Our journey to Belize was a comedy of errors that began nearly two weeks before we ever left for the airport. Sarah’s reservations for one leg of the trip were accidentally made under her maiden name by one of her family members. To correct it cost an additional $400 dollars, and resulted in her having to take a separate flight on the first part of our journey, and us not being able to sit together from LAX to Belize. On the plus side, we both had window seats.
As we were waiting to board the plane to Belize, we received an email from Sarah’s parents saying that their flight had been delayed for three or four hours. This meant that they were now scheduled to be landing ten minutes before we were scheduled to take off. We let the gate agent know they were coming. We let the stewardesses know. We sat on the gangway, refusing to get on the plane so they couldn’t close the door. Two people from her parent’s flight came running down t. he gangway, saying that the plane was unloading at the gate right next to ours, but they had been sitting in the front of the plane. We waited, and eventually had to get on the plane. As we were walking towards our seats, Sarah’s parents showed up. After some quick and relieved greetings, we all went to our separate seats, and settled in for the red-eye flight.
We arrived in Belize at 8 a.m. local time, having left home at 1 p.m. the previous day. However, we were not to our final destination yet. Going through customs was uneventful outside of the power at the airport going out–never had that happen before. All of our luggage, including Sarah’s parents’ bags, arrived safely. We were moved to an earlier flight to Dangriga, and went to sit in the small Belizean airport. We had not eaten since 4 p.m. the previous day, but there were no places to purchase food here.
Getting on the next plane was where our vacation really started for me. It was a small plane that held 12 people, but the four of us and one local were the only passengers. I got to sit behind the pilot and watch him fly. We made about a five-minute jaunt to Belize City, and then flew to Dangriga. In this tiny airport, we met up with Seth and Mai, and boarded a van which took us to the docks. From there, we boarded a boat, and started a rough 9 mile crossing to a private island where the six of us would be joining eight other guests. The entire journey took approximately 23 hours.
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