"Is It Hot Outside?"

Clearly from our dining experience last night, Whitney and I are interested in having an authentic experience here, which is why we decided to take public transportation today!

We heard about the Belize Zoo but didn't know how we'd get there since it's about 20 miles outside of the city. There are tours that the you out there but they cost $55 USD, which seemed excessive to us, but what the front desk at our hostel was lacking in dining suggestions, they made up for in bus directions! They explained how to get to the bus station and the zoo and it was only going to cost us $3 BZD! (The exchange rate is roughly 2:1, so 3 BZD would be $1.50 USD).

So after breakfast and a run to the grocery store for snacks, we made our way to the bus station. The buses here are school buses. Like regular, good old American school buses. But what these buses lack in 8th grade bullies, they have in body odor! No real AC on these babies. We forced the window open but there wasn't much we could do to escape the heat that is as oppressive as a high school dress code. Throughout the ride, however, we did feel pretty smug that we'd managed to figure this out on our own and hadn't spent for than $2 on our excursion.

The cool thing about the Belize Zoo is that it only has animals that are native to Belize. And oh yeah, it's basically in the jungle, so to your left, you'll see monkeys in an enclosure and then random native birds will fly over your head or on your right, you'll see a black jaguar and a lizard will come running (on its hind legs, no less) across the sidewalk. We were stoked! Whitney discovered a new favorite animal here: the tapir is the national animal of Belize. It is also called the mountain cow and looks kind of like an anteater but all of the signs said that it is actually related to horses and rhinos. And like I said, it is Whitney's new favorite animal. She just stood there watching them eat. Obsessively. I didn't think we would be allowed to leave (and she bought a small sign AND bumper sticker proclaiming her tapir love from the gift shop). The zoo was cool, even though the heat and humidity were some of the most unpleasant that we'd ever encountered.

On top of everything, we actually came prepared for our mini-jungle adventure! Everyone is freaking out about the bugs here -- that was every single person's first concern when we told them that we were coming here -- so we aren't messing around. Not only did we pretreat our clothes but we brought no fewer than three different types of bug spray and we brought out the big guns today. And by big guns, I mean our smallest bottle. This bottle is like 98% deet. The bottle spends more times telling you what NOT to do than where you should apply it. It's basically like, if you do this wrong, you and everyone you know could die. Clearly we didn't mess up AND we didn't get bitten by bugs while we were out!! Either it works or everyone lied about the number of bugs we'd be meeting at the zoo.

When we were done, we took the bus home. This bus ride was even more crowded and hotter than the bus ride to the zoo but we survived! I did have a moment of panic when one spot after I'd gotten a coveted seat, a pregnant lady, woman with a baby and senior citizen all got on the bus at the same time because WHO DO I OFFER MY SEAT TO??? The pregnant lady was the first in line so she got it because it was the only thing that made sense logistically and thankfully some other people eventually made space for her companions. Yay good samaritans!  AND at the end of our excursion, we'd spent less than $20 USD! That's a successful day right there!

But the day was not over. We cooled off at our "hostel" (it's really more of a traditional hotel with communal bathrooms than a hostel) and Whit power napped and then we were off again. We'd seen a giant "Belize" sign from the harbor and knew it would be the perfect photo op! It was a pretty short walk and we took some funny pictures. I showed off some impressive upper body strength by climbing up on top of the Z, which did not have footholds like letters such as B and E! We even got someone to take a picture of both me and Whitney in front of this sign!

Next was what I would say was the best part of my day, if not the best part of my life. Yesterday, we walked into a store that I'd seen online called Moho Chocolate. It is a chocolate factory/store which is code for heaven on earth. Yesterday was like a mental appetizer because we didn't get anything but I was preparing for it ever since. They do these chocolate shakes and I knew they would be good from simply reading the menu. I got the fudge brownie shake -- a chocolate shake with a brownie blended in -- and Whitney got the "butter crunch" which had peanut butter and caramel. We also got a chocolate cookie because it looked too good to resist.

And holy cow, I might actually be dead now. I didn't think I could eat too much chocolate but this place might have proven me wrong. I was not chocolate wasted or in a chocolate coma, I'm simply chocolate dead now. When Whitney first got hers, I asked "Is it good?" and she looked at me and without missing a beat said "Is it hot outside?" Yeah. It was THAT good.

Whitney got me an Eno, which is a portable hammock, as an early birthday gift for this trip and I asked if I could return the Eno for a lifetime supply of Moho and Whitney said, "Would you rather lie in someone else's hammock or your own?" And without even blinking, I uttered my newest life rule: "I just want to lie in chocolate."