Pat's Birthday and mailing tips!

So we headed up to Chetumal Mexico to celebrate Pat’s birthday. Chetumal is a border city at Belize’s northern border with Mexico. The day started early with a bus ride from Belize City. We had hoped to catch an “express” bus (one that only stops in “major” cities) but instead ended up on a “regular” bus. These are what are referred to as “chicken” busses; they are almost exclusively old Blue Bird school buses from the US that run on a route but will stop almost anywhere along the way. Sometimes that can make for a very long ride with people literally stopping the bus every 100 yards! Anyway, we made across the border and for the first time REALLY felt out of our comfort zone. Really we had not realized how important being in an english speaking country really was.... and we also had not realized how woefully inadequate our spanish skills were! Let’s just say that we really need to focus on the numbers and we were lucky we had an honest cab driver. We met up with some other PCVs at the mall (yes a mall!) and then toured the old market and waterfront on a mission to find Pat a guayabera shirt for his birthday. We have never been particularly fond of malls, but did find it nice to be in an organized, clean environment. The other thing of importance that we enjoyed was the inexpensive prices for things, what a difference from Belize! We had a meal in a small comedor and it was only US$7 for both of us! We managed to catch an express bus back that evening and what a difference. Pleasant seats and no jerking from a stop every 5 minutes. All in all a pretty good birthday, don’t you think?

Now just a quick word to everyone about shipping/mailing things to us. Number one, we have changed the address from the PC office in Belmopan to Belize City. It is located under the Belize City weather toward the top of the page. We also have a care package wish-list there too. Most things are really available here but the things we listed are really hard to come by. Books are almost impossible to find! If anybody does send anything, let us know as we have to go to the post office to pick things up and we can also remove it from the list. Use the US Post Office as it is the cheapest way.... FedEx and UPS are ridiculous! Also, we think padded envelopes are opened and inspected less. When you are declaring things, feel free to go on the lower side or stick in some education supplies (crayons, ect) since the import taxes are very, very high. If anything is mailed to us and arrives by 2/19, we won’t have to pay anything since our first 6 months is tax free! Finally, we would also love to receive stuff in person! Miss you all!