We arrived in Corozal about 2 hours later.  I couldn’t believe we were actually in Belize.  We were picked up by a taxi service at the airport and had a nice air-conditioned van to travel in.  It was nice to have some space to stretch our legs a little.  There is already no room cramped in those airplane seats – no we did not ride first class – so then to have a cat carrier stuffed in the only space you actually get in front of you is not good for the legs.  So it was a huge relief to stretch out.  The cats were pretty quiet during the ride to Corozal – still in shock.  It was around 6pm when we arrived at our new house and it was already starting to get dark.  Early nights would be one of the adjustments for me; it starts to get dark here at about the same time every night, 6pm, and that never changes throughout the year.  Back home in Oregon one of the things I absolutely love about summer are the very long days.  In any case we dropped off our bags and let the cats out of their carriers when we got to the house.  It was a very strange feeling and a little unwelcoming because we basically arrived in this new place that was made of concrete which had absolutely no furniture in it.  That’s about when it hit me that my life had just taken a radical turn. 

Oh, and did I mention it was raining?  We knew it was the rainy season here so we weren’t too shocked to arrive to rain but when you are inside a totally cement house the sound of the tropical rain is deafening.  This wasn’t a nice little 10 minute shower either, it was relentless.  This would be day one of what I’ll call the never-ending, flood causing, mud-creating, why won’t this unrelenting wetness ever go away, introduction to Belize. 

After our day of traveling we were pretty hungry.  My mom was the only one out of the three of us who had ever been to this town so we were going to rely on her to lead us to food.  We had a room booked at a hotel called the Hok’ol K’in for the night since we didn’t have any furniture to sleep on at the house; they have a restaurant so that’s where we headed.  Mom had the card of a taxi driver she used on her last trip to Corozal so we called him.  Quick interjection here, the names of any business owners here in Belize are, in fact, their real names – I will make the assumption that they will appreciate that in most cases.  Mandy, the taxi driver came to pick us up a few minutes after we called him.  It costs $5 BZ ($1 US = $2 BZ) to travel via taxi anywhere in the town of Corozal.  Mandy is a fabulous man, very friendly, very reliable and was a great representation of the people of Belize in general.  We arrived at the hotel around 7pm and had our fingers crossed that food was still being served.  Aaron was there to greet us at the Hok’ol K’in and thankfully told us he would serve us some food.  We were happy to eat.

We were also happy to go to sleep.  If only it were that easy.  There was no sleep to be had by any of us that night.  With the combination of nerves, anticipation, really loud rain, a new bed, dogs barking and the very large garbage truck that passed by at 4am, I did not get more than an hour of actual sleep.  I guess it was to be expected but still very frustrating.  That morning my mom went down to the lobby and got us some tea and coffee, it was still raining so I went out on our porch to get my first, gloomy view in the daylight of my new home.  It was grey and wet and the thoughts of doubt crept slowly in my head – I tried as best I could to push them out and think positive because we had a lot to do and a negative state of mind wouldn’t help anything. 

That day was filled with a million tasks; we met up with Jill, the woman who sold us the property, and started with some breakfast.  Then it was a whirlwind – switching over utilities, un-blocked my cell phone for use in this country, bought beds, bought a TV, bought groceries, met new people at a “gringo” social hour (more about these activities later) and just getting a general tour.  “Gringo” was the first new word I learned here, this was everyone’s description of any person coming to Belize from North America or Europe.  It is used very frequently and by everyone.  It took a little getting used to and I didn’t like the word but was eventually forced to use it on almost a daily basis.  By the time we had everything done it was dark and time to eat.  We stopped in at this little Chinese restaurant called Bumpers for some fried rice and took that over to another bar, Jamrock (also referred to as the swing bar due to the swings that encircle the bar) to meet some more new people.  Jill was trying to introduce us to everyone she possibly could.  I had taken in so much new information on this day that I thought my head may actually explode.  We ended up at Tony’s Inn by the end of the night to drop Jill off, we had a drink with her there first and by this time we were already very familiar with the beer in Belize.  There is a monopoly on many things here and one of them directly affects the alcohol that is imported into the country.  Belize has 4 main beers readily available which are brewed and distributed within the country.  These include, Beer (a lager type beer which most people drink but I think tastes absolutely awful – when you ask for a beer this is what you will be served), Stout (sort of describes itself and in my opinion a much better choice although that’s not saying much), Lighthouse (a light beer which most people refer to as a woman’s beer, most men who drink this beer are promptly made fun of, I am not a big fan of this one either) and finally Guinness (this is the beer I drink if/when I am drinking beer).  With the exception of a couple others any other beer is considered contraband here and must be smuggled in from Mexico. 

By the end of the night we were exhausted.  We now had beds in the house so we were going to spend our first night in the new house.  We had put the beds in the living room with the TV placed on top of the TV box in front of us.  It was like a little slumber party except without all the good food.  The rain still had not let up.  Roads were muddy and flooding, the sound of the rain was still echoing throughout the house and there was thunder and lightning.  The cats were trying to find anywhere they could hide and due to lack of choice, ended up in the various suitcases strewn across the house.  Those suitcases became their makeshift homes for a few months.  I got slightly more sleep this night but not by much and the next morning woke up to even more rain.  I was beginning to think the sun didn’t shine here in Belize.