We only have a few days left of the program (sad), so let me catch you up a bit…
It has been almost a week since we left Antigua, and have been pretty busy since. We’ve been traveling practically everyday, hopping from hotel to hotel and adventure to adventure (cue the Maya temples in the background).
However, all of this moving around makes me realize how much I appreciated living in a homestay and the environment and stability that it provided. The night before we left Antigua, I realized that I had fallen in love with Antigua and my homestay family.
Staying in a homestay is strange, because you can’t treat it like your home and it’s not a hotel. It’s somewhere in the middle. You live with a family that you have never met before and are basically adopted into their family for the length of your stay. They feed you three meals a day (something I am still not used to), make sure you’re feeling ok, and will even give you advice if you need it. You get siblings that play Uno with you and laugh with you and jam out to music after dinner with you. These people actually care about your well being and will do anything in their power to make you feel as though their home is your home.
Since leaving Antigua, it has been a stark change from the slow moving lifestyle. We have joined the hustle and bustle of Belize and within less than a week, we’ve…
- visited Tikal,
- crossed the border into Belize,
- learned how to make tortillas from scratch,
- Visited the Belize Zoo, which is a sanctuary for Belize’s indigenous animals (and where I FINALLY saw a toucan),
- visited our LAST Maya Site of the trip (Lamanai),
- and travelled to Caye Caulker, the last stop of the Program.
There is less than a week left and it feels as though we’ve just gotten here and are just getting started. I’m not ready for the program to end. However, now is not yet the time for reflection, so until that time, I will be soaking in the Caye Caulker sun.
