Shawn & Kathy, Cody & Dylan

We had a quick one-night visit with a family from Colorado, parents Shawn and Kathy and their teenaged sons Cody and Dylan. They were driving around Belize seeing as much as they could fit into a week, and planned to stay here after spending the day at Caracol. They gave me a little bit of a scare, because they pulled into the driveway at 10:30 in the morning on the day they were supposed to arrive. They scared me on two counts – first, because Chad and Jill were still using the cabin, and second, because if they were on their way to Caracol they had missed the 9:30 military convoy. But, they assured me, they didn’t need to go into the cabin yet, and when I told them about the military convoy, they understood that they might not be allowed to drive to Caracol, but that there was plenty to do up in the Mountain Pine Ridge for the day anyway.

It all worked out; the military let them drive to Caracol on their own, so they had a very enjoyable time touring the site. They then stopped at Rio On Pools on their way back, and had a good swim. They pushed the envelope again by driving to 1000 Foot Falls on their way back, and realized when they saw the sign at the gate after the long drive over the bad roads that the park officially closes at 5PM, and it was 5:20. Fortunately Pedro the caretaker let them in anyway and they were able to see the Falls – so they managed to cram into one short day what sometimes takes people two days of touring to see!

We had an enjoyable dinner with them, comparing notes on living in a place where water has to be carefully managed, and they had lots of good insights and suggestions. We also had some common ground because Shawn, like my brother Matt, is a PA in the Army, and Shawn was a little surprised that he didn’t have to explain what he did for work.

The day they left was Cody’s 17th birthday, so we celebrated with a candle in his banana pancakes. Then they loaded up the car and took off to return the car in Belize City before catching a water taxi out to Caye Caulker for their last day of vacation.