Weekend!

After spending all day Friday becoming acquainted with the school, it was nice to have the weekend to relax and process. Unfortunately, the weather yesterday was less than spectacular, so it prevented us from doing much outdoors. It was rainy and chilly, in the 50s/60s! (I know, I know.. I won't be getting much sympathy from most of you..)

Despite the weather, Ben and I walked up to The Split, a narrow channel created by Hurricane Hattie in 1961 that separates the northern and southern islands of Caye Caulker. We walked around the northern part of town for a bit, and spent most of the rest of the day indoors. (I read on the hammock for a bit.. until I almost got blown off). We did manage to venture out to have dinner at a touristy spot at the end of Front Street. There I discovered the magic of Caye Caulker tortillas. They're warm and thick and delicious! (I'm sure they're great all around Central America.. this just happens to be the first place I experienced one).

Today was a beautiful day. I ventured out on my own this morning to hunt down an ATM and some coffee. Once Ben got up we spent the rest of the morning exploring the southern part of the island. We meandered our way down the beach, through a mini-reserve, and across the airstrip. The southern part of the island is pretty sparsely populated and much greener than where we're staying. Once we made our way back to Front Street, we walked into Lloyd's Bar to find that the Patriots were getting creamed (in the first quarter, no less). We decided to stay and watch the whole game anyway, which wasn't pretty. At least we met some interesting folks while we were there. After the game we met with Maria to go over some logistics-y paperwork stuff. Maria made our first dinner in the house: pasta, sauce, and garlic bread.. all of which I'm sure we'll be eating lots of over the next six months 8] We decided to skip out on trivia night downstairs tonight since we'll be starting at the school at 7:45 tomorrow!

Here are some pictures from our walk today: