Yeah Pics! (Sittee River Trip)

 

Ok, so the trip started out well, everyone was happy to go, the weather was beautiful and we were off on an adventure.  The water taxi ride went very well, and riding on  top was a lot of fun.  Oh, I told you I would tell you about the bandage on my leg.  I got another one of those bites on my leg that they had to cut open.  Ugh.  This time they thought maybe it was a spider.  I don't care what keeps biting me, it needs to die!  Ok, back to the trip.  Everyone happy and excited, great trip on the water taxi, then, as we are getting off the boat in Belize City, I look at Rick and he doesn't have our back pack!!!  Grrrrrrr!!!  He was in charge of the back pack.  I don't care what HE will tell you about that, I put him in charge of it and HE left it on the end of the pier while we were waiting for the water taxi.  We had to wait at the water taxi office for almost two hours  while we waited for the next taxi from Caye Caulker to come and bring our back pack.  Grandma took advantage of the down time and grabbed a nap.  So, after we finally got our pack, we all bundled into a taxi to head to the bus station.  Count heads up there, there are SEVEN of us.  Fun cab ride.  Let's talk about taxi cabs in Belize City for a minute.  You can tell the taxis from the regular cars by the license plates.  Taxi plates are green and start with a D.  You can get a close up of them as they run over you.  I will never drive in Belize City, EVER. Nobody knows how to drive, but they all know where the gas pedal and the horn are.  Cab drivers grow up to drive the buses but their skills don't get any better.  We get to the bus station right as our bus in pulling out, but they slowed down enough to let us get on.  If you ever decide to ride the buses in Belize, here is some knowledge for you.  The regular buses run about every 30 minutes to pretty much anywhere you  want to go.  They pick up and stop everywhere.  Just tell the driver where you want to get off and he will stop for you.  There are bus stops about every 10 miles or so along the major highways.  There are no printed schedules, but that's ok, just go to the bus station, there will be a bus for you along in a few minutes.  Don't bother going to the boarded up ticket booths either.  Just get on your bus.  At some point along the route, a man will come and take your money.  It is about .10 cents Belize per mile, so from Belize City to Belmopan is $5 Belize.  There are express buses that stop less often and are less crowded, and it is only a dollar or so more, so take the express if you can.  Our trip started off well, we caught the express from Belize City to Belmopan and it was a nice ride.  Sierra and Chandler fell asleep.  When we got to Belmopan we had salbutes for lunch, when you come to Belize if you see salbutes (SAL-boo-tayz) on the menu, get them.  It is a small corn fried thing that is hollow in the middle, then they put a spoon of what ever meat they have (fish is wonderful) with onions and peppers and cilantro and lime juice...  Trust me, you need to eat these!  Rick and Grandpa headed off to the embassy to vote while Grandma, me and the kids wandered around the outdoor market by the bus station.  We got done pretty quickly and went back to the bus station to wait for Rick and Grandpa.  Ok, that part was pretty miserable.  The bus station was crowded and hot, and Grandma was not taking it too well.  The kids were full of energy and wanted to roam but I didn't feel comfortable letting them out of my site.  There are lots of valid reasons for that, not that bad things usually happen in Belmopan, I would feel that way in any crowded travel hub.  So I yelled at the kids, got frustrated with Grandma, my leg hurt and I was ready to get going.  Finally Rick and Grandpa showed up and people started lining up for our bus.  Now, I have been on a few buses in Belize, you really want to get on early.  There is no such thing as "capacity limit" on these buses.  If you don't get a seat you will stand the entire trip.  So we qued up with only a few people in front of us and stood in  line for about 15 hot, cramped, painful minutes.  When the bus showed up and they opened the gate people just shoved us out of the way so by the time we got on the bus there was limited room.  I got in a seat with an old woman, suitcase under my legs and Chandler in my lap.  I am sorry to say I don't know where everyone else sat, it was too crowded for me to see them.  There are no pictures of this part of the trip, I just couldn't bring myself to do it.  We rode and rode and rode.  I am not sure how long, but at least an hour after I couldn't feel my legs.  We finally to the Sittee River Junction and got off.  YEAH!  Mr. Keith from River House Lodge was waiting there for us with  the van.  We got to the lodge and put our bags in our cabins and went to the main lodge for dinner.  The kids immediately wanted to swim in the indoor pool, but we made them wait until after we ate.  We all slept pretty good that night I must say.  The stay itself was very nice.  The rooms were clean, the food was good and Mr. Keith and Ms. Cara were wonderful.  The pictures came out very nice.  I don't know that I will spend much time up there anymore though because of the MOSQUITOES!  And the ants.  Let me quantify that please, I am severely allergic to mosquitoes, and always have been.  I know this, and was covered in bug spray from my hair to my toes.  Didn't seem to help.  And the ants.  Let's talk about the ants.  They are freaking HUGE!  And aggressive.  I was walking down the driveway taking those pictures up there, and felt knives being stabbed into my feet.  I looked down and my feet were covered in huge black ants.  They weren't just biting my feet, they were locked onto my flip flops and wouldn't let go.  I am afraid that I did something to embarrass woman kind at that point.  I kicked my ant infested shoes into the air and started stomping my bare feet on the gravel (which hurt a lot) and ran screaming up the drive.  At that point I remembered that I would eventually need my shoes, so I had to brave the gravel and the ants and go retrieve my shoes (and hope like hell no one had seen me lose my mind a moment ago.)  No one mentioned my screaming, so I guess I got away with it.  The kids really did have a good time.  They were the most well behaved I have seen them in a long time.  That is not to say they were perfect, they are kids after all and I did have to threaten to kill them a few times.  If you are not a bug-o-phobe, the River House Lodge on the Sittee River in Cayo District really is a nice place.  Saturday morning we decided to head home.  While Grandpa took the kids fishing I packed up our bags and got everyone ready to go.  Chandler had a fit, see picture above, and cried for about twenty minutes.  Mr. Keith took us to the bus stop on the highway and said that our bus should be along in a few minutes.  We thanked him and waved good bye.  Three hours later (sitting in the hot sun with occasional humid sprinkling and clouds of mosquitoes and other biting flying things, bored kids and Grandparents) and no bus in sight, we called Mr. Keith to come pick us up again.  So we stayed Saturday night too.  Sunday we got up very early (but still missed the first bus, it was pulling away as we pulled up) but this time Mr. Keith stayed with us until the next bus came through.  When we got to Dangriga we could have got off of that bus and waited for an express to Belize City, but the express wasn't running until late after noon and we had to make sure that we were back in time to catch the last water taxi to Caye Caulker so we went the round about way on a regular bus through Belmopan again.  We did make the water taxi and go home safe and sound.  It was a good adventure and learning experience.  I was never so happy to be back in Caye Caulker though.  We are all still itching and scratching from our trip, and  I might remember it more fondly once I can stop scratching the skin off of my legs.  So that was our adventure to the Sittee River, please leave comments, I just love hearing feed back from the blog!

Grandma waiting for  the water taxi from Caye Caulker to Belize City, ALL SMILES!

Sierra waiting for the water taxi

Rick and Trey waiting for the water taxi

Rick and the kids waiting for the water taxi

View to the north from the water taxi pier

Grandpa waiting for the water taxi

Me and the kids waiting for the water taxi (bandaged leg explained below!)

Me and Chandler and Sierra waiting for the water taxi

Love this pic of me and the kids waiting for the water taxi

The kids and I and Grandpa rode on the top of the water taxi from Caye Caulker to Belize City

The kids on top of the water taxi

Crazy Chandler!

Grandpa riding on top of the water taxi for the first time

Me being a dork

Grandma in the water taxi office (Rick's fault, will explain below)

Grandma snoozing

Chandler, Trey and Grandpa in the water taxi office

Finally on the bus on the way to Belmopan, Sierra was getting tired

Chandler was going nuts on the bus

Grandpa looking Joe Kidd Cool on the bus

Grandma feeling good on the bus

Chandler crashes and burns on the bus

Sierra was the next to go

Sierra helped the staff prepare all of our meals and set the table at River House Lodge

Sorry for the screen, but that is Chandler on the blow up raft in the indoor pool

Chandler and Trey swimming, LOVE that pool!

Me, Grandpa and Keith discussing world politics

View from the main lodge to the river

Me and Grandpa talking to Keith

Sierra setting the table while Grandpa and I wait for breakfast

Trey and Chandler fighting over the blow up raft

View from the dock on the Sittee River

View across the river, missed the darn crocodile though!

View of the Sittee River

Back of the main lodge

Our cabins

Rick and I and Grandpa were upstairs, Grandma and the kids were downstairs

Main entrance to the main lodge

The cabins across the drive way from us

The cabins next to us

Sierra riding a bike on the drive way

Trey off roading with his bike

The kids were fascinated with Monopoly on this trip, they actually played well together and were pretty quiet

Did I mention I LOVED the quiet?

Mr. Keith and Trey digging earth worms to go fishing

Trey making Mr. Keith do all the  work

See?

Chandler enters the fray

They found some!

Sierra went to give them directions on how to dig worms

Sierra telling them they are doing it wrong

Trey with his prize load of worms

Grandpa and Sierra fishing off the dock, sorry, didn't catch anything

Chandler bawling his little head off that we had to  go home

Grandpa and Sierra continue the fishing in vain

The boys escape to play Monopoly