He was on a Belize soccer team and I guess very good b/c he was offered a full ride scholarship to a college in Virgina but he turned it down to continue living in paradise. Can't blame him. He also speaks 3 different languages and also looked very much like Usher (I guess he hears that alot). So of course he knew every Usher song. Boy do I love Usher. Andrea had left us alone and talked to the bartender and Tino's cousin instead (who liked to highfive and say "ya man" a whole lot).


The bar was closing at midnight and Tino offered to take us to a club down the beach and the bartender would follow later. The club was about 3-4 levels and it was pitch black with glowing lights all around. Everyone from the bars soon followed and the place became packed! All the guys wore white shirts ( I can only presume so they stand out with the black lights) and Andrea and I were the only non locals in the joint. The free drinks continued to flow and Tino was finally able to convince me to go out and dance. It soon became a scene straight out of Havana Nights.

At the club Andrea got stuck with another one of Tino's friends...this time it was Sunny. (Above on right) He was just a goofy crazy kid. Not even sure. The bartender even caught up with us and tried a couple of times to cut in with Andrea but failed against Sunny. I find that funny. Tino and I continued to talk, hang out and have a good time. I was thoroughly enjoying myself.




Afterwards we walked down the beach and the guys helped take our bikes back to the hotel. Sunny gave Andrea a ride on the handle bars and she screamed all the way down the street. After some more talking on the dock Tino decided to show us the bridge up in the neighborhood area. Going under that bridge is a large canal. Sunny thought it would showcase his manliness for Andrea if he swam across the canal. By then she was way annoyed and could care less. He scratched himself up on the coral and gave Andrea a wet cold hug afterwards. Meanwhile a boat was getting stuck in the coral a few yards out while trying to come through that canal and filling the silent night air with jammed motor noises.

We hung out till 6:30 am and had to get up at 8 (still drunk) to leave for the airport. We all agreed it wasn't fair that we had to meet on the last day. Tino had a whole list of activities he would have gone and done with us. He even admitted seeing us walking around the island earlier that week.Dang.

In the end, our club hopping night was successful, I'm glad we made some new friends and it definitely topped off our trip. I'm sure if Tino were to live near me, I'd have a good friend on my hands. From the small time I was with him I saw that he was a person that loved adventure and life yet was very simple and had a kind heart. We agreed to stay in contact.

I fell in love with San Pedro
Warm wind carried on the sea, he called to me
Te dijo te amo
I prayed that the days would last
They went so fast

- Madonna "La isla bonita"

Inspiration #2

Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember
more than I have seen. ~Benjamin Disraeli

Who knew?

With the magic of Google, I just found out that Changa is actually the owner of Amigos del Mar. Who knew?!

Changa! Fun Saver.

Now I have always been kinda leery of any type of water sport. Not sure why. Maybe it's the fear of really deep water, drowning, or maybe the creepy crawlers under my feet. Shoot I get kinda nervous swimming at the YMCA. But we were in Belize, the country with the 2nd largest barrier reef! (Australia is the first) I had to do it. I don't even think we planned on this. We were winging our entire trip.


We had stopped by a dive shop the day before and were told to come back at 9 am. We did exactly that and there was no one there! We had to talk to a guy working on the dock gas station for information. The whole thing was shady. But the gas station boy said "just go next door, they are alot better." So we hopped one dock south to Amigos del Mar. They were perfectly fine with us not having a reservation. We paid about $40 each and were fitted with fins. Right away we were boating off into the bright blue and green waters of Hol Chan and Shark Ray Alley.

We boated out to our location and were told that the Coast Guard was out counting people on boats and guess what, we had too many people on our boat. Thank goodness I volunteered us to go to another boat. Turns out there were some British chicks on our 1st boat that were dissing on Americans and how rude they are. Ha well then. And on top of that, our new boat had the coolest tour guide - Changa Paz.

Compared to the other tour guide, this guy had tons of personality and seemed to absolutely love his job. Who wouldn't love swimming in the Caribbean everyday and showing off your country? As I slowly put my hair up, stripped down to my swimsuit, strapped on my camera, waddled over to the edge of the boat and looked down into the water - I decided to throw out any fear and jump in. My sister and I were always the ones in the group to do everything first. We were with a group of a few ladies that were more pansies than us.

We were warned to not touch any coral or even flick our flippers near any. Now thats hard to do when your have to adjust things like your MacGyver rigged face gear and hair thats always in your face. The first half of the tour was rough. I constantly had others fins and goosebumpped butts in my face. That and I hadn't gottin used to things, I was hyperventilating and my back was spazzing out and I thought "dang, I'm not going to last till the end." Then Changa came up to me and asked "you ok?" And I said "dude, my backs tired!" He replied "ohhh....just chill. Lay flat, keep your head in the water, and chill man." Andrea agreed b/c she was apparently chillin already.


I finally got the hang of it and it was awesome. Once you got into deeper waters it was much easier and you didn't have to worry about hitting precious coral. From that point on Changa decided to keep a close eye on Andrea and I and always made sure we were having fun. As we got closer to the barrier reef we swam into the deep deep canal. It was relaxing and you just floated and viewed the amazing activities underneath. Including fish bitting some chicks and them freaking out and Changa almost getting his fingers bit off by an eel. Then the large waves started to hit and I was then swallowing tons of water and Andrea was feeling the hardcore rip tide.

After that we headed off to Shark Rey Alley. It was too early in the morning so the sharks weren't there. Sharks? No thank you! Changa knew of a cooler spot that had a ton of Stingrays and a large Sea Turtle. That rocked.

Changa then started talking to us wanting to know what we had planned for tomorrow and that he would love to take us on another trip and we could all hang and not have to drag along pansies. As he put it, "I can't handle those crazy girls." Sounded like a great deal till he also wanted to show us around all the clubs that night. Andrea wasn't listening so I didn't have her to help me think of a reply. I think he even asked us to meet him at the dock that night at 6:30. His accent was too strong so I wasn't for sure what he said. I just said "we'll see" and did the thumps up thing.

He then dropped us back off at our first boat with the mean British girls and as he sped away he yelled "6:30! Be there!" Later Andrea and I were wishing we took him up on his deal. We were wanting to snorkel again so bad and he seemed like a cool cat. But you never know with two girls traveling alone, didn't want to chance it.

Changa, next time we're callin ya up!

For The Inquirer Of Sorts

I don't so much have a cool story on this post but I just wanted to make some comments on our hotel, the restaurants we ate at and some other services. This way inquiring fellow travelers have some more ideas of what they are getting into.

The hotel we stayed at was Hotel Del Rio. It's on the North part of the island more up in the neighborhood region. This allowed our stay to be very quiet and relaxing, besides the random barking of geckos. The first time we heard one we thought there was some kind of crazy bird in our room and both my sister and I shot up out of our sleep to check it out.


We didn't get our cool cabana we wanted for some reason. Even though we were the only ones at the hotel for half the trip. But I almost didn't care afterwards. We ended up staying in Casa Blanca for $65 a night. It had AC, a life saving memory foam mattresses, a fridge, an awesome balcony, and it was always extremely clean. Some negatives were cold showers, the worst toilet I used on the whole island, the water pipes would get air in them and take a few minutes to turn on, no view of the ocean from room, it was kinda far from the main activity in town, and there were some slightly gross cats. But those were tiny problems that didn't even dent my excitement. I'd return for another stay.

Restaurants, well, there were hardly any. There was a place called Fidos that seemed to be owned by a couple of American Frat looking boys. The food was good but overpriced. For those budget travelers, it's not the best place. That and I didn't enjoy feeling like I was back in an American bar with annoying teeny boppers on Spring Break giggling at every word a local would say to them. And there were just too many tourist! It may have been voted one of the "Best Bars in the Caribbean" but I viewed it as a spot to go to for those who were too scared to venture out for the real deal. Some positives, the bar staff was very friendly and the music was great. Two other places that I thought were more worth while and in our price range were Pirate Pizza and Lily's Seafood (I believe that was the name).

The rest of our meals consisted of going to the grocery store and eating nothing but peanut butter sandwiches and washing it down with beer. I was perfectly happy with that.

Drink wise...I'd say stick with Belikin Beer. It's cheap and does the job. We even thought we would try the infamous Rum Punch. Lets just say we weren't pleased when the bartender put our cup under the spout of a smoothie machine, it then came out watery, it left us $5 poorer and without the slightest buzz. Boo. It left Andrea peeved and wishing she had another cigarette.


My last words of wisdom would be to rent bikes! Save yourself from walking days on end in flip flops on sand and later wishing you had someone to carry you everywhere. We rented ours from Joe's Bike Shop. And man, for some reason we had difficulties relearning how to ride a bike. We felt like drunk idiots peddling through town over rough cobblestone streets and weaving through thick traffic. Just make sure your seat is adjusted to the right height or you will be eating sand like us.

Inspiration #1

The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see.

~G.K. Chesterton

Our Watering Hole Brings All The Boys To The Yard

The second day we slept in till about 1 pm and we were woken up by our maid who ended up thinking we were crazy gringas for still sleeping. Hey! We were tired from the marathon the day before! We got up in a hurry, took an icy cold shower, and headed out for some food. Then it was off in search for the great waters!

We found the perfect spot off either sides of a beautiful dock. The water was a clear blue and green and the dock was far out enough for us to be able to lay out in bikinis without locals coming to watch us lay.....you would think.

Suspect #1
This was a guy maybe in his 40's that had followed us from about a mile down the beach. He had stopped us before and said he was from the US and tried to have a conversation. We figured out right away he was full of lies. He comes walking down the dock, strips down to his undies, slithers down the stairs, and comes right up to me. I say sarcastically, "Ha, well it looks like you found out where we were swimming." He replies "I sure did.....You like dirty jokes?" I throw out a fake laugh and he continues on about a joke that sounds as if it's about a blow job. The punch line was that it was actually about licking thread and putting it through an eye of a needle. His 16 yr old wife he brought along sat on the side laughing hysterically all while he was in arms distance from my face.

As he continues with 2 more nasty jokes that I couldn't understand because his accent was so strong, I search for Andrea who was quickly doing the back stroke out to sea. Thanks pal. I decided it was time to leave the scene fast.

Suspect #2
This next guys name I couldn't understand but his nickname was Ace and he was in his early 20's. He was friendly in a not AS creepy way. He jumped right on into the water with us and started the convo with "Man, you guys are some good swimmers!" He was also intrigued with our tiny goggles that didn't cover our noses and how they worked. He was nice company. We did things like doing different jumps off the dock and he showed us some areas with cool fish. But apparently he slipped a comment to Andrea in what he was "really" looking for (wink wink). This time it was her turn to sign off and do the walk away from the situation thing. He didn't get the hint and wanted us to go to some bars that night with him. We lied and said "Yep see ya there at 6:30"


Suspect #3
Again I can't remember this guys name but we called him "Hotel Boy". He was maybe in his younger 20's and worked at the hotel that owned the dock. He was completely innocent and every afternoon he would tell his boss that he was getting hot and needed to go for a swim. He'd come out to hang with us, take a dip, and then take a couple hours to sun nap. Could I get paid to do that? One thing he really wanted to take and show us are the giant crocodiles that you could hand feed whole chickens and were tame. Heck no man.

One evening we ran into him I noticed he had a large patch over the right side of his face. I asked "what happened??" He said "oh I just drank a whole bottle of rum and got high last night and took a walk over to this dock. Then I fell over the edge and went face first into a cement block. 6 stitches." Then he continues by pulling out a wad of crack and explained how he used it to numb the sore and that he hasn't used any for other reasons (b/c if he did he gets aggressive). He then asked us again if we wanted to go feed the crocodiles. Andrea and I looked at each other and took note of all the possible bad things that situation could turn into. I know mental pictures ran through my head! He started acting really strange so we slipped away on our bikes leaving him with his wad of crack, bleeding face, and the urge to feed us to the crocodiles.

Who knew the freaks come out during the day?

I'm A Trouble Maker

I'm back! Belize was awesome. It was an adventure and I made alot of new friends. I pretty much didn't want to come back. As I was told by many happy go lucky Rastafarian's, it's paradise man.

My sister Andrea and I packed for almost an entire day trying to fit everything we needed into 2 carry-ons. We were going standby on American Airlines. So we dressed in our most comfy business attire and rolled our suitcases down the halls of Mid-Continent Airport like two jetsetters.

This is where my delinquent terrorist self came into play. My sister gets through customs fine with her cool little pass. I put all my crap on the x-ray belt and walk through. BEEP Oops my shoes. Go through again, BEEP "Miss, pull over to the side." Apparently I had one to many 3 ounce liquids for their liking. Now my liquids are all in baggies but that wasn't good enough for them, they had to use their baggy. And of course, it all fits. That is after I had to tell one of the guards that toilet paper is NOT a liquid after he tried stuffing it in the bag. Keep in mind, they let my sister go through with even more liquids than I had. BEEP This is followed by another "Miss, you are on a roll." They decide to dig through my suitcase in search for a weapon. They dig out my harmonica and say "Oh this is a gun clip" and run it through the x-ray all by itself just in case they were tricked and it really wasn't a freakin harmonica. Then they topped it off with handing me some "reading material" aka rule sheet. Is this what our airport security has come to? Old dudes on power trips? Now I've traveled many a times before, but this time I was beyond annoyed.

The old dude on a power trip was followed by our planes computer system failing, a delay of 2+ hours in Dallas for "cleaning", the airport in Belize screwing up my reservations, and lastely they lost track of my luggage on a flight thats 15 minutes long. By then I wasn't the slightest bit surprised.

A week before the trip I booked two seats with Maya Island Air for a Cessna Caravan to take us to Ambergris Caye. But they decided that I was crazy and did not pay with my credit card and that I do not know how to work the internet. HA! So, word to the wise, don't trust their website. Anyways we I had to pay with out of pocket cash (there went my spending money).


Once I was on the flight I had a sense of relief come over me. We were finally getting to our final destination. That and I knew I wasn't going to get sick this time because of my cool new motion sickness patch.

The baggage guys asked if we wanted the co-pilot seat. I let Andrea have the honor. By the time we got to the island we were so dead tired and hungry from being up for 33+ hours without food that we just hit the nearest restaurant and then passed out. The only thing that went smoothly that day was our hotel reservations, thank you God.

You Better Belize It!

So I'm leaving for yet another adventure in about 19 hrs. 11 min. and 45 sec. to...Belize! Not that I'm counting or anything. Hopefully I won't have work on my mind while I'm chillin on the beach in a hammock with a beer (ok many beers) reading a book or swimming with the fishies in clear blue waters. Getting out of work Friday afternoon alive and emotionally stable was difficult. I think I may have a small scar from it all.

Once again for those of you who do not know your geography, Belize is in Central America directly south of the Yucatán Peninsula. And I've heard it has some of the worlds 2nd best Barrier Reefs. I don't scuba dive or anything but heck, I'll sure try some snorkeling. My sister and I are staying on Ambergris Caye. It's one of the most visited island in Northern Belize because of it's snorkeling destinations. I would have loved to run around the country to see what there is and hop over to Guatemala and check out Tikal once again but to do that the cost started racking up and we were trying to keep this on the cheap side.

So after a difficult week at work and me throwing my back out again Thursday, I think I have hyped myself back up for the trip even though I'm a little leery of how my back will act. On the plus side, I will have a "never been out of the country" newbie sister on my hands and it's always interesting to see their reactions to things. That and I will laugh when she gets hooked to international travel like I am. So with that, I'm off to start packing before my boss tries to hook me up with his single, soccer playing, Belizean friend who is probably 3 times my age.