Monday, February 16, 2009

BELICE Day 2

This morning I woke up agitated because I lost my ATM card yesterday. After checking online, it was apparent that no new charges were on my account and I came to the understanding that I must have left it in the machine in Orange Walk. We drove back up to this small town and waited at the gas station for the ATM machine service guy to make his daily check. Luckily for me, the machine must have sucked the card back in and held it after I stupidly failed to put it back in my wallet. All is good and my card is safe and sound. On the way out of town, hundreds of people lined the road, staring and taking pictures. Apparently "sahm-one god kilt" and the onlookers were hoping for a glance at the body.
Back on the road.
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We pulled off the freeway to check out a prison gift shop, a first for me. Mostly carved wooden art pieces and figurines. Nary a shiv made out of a toothbrush to be found.

Onto the Belice zoo, where there are jaguars, monkeys, parrots, and photos of miscellaneous wildlife in the hands of a scantily clad Harrison Ford from the 70s.
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Afterwards, it seemed appropriate to take the Burban wheelin in a protected park reserve.
Before:
IMG_1593What started out as 'making a u-turn more interesting' resulted in a muddy, two-winch-pull fiasco and buried the truck far deeper than the bubbling exhaust pipes. We were fairly tired at this point, so we ventured off to find a place to camp for the night.
After:
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On the way uphill into the mountains, we came across a Toyota truck in a ditch minus a right rear wheel and brake assembly. The talented Belicean pilot had somehow managed to control the careening vehicle and a young passenger, with a 150 gallon full tank of water in the bed into a jungly drainage canal. While they waited for assistance, we helped find his wheel in the bushes.
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We found the folks at Pine Ridge Lodge, a place that does not regularly offer camping, to be more than accommodating to our camping needs. Thanks Stu!
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This site would be a perfect launching spot to the waterfalls we intended to jump off of the following morning, and also a place where Garen could get bitten by more than 350 forest gnats, leaving him horrendously splotted and itchy.
Until the next...
A

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