It had been dark for hours (but was only 8pm local time) when we landed. We walked the long, narrow airport to get to immigration, where there was some English attempt to tell us we needed to go to Gate 14 to pay a tax.
We hauled our way to the other side of the airport. Gate 14 was just another gate, but the Avianca representative booth right next to the gate knew what we were talking about, and gave us a piece of paper to show.
As we were waiting for the printer, an airport golf cart shuttle pulled up and dropped his load off. Alisa mentioned to me that it'd be great if he would give us a ride all the way back to Immigration - and the gentleman did just that! He jokingly told us it was $100, and we asked if we could just keep him for the week. First interactions with Salvadorians were great!
A driver was waiting for us, as we had arranged with the hotel. Sebestian took us first to a gas station (which was guarded by a man with a machine gun) then through darkness to Rancho Estero Y Mar. It was slightly longer of a trip than I expected (35 minutes versus 20), and Alisa and I were very glad we had paid to have a driver who knew where he was going.
The property was big. We checked in, but across the street at the beach was an open-air dining area with a counter for food.
Inside the complex, it was painted and pastel and jungle-y, with a giant dose of creepy as we wandered it at night. There were three glowing pools hidden between the groves of trees with hammocks. The creepiness came in with the painted statues of lions, turtles, and people.
Opposite the beach was a lagoon with kayaks and what looked like mangroves. We found some horses, I had a heart attack when some geese started hissing at me, and a frog jumped across the path as we were poking around in the near dark. There were Christmas lights on the trees that kept it from being pitch black, but there was a very eerie quality to our exploring.
We crossed the road and walked out onto the beach. This was a taste of the Pacific before we hop back over the isthmus to Belize. I noticed a lit cigarette, and a man crouching, and then some disturbance in the sand. First, I thought it was a woman doing sand angels, but then it was a flipper...
A SEA TURTLE! I'm not sure if the man (and the stray dog) by it were trying to protect it, or harvest its eggs (if it was even laying eggs?) but we took pictures of it in the dark until it retreated back into the ocean. What a cool, cool way to start vacation!
This morning, we were up at 5am - which is 7am EST. We wanted to check out the ecological park in the daylight. The grayness was good enough. We found some cows, then walked a boardwalk through more of the mangroves. The "I'd have a heart attack, there's a person behind every tree" feeling had left, but the bizarre statues - such as the Seven Dwarves - continued despite the light.
I was convinced there were monkeys, so when we got to the end of the boardwalk, we kept going. It rained hard just as we were going to bed last night (and there was crazy heat lightning all evening), so it was squishy soil we were walking through. After 100 yards and no sight of anything interested, we headed back to the boardwalk.
As we walked back to our room, I look up, and a white moon face is peering at me from behind a chain link fence. The monkeys were 20 feet from our room the whole time!
We popped back out to the beach, took some pictures, and, as we were heading in to pack up, a car pulled up and asked if I was Corinne.
Guillermo, our driver, was half an hour early, which was awesome, since we didn't want to cut this airport and flight quite as close. I had no idea what to expect for security at the San Salvador airport.
Guillermo was a gem. He lived in Toronto for ten years, and is now a tour guide and interpreter. He, like Sebastian last night, asked why we were only here for a night. Both of them were very excited to tell us about the wonders of their country. We said we were going diving in Belize, and he said we could dive in a volcanic lake at the top of a mountain. We said we liked hiking, and he said there's a crater you can see a few hours outside of the city. We were curious about the people, and he talked about the uprising of the natives about 30-40 years ago, and some of the Mayan sights, including the Pompeii of the Mayans, where archeologists can see how regular ancients lived when they were trapped by a volcano. He also mentioned that black people aren't allowed in El Salvador, but mentioned there are some in the Navy that you see around now... That was an interesting comment.
He, as he put it, was being an ambassador for El Salvador. I was excited for him, and for his and his country's future. We'll see if some volcano tourism ends up on our list! Oh, and learning to surf - we could do that too.
I'm so glad we left early, because the chaos at the airport would've been extra unpleasant. We joined the mob, sidled through to the door into the airport, then pressed through yet another crowd to get to the roped line to get our passports checked. After that, we were in - and found our flight on a monitor. (The first monitor we saw cut it off, which made me a little uncomfortable until we actually saw it on a departures screen.)
One of the things discussed with Guillermo was coffee. We had gotten a bowl of semi-frozen pineapple, papaya, and watermelon for breakfast, but a croissant wasn't uncalled for. Neither was the stop at duty free - we'll have some *ahem* beverages if we need them for the resort, which includes everything but alcohol.
The flight went fast - individual screens so I could watch How I Met Your Mother while eating my breakfast burrito.
We landed, hopped through immigration, had customs take a cursory look at our wine, then walked outside. After about ten minutes, we found our representative, and then ha another 30 minute wait until the next flight landed. Our shuttle driver was also a tour guide, so we got the highlights of Belize City on our way to the Radisson docks.
There were schools run by Jesuits, and schools from the West Indies, and schools named after famous people. There was a hospital that was named after a doctor that practiced until he was 87 and died. There was a road named after Princess Mary when she came with Queen Elizabeth. There was Benny's, the Home Deport of Belize. Then there was Brodie's, the Walmart of Belize. (Belize City isn't actually why people come to Belize.)
When we got to the hotel dock, we dropped off our luggage with Jad and Nick - two employees that we'll be seeing a lot of - and walked to go find food. After crossing a bridge into the "Wall Street", we walked a few blocks along the well-trafficked streets and popped into a Brodie's (Walmart) to grab some water.
Also, air conditioning. Our "airplane appropriate" clothing was getting hot, and the fact that we'd been in it for two days probably also didn't help.
We wandered back to a recommended restaurant. At Marlin's, a grizzled Hawaiian-looking man took our orders - one chicken chilimole and one fish burger.
While my chicken in a soup of spices, served with a hard-boiled egg and tortilla, was much more authentic than Alisa's fish sandwich, her French fries were amazing.
We were so ready for A/C again, so back to the Radisson, with a stop at a gift market on the way. Once we got into the bar overlooking the pool, my sweat chilled immediately, and it was freezing.
You know what else was frozen? All our drinks: pinã colada, banana-nana, and a mudslide. Happy birthday to me!
Well, eventually the freezing room plus the frozen drinks became too much for us. The drowsiness from the mechlesions had also set in, so we were falling asleep. The lawn chairs by the pool looked tempting, so we went down with an hour and a half yet to wait.
Well, I did sleep for 30 minutes. And I awoke with rivulets of sweat running down my back and forehead. I called it quits, and headed to the less comfortable chairs in the shade.
It was another thirty minutes of using the hotel's free wifi. It was another ten minutes of chatting with the staff on the dock. It was another twenty minutes of watching for dolphins while people were getting on the boat. Then, finally, it was 4:30 and we set sail. (Or, at least, dropped the mooring and started the engine.)
The first thirty minutes there was before the barrier reef. The day picked up pace again when a pod of dolphins started playing in the wake. Jad slowed down to just under 12 mph to keep them around, and they played for at least twenty minutes - cruising in the waves, then jumping through the air. About a dozen delighted us as we continued into shallower water, where they disappeared.
The resort is on the east side of the atoll, which looks a little like a north-to-south eyeball. It is a oblong oval, but in the middle is a lagoon, the iris. We passed through mangrove channels, hardly wider than the boat, to reach the center, where you could hardly see the low-lying land on almost all sides.
We docked, and my, what a wonderful first impression. The crisp white clapboard houses where on stills, circling along past the dock to the infinity pool that was in front of the lodge.
We climbed the steps, and the homiest little dining and sitting room greeted us, with a wood bar tucked back in the corner where rum punches awaited us all.
Since we encountered the first couple in the boat, to when we entered the property and shook Karen and Craig's hands, everyone was introducing themselves, asking what our plan was for the week (since it is both a fishing and diving locale) and being generally amiable and friendly. We milled about, getting our check-in packets with our room assignment.
Hors d'oeuvres were served, but dinner wasn't for another 30 - perfect for us to check out our cabana on the ocean and rinse off the sweat.
Our duplex is adorable, and so perfect for what we want. Two beds, a large bathroom, drawers where we could put our things, and an A/C unit for nighttime.
We were back in time to grab a glass of Malbec before dinner. During the ten minutes before the almond-encrusted snapper, we met another few couples - including a boy who was college-age, so we aren't the youngest. We then sat with six others and ate well together.
With four tables of roughly eight, which is the max for the dining room, the resort seems full this week - but not crowded. The wide views of the Atlantic, the sand and palm trees, and the small size make it all just right.
With the fudgiest chocolate cake ever, my birthday was essentially over. Jim asked for candles, but the staff didn't quite know what to do with the request, so the red velvet cheesecake that I got surprised with on Thursday (and still dream about) was where I made my wish.
But after finally getting to Turneffe Atoll? I'm not sure I need any wishes.
Though, we did wade in that saltwater infinity pool, which meant that when Nick came down and asked if we wanted to go croc hunting, we were ready. Jim (a different one) had just scared them off the beach since they were headed to the dump a little ahead of schedule. We didn't see them at first - the second time Nick had let us down, since he had told us about the dolphin at the Radisson dock that we never saw - but, like the dolphin, he made up for it when ten minutes of stargazing and ten feet back down the beach, we saw the red eyes and small head of one of the last bastions of Atlantic saltwater crocodiles.
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