Comfort zone, what comfort zone?

Saturday, Jan 12, 2013

We were told that on Sat we would be ‘using machetes to clear someone’s botanical garden.’ When I heard this, I was, in contrast to the majority of people in the group, pretty ecstatic. Not because of the manual labor, but because we would be using machetes. Anyone that knows me would understand that this is not weird, this is just me.

Well, we got to this ‘botanical gardens’ and were then given a tour of the up-and-coming garden, where we met several more fire ants (some of our favorite friends, wink wink) and a lot of different trees. Then we got put to work – some of us painted wooden pieces to be used for name plates, while others raked leaves. After ten mins of arduous work, we were rewarded with fresh coconut (which I adore), and sugar cane (which I never had before, but am now in love with).

I think now is a perfect time to tell you about a particular person who went on our trip and got chichim. Its more awesome than it sounds, but I just saying that word. Chichim. Just say it with me a few times and revel in the feeling that (1) you don’t have it (sorry to those that do) and (2) you feel as you say word flows out of your tongue.

Chichim is a native word for poison oak, which several of our members received as evidence of pushing our bus out of oblivion. (Oh I like the way that sounds, don’t you?)

One of the people who had gotten the worst of it, asked the owner of the botanical garden to prepare some plants for her arm, and so he did. I’m not sure it helped any, but it was pretty fun watching her get excited about it. Ever since then, she literally asked every person about it – from Proworld staff, to Belize soldiers. No, I am not kidding.

Anyway, after our snacks, we had a very ‘educational’ couple of mins with the man in charge of the botanical gardens and he showed us this plant, called Queen of the Night that acts as a hallucinogenic and then we moved a few plants and then we got on our bus, ate lunch and went off. 

After we got back to Proworld,I decided I needed a tasty beverage, so I got some iced coffee at this place called Sweet Tings. I don't think I've had the pleasure of letting you know about this delicious place, so I will take an aside and tell you all about it. 

Not only is it amazing because there is AC in the place, but it also has amazing cakes, from Red Velvet to coconut tarts to blackberry almond coffee cake to oreo cheesecake. And all of these tings (see what I did there, do ya?) are delicious and perfect after a long hike or just because. Besides, with all the walking we had to do, it was more than ok to just have an extra piece of cake. 

Interestingly enough, they also sold, undergarments, Nutella, Red Vines, an assortment of Soy Sauce, and various other snacks. And pretty delicious cold coffee. 

Anyway, as night time approached, I was getting kind of excited and nervous because we were going to do Punta dancing. 

Surprisingly it was...pretty fun. I don't really dance that much, but this was pretty fun; I think it might have been fun because of the people. Anyway, this guy called the Punta King and his son, not surprisingly called the Punta Prince, danced with us. 

I'm going to steal Herbie's video to show you his dance, because I don't have any videos of me dancing (that I know of anyway, and thank Merlin for that). 

Anyway, interestingly enough, karate helped me, because it requires moving your hips, and this is basically moving your hips, so yay. 

I was no where nearly as good as some of our other members. I really hope people upload pictures of that night, because it was absolutely hilarious. 

After a very 'interesting' conversation with the King, we went to a bar owned by a former worker of Proworld and just hung out and danced. I gotta say, watching Dr. Hickey dance was very entertaining. Hi Dr. Hickey if you are reading this :)

After doing some bar jumping, we walked home (in a group) and just as we were about to get home, it started pouring. It was an awesome way to end an awesome day.