Dad arrived in Belize right after my uncle left – it was really unfortunate that their trips didn’t overlap a little but that’s how it goes.  My mom and I were extremely happy to see Dad on the day he arrived.  He would be staying just shy of two weeks.  He had originally planned on being here for two weeks but it turned out that a business trip would cut his trip to Belize short by a few days.  At the beginning of any trip you just don’t think about those things so we would worry about it later.  My dad and I have a very close relationship which I feel extremely lucky about; before I moved to Belize we were working out together three times a week so we saw each other a lot.  In Belize I had missed not seeing him so I knew this trip would be really great and very hard when it ended.  This would also be the first time he and my mom would be seeing each other since the move to Belize in October.  They hired a taxi service to bring him home from the airport in Belize City since we didn’t have a reliable vehicle to pick him up and because that taxi service was based in Corozal my mom hitched a ride to the airport with them so she could ride back with him.  Will and I stayed at the house to await their arrival. 

It was a tearful reunion when they did finally arrive – the two of us exchanged big hugs and we all sat down to catch up.  He had brought a considerable amount of luggage with him bearing gifts from home – items that we cannot get here in Corozal – so close to Christmas I guess it was fitting.  It’s amazing how exciting it can be to get even the simplest things after being in Belize for just a few months.  After Dad got settled in a bit he went out to the bar and said hi to everyone else.  Everyone was excited to meet him after hearing so much about Mr. Scott. 

Dad was on vacation here, and that’s exactly how he and my mom were going to treat it.  Will’s anxiety and stress levels were already at a high and it was my dad’s visit here that seemed to throw him in a complete tailspin.  Sadly, that is what overshadowed the fact that my dad was here visiting and we wouldn’t be able to see him again for another few months.  At first things were okay, everyone was getting along, but it wasn’t long before the air was filled with a thick tension.  Things became uncomfortable and really even I wasn’t sure what was going on.  Will was acting strange, quiet and visibly perturbed.  We took several trips with my dad as we had done with my uncle, some I went on, and some just my mom and he went on.  Will stayed at the bar for the trips because he wasn’t comfortable leaving the bar in the hands of the staff at this point; I had assumed that this was acceptable since we were entertaining guests.  According to Will I had made an incorrect assumption.  He felt that my dad should have been here working in the bar and became extremely resentful that he was not doing that.  It was my opinion that my Dad’s role with all of this was financial – he was still in Oregon making money to fund the business here in Belize – that was his responsibility.  I didn’t feel like he needed to learn all the ins and outs of the bar’s operations since this was his vacation from work.  Of course he was interested in the daily operations and how things were being run, and he asked plenty of questions about that, as well as observed how things were done in general.  So Will became more and more bitter as my dad’s trip progressed.  I would constantly hear about it from Will because he refused to actually confront my dad about how he felt so I started to get very tired of being the middle man, and since I completely disagreed with Will I became very irritated about the whole situation. 

After the first week of the trip Will was hardly saying two words to my dad and it was becoming exceptionally rude, everyone was uncomfortable.  I knew that if the tables were turned and one of Will’s friends or family members was here visiting he would be showing them around town as well.  He certainly wasn’t seeing it that way and whenever I made that point to him he simply stated that this situation was reality and making comparisons to someone visiting him wasn’t the scenario at this point.  Obviously I have a bias here toward my own opinion and all I can say about this is that I disagreed strongly.

It all came to a head the day before my dad was scheduled to leave.  My mom and dad had a trip planned for that last day.  Originally I hadn’t planned on going because I knew how upset Will was about the whole situation, but on second thought I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to spend some more time with my dad before he left Belize.  My dad wanted me to go too, so very soon before they were leaving I approached Will to see if he would mind if I went.  When I asked him he gave me a real “eat shit” look that kind of surprised me to be honest.  He barked some sarcastic remark at me that immediately upset me.  I felt stuck between a rock and a hard place.  Here it is my dad’s last day in the country and I want to spend time with him and then there’s my husband who is very obviously upset about the whole situation.  In hindsight I shouldn’t have even asked about it; time with my dad is way too important to me than that and Will knows me well enough to understand that.  From Will’s reaction I knew it wasn’t okay with him so at first I told my parents that I would be staying home; I was visibly upset and my dad basically told me to just do what I wanted to do so I decided to go with my gut and spend the time with my dad. 

Later, once we had returned, Will and I got in to a major fight.  Things got more heated than they ever had and I was extremely close to calling it quits right then and there.  I could not comprehend that he wasn’t able to understand my desire to spend as much time as possible with my dad.  Family is extremely important to me and that is no secret to people who know me well.  I already had my doubts about our relationship as a married couple and this did not help things at all.  It would be very hard to forgive Will for making my dad feel unwelcome and uncomfortable.  At the same time Will couldn’t understand why I couldn’t see his point of view about the whole situation.  I knew at this point I had a lot of thinking to do about the future of my marriage. 

My uncle Charlie (Mom’s brother) was the first person to visit us in Belize.  He arrived a couple weeks before Christmas and would be in town for about five days.  At this point we had made a few friends in town who had boats and other water toys to play with so we had a few things planned for his trip.  It would be a busy month because right after he was scheduled to leave my Dad would be flying in for a couple weeks.  That would be over the Christmas holiday so it would be nice to have him here to spend Christmas with us.  U. Charlie was flying in to Cancun and then taking the bus down to Corozal – he was going to be arriving pretty late and told us to be ready to pick him up at the border around 2am so we had a long night planned.  He told us he would call when he got close but what he didn’t count on was that his cell phone wouldn’t work in Mexico, so we were sort of flying blind when it came to his arrival time.  Finally we got an estimated time down for his arrival at the border and we drove over there to wait.  20 minutes went by, then 40 and 50 – we were starting to get worried.  Just as we were about to go looking for him I see this guy in the distance walking to the border with a suitcase in tow.  I couldn’t tell for sure but I was pretty certain it was him considering this was very obviously a tourist walking to the border at 3am – that doesn’t happen so often.  Sure enough, it was him so we waited until he got through customs and immigration and ran over to him when he got through the building.  We all exchanged big hugs and then heard why it had taken him an hour longer than he had told us. 

The way the border is set up between Mexico and Belize you go through the Mexican border first and then there is an entire little commerce area after that border and before the actual Belize border called the Free Zone.  If you don’t realize what is going on it can be a bit confusing.  Well, U. Charlie thought he was through with the borders since he was told that he was in Belize (technically you are in Belize once past the Mexican border and over the river but there still is an official border to go through on the Belize side).  So he camped out at one of the casinos before the actual border and was waiting for us.  Finally someone saw him sitting there with his big suitcase at 2:30am and asked what he was doing.  He told the guy that he was waiting for a ride from his sister – he was promptly informed that he had not quite reached the Belize border yet.  So he got up and lugged his bag along the road until he finally saw the border which is where we finally found him.  We were so glad to see him because we were starting to think the worst.  We got back to the house and stayed up for another hour or so just chatting and gave U. Charlie his first Belikin beer. 

For the next few days we really tried to show off Belize.  It seemed to work because he loved it here.  The major trip was a boat outing with our friend Ken and another guy we had befriended from Canada named Rod.  They both have small boats that we decided to take from one lagoon to the Progresso lagoon.  Then we were going to stop by another new friend’s house.  Just a nice day trip and it was the first time that I would be on it.  We left late morning packing our beer, rum and minimal food – we left from the Copper Bank lagoon (off Rod’s dock) and headed out.  It was a beautiful day and actually not just my first time on these lagoons, but also my first time on a boat in Belize.  The ride was fantastic – to get from the Copper Bank lagoon to the Progresso lagoon there is a serious of thin waterways that you weave in and out of and with a small boat it’s pretty incredible.  It really was a day full of laughing, drinking and general fun.  My uncle got along really well with everyone and was thoroughly enjoying himself.  I think the smiles were actually plastered to our faces for the entire day.  We stopped off at Bruce’s (American) dock to say hi and have a couple drinks.   I had never met him and his wife but my mom had once and she sure thought he was a kick.  We were warned that he can tell a mean story and will have you laughing the whole time you’re around him.  By the time we docked the boat we were all a little tipsy and I was pretty determined to not drink anymore.  Little did I know that not drinking at Bruce’s really isn’t an option.  It only took a few minutes to realize that this guy is an entertainer.  I don’t believe I’ve ever met anyone who can tell a story like Bruce.  We were thoroughly entertained the entire time and by the time I left I was drunk and my face hurt from laughing so much.  I immediately took a liking to Bruce and his wife – he’s the kind of guy who really couldn’t care less what you think about him.  He says it how it is and that is refreshing in an odd way.  They were currently working on their house – he was in charge of building it and the two of them were putting in most of the labor themselves.  They had a party room with thatched roof already standing and then living in the motor home they had brought down while they built the rest of the house. 

After a long and entertaining day in the sun we headed back to Rod’s place – the sun was setting and the water was gorgeous.   We spent most of the night out on Rod’s beach talking and laughing and having the insane type of philosophical conversations that you can only have when you’ve had way too much to drink.  Yes, I did fall backwards while looking up at the stars to convince my uncle that the prominent constellation you see in this part of the world is Orion and not the Big Dipper.  No, he didn’t believe me at the time but a couple weeks later admitted that I may have been right. 

The rest of the trip consisted of impromptu poker games and general entertainment – U. Charlie loved it and we hope to see him back very soon.  The next visitor on deck would be my dad and sadly this visit would cause some major fireworks between Will and me.  It really would be the straw that broke the camel’s back.