This morning we leave for the Caye (pronounced KEY). Because our scheduled changed, as it did a number of times during our short two days in Belize City, we had our morning freed up to get our bags re packed and head to the Municipal airport to pack our team into this plane and head to Ambergris Caye.  This post is a longer one as it has the most photos since it was a day where we got to just explore the area before our evening dinner with local believers.  Feel free to skip my commentary and just browse the photos!

Our group so kindly let me fly in the co-pilot seat!  But don’t worry… I didn’t touch anything.  To be honest, I couldn’t see over the dash without scooting up and stretching my neck as high as I could!  My days as a pilot are not over though as the actual pilot informed me they have one man who is about my size and he is able to fly just fine by sitting on a cushion.

We all fit.  It was a tight fit but we were all able to go on one flight, our luggage went before us in the morning..thankfully it was all there when we got to the airport on the Caye including the rest of our study Bibles to hand out.  I wish I had a record of who all we handed the Bibles out to beyond the inmates.  I recall the first one being given at the Belize international airport when we were going through customs! Pray that the truth contained in those Bibles… better yet that IS the Word does a mighty transforming work in the people’s lives who received them.

It was a beautiful 15 minute flight over the blue and emerald water.  It’s easy to get lost in the beauty of Gods creation and realize just how small we are compared to the vastness of the ocean let alone the incomprehensible vastness of our Almighty Creator!

Coming in for a landing.

Just outside of the airport you see the bustling town of San Pedro.  We gather all of our belongings and get a ride (golf cart style as golf carts are the main transportation here on the Island) to the resort.

The resort sits on the ocean side of the road while we stayed just across the (busy) street in these little colonial style homes.  This is still a part of the resort where they will house overflow guests but thanks to our contacts and because of the nature of our trip we were able to stay here for a great deal! We had full access to the resort which included the pool and beachfront as well as the restaurant.  The rooms are simple.  A small porch with a room.  One room on the main level and walk up two flights of stairs on the side if the building to get to the second room.  Each had a bathroom, two beds, a mini fridge and an air conditioner ( the air conditioner was a must here!) Though we weren’t in our rooms much, other than to sleep, it was nice having that amenity to cool off or for some of us to sleep off the dehydration and heat exhaustion that hit a few of us throughout our time here.

When we first arrived we took a quick walk out to the final hut to look out at the clear blue water and see the barrier reef (a series of coral reefs) – which you can see here in the distance where the white waves are crashing in.  Sadly this beautiful blue water was only to be seen in the distance.

This brown colored type of seaweed is referred to as sargassum (or sargasso).  As you can see in the first photo there are men who work all throughout the day raking it into the beach into large piles which are then loaded into trucks and dumped in various locations on the Caye.  Some people have it in their yards.  If photos could smell….. the smell is undeniable and at times inescapable.  I don’t think this was a smell I got used to the entire time we were there.  From what I learned from a local… this stuff, when it starts to rot or decompose, emits a toxic hydrogen sulfide gas which is described as colorless, highly flammable and a rotten egg like smell.  Now I understand why one of the workers wears a bandanna over his nose and mouth.

Decomposing in water can promote growth of harmful bacteria which are known to cause skin irritation.  We experienced this our last day here when two ladies on our team had a brush with some in the deeper water.  The fumes are also prone to affect those with respiratory conditions as well.

But despite that there were still many beautiful things to marvel at like this bird (which is called a kite…I’ll let you guess why, wink wink ).  After we walked out to look at the ocean and spent some time marveling at the sargassum…the group split to get some errands done.  Some of the men went to scout out and get materials needed for some repairs we would be doing to a church building in San Mateo while some others made a pharmacy run.  At this point we needed some antibiotics for a respiratory illness that would hit a few people in our group but really affected one woman who thankfully was able to recover after a few days..at least to the point of being able to experience some of the island.

I stayed back at the resort to help chaperone some of the youth who stayed in while the errands were done.  We had two golf carts and when our whole group needed to travel we had to sit on laps and some people just held on for dear life on the back of the carts.  There was one young woman in our group who wanted to walk the beach so..being the good chaperone I am… I walked with her.  During our walk she may have knocked down two coconuts that we then proceeded to crack open and drink the coconut water.  To my surprise (as I have never drank coconut water..not even from the random man standing along the road in the middle of nowhere on the mainland holding out a clear plastic bag of clear coconut water for sale–seems legit–) it didn’t taste like coconut!  I now know if I were ever stranded on a desert island I could drink coconut water to survive lol.

A quick storm blew in hard and fast.  And then it passed.  Nothing like the week of rain and flash flooding that was happening back home in PA.

We ate a late lunch at Ramon’s where everyone who wanted got to try ceviche.   I will link a recipe here if you want to try it at home.  Essentially you take raw shrimp or conch (I am told conch is better but they were off-season so ours was shrimp) and you let the raw meat sit in lime juice marinating…which supposedly “cooks” the fish.  It is them mixed in with what is basically a type of salsa.  It actually was very good!  I might even try conch ceviche in the future.

After lunch we took a drive around the San Pedro to get a feel for the area.

Piles of drying out decomposing sargassum

We stopped along the road to look at an area where you can usually spot a crocodile.  There were none to be seen this time.

The only semi truck I spotted on the entire island.

There were some nicer condos being built or areas where there was a resort not sitting on the beachfront.  However there was not a distinction between the photo above and the photo below.  It was odd to see most places looking weathered or small.  Places without air conditioning as they only had these wooden slats for windows.  But then in the same area see a new condo building being built.  The restaurants are mostly open air so they were not air-conditioned and even the grocery store wasn’t air-conditioned (Believe me I know… I wanted a Reese’s and to my surprise they had them there, but… they were all melted.)

We drove to the end of the road which led us here.

The smell was so bad here we could only stand a few minutes until everyone was ready to leave.  I have had experience with sulfur water at times throughout my life at different homes.. but this was so much worse than that.

But even the smell didn’t stop the women from all grabbing a quick photo here. One of the teens noticed this art on a piece of what was left of a building that was no longer.

We saw two nice size iguanas in this area.  It was a construction zone and we also found armfuls of conch shells here!  My daughters both asked us if we could please find and bring home a conch shell for them…..

…mission accomplished!

Since we ate a late lunch by the time we returned it was already time to head down the beach to meet up with our dinner guests.

Our beach walk view. You can see just how much of a problem the sargassum is.

But that doesn’t stop the locals from swimming in it.

“Eat Till Yu Belly Bus!! (All Yu Can Eat Buffet)”

This buffet style dinner offered my first taste of fish soup which had snapper, pumpkin, and many other things in it.. I thought it was amazing and I do not like the taste of fish.  Fritters, jerk chicken and a few other items were also available and all delicious. This place also had the BEST coconut rice!  Coconut rice is everywhere here.  The rice is made with coconut milk and red kidney beans.  I have been trying to re-create it but I haven’t mastered it yet.

There were so many people we got to meet, and for some it was old friends seeing each other again.  We got to meet Pastor Robert and his wife Lavern who have the church in San Mateo that we would be meeting at the following day.  So many wonderful conversations that night I wish I could have partaken in all of the discussions.  I did get some time to hear Lavern’s heartbreaking past as well as the story of her redemption.  There are people here who have a love for others that is amazing.  And a desire to share Jesus with them.  But this area has a great need for a TRUE Gospel message to be presented.  Satan loves to take truth….and mix it with lies.  So you are left with something that so closely resembles truth but it leads to death.  There is a mighty need for men who are strong in their faith and in the word to be disciplining men here.  It is our prayer that these people we have spent time with this evening will be some of those men who are willing to grow and be discipled.