Made it to Belize!

After 3 international flights, I'm finally where I wanted to be! I nearly missed my plane in Guatemala because of a gate change.

The weather here in Belize is warm and muggy, but with the fan blowing, it feels prettydarned good!

I signed up for dive lessons, which I will start tomorrow, toward my PADI certification. It will take 4 days.

I'm checked into Tina's Backpacker's hostel <http://www.auxilloubeachsuites.com/tinashome.html>, which is about 20' from the Caribbean sea. Picturesque. There's a "vibe garden" in the entrance with hammocks and it's very relaxing here. All the locals are pretty laid back, and English is spoken everywhere.

On the plane ride from LAX to GUA, I met a guy who is volunteering in Nicaragua. I'm excited to have met an American who will be staying there. I hope it will work out to go. I hate to stay out of an area becaus of irrational* fear.

*irrational: Not rational--there is a rational amount of fear, but I think the amount of fear most frequently brought on is brought on by headlines rather than experiences.

Monday was my final night of rest until tonight. All day Tuesday and into the night I was taking care of last-minute business. Then my brother dropped me off at the airport. 10 minutes later, I realized i left my money belt in the car. THANK GOODNESS FOR MOBILE PHONES! I called Kevin and he saved the day (THANK YOU KEV!!). I made it onto my flight with about 5 minutes to spare.

Dad and Lil met me in LA, and then we picked up my cousin Julie. Togeher we went to Griffith Park Observatory and had a FANTASTIC time, despite me being unnaturally quiet and falling asleep NUMEROUS times. It brought back some wonderful memories from my youth. We saw a planetarium show which was great (Griffith pretty much sets the bar as far as the W coast on planetarium shows). Also saw the foucalt pendulum, which even though it was one of the original exhibits, STILL gathers a constant following. Each time we went by there were lots of folks leaning into the pit to watch. It is fascinating!

That night, I got on the plane at LAX with about 3 hours to spare, so it was MUCH more relaxed (THANKS DAD for your efforts to get me there early!!). I had some time to mess with my phone, get contacts into it, etc. before I left.

I have already met a few people, and may be going out to dinner with some I met from the hostel here. We'll see what happens. For lunch I had this wonderful red beans & rice + chicken and MAN Was it GOOD! Simple but tasty!

OKAY, this keyboard is killing me, so I'll sign off.

From Belize....

Cheers!