My list of hard to reach vacation places grew by one rather unexpectedly the other day. Unexpectedly because the flight from DFW to Belize City is only two and a half hours long and covers a majority of the distance between Austin and Sueno del mar. It was the minority that mattered in this case. Our first effort to get from Austin to DFW on New Year's Day ended on the taxiway of Bergstrom airport when the pilot discovered that a maintenance problem from the night before had persisted. Alu came back to the airport and got us, thereby ending a five-hour stint at the airport during which our most productive activity was to consume airport breakfast.
Alu was awoken the next morning at an even more uncivilized hour to try again. Due to a scarcity of seats between Austin and Dallas we had to take an earlier flight and then spend five hours in DFW. Another sumptuous breakfast this time at DFW and a train ride around the airport just for fun killed off about a whole hour.
We eventually got to Belize City. Because we had a tight connection from the Belize City airport to our first ferry to San Pedro we had opted to travel with only a couple of carry-on bags. So we were able to walk off the airplane and into a waiting taxi in a few short minutes. Then the taxi driver took it upon himself to get us to the ferry in record time - while discussing his family and previous failed relationships. When we arrived at the terminal it was 430 pm. I commented aloud that it was a pity we had missed the four fifteen San Pedro Belize express ferry. I was hastily corrected that we hadn't and our luggage was quickly piled on to a waiting cart. I went off to buy tickets and suggested that Jo "act like an indian" and push her way to the front of the crowd if we didn't want to wait for another couple of hours for the next ferry. When the ferry appeared turned out to be a regular boat - the type of boat that would take a party of 10 a dozen miles out for a day of deep sea fishing. About a hundred of us boarded this boat and sat like sardines. Then in a cloud of diesel fumes we were off for the hour long trip. Evan clung to Jo while Vivian managed to curl up and sleep on the bench between us.
An hour later we pulled alongside a pier and Jo and the kids and I hopped out. When we reached the end of the pier Jo peered through the evening gloom and read a sign that led her to correctly deduce that the ferry had made an unscheduled stop on another island - Caye Caulker. We hurried back in time to the ferry which by this point had taken on even more passengers and "acted like Indians" again and obtained some seating space. Another hour later - this time in darkness - the ferry slowed and then docked at another peer and we were at the bustling metropolis of San Perdo on the southern tip of the island of Ambergris Caye. Then we met our cab driver George who took us to a grocery store. We bought some supplies (wine, beer, water, chocolate) and then he drove us a hundred yards to another pier with a tiny boat with a outboard motor and a bimini flapping in the wind. We loaded our selves and our supplies and luggage. The captain explained that it was going to be rather rough because the wind had picked up. When he asked "Are you ready for this?" I knew Jo wasn't going to enjoy the ride.
In the darkness sea water and spray whipped us and the boat rose and fell with hard smacks that jolted us out of our benches and slammed us back on the thin cushions till our kidneys complained. Jo and I sat across from each other clutching a child each. I had Evan who was oblivious to everything else except the bag of gummy bears that I was feeding him from. It was a bit of a job to extract a gummy out of the bag while the wind tried to rip the bag out of my hand. Then I tried to time the jolts and slams to increase the chances of a successful hand-off. And finally Evan had to do the same to transfer the gummy to his mouth. Many ended up as fish food. Meanwhile the resorts gave way to jungles and complete and total darkness. Jo clutched Vivian so tightly they breathed as one. Occasionally we'd round another bay and the lights of a resort would break the darkness but we plunged on. Till the very last set of lights after which it was the darkness of the open sea. And the boat slowed and we were at a clean well-lit pier. The boat quickly stopped, the sound of the diesel engine dropped and someone on the pier said "Mr. Arun - Welcome to Sueno Del Mar" and extended a tray with four glasses of drinks in our direction. It was 8pm. We had spent 20 hours getting here.
We thanked our lucky stars and walked down the pier towards the palapa on the beach sipping our drinks. Jo leaned over in my direction and whispered "I was pretty sure they were going to conk us on the head and throw us overboard and no one would ever know". And another vacation was underway.
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