Punta Gorda

On my second day at Hummingbird Farm, I went with Sarah into Punta Gorda. I made up a list of the things I needed to do: check email, update blog, etc. To make the most of my internet time, I am doing all my writing in advance, so all I have to do is copy and paste into blogger to update my blog. Still, my blog entries are going to lag behind a little, as I am writing most every day, and connecting to the internet every day.

Bus schedules are a little flexible. We knew the bus goes by around 1 pm, so we were waiting by the road in front of the farm at 12:30. The bus came around 12:45, probably. Punta Gorda is basically the southernmost tip of Belize, and borders the ocean. On a clear day, you can see Guatamala and Honduras. This was not a clear day. It rained off and on all afternoon. We got off the bus in Punta Gorda, by the place where Sarah would be staying the night, before going on to her next WWOOFing location.

She checked in with her landlady, and left her backpack in her room, and we went out to explore the city. She has been to Punta Gorda before, and served as my guide. We stopped by the bank so I could go in to the ATM and get some cash, since I only had 5 dollars left of the 100 I withdrew for my trip before leaving Utah. I took out 100 BZD, which should last for a few weeks. I budgeted $100 USD per month for spending money, so 100 BZD is two weeks worth.

We went to the internet place and I updated my blog with the entry about my bus trip, (yes, that does approximate how many entries behind I am), and checked my email. I had a bill from one of my credit cards, so I paid that too. We went for lunch, and I stopped by BTL to find out about getting internet up at the farm, while waiting for our food to arrive. The guy there was ridiculously slow, and it turned out that satellite internet at the farm will be ridiculously expensive, and the bill for it wouldn’t count as proof of residence to open a bank account, either. I think I will be going into Big Falls or Punta Gorda every day or two, at least for the time being.

I rejoined Sarah for lunch, and the food had arrived, so we ate. She had a later breakfast and skipped lunch, so she ate ravenously. I had recently eaten a decent lunch, so I let her eat half of my food. I had some fresh squeezed orange juice, though, and it was delicious.

After eating, we visited some of the different shops, and toured the Chocolate Factory. They showed us their process, from drying and shelling the fresh cocoa beans, to the finished chocolate bars we were allowed to sample. It was a great treat to see how chocolate is made, and then to sample some freshly made chocolate.

By this point it was getting close to the time I needed to catch my bus. Sarah showed me to the bus stops and made sure I knew which bus to board, and we said our goodbyes. We only knew each other for a couple of days, but I’m going to miss her. Definitely keeping in touch. She has had some interesting adventures too, and is planning to do a couple of guest posts for me later, once she has a chance to write.

The bus stopped to fill up on my home, and I noticed that fuel was really cheap. I don’t know if it’s gallons or liters (and that makes a huge difference), but it was just under $1 BZD per. That’s a little under 50 cents US. Probably liters, but still a pretty good price.

I got back to Hummingbird Farm right before dark. We get up with the sun, and work hard all morning, so after a short visit with Mr. Lucas, I called it a night and hit the sack.