The alarm went off at 4:30, I hit snooze once and headed out to the shore to watch the sun rise over the Caribbean Sea. The horizon had a light tint of color already, so I thought my timing was pretty decent. I'm not exactly an early riser, so sunsets aren't my forte. Little did I know it would be another couple hours before the sun actually break over the horizon, so for the next while I was watching more of a "gradual brightening".
Jes came out at a more sensible time and we both read our books, sitting on our towels a couple feet from the shoreline, noticing the odd little sand crab poke out of his hole, only to scuttle swiftly back inside at the slightest flinch from Jes or I. The owner-lady was up early to tend to the perfectly manicured sand-lawn in front of the cabins, raking up the debris brought in by the tide. Eventually the sun came up and I was glad to have started my day so early.
We went for breakfast at Thong's Cafe a couple doors down. We had pretty much conceded that we were not going to make it through the day on our Belizean currency, and so resigned ourselves to dipping into our American Dollar stash that had been set aside to get us back through Mexico. With our thrifty ways behind us, I ordered a big Mexican breakfast, Jes had a meager bagel, toasted, buttered and smeared with jam. Together with a coffee each, the bill was BZ$25. I plunked down the bills and topped it with a couple dollar coins for a tip. I could feel something burning all of sudden when I looked up and saw the stink-eye glare from Jes, aimed directly at me. We weren't on the same page when it came to tacking a tip on top, what with the limited funds available to us. The previous night she was happy to buy BZ$9 worth of jam that could be found anywhere outside of Hopkins, but leaving a $2 tip for these poor folk got me the evil eye every time. We went back to the cabin after grabbing some chips, salsa and fig newtons (hereforward known affectionately as "Newts") for snack/lunch. We mixed ourselves some mid-morning rum and cokes and I relaxed on the beach, trying to capture some color while Jes stayed out on the veranda, both of us crushing our books (and drinks). The better part of our day was spent this way, minus the sunning as I could only handle so much.
Later, around 4pm, and having skipped lunch in favor of chips, newts and booze, I started feeling peckish. We went south to the same location as our supper the previous night, wanting to try the Yu Ga Da Cafe across the street from Innies. We arrived to find it wasn't open until 5, but Jes was adamant we were trying this place, so we popped into Innies and split a burger while we waited. A short bit after 5 we made the switch to Yu Ga Da only to find higher prices and pretty much the same menu. We tried to escape with the excuse that it was too hot in there (which it was, I was pouring sweat out of every gland in my body), but she cracked the windows, opened the doors, turned the ceiling fans on and was generally just a bit too nice to skip out on. We were loaded and feeling greasy, so we ordered another burger and fries each. They were claimed to be homemade, but tasted suspiciously like McDonald's. Regardless, we plowed them into our faces and headed back to continue binge drinking.
Back at the cabin I poured myself a drink and we sat out and read books some more. It wasn't long before Jes decided she'd head inside and lay down, which I found a bit odd as it was barely 7pm. About an hour later, I heard a barely discernible, muffled moan over the crashing sound of the waves. It was coming from inside so I peeked in and it was Jes, curled up in a ball, calling for me. She was in some serious discomfort, similar to the stomach pain that we had taken her to the hospital for less than a week prior to our trip. She had been doing so well for the first 10 or so days of the trip that it wasn't even in my mind anymore, but very clearly, she wasn't 100% free of her ailment. We never did get a definitive answer on what was wrong with her, and this time around, we didn't have a definitive answer on what could have caused this sudden bout of extreme stomach pain. We surmised it may have been the wad of grease she'd just mashed into her pie-hole, but it could have been the fact that she had forgotten to take her meds, which were supposed to be taken on an empty stomach, until after her breakfast that morning, something she hadn't waivered on all trip until that morning. It could have been something else entirely, we just didn't know. Whatever it was, about an hour after her cries for help, every morsel of liquid and food in her body made a swift and sudden break for the nearest exit in an uncontrollable wave eminating from her abdomen in both directions.
After a prolonged period of purging her body, the pain subsided. At Jes's request I went next door to the convenience store to source out some Tang and water to get some liquids back in her body and keep her hydrated, something without acid to avoid disturbing the bubbling cauldron inside her. Jes has got some weird aversion to drinking just plain water, but after what she'd just been through (and what I'd been through by mere proximity to the bathroom), I was in no position to question the request. Similar to her water-aversion, I have an even stronger grocery store aversion.
For instance, my arch nemesis is the Real Canadian Superstore. Jes lives pretty much beside one, so has learned the ins and outs of the store quite thoroughly. I, on the other hand, couldn't find bread in the bakery there. She asked me to find a pillow in Superstore for her once, one of those fancy, curvy, memory foam deals. She assured me they were in there, so I went in with confidence thinking there are only so many places to find pillows in a grocery store. I was unsuccessful after a thrice-over scour of the pillow aisle. "How many pillow aisles can there possibly be in a grocery store!!!!", I steamed. I left in a rage, only to be lead by the hand, by Jes the next day, to that very pillow aisle and grab precisely what she had asked for. To this day I swear that it wasn't there the previous day and they must have re-stocked overnight.
Back to Belize, and this "convenience" store might as well have been called "Belizean Superstore" because I'll be damned if I could find some Tang in there. I went up and down every aisle twice, knowing full-well that if Jes asked for it, she had seen it in there in one of our previous trips. Eventually, I gave up and assumed that she could only have meant the powder soy-based drink that I was standing in front of, pouring over the contents and mixing instructions. It said mix with water, it was fruit flavored, not acidy....I thought this must be it. A Belizean woman walked past and said "ohhhh, don't get that!!", and made a face like she just swallowed a bug. I was screwed, so I asked for help. "I'm looking for juice, but not juice. It has to be in powder form....powder form? Y'know, to mix with water...?", I quizzed. "Tang??", she asked. "YES!!", I exalted, shocked for some reason, thinking that such a product must not exist here. She enlisted her pre-teen son and daughter to join in the Tang-hunt, and not more than 10s later I heard "found it!" From the center aisle. There it was, almost exactly mid-store. Center of the center aisle, MY eye height, and not just one flavour, it was the Baskin Robbins of Tang, what looked like 31 flavors. I had gone up and down the "Tang aisle" and not noticed the Tang.
I bought the goods and quietly left, boiling inside. I mixed the drink, got it to Jes and she promptly crushed it saying, "Oh, you almost should have bought 2."
I rolled over and went to bed.
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