Good morning!
Today is going to be a long day of much sitting in planes, airports and then cars. We will not be home until very early Saturday morning. Enjoy our last few moments in paradise and our long trip home!
First is my morning coffee with lots of foam!
I had two eggs over medium with bacon and toast. Steve had scrambled eggs and since he forgot to order bacon I was sweet and shared mine. I am such a sweetheart!
A small plate of fruit with my last breakfast.
I wanted to use the video that Bunny took of her shower as she did such a good job holding the phone steady but she didn’t bring her phone to dinner last night. So here is my video. When I showed you the shower the other day, it was only a picture. You couldn’t really see how magnificent it was!
Our bags were all packed and ready to go.
I made sure to return the room key. There was a $100 charge if you didn’t bring it back. We never even used it to lock the room. I should have just left it at the front desk the first day!
These are the only Jaguars we saw all trip.
Goodbye front desk manager!
Today we got to take the van. All our other trips had been in the Land Rover. The van was air conditioned and I didn’t have to worry about getting dust in my eyes. That was nice, but I enjoyed bouncing around in the Land Rover also.
Steve doesn’t look to happy to be leaving. I was looking forward going home and to hang out on the couch in our house!
It was a short drive to the airport. Town was very busy as it was market day. A day trip to Punta Gorda is offered twice a week for market day. I think I might do that next year, but not when it is so hot and muggy. I think it would be very interesting to see all the products that some of the Mennonites have for sale.
Inside the Tropic Air terminal. It also doubled as the post office!
This is an activity I chose not to do.
Hiking, swimming, more hiking, all in a dark cave that required head lamps. No thank you!
Permission granted to board the plane.
Although the man is wearing a plaid shirt, he is not Steve. This man manages Copal Tree from New Hampshire. He comes every few weeks to make sure that all is running smoothly. The staff at CTL is incredibly personable and seemed to be very happy. Many of the team remembered us from last year. It was a pleasure to stay there.
The plane was given a good hose down to get rid of all the dirt and schmutz.
Good bye Punta Gorda! See you next time.
Here you can see the reef around the islands. the deep water is a much darker color.
It was very cloudy at times. Good thing we were flying via the computers!
The rivers were very sinuous! The roads are straight though.
Agriculture and lots of islands from the air!
This is Harvest Caye an island that Norwegian cruise ships land at. Last year there was a cruise ship parked here. Look how long the walkway is to get to the island!
Here is a short video of what you can do on the island. It looks incredible. Imagine how much fun it would be if the ship just parked here all week and you just hung out on the island all week!
At Dangriga, our last stop before Belize City we had a lot of passengers get on the flight. The copilot left the plane so another passenger could board the plane. Steve was instructed to move from behind the copilot to the copilot seat!This is where Steve was supposed to sit.
As Steve couldn’t figure out how to get out of his seat and into the crew seat (not because Steve is stupid, but because he is big and the space was really small), the manager of Copal Tree Lodge sat there. Even he had trouble getting from his seat to the front!
He was very interesting to talk to. Too bad I only got to meet him on the way to the airport today. Lucky for him I only met him today! He manages Copal Tree Lodge and a private shooting lodge in South Africa. As it is very private I will never go there. The owner only lets his friends stay there. I will have to research this so I can get invited there. Wish me luck!
Well remember my post the first day about how much wealthier I thought the town of Placencia was based on the airport? Well, I was slightly wrong. I do think that there are many more expensive houses there. But it is Maya Aviation that has the more expensive terminal. Tropic has the non fancy buildings. Dangriga and Placencia have both Tropic Air and Maya terminals. In Punta Gorda, there is only a Tropic Air terminal.
This is Dangriga airport. The Tropic Air terminal is on the left and Maya Air is on the right. An interesting fact is that we saw many more flights for Tropic Air than Maya Air departing the terminal at the Belize City Airport! Perhaps all the money went to build the terminals and they didn’t have any money left to buy planes!
At the terminal in Belize City this man was waiting for luggage with us. I still have not quite figured out what the t-shirt meant. I know the phrase, but the rose and what looks like a noose has got me flummoxed. I think I will never find out this puzzle. Oh well. There will always be other crazy people for me to look at!
Once we got our luggage check in was a breeze. Unfortunately we were going to have to wait another two hours until our flight was ready to board. That meant more people watching!
Steve was feeling exceptionally generous and bought me my very own bag of Crunchy Cheetos. What a guy! I think I will keep him!
Steve’s name was called and he had to go up to talk to the gate agent.
Poor Steve was selected for additional screening. He was not allowed to talk to anyone once they questioned and examined him. I stayed far away and people watched until I would meet him on the plane. Unfortunately this meant he would lose his Pre Check ability at Houston Airport.
Here is Steve in the holding pen. Do you think they will play “Enter the Sandman” when he was released to board the plane? (If you are not a New York Yankee fan you will not understand this reference!)
This man had beautiful long grey hair.
The blonde on the right is thinking “What shampoo does he use? His hair is incredibly healthy looking!’
In the terminal there was a young man wearing a green jumpsuit. It did look comfortable!
This plane would be taking us to Houston.
I boarded the plane and found Steve waiting for me.
Yikes! Green Pajama Man Jumpsuit was going to be on our flight! Good think Steve was sitting next to me. Can you imagine the questions?
Good bye Belize!
In case you forgot where Belize is located!
Our warm towels.
The flight attendant was making hot tea-and then put lots of ice in it, so I had that to drink. It was a nice combination with my warm nuts.
I chose the brisket for my lunch. I should have picked something else.
Steve had the pasta, a much better choice.
I was going to watch this movie, but it looked a bit too scary for me. I will have to check out the reviews when we got home and possibly watch it on Netflix.
Later in the flight Snickerdoodle cookies were passed out. I got one for me and one from Steve for me.
There was a lot of fat in the cookies. They sat in my stomach! They were very soft also. I like to make Snickerdoodles at home, and mine are not soft at all. They start out with a nice crunch and get crunchier the staler they get! As the recipe makes many dozen I keep the extras in the freezer. Sometimes I even eat them frozen!
Almost to Texas!
I wasn’t sure if this was a reflection of our plane in the clouds or a UFO, or my guardian angel. I prefer to think that it was my guardian angel!
We finally passed over the coast of Texas and were heading to Houston.
Houston we have landed! Hello Gate E 15!
Since we have Global Entry immigration was quick. There were lots of security individuals with lots of dog sniffing people and luggage.
It turns out that we never needed the TSA pre check on our boarding passes as we never left a secure area.
Finally we made it to Gate C42. Our flight was going to be leaving from here.
We had a number of hours to kill before getting on the flight. I was so tired with the long walk from where we landed, to immigration, and then waiting for our luggage, and onward to the gate that we were going to depart from. So when we finally got to the gate I just stayed there with out checking out where there was a priority pass lounge. I wasn’t going to use passes to the United Lounge as the last lounge we were at was the stinky lounge in Newark, With some of our credit cards we get free passes to either certain Priority Pass lounges or restaurants. Had I not been so tired I would have noticed that there was a Landry’s near our gate that we could have gotten a nice meal . You are allowed $28 credit per person with the Priority Pass. Unfortunately I didn’t think about this until 15 minutes before boarding! Next time!
Getting on the plane I saw a man in another interesting outfit. This guy looked like he had a load in his pants. Don’t you guys know that you are to look at your backside in the mirror before you head out the door?
Did you notice that he even had ripped knees? Those pants belonged in the dumpster not on a body!
We were offered PDB’s. (Pre Departure Beverages). I chose gingerale, Steve got a cola.
Steve was looking forward to watching a movie on the three hour flight from Houston to Newark. Unfortunately in a cost cutting move many of the airlines are getting rid of the seat back viewscreens. The airlines do offer movies that you can watch on your ipad, laptop or smart phone via an App. However they don’t show you the flight maps, or network television. This is a downgrade as far as I am concerned.
The warm towels were nice and hot.
We got warm nuts again.
Tonight’s dinner on the plane. Both Steve and I chose the Asian noodle salad with chicken. The cake was pound cake with a few blueberries in it.
We finally landed and then it was off to the luggage carousel where we would wait and wait for our two bag
Eventually , about 45 minutes after we landed our luggage appeared on the carousel and we were able to call our driver and then get home. Thankfully our driver had a lead foot and we made it home in 90 minutes. Of course both Steve and I were too tired to fall asleep quickly. Maybe tomorrow night we will get better sleep!
Until next trip, I hope you enjoyed yourselves on another Excellent Adventure!
Will we meet Bunny and Jack again?
Has anyone ever seen you wear a green jumpsuit in public? (Notice I didn’t ask if you owned one, that’s a little too much personal information!)
Are you willing to pay big bucks for pants with a baggy butt and ripped knees?
This ends my trip report to Belize and back. I hope you enjoyed it.
