Antelope Falls

This is the hike I have been studiously avoiding. I keep telling people I'm not in good enough shape yet. Brynn found the loophole! She asked that we go on the hike as her birthday party. So on Saturday we did it. And even having done it I can still say I'm not in good enough shape for that hike! It starts out reasonably and, thankfully, it wasn't too hot. Brynn is in the lead and all of a sudden she jumps backward with a "holy crap!!!" Of course we are all right behind her and there is a small pile up while we all try to adjust to the change in direction. Seems she almost stepped on this:

Green tree snake. It was about 5 or more feet long. Note the pretty blue tongue. It's a totally harmless snake and we were fortunate to see one. Very cool! I had heard that the trail was quite steep and at one point there would be a rope to help with the climb. So when we got to the rope I was totally thrilled! It wasn't too bad for steep and we were almost there.
Yah, right! Turns out this was just the beginning. We stopped half way up to enjoy a rest, a snack and the view.

Now, I want you to notice how far we are from the top! By now, I am drenched through with sweat and almost out of water and totally out of reserve energy. I am still, however, a Mom and this was Brynn's birthday party. So, I sucked it up and continued on. Turns out we had just finished the easy part of the hike! The rest was almost straight up with very little in the line of trail. Sometimes we were literally hanging off the side of the mountain. Then we got to the view point. WOW!! The picture doesn't do it justice. We could see the Sea and our house! Amazing!

But the hike wasn't done yet. We were now headed for the real payoff!!

A swim in the pool! Way cool! In more ways than one. There were lots of cleaner fish in the pool and they sucked on our skin looking for bits of dirt and bugs to eat. It was a bit of a shock when they started but we quickly got used to it and it was fun. Then we had to trek back down. It's way steeper going down! How does that work? I guess getting us up the mountain wasn't enough for Brynn because she decided to give us all a heart attack on the way down. She tripped. Luckily her martial arts training kicked in and she managed to roll. Unluckily she was going so fast she couldn't stop rolling and was headed off the path and really DOWN the mountain. Kori caught her just as she hit the edge of the path. I made everyone stop while I learned how to breathe again! After that the biggest thing of interest was this ant hill:

The ants are about 1 inch long. Everything grows bigger in Belize!

Halloween Ghosts

Last night we were visited by two of the Halloween ghosts. Appropriate, don’t you think? The first of our ‘spirited’ visitors was the ghost of Halloween past. He showed up early in the afternoon as we reminisced about past Halloween costumes and activities. We talked about our favorite costumes of years past and last year’s trick or treating as we thought about you all out in the frozen north. Brynn and Kori were especially animated as they remembered last year. They set out together in the typical Halloween weather just after supper. As they went from house to house, they forgot to pay attention to where they were going and eventually realized they were lost – in Heritage Hills. (don’t laugh, they are definitely their mother’s daughters) Being teenagers, they decided to just keep trick or treating until they recognized something and could find their way home. After some time, they had enough candy in their pillowcases that the weight of them was starting to cause problems and besides that, they had lost all feeling in their toes. That was when they reevaluated their priorities, quit trick or treating and began to concentrate on finding their way home. To make a very long story somewhat shorter, they eventually got home, totally frozen and the first thing they did was get out the scale and weigh their bags. Each had over 20 pounds of candy!
Back to yesterday. At about 4:30 in the afternoon, the ghost of Halloween present showed up in the form of two little girls. The girls (about 8 years old) were shyly standing at the bottom of our steps trying to decide what to do. They were both dressed in their play clothes but one of them still had on her school uniform shirt. I opened the door and said hello whereupon they whispered ‘trick or treat?’. I excitedly handed them each one of the little treat bags I had prepared. Each of the girls shook my hand, thanked me and wished me a happy Halloween. All told we had about 17 kids come to our door last night. They were all dressed in shorts and t-shirts because it was about 29 degrees out (ha ha). Only one had what might pass as a costume. He was wearing a home made mask. None of them had even a grocery bag for candy. There are very, very few people in the village who could afford to give out candy. I’m sure each of the kids went home with less than 20 candies let alone 20 pounds of candy. But they were all laughing and having fun which was the important part for them.
The ghost of Halloween future didn’t pop in yesterday but I wonder what he would have shown us. Part of me hopes he would show me a time when the kids of this village would be able to leave their houses on Halloween night with bags and take for granted the bags would be full by the time they returned home. And part of me hopes they never lose the joy they found in the little things last night. Maybe they will manage to hold onto both?