11:46am
For the second time since being in Miami, this morning I found myself the only person on a shuttle bus that could speak English. I find this especially strange as I just came from a foreign country, and never experienced this (and I'm not counting Adam either). Last night it was a large tour group of folks that were on our plane from Belize that appeared to be speaking German. This morning on the way back to the airport, there was a group speaking French and another speaking Spanish, but once again, no English.
When taking my carry-on through the X-ray machine to get to the terminal, I forgot there was a bottle of water in my bag from yesterday's flight. When questioned about it, I said I was completely unaware it was in there. Reflecting on this, that was possibly the stupidest thing in the world I could have said. Luckily they didn't think anything of it, took the water, and simply sent me on my way.
It's noon now, and we're scheduled to land at about 1:45. This is 35 minutes earlier than my reservation stated. I'[m wondering if this might work to my advantage ride-wise. I guess I'll find out when I get back into town though.
That's about it for now. Actually, now would be a good time to finally write a little bit about the day we went cave-tubing. I will make a separate entry though.
Ryan
Sunday, September 6, 2009
9-14-08 afternoon and evening entries (from hand-written journal)
3:05pm (Eastern)
We are on our flight to Miami now, with about 1 hour to go until landing. We definitely made the right choice booking the American flight, as both our Continental flights and connecting flights through Houston have been canceled. I need to talk to someone at Continental about canceling re-scheduled flights as well as getting the refund I am now entitled to. I think I'll try to take care of that tomorrow when I get to the airport for my flight home. I still don't have a ride home from the airport due to the change in arrival times, but I will call people when we land in Miami. Speaking (well, writing) of the hotel, I would like to formally thank my Dad for looking into, booking, and offering to pay for my hotel room in Miami. I had limited internet access, and could not have easily done this on my own. On a similar note, I would also like to thank Mr. Flacks (Adam's Dad if you're not aware) for looking into the alternative flight options for us. Once again, doing this on our own would not have been easy with the limited internet access, and it was greatly appreciated. I think I'll wrap this us for now, but I'm sure I'll have more to write about tonight after going through my first experience with American Customs when re-entering the country.
Until later,
Ryan
10:02pm
I can't believe how exhausted I am. It's 10pm here, but after a week on Belize time, it "should" only feel like it's 8pm. Regardless of the time, bed sounds great right now.
I was amazed at how quick and easy it was to get through customs today. I had been talking with Adam, who has traveled internationally a few times previously, and he told me I would be asked a lot of questions, and they would rummage through my luggage. None of this happened. At passport control, the man at the counter lectured me about taking better care of my passport (it got a bit beat up on the Tikal trip) but that was really it. I handed customs my filled out form, they stamped it, and sent me on my way.
This was the point Adam and I parted ways. His plane to LAX left at 6:30pm, and I wanted to get to my hotel room.
Once settled into the hotel, I called my parents and chatted with them a bit. Then I went to find dinner. The only place within walking distance was the restaurant in the Embassy Suites. I had a really good bacon-wrapped sirloin and two ridiculously over-priced pints of Killians (I wrote how much they were in my journal, but honestly can't read what it says). After this, I came back to the hotel and worked on canceling my re-scheduled flights through Continental. I was surprised it only took 15 minutes on hold to talk to someone. This morning, people at Belizian Shores were telling me they gave up after 25-30 minutes. I let Rebecca on the other end know I had made different arrangements for travel after these flights had been canceled, and wanted to completely cancel the re-scheduled flights and be refunded for them like Continental states is their policy. She informed me she put in the request, and the refund should be processed within 3-5 business days.
On that note, I'm calling it a night. It will be so nice to sleep in my own bed tomorrow!!!
Later,
Ryan
We are on our flight to Miami now, with about 1 hour to go until landing. We definitely made the right choice booking the American flight, as both our Continental flights and connecting flights through Houston have been canceled. I need to talk to someone at Continental about canceling re-scheduled flights as well as getting the refund I am now entitled to. I think I'll try to take care of that tomorrow when I get to the airport for my flight home. I still don't have a ride home from the airport due to the change in arrival times, but I will call people when we land in Miami. Speaking (well, writing) of the hotel, I would like to formally thank my Dad for looking into, booking, and offering to pay for my hotel room in Miami. I had limited internet access, and could not have easily done this on my own. On a similar note, I would also like to thank Mr. Flacks (Adam's Dad if you're not aware) for looking into the alternative flight options for us. Once again, doing this on our own would not have been easy with the limited internet access, and it was greatly appreciated. I think I'll wrap this us for now, but I'm sure I'll have more to write about tonight after going through my first experience with American Customs when re-entering the country.
Until later,
Ryan
10:02pm
I can't believe how exhausted I am. It's 10pm here, but after a week on Belize time, it "should" only feel like it's 8pm. Regardless of the time, bed sounds great right now.
I was amazed at how quick and easy it was to get through customs today. I had been talking with Adam, who has traveled internationally a few times previously, and he told me I would be asked a lot of questions, and they would rummage through my luggage. None of this happened. At passport control, the man at the counter lectured me about taking better care of my passport (it got a bit beat up on the Tikal trip) but that was really it. I handed customs my filled out form, they stamped it, and sent me on my way.
This was the point Adam and I parted ways. His plane to LAX left at 6:30pm, and I wanted to get to my hotel room.
Once settled into the hotel, I called my parents and chatted with them a bit. Then I went to find dinner. The only place within walking distance was the restaurant in the Embassy Suites. I had a really good bacon-wrapped sirloin and two ridiculously over-priced pints of Killians (I wrote how much they were in my journal, but honestly can't read what it says). After this, I came back to the hotel and worked on canceling my re-scheduled flights through Continental. I was surprised it only took 15 minutes on hold to talk to someone. This morning, people at Belizian Shores were telling me they gave up after 25-30 minutes. I let Rebecca on the other end know I had made different arrangements for travel after these flights had been canceled, and wanted to completely cancel the re-scheduled flights and be refunded for them like Continental states is their policy. She informed me she put in the request, and the refund should be processed within 3-5 business days.
On that note, I'm calling it a night. It will be so nice to sleep in my own bed tomorrow!!!
Later,
Ryan
9-13-08 (from hand-written journal)
It's getting close to the one year anniversary of the amazing Belize trip I took last year. I've been re-reading this blog, and realized I never finished transcribing my handwritten journal onto the wonderful world of the blog-o-sphere. I figure now is as good a time as any to finish up this project, so here we go!!!
9-14-08
12:15am
I can't believe we're leaving today. I have a long journey ahead of me, but will go into that in a little bit.
Saturday we were supposed to go on a snorkeling tour at 9am. A little after 8, we were informed the water was too choppy, and we would try to go out at 2pm. So, instead of snorkeling, we hopped into the pool for a bit.
A little after 10am, we decided to into town for breakfast. We grabbed a private tax with Laruen, McCloud, their son Kian, and a new couple we briefly met in the pool the previous day, Chris and Jocelyn. When we got back into town, we all went our separate ways. I don't recall the name of the place we ate, but it was good. I had a ham and cheese omlette, fry-jacks (basically funnel cakes without the sugar topping), and fresh-squeezed orange juice. After breakfast, we walked around for a bit. We ran into Chris and Jocelyn and chatted with them for a bit. Jocelyn noticed my IU shirt, and told me she was an alum as well (1991 believe she said). Then we started talking about where we're from. Crazily enough, Jocelyn grew up in Chagrin Falls!!! For those of you not from Cleveland, this is about a 10 minute drive from where Adam and I grew up. It truly is a very small world.
At 1pm, we headed back to Belizian Shores. I check with Continental and our flight still hasn't been canceled. I'm worried about not being eligible for a refund on the flight, which would make the new flight we booked through Miami with American extremely expensive.
We head out on our snorkeling our, which included two locations in a reservation area. They were both filled with tons of fish, coral annd other underwater wildlife. I forgot to mention, we went on the tour with Ping and Star. The highlight of area one were two sea turtles we were lucky enough to see. Area two was known as shark ray alley. We see three or four sharks in the area, and right before getting back in the boat, two rays showed up. Apparently a ray and a shart went for the same fish, and the shark bit the ray. I unfortunately missed this. Oh, I forgot to mention, the engiine on our boat broke when we got to shark ray alley, and we sat there for about 15 minutes while our guide fixed it (he was changing fuses, but it ended up being a loose wire).
After getting back, we immediately went to the pool. I was hoping for happy hour, but Marva had already closed the bar, so we just hung out for a bit.
Soon we got hungry, so got out of the pool and headed to our room to clean up. When walking up front to order (an electrical storm blew out all their phones some time before we arrived), Ping and Star were walking back from ordering food as well, and invited us to come eat dinner with them on their porch. We said we'd be over when our food was delivered. While waiting for our food, Adam and Amy stopped by to inform us they heard our Continental flight had been officially canceled. I was thrilled, knowing that I am now eligible for their refund policy.
When our food arrived, we went over to Ping and star's. I had a shrimp-filled grouper, and it was delicious. Adam had bought a dragon fruit while in town and we cut it open for dessert. It taste kind of like kiwi, and was pretty good.
After hanging out with them for a couple hours, we headed back to our room to pack for the flight in the morning. I turned in a little after midnight to write this entry in bed, and it's now almost 1am. The next entry will likely come when I get to my hotel in Miami tomorrow afternoon.
Until then,
Ryan
9-14-08
12:15am
I can't believe we're leaving today. I have a long journey ahead of me, but will go into that in a little bit.
Saturday we were supposed to go on a snorkeling tour at 9am. A little after 8, we were informed the water was too choppy, and we would try to go out at 2pm. So, instead of snorkeling, we hopped into the pool for a bit.
A little after 10am, we decided to into town for breakfast. We grabbed a private tax with Laruen, McCloud, their son Kian, and a new couple we briefly met in the pool the previous day, Chris and Jocelyn. When we got back into town, we all went our separate ways. I don't recall the name of the place we ate, but it was good. I had a ham and cheese omlette, fry-jacks (basically funnel cakes without the sugar topping), and fresh-squeezed orange juice. After breakfast, we walked around for a bit. We ran into Chris and Jocelyn and chatted with them for a bit. Jocelyn noticed my IU shirt, and told me she was an alum as well (1991 believe she said). Then we started talking about where we're from. Crazily enough, Jocelyn grew up in Chagrin Falls!!! For those of you not from Cleveland, this is about a 10 minute drive from where Adam and I grew up. It truly is a very small world.
At 1pm, we headed back to Belizian Shores. I check with Continental and our flight still hasn't been canceled. I'm worried about not being eligible for a refund on the flight, which would make the new flight we booked through Miami with American extremely expensive.
We head out on our snorkeling our, which included two locations in a reservation area. They were both filled with tons of fish, coral annd other underwater wildlife. I forgot to mention, we went on the tour with Ping and Star. The highlight of area one were two sea turtles we were lucky enough to see. Area two was known as shark ray alley. We see three or four sharks in the area, and right before getting back in the boat, two rays showed up. Apparently a ray and a shart went for the same fish, and the shark bit the ray. I unfortunately missed this. Oh, I forgot to mention, the engiine on our boat broke when we got to shark ray alley, and we sat there for about 15 minutes while our guide fixed it (he was changing fuses, but it ended up being a loose wire).
After getting back, we immediately went to the pool. I was hoping for happy hour, but Marva had already closed the bar, so we just hung out for a bit.
Soon we got hungry, so got out of the pool and headed to our room to clean up. When walking up front to order (an electrical storm blew out all their phones some time before we arrived), Ping and Star were walking back from ordering food as well, and invited us to come eat dinner with them on their porch. We said we'd be over when our food was delivered. While waiting for our food, Adam and Amy stopped by to inform us they heard our Continental flight had been officially canceled. I was thrilled, knowing that I am now eligible for their refund policy.
When our food arrived, we went over to Ping and star's. I had a shrimp-filled grouper, and it was delicious. Adam had bought a dragon fruit while in town and we cut it open for dessert. It taste kind of like kiwi, and was pretty good.
After hanging out with them for a couple hours, we headed back to our room to pack for the flight in the morning. I turned in a little after midnight to write this entry in bed, and it's now almost 1am. The next entry will likely come when I get to my hotel in Miami tomorrow afternoon.
Until then,
Ryan
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