Greetings from Belize

So since the last post, I’ve gotten married, said hello and goodbye to about a hundred and twenty-five people, had Game Night with my brother and his girlfriend, flown to Belize, settled in at our resort, explored the jungle, gone into the ocean for the first time in my life, scuba dived a Caribbean reef, had local food and beer, and slept through both pounding storms and spectacular sunrises.  As may perhaps be expected, I’m having trouble choosing what it is I should write about.  I’m also having the time of my life.

I’m writing from the bar at the main building of Hamanasi Dive and… I forget the full and complete name of the place, but there’s diving as well as adventures in the jungle to be had, at the resort from which I’m writing at the bar of.  I’m wearing a knit shirt, sandals, and cargo shorts, and in the pockets of my cargo shorts there is nothing at all except for my chap stick.  No wallet, no keys, not even the Blackberry that was a wedding present (Elle got one too).  In New York, I’d already have that Blackberry hooked up to an IV.  Here, I’m blessed not to have any need for it.  Or for the roaming charges I’d incur if I turned it on.

About forty-five steps from the rocking chair I’m writing from is the treehouse Elle and I are staying in, with a canopy bed and – get this – no TV and not even a phone.  (And yet they have free wi-fi in the bar?)  Forty-five steps in the other direction is the ocean, as well as a freshwater pool.  I’ll just say we’re really glad to be here.  Now that I’ve visited both the jungle and the bottom of the ocean, I can honestly see applying for a job here.  The evening scene at Hamanasi is very …um, vacant.  Probably by design, but I see myself taking on turning Hamanasi’s night life into more of a social scene.  Monday is Game Night.  Tuesday, improv comedy by the pool.  Square dancing on Wednesday?  It’s a work in progress.

Tomorrow is actually the (primary) reason we chose this place for our honeymoon.  We’re doing a full-day adventure, with a zipline tour of the Belizean jungle canopy, followed by a bunch of rappelling and cave exploring.  I’m jonesing to be cruising along above the jungle floor at a couple dozen miles an hour, snapping blurry pictures all the way. 

Pictures.  The challenge is to walk that fine line between taking enough pictures to represent the awesomeness of our vacation to our family and friends, without being so much of a shutterbug that I miss the actual vacation.  So far, so good.  For good or bad, my camera won’t work while we’re scuba diving, so while I can’t post pictures of the fish I’m shaking hands with, I’m not distracted and swimming into a coral reef either.

On the non-adventure end of the vacation scale, I took a guilt-free three hour nap today.  I totally get why people go on island vacations.  I don’t even mind that a New York bartender could serve an entire bar in the time it takes King to make two drinks for Elle and me.  I’m in no hurry.  The drinks are worth the wait.  The pool will still be perfect.  I’m on vacation.

~ by joshkauffman on July 1, 2009.