August 5, 2006
My day began at one in the morning when a faint scratching on the wall awoke me. I whipped out a flashlight, scared that a bug was nearby. However, it was just the sound of paper flowing about thanks to the wind from the fan my host family gave us.
A few—okay, a lot of hours later, I woke up thanks to my Longs Drugstore alarm clock beeping at me to get out of bed. The smell of home-made tortillas pulled me from bed much faster than usual, and I went to help my “host sister,” Diane (17) with breakfast. After a few hours of chatting with her, her daughter Jenny (3), her mother, her grandmother, and her brother, Darrel (19), Katie and I were sad to say our goodbyes.
We hugged and took pictures, and went off to another long bus ride. On the bus, many of us attempted to dry our towels and pants out the window, and a boy tried to grab my towel. Oops. Not blow-drying from a bus window again. After what seemed like a far shorter bus ride than I expected, we loaded into two speedboats (plus a whole other boat for our luggage) and flew off into the horizon. Before I knew it, the water was choppy and dark, and no land was in sight. Sitting in the front row, I got soaked. This, of course, was a welcome relief from the day’s heat. Kelsey, John and I decided that speed-boating over an ocean is like riding a horse. Up, down, up, down. We did the horse-riding drill and soon our derrieres no longer were in pain.
Once we were here, on Tobacco Caye, we had a spaghetti lunch and got ready to snorkel. Though today we were limited to swimming around the dock, we saw a good amount of fish. Among my favorites were the giant red hermit crab, a school of silversides, and above all, the peacock flounder.
Today was great, and we’re all looking forward to seeing even more beautiful fish. Our cabanas are amazing, and the view is incredible. Mary even said “I hope heaven looks like this.” Needless to say, Tobacco Caye is amazing.
- Karina Gerstenschlager
Juliana and Nika with their host family from Armenia Village
Karina and Kimo look up the fish they found at Tobacco Caye
A few—okay, a lot of hours later, I woke up thanks to my Longs Drugstore alarm clock beeping at me to get out of bed. The smell of home-made tortillas pulled me from bed much faster than usual, and I went to help my “host sister,” Diane (17) with breakfast. After a few hours of chatting with her, her daughter Jenny (3), her mother, her grandmother, and her brother, Darrel (19), Katie and I were sad to say our goodbyes.
We hugged and took pictures, and went off to another long bus ride. On the bus, many of us attempted to dry our towels and pants out the window, and a boy tried to grab my towel. Oops. Not blow-drying from a bus window again. After what seemed like a far shorter bus ride than I expected, we loaded into two speedboats (plus a whole other boat for our luggage) and flew off into the horizon. Before I knew it, the water was choppy and dark, and no land was in sight. Sitting in the front row, I got soaked. This, of course, was a welcome relief from the day’s heat. Kelsey, John and I decided that speed-boating over an ocean is like riding a horse. Up, down, up, down. We did the horse-riding drill and soon our derrieres no longer were in pain.
Once we were here, on Tobacco Caye, we had a spaghetti lunch and got ready to snorkel. Though today we were limited to swimming around the dock, we saw a good amount of fish. Among my favorites were the giant red hermit crab, a school of silversides, and above all, the peacock flounder.
Today was great, and we’re all looking forward to seeing even more beautiful fish. Our cabanas are amazing, and the view is incredible. Mary even said “I hope heaven looks like this.” Needless to say, Tobacco Caye is amazing.
- Karina Gerstenschlager
Juliana and Nika with their host family from Armenia Village
Karina and Kimo look up the fish they found at Tobacco Caye
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