Marta & Blanca

Overlapping with both Kathleen & Sam and Quan & Ed, daughter and mother Marta and Blanca spent three nights with us and got good taste of life in this part of Belize. When they made their reservations, Marta informed us that her mother spoke only Spanish. Marta was making the reservations from Mexico, so we assumed they were Mexican, but when we met and started talking to them, we realized that they weren’t speaking Mexican/Central American Spanish – and weren’t surprised when they told us that they were from Spain. Marta is a business consultant who is currently working in Mexico, so her mom came to visit and they set out on a three-week bus journey through Mexico and Central America. Marta has also done jobs in the US, London, and Australia, so her English is excellent, so whenever we ran into a snag communicating with Blanca, we had an excellent translator to make sure everybody understood everything – and, Tom and I found that our Spanish was actually a little better than we thought it was.

Marta and Blanca had been on the cayes before coming to us, so they took the bus from Belize City to San Ignacio, where Tom met them. They spent the next day at Caracol, fortunately with a guide who spoke both English and Spanish. The next day they went to Ka’ax Tun, and were immediately adopted by Julio and his family who were delighted to have Spanish-speaking guests. Everybody was fascinated with the differences in how they used their common language coming from different countries, but they immediately bonded because they could understand each other.

Julio’s whole family helped on the guided tour of Ka’ax Tun, and Marta and Blanca were amazed at how the not-yet-three year old Melvor could climb fearlessly around on the rocks and vines. The whole group of them had so much fun that after eating one of Janet’s delicious lunches, they all took a ride up to Big Rock for a swim, and they didn’t return here until shortly before sunset – with Melvor completely conked out in Janet’s arms.

The next day they were heading into Guatemala, so Tom took them to the border and they continued on the last leg of their journey.