unBELIZEable-the rest of the story

So I kind of feel like I left Belize just hanging in the wind. It's been over a month and I haven't completed the adventure so here goes:

day 3:
1. morning at the pool
2. afternoon snorkel trip-which was awesome. We had these great guides-Eddie and Oscar. They were hilarious. they took us out to the reef but we weren't allowed to cross it-had to stay on our side. but we saw a TON of stuff: turtles, baracudas, lots of fish, rays, sharks, etc.. oscar would tell you to put your face in the water and then he'd put food right in front of your face. The fish literally would kiss your face getting the food. It was awesome. a few guests from the wedding party were with our group and we went to shark-ray alley, the boys wouldn't get out of the boat. wusses. the place was crawling with nurse sharks and gigantic rays. One of the boy's girlfriends even held the shark. anyway--we thought it was funny that the boys were the ones scared to get in the water. Molly has these pics so I'll have to get them from her and put them up.
3.dinner at Blue Water Grill. This really isn't that notable except for the desserts. We got a flourless chocolate cake that I've been craving ever since and a key lime pie that were delicious.
4. we wandered about town for a little bit and ended up at Fido's again-big surprise.
5. cards at the table to call it a night. We also tried to see if we could unwrap starburts in our mouth.

day4:
1. we spent the majority of the day at the beach and at the pool
2. we decided to go on an excursion the next day so we spent quite a while with Eli getting it planned. there was some major difficulty getting it figured out but finally all was set. As we were leaving the dive shop--the wedding on the beach was just getting started. we had seen them setting it up most of the day and it was so pretty. We couldn't help but stand there and watch--I kind of felt like a voyeur but we just had to. Later we heard the wedding party reveling the majority of the evening. we learned that the entire wedding party including the bride and groom jumped in the pool.
3. dinner in town. we decided to skip a restaurant and go to the food stands at "central park" It was awesome. We got some pretty good burritos and a fanta for about $3. can't beat that price. the people watching was awesome as well--it seemed as if the whole town was there. i loved it. before we went out we had a little visitor in our room. We had to come up with a gecko extraction plan. He started out on the ceiling and through some wrangling skills from Kim, he made it to the floor. Jocelyn was convinced that tapping the floor with a hanger would keep him from coming to her side, molly grabbed the camera and kim and i were on a mission. it's pretty ridiculous what girls will do to get rid of a ittybitty lizard. (the video is in two parts at the bottom)
4. we all fell asleep in the living room

day 5:
1. jocelyn, molly, kim and i signed up for an excursion back on the mainland. we jumped on another plane and went back to belize city. Roland came and picked us up and took us out to Jaguar National Park. We first did a zipline tour going from platform to platform which was pretty dang cool. Elder and Edgar were our guides and they were great. Jocelyn was a little nervous to do the final rappel (please see video at the bottom) but it did make for some good laughs. We then went over to the river where we picked up a headlamp and tube and then took of on a little hike. After about 45 minutes of hiking, we jumped in the river and floated down through caves. It got a little chilly toward the end but was a pretty relaxing little stroll down the river. On the way back to the airport, all of us could notice Roland in the rear-view mirror falling asleep. We were getting pretty nervous and I started to offer him things from the cooler. He assured us he was fine. riiiiight.
2. we flew in and out of a municipal airport in belize city--not the international one. when we landed i seriously thought we had landed in the water because looking out the window that was all i could see. the runway was parallel to the shore with about a foot to spare. what? when we went to the end and turned around to take off, the back wheel was in the ocean. i'm sure of it. we also used boarding passes that were laminated card stock. "blue boarding passes to gate A--all blue boarding passes to gate A"
3. we got back and found ashley. she had stayed behind and found the church. we ran into the missionaries earlier in the week and they told us how to get there. so she enjoyed some time with the local members. We got spiffed up and went and met our water taxi for our "last dinner" One of the gals we met at the resort told us about this great little place at the other end of the island that she goes to every year. so we jumped on the "kylie" and off we went. we sped past the whole shore of the island just as the sun was going down--it was awesome. apparently the high-end places are on the opposite end of the island but I liked the local flavor better where we were. We had a lovely dinner and enjoyed the boat ride back. It was a little unsettling going SO fast pitch black but it was pretty fun. We chatted for a while and then started to pack and get ready to leave. boo.

day 6:
Joc & Ash headed out early to go scuba diving. They had been waiting all week to go and the wind had been so bad that their trip got cancelled every day. So luckily, this day they were good to go. Molly, Kim and I walked about 10 minutes down the beach to another resort for massages. It was heaven. After we left the little office we walked toward the beach where three ladies in stark white outfits all stood by three perfeclty spaced tables next to each other under a canopy of palm trees. The next hour was awesome--probably one of the best massages of my life. The wind was calmly blowing through the trees and we could hear the real waves of the ocean--it wasn't just a cd :) Kim and I had to stop in the hammock for a second and we were so relaxed it proved a difficult task to get out of it :) and no, kim isn't an indian. she just appears to be. We scooted back to the resort and enjoyed our last afternoon at the pool with chips and salsa and pina coladas. Before we knew it, Raymond was taking us back to the gravel pit for our flight home. We picked up a few souvenirs at the aiport and said goodbye. Thanks Belize--we'll see ya next time.