Anniversary

Yep.  Yesterday was the one year anniversary of my 'incarceration.'

But I did an admirable job of keeping myself distracted.

Early in the morning, I wandered up to Caribbean Colors, where I joined Hilda and Deanna for breakfast and coffee.

Then, we wandered back to Colinda's Cabana's, where all my new friends were staying.  We spent half + the day on the hammocks at the end of their pier, jumping in and out of the water, and chatting more about the incident that led TO me being jailed.  Hilda -- bless her heart -- is a mother of three boys, and  just kept asking more and more about it.

But we talked about family, about marriage, about travel, about the respective politics of the US and Canada, and about many UN-related things.

Steve and Casey showed up.

As did Russ (ops/finance guy for an Oregon software company) and Lynn (an ER Nurse Practitioner).  Each was divorced.  Each had a child.  Lynn had taken a year to do some glorious traveling.

Then, Ricardo and Natalia showed up.  Italian Post-Doc folks, working in (Mike ?) Computational Biology at UC San Francisco, after having lived in Zurich a few years.

Ricardo was flabbergasted that -- after describing his work -- I commented that it "Sounded a lot like Computational Biology."

"That's IT !" He said.

"How do you know about this field ??"

"Well ... I have this dear friend ....."

As the sun was setting, a local sold Lynn a few pounds of fresh red snapper.  Pot luck was called.  I could bring ... nothing.

I decided that dinner rolls, Coke (for the rum), and a BIG bottle of Caribbean rum ... wouldn't offend.

We all cooked.  I did the prep, and stir-fried the veggies.  Casey made wicked Rum Punch.  Lynn pan fried the fish.

We ate.  We drank.  We all started singing.  Beatles.  Pink Floyd.  The Eagles.

Casey -- amused by my pretty good command of lyrics -- kept going to her iPhone to name the top hits from various years gone by, to see if I could and would sing them.  I'd drank enough to have no inhibitions.  They'd drank enough to think I sounded pretty good.  Natalia IS a singer, and harmonized with me, occasionally.  Ricardo kept naming Pink Floyd (primarily "The Wall") songs to get HIS addiction satisfied.

I happily obliged.

Worried about noise and the neighbors, we walked out onto the pier in the black night.  Those who had bathing suits hopped into the water.  The rest of us (ie, me !) stripped down into our boxers and jumped in (worried, of course, about my glasses, but ... no issues).

Back up onto their patio, we kept the rum punch flowing, as the numbers dwindled.  Finally, it was Steve and me, talking about his birthday ascent up Mt. Hood, Oregon.  Sounded like a great trip.  He and Casey are trying to figure out if they could take a year.  The bug bites another couple :-)

My tiny flashlight and I made it back through Ferocious Crab Alley to my hotel, where I conked out.

It's 7am.  I'm showered.  I've had coffee.

I'll wander into town, and see who I can meet.  Steve should be at Kite-Boarding lessons by now.  I have to bring Sudafed to Casey, who -- apparently -- got swimmer's ear.  I'll take my goggles and my beach towel, and prepare for a very low-energy, low-effort, high-sun day.

Wearing Deep Woods Off ... because ... mosquitoes name ME as their lust object.  Bleccch !

Tonight, I'll have to start looking into my next move, scheduled to start on Monday.  More Belize ?  Leave the country ?  Stay on Caye Caulker, and meet some of the next crew, because -- like Aaron said -- it's just a pretty chill, beautiful little place to hang out.

Still don't know.

This is a good group.  These are people whose lives are going pretty well, but who are spending 7-10 days in Paradise.  They're doing okay.

Which is how it SHOULD be .... in the palm-tree-dotted, tropical breeze cooled, fresh pineapple punctuated, rum-soaked offices of ... The Gulag :-)