Joan, Andy, & Company

The same day Kim and Allie left, we had an entire family of six come in for four nights. This was another trip that had been in the planning for many months, and we wanted everything to go well for them because Joan and Andy are the aunt and uncle of our friends Tad and Anneke. They were traveling with their three sons and one of the son’s fiancé, and were planning to spend the first part of their week with us before going out to Caye Caulker for the remainder of their trip.

The first day they all went to ATM and liked it, as always. The next day they saddled up and rode with our neighbor Joe from his property to Big Rock. We had a couple of logistical issues with this trip since neither we nor Joe have six horses for guests, so Joe ended up using four of his and Tom rode and ponied two of ours down there in the morning, while I crammed the whole family into our Isuzu truck. Fortunately everybody was a good sport and the weather was good, and the men were happy enough riding in the pan. They all left to ride, and in the late morning Tom, Shelly, and I all got in the Isuzu and drove up to Big Rock to meet them. Our timing was perfect, and we pulled into the parking lot just as the riders arrived. Tom hiked down the path to the falls with Joan, Andy, and Company, Joe and his tail guide lined up their four horses and started herding them back down the trail, and Shelly and I got on Tony and Ness and had a nice ride home. After a swim in the falls and lots of jumping off the rocks, Tom chauffeured everybody back here to get changed, and then they took off to 7 Miles for lunch at Julio’s house before a tour of Ka’ax Tun. It all sounds very complicated, but everything went according to plan, nobody’s timing could have been better, and everybody got where they needed to be on time.

Everybody really enjoyed the Ka’ax Tun tour, and this family was by far the most adventurous of all the guests we’ve had. Everybody climbed the chimney, and almost everybody climbed the rock walls on the vines. And, best of all, nobody got hurt!

We spent dinners talking about all sorts of things, from catching up on mutual acquaintances in New York to life in Belize and what people with the means could do to give some of the people here a little boost. Joan offered to help on that end if we know of any students who want to study in the US, so we’re now looking into that and trying to keep that ball rolling. So everything did go well – so well that when Joan emailed us upon their return home, they all agreed that “Next time we come, we will spend more time with you and less time at the beach.” We took that as reassurance that everybody had a good time!