Debbie & Steve

Our next guests were Debbie and Steve, who solved some of the transfer problems our guests sometimes have in a sort of unique way, although in the future we’ll be recommending that our guests do what Debbie and Steve did to save a few dollars on what can be a very expensive transfer fee. They flew into Belize City, and spent their first couple of nights at the Tropical Education Center at the Belize Zoo. One of the things they really wanted to do on their vacation was to tour ATM, and as Debbie and I emailed back and forth planning the trip, Debbie asked whether it would be better to do that from the Zoo or from our place. We were also discussing the best way to get from the Zoo to here, and we realized that ATM is right in the middle – so we solved the problem by arranging for John from the TEC to transfer Debbie and Steve to the end of the access road to ATM, where they were met by Gonzo who took them on the ATM tour, and then took them back to San Ignacio where we picked them up. Their transfer from the TEC to the Pook’s Hill Road was much less than the transfer all the way into San Ignacio, and the rest of the transfer was covered in the ATM tour cost.

On their second day here, they toured Xunantunich and Barton Creek, so they were able to see a Maya archeological site, and another wet cave very different from ATM. They did these tours with Gonzo and Carlos, who told them that the famous Jade Head, usually stored in the Belize Bank vault, was going on tour and would be at Cahal Pech the next day. So, the next morning, Debbie, Steve, and Tom took a ride to San Ignacio to see the famous artifact. They then went to lunch at Julio’s house before touring Ka’ax Tun. In three days, they packed in a variety of Maya sites and saw a wide range of artifacts in different venues.

While Deb and Steve had a good trip just because they were able to see a lot of different things in a couple of days, Tom and I really enjoyed spending time and talking to them because we were fascinated by how they spend their spare time at home – curling! Tom and I have always been somewhat interested in this sport, but we’d never had the opportunity to talk to people who actively participated, and we were both fascinated at the strategy and skill needed to really be good at it. We had a whole new respect for curling as an Olympic sport, and were wishing that there was some way to simulate the ice here in Belize – but we decided it just wouldn’t be the same in the mud and the sand!