The government of Belize had us fill out a couple of forms-an entry form for immigration and a customs declaration-that were handled expeditiously. I'll say this about the former British Colonies; they're very efficient with their bureaucracy. We were out of the airport by 1:45 and on our way into the city.

Debbie and I took a taxi to the Ventura Shopping Center-our rendezvous point for the Earthwatch Expedition. This turned out to be a well-stocked grocery store housed in what looked to be a large garage. The sign on the outside of the building was so faded, I wondered if the cab driver wasn't dropping us off in the middle of nowhere. But as soon as we got out of the cab we were met by Carolyn, whose father, I later learned, owns Spanish Lookout Caye where we would be staying.

We arrived at Ventura with about a 2 hour wait until the others were to arrive. Debbie and I weighed our options. We considered walking into town, but, it was oppressively hot and humid and the walk was long-about three miles. After starting out for town, we decided it probably wasn't a safe thing to do either. We'd only been in the country for an hour and a half, and didn't know the lay of the land, so we decided to wait at the store.

However, Carolyn turned out to be our savior. She offered to let us tag along while she ran into town to do errands. We took her up on her offer and found ourselves comfortably touring around Belize City in an air-conditioned SUV.

Carolyn took us down along the waterfront to meet up with a young woman coming in on the afternoon water taxi from San Pedro. In the process, we saw most of central Belize City including the open-air drug market behind the Supreme Court building. The irony was not lost on us that a place of such obvious crime was located only steps from the highest representation of law in the country.       -- More --