At last we're out of Mexico and moving on to a new country. Alain's friends from Squamish ( Todd and Christina ) told us if we were to go to Belize we had to stop in Crooked Tree Village and visit some friends of theirs. Since we didn't really plan to visit any place but Crooked Tree in the small country of Belize, we aimed to get there the first day. Nothing goes as planed when you travel and by the time we had crossed the border and made a long stretch south, it was getting dark and we were still about 15 miles outside Crooked Tree. We decided it would be easier to camp along the road and go find Claudette and Mitch the following day. We were lucky and fowned a nice spot to set up our tents for the night and not worry to much about any traffic coming near us.
The next morning we woke up pact our things and drove straight to Crooked Tree. Crooked Tree is a small village that inhabits 800 people and is the home of millions of birds. The popular thing to do there is bird watching. It's actually a bird sanctuary but our time spent there we didn't see many bird as it wasn't the best time of year. The recent storm in Honduras had made quite the impact in Belize and most of the South was flooded. Locals told us to be aware that a few bridges were none existent and that water was really high at some places. Luckily we didn't have any troubles with water or bridges the entire time we spent there.
After asking a few locals in town where Claudette lived, we pulled up to her property on the lake and told her Todd and Christina sent us over to say hello. Well I can't really describe in words how happy this lady was to here that her Canadian friends from three years ago were till thinking of her and sending more friends to see her. She invited us to stay with her for as long as we wanted so we pitched our tents and made ourselves at home. The kids were in school that morning and when they came home for lunch and saw the motor bikes they immediately got excited and asked us millions of questions. Their memory of Todd and Christina was like as if it was yesterday that they had visited them.
When lunch break was over Al and I gave them all a ride back to school and then spent all afternoon with Claudette and her friend driving around the village through every little short cut we could find.
Later that evening Claudette's husband came home from work and joined us for the best home cooked fried chicken I have tasted in my life. We spent the week end with the familly and enjoyed true hospitality at its best. These people were not rich with materialistic things but rich in love for each other and lived their every day life with a smile on their faces. Alain and I took some money out of our fundraiser to help out with food for the time we were there. We also left them one of our hammock since the kids loved it and was a great place for the afternoon nap while Claudette could have some quiet time. The kids didn't want us to leave but we made sure they knew that when monday came rolling around we were going to have to move on to the next destination. It's always a little hard to leave certain places after you've spent so many good moments and especially with kids but thats how traveling is. Mitch told them it was hard for the kids to see Todd and Christina leave after spending two weeks there so we tried to avoid the same situation happening twice. It also helped that the kids were three years older and had gone through this before so when the time came they were ready and we left with no tears out of anyone. Sometimes I wish I could of stayed longer but I'm glad we left when we did. Next stop Guatemala.......
No comments:
Post a Comment