We have now been away for just over 2 months and we are starting to feel the fatigue of being away from home. Travelling in a foreign country with our limited Spanish is hard work, there is also the issue of Gringo pricing which we have to be on the defense for all the time (no one likes to be ripped off). For example just the other day, we got out of a taxi to head to Bocas del Toro, some guy carried Ali’s bag no more than 5 meters then demanded we tip him $1USD.. what the hell! He even tried to get me to pay and I carried my own dam bag. After a bit of fuss Ali gave him the $1 to avoid any problems (his bag was placed very close to the edge of the wharf) but it is so frustrating and pissed us off. It can also be hard to snap out of it, we are on a beautiful Caribbean Island and we are pissed off about $1.. but it is a reality of travel, although a stupid one.
In Central (and South) America you cannot flush toilet paper, it is a simple everyday thing at home, but here forget it.. I miss it. What is worse try being in a hostel where someone has food poisoning… Ali is missing apples, his favourite food. They are so expensive here and the ones you can buy are super average. I am pretty sure Ali is also missing his bike as overtime we see a cyclist he has to point them out…
Overall, the food has been nothing special but at least the beers are $1. We have eaten a lot of hamburgers (good ones mostly) and have cooked for ourselves. Unfortunately the food at the supermarkets tends to be poor quality and most of the food available is full of sugar or American. It is kind of making me sad seeing small children eating absolute shit food all the time here. Fresh vegetables are expensive and there are a lot of sugary drinks, therefore, Ali has become addicted to ice tea. When we get home we will probably have to do a detox of some-sort, although we are doing our best to eat right.
Some highlights so far have been the wildlife, my favourite is the snake eating a small mammal, Ali not so much. I had to reassure him that the snake was busy eating another mammal and that he is too busy to eat you. He was also not impressed by the rather large tarantula that jumped a small fence and interrupted him one evening whilst he was on his computer. We are really looking forward to seeing a lot more wildlife the further north we go. Apparently in Belize we can snorkel with sharks! Again probably not Ali’s cup of tea, but I have a few months to convince him and apparently there is free rum on the tour which may help!
Other highlights include the beaches, they have mostly been really beautiful. I especially like that the jungle meets the beach, it looks like a postcard. Although sadly we have seen a lot of rubbish, it is everywhere. Just yesterday we saw a small girl eating something from a packet and she just threw her rubbish on the ground. Back home no one would do that, but unfortunatly it is a very common sight here.
If you had asked us 5 months ago if we would be missing work, we would have said hell no! However, we have this strange phenomenon where we are actually missing our jobs… I bet you guys at home are thinking we must be crazy!! I think it is more the stability we are missing, perhaps this is just what happens in your later 20’s early 30’s? I am hoping it is just a phase, we still have a long way to go, but if these feelings continue we may choose to rethink some of our plans.
Travelling together has been really great, it has been easy and fun to spend all day everyday with each other. We still have not had a fight but I have had my bitchy moments and we do get frustrated sometimes. I think it will only make us stronger. Spending all this time together has also given us time to think and talk about what we want going forward and the future is exciting!
ESCAPINGDUO 