Jillapalooza

IM IN UR OCEAN. EATIN UR CARDZ.

Forgotten on Christmas

Nick and I got up extra early to start our Christmas Eve day festivities. Actually we got up at 10am, but that’s considered early when you stay up till 4am. The plan was to head out to Nick’s Grandparents’ house so he could work on their computer, then head to his step dad Terry’s around noon-noon thirty.

We got to his grandparents’ house around 11:30am. Jake was there because he spent the morning hunting. Their grandpa had to run to the store and since I needed some supplies for dinner with my step dad’s family I went with him. We weren’t gone very long, maybe 30 minutes. When we got back I realized our vehicle was gone. It was about 12:15. I assumed the boys went to Terry’s house, but I thought it was strange that they would go without me.

All of a sudden Nick and Jake pulled up behind us in the driveway and asked me if I wanted to go to Terry’s. Of course I wanted to go to Terry’s. Then he told me that he forgot I was with them until he passed us on the road. How do you forget your wife somewhere? On Christmas??!?

Cipro

Last Thursday I was fortunate enough to get a urinary tract infection. Merry F*cking Xmas to me!! Since I seem to get super advanced strains that seem to advance to a kidney infection within hours, I get super advanced antibiotics as well. On this particular occurrence I was prescribed Ciprofloxacin, six pills over three days.

I conveniently placed my bottle of pills on the nightstand so I wouldn’t forget to take one in the morning when I woke up. I got up the next morning and grabbed my bottle. Nick rolled over in bed and with a horrified look on his face angrily said “What are you doing?” So I angrily retorted back that I was “taking my pill.” The look on his face turned to confusion, then back to horror. He told me he took one because he thought it was his malaria medication. He must have thought it magically appeared on the nightstand so he didn’t bother looking at the label…

Since I only had six pills I felt it was vital to get a replacement. I called the pharmacy and was on hold for what felt like forever. The pharmacist recommended that I get another pill and said she would have it for me later in the day.

Nick didn’t know where his malaria pills were so I assumed I had them from the Belize trip. I dug out his prescription bottle from the pile that was still sitting in my suitcase. I glanced down at the label and read “take as needed for traveler’s diarrhea” before remembering that he didn’t take the malaria medication on the trip only the traveler’s diarrhea pills, the… Ciprofloxacin. I immediately did a double take. Yep, it said Ciprofloxacin all right. The same thing I was taking for my UTI was the same thing prescribed for traveler’s diarrhea.

So it appears I didn’t need to spend the time on the phone and going to the pharmacy to pick up one little pill after all. I had 10 replacement pills under my nose the entire time. And all I’m going to say is I bet they would work real well on traveler’s diarrhea.

And Nick’s malaria medication was in the bathroom, where it probably was located since before leaving for Belize.

Here in Minnesota…

First day home from our trip to Belize. Boo was super happy that my hand was the hand that fed her this morning and she even bit me while I was petting her on her cat stand. Looks like she’s back to her good ol’ self.

What can I say about being back. For starters the bed was nice, as was the water pressure and the smooth ride to work. Breakfast sucked. Lunch wasn’t much better.

I put all the above ground pictures in the gallery. You can view them here. The underwater pics will be posted soon as well. Nick said he’d put them in his gallery, but after resizing and color correcting them, I need to have some glory. Besides, no one goes to his site anyway.

I’m also in the process of putting the videos online. Check out the player at the bottom of the post or visit youtube.com/jillapalooza.

Nothing left to do but smile

Belize – Sunday, 12/16

The diving is done, the souvenirs have been purchased, pictures were taken, our bags were packed. We woke up on Sunday morning and did all the last minute things you do when traveling. We packed our necessary morning toiletries, got a tip ready for the maid, arranged our airport transportation and headed to breakfast.

Ahhh, the last breakfast at Rico’s. We went without Nick, who wanted to sleep in for one morning of the trip. Since Kristen and I had packed our sandals, we made the trek in slipper booties and barefoot, respectively. Friendly familiar faces greeted us at the door. Like every morning the waiter handed us our menus, but like most mornings we already knew what we were going to order. Curtis and Kristen wanted to savor the flavor of the banana pancakes on more time. I, on the other hand, was going to try something new. The Rico’s English Muffin Egg Sandwich. On Friday when C, K and I were diving, Nick ventured to breakfast alone where he ran into Matt and Dan who recommended to him the egg sandwich. He confirmed that the egg sandwich was good, and I didn’t want to pass up the chance to try it. It proved to be a good decision, and helped to confirm the theory that there is no bad food in Belize. It was the best egg sandwich I have ever had, by a long shot. Which brought up the question, “How does this keep happening?” Everywhere we go the food is better than the last and better than what we’ve had before. Who would think that the best food in the world could all be found right here on Ambergris Caye?

Leaving Rico’s was another notch in the belt of leaving-Belize-realization. 9 am. We had 15 minutes before heading to the lobby for checkout. It went by quickly. We gathered our belongings to head to the lobby. Not three steps out of the door and a couple men were there for our luggage. Last time through the topiary garden. Last time to have the doorman graciously open the door to the lobby for us. Kristen signed off on the room charges and turned in our keys. We walked out the front door, filed into the limousine sized Banyan Bay golf cart and shortly after began our slow drive to the airport.

We passed by the grocery store where the same kid worked for our entire trip, and for the entire year previous. Every day 7 am – 11 pm. I watched all the familiar buildings and signs go by. After 10 days it felt like home. For how slow we were going it sure seemed like we arrived at the airstrip quickly. Kristen and I went inside the Tropic Air building to check in. What an easy process that was. After giving her our names she supplied us with generic laminated blue boarding passes, color coded to our flight. The boys took care of “checking” our luggage. We ended up in a smaller plane than the one we originally came in, it seated 8 plus the pilot. Curtis scurried aboard so he could sit in the copilot seat. The view leaving was great. The sky was clear and the ocean was calm. The second flight over the caye seemed different, perhaps the perspective of it changed because we were on it. I recognized our hotel and the hotels we walked past. It was also neat to see all the private homes from the air that we boated past during our trip to Bomba. The 17 minutes flew by (no pun intended) and soon we landed in Belize City.

Although we had a bit of a wait to check in, we went through customs quickly and there was no line for security. In fact, security was a little room dividing the check in area and waiting area. One gentleman manned the miniature sized x-ray machine while we walked through the metal detector unsupervised. Our AA flight was delayed about 30 minutes (surprise, surprise) giving us about 2 hours to kill. Kristen and I went in the souvenir shops and we stocked up on snacks for the flight. Nick also tracked down some hot dogs for us. The hot dot itself was a bit Oscar Mayer-ish, but the bun was big, soft and warm. As good as the hot dot was, Curtis hit it right on the nose when he said it made a disappointing last Belizean meal.

Aside from what seemed like an hour of the flight attendant talking, the flight went all right. Nick and I were the only two in our row so we got to have a bit of extra space. Then we landed at Miami International. We got stuck on the plane for what seemed like an eternity because the walkway that comes to meet the plane was broken and we had to wait for the mechanic. Once off the plane the airport was a nightmare. Customs moved smoothly, but poor signage led to much confusion while trying to find the area for our connecting flight. Going through security again was a pain in the ass, but that was to be expected. The gates there were not set up well. The gate we were at was pretty much located in the hallway, so we kept on walking to find a better place to sit. We had a four hour layover after all. Nick even heard a passerby saying that no prison in America is worse than Miami International. I was inclined to agree.

We boarded 10 minutes earlier than anticipated. Only to sit on the plane at the gate for a half hour after our departure time. Then more incessant talking. Of course when the captain comes on to talk about the weather in Minneapolis he was practically inaudible. The flight was full, but fortunately the woman next to me was small. I like night time flights, they seem more peaceful. Once we got off the plane we felt the refreshing cold air. We got to bypass everyone waiting at the baggage claim and got on the waiting shuttle to bring us to the Park ‘n Fly. Car side drop off service, you can’t beat that. The drive home was nice. High speed, no bumps. We pulled in the driveway around midnight. Boo was meowing loudly, happy to see us. Or perhaps expressing anger that we were gone for so long. Either way, she seemed to have fun sniffing our luggage and being a cuddle bunny.

Home sweet home.

Belize – Saturday 12/15

Last night Curtis, Kristen, Nick and I went to Elvi’s for the Mayan buffet, after looking at the buffet Curtis and I decided to order off the menu, while Kristen and Nick decided to give the buffet a go. I ordered scallops in garlic butter. Curtis opted for the grilled scallops. They were very good and the coconut rice was a bit different than in the other restaurants, but still very good. After dinner we went to the Salty Dog souvenir shop so Kristen could exchange a shirt, then we headed back to Banyan Bay.

I didn’t get to bed until after midnight, a record for the trip and possibly even the entire year. Of course what do you think happened at 7 am? Wide awake again. I peeled myself out of bed for some island coffee and computed awhile before the four of us went to breakfast at Rico’s. This time I opted for the tropical waffles, since everyone seemed to rave at about them. They were good. After breakfast we went to the dive shop to square up our bill. Ouch.

Kristen and I walked a couple hotels down to check out some handmade jewelry. They had a small selection in the dive shop and Eli told us the lady would have more displayed today. I ended up getting a bracelet directly from her, then buying a pendant that I liked back at the dive shop.

Finally a day to relax and catch some rays… it’s hard to tan when you’re constantly under the water. We were finally poolside and in the sun around 11 am. Kristen and I lounged around while Nick and Curtis practiced blowing air rings in the pool. We also racked up quite a bill while poolside… Kristen and I were drinking banana daiquiris while Curtis was enjoying mojitos and Nick was guzzling down Sprite, not to mention our snack of nachos and ceviche!!

Soon the daylight was waning and we were faced with the difficult decision of where to eat dinner. We talked about ordering pizza again, but we still needed to venture into town to get some last minute souvenirs. Then we discussed going to the Blue Water Grill since Curtis and Kristen enjoyed their meal so much. I was willing because I would have liked to try something else, but Nick wasn’t too hot on the idea. We also considered going back to Caramba. Finally we decided to ask the gals at the lobby desk for a recommendation. We had it narrowed down to either the Sunset Grill, which was on the lagoon side of the island, or Fido’s, which one a new restaurant. We decided to go to Fido’s. Once we got to town we decided to do a bit of shopping before dinner. We hit up a few stores then walked back to Fido’s. We ordered drinks then found out that they only were serving appetizers. It was 8:00 and the waiter said if we wanted to have dinner we should get going right away. He recommended Jambels Jerk Pit and gave us directions. After consulting one of the maps outside (they have mall directory type maps of the island on all the street corners) we arrived at what we thought was Jambels, only to realize we were actually at El Patio Restaurant and Grill, but quickly decided to eat there when the Maitre Di told us of the fresh arrival of lobster and snapper and started describing some of the different meals. The environment at El Patio was fun. A tall palm frond ceiling covered a sand filled floor. The chairs all had cushions which pleased our behinds, sore from the mostly wooden chairs and bumpy cab/golf cart/boat rides. In the center of the restaurant was a fountain with running water, which only seemed strange because all the other fountains on the island were filled with plants or, in the case of our hotel, dirt. El Patio was located on a side street between Front and Middle Streets, and we got to watch a group of kids playing some sort of ball game that appeared to be a volley ball version of PIG or Lightening, played with a soccer ball.

I think if I had to pick a favorite restaurant in Belize, El Patio would be the one. I ordered a spicy coconut crusted snapper with a side of coconut rice and a salad with ranch dressing. Let me tell you about the ranch dressing. It was the best ranch dressing in the world. Homemade too. It was so good I dipped my fish in it. I even let it touch my coconut rice. I’m glad we ate there the last day, because if we were there any earlier in the trip I would have wanted to eat there the whole time.

Feeling a bit full following our meal, we passed on dessert and headed back to our condo. Kristen was trying to come up with a list of reasons why she was glad to go home, but it was a little short. We packed up our bags and got everything organized for the morning before heading to bed.

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