life @ 13

the internet here (caye caulker, belize) is expensive, so this will be brief
bacalar in mexico was really cool. cheap hotel, cheap food (hot dogs with mayo, ketchup, onions, picante, cheese), a beautiful lake, friendly (usually) locals, and the few tourists that were there were very cool. A welshman gave me an extra coat he had, and a young american gave me some sunscreen and his guide book. I'm not sure how big the town was, but there was a real sense of community there, something I have never really known. i slept outside in a hammock saturday night.
Picked up some new bike parts on the way to Belize, new handlebars and a basket for the front of the bike, a nice improvement. We only did 40km on monday, but made up for it with a brisk ride of 135km yesterday.
Belize is a very cool country. only 250,000 people, a very vibrant mix. People of carribean, mexican, latin american, mayan, british, german and chinese descent all living within the same city. English is the official language, but english and spanish are spoken everywhere. People are very friendly -- when we took breaks from cycling people driving by would stop to say hi and tell us how much longer to belize city.
I ordered a hamburger from a chinese resturant in corozal (in belize, near the boarder) and, to accompany it, two kinds of hot sauce (one in a mustard container), but no ketchup or mustard. a picante burger. and fried rice.
caye (pronounced "key) caulker is a very relaxing place, with cheap hotels and outrageously priced food. lots of gringo tourists here, which, for the time being, i'm trying to get away from. maybe i'll slip into a groove here, but my stay may be short. again, i'm anxious to get to guatemala, and to start cycling by myself.
armchair philosophy is suspended until the internet is cheap again.