Belize or Bust...was Almost a Bust

We headed out of Merida bound for Chetumal on a 7:30 am bus. That was on Thursday. It is a very relaxing but long 6 hour bus trip. The Mexican first- class buses are luxurious with plenty of seat room and leg room. The bathrooms are so cool...you never have to touch anything to get water for hand-washing or to flush the toilet. You just wave your hand over the little button with the cute pictures. Pretty fancy, huh? We had decided to make this trip on the fly when we realized that our presence at the casa would not make the work go faster or smoother. Beto has the keys to let himself in and we think he has at least a general idea how we wanted the tile floors to be laid out. Furthermore, Beto has full artistic license to do what he wants. I mean we aren't there so who knows what Beto will do. I think he's going to miss us being there making tortas for him every day though.

The smooth and uneventful ride to Chetumal was a little different than our water taxi ride to San Pedro from Chetumal. We boarded on time and left on time, but after about 15 minutes the engine sputtered and stopped running abruptly. Terry immediately said it sounded like a prop shear pin. We were dead in the water rolling from side to side and a few people were looking a little green. Jamie, the gay guy we have come to know over the years as the cabin overseer jumped up and immediately told everybody to stay seated. It would just take a few minutes to fix. That was when the arguing started. It was a strange couple we haven't quite figured out. He was a big guy, a Mexican guy. She was a tiny little live wire, a Mexican woman I had named "Busybody" before we even left. She couldn't sit still and was constantly asking questions of everybody in the terminal beforehand. It seems they had been estranged, he had contacted her and said he wanted her to come home. She did. But he was texting F'ing somebody at 5 in the morning. Who the F was it??? She demanded to know. My statement was ---Well, we'll be seeing this altercation on YouTube.

After a few minutes they stopped arguing or maybe the engine, one of them, drowned them out. We were back on our way but slowly. The normal hour and 45 minute trip took 2 and 1/2 hours but we did make it to San Pedro. Got through customs and our plan was to look for Larry and Joanne and hope they were waiting for us, but if not, we would walk over to Ruby's Hotel and get a room for the night and find them in the morning.

After getting through Customs, we exited and looked around but didn't see them and we were just about to head out walking when we spotted them in their cute little yellow golf cart being very still and trying to be stealthy. They were going to come up behind us once we started walking and listen to how we trashed them for not caring enough to even meet us at the dock.

They had put in a full day and we had traveled all day so we were all hungry. Headed the 8 miles out to their gorgeous condo and stopped off at a little roadside eatery for drinks and something to eat. Their specialty - lionfish. None of us had ever eaten lionfish even though we had heard about it. Oh, my! It was so delicious. And the drinks were cold. We were all so excited we were all talking but I don't know who was listening.

Headed out to the condo and I have to say it was an early night. We were ready for a good night's sleep and a couple of days of catching up. Pretty nice of them to let us crash at their pad for a few days!