Parting from Belize

I wrote this blog entry as I was waiting in airports and in planes yesterday flying back from Belize.  This is the final shot I have of this odd country that I will find hard to ever forget.

It is hard to sum up the feelings I have from this trip.  The places I went and the things I saw were remarkable. The ruins, the caves, the Caribbean, the country side, all have left a distinct impression.  

I wanted to see the real country, not some tourist facsimile, and I got what I was looking for.   The trash, some burned,  was scattered everywhere.  The mind blowing poverty sheltered in broken buildings while the countryside burned. And of course the incredible humid heat.

It is a developing country in all affects but yet I feel like despite the darkness there was a sense of untapped potential and opportunity. As the country grows, hopefully taking in the lessons about development learned through the mistakes of others.  I like to imagine the roads filling out, the trash put into dumps yet built, and the poverty will decreasing as people travel here to see this amazing land.  

I hope that I will be able to return here and see it then.  And perhaps there is something that the US, with is staggering amounts of laws, could learn about freedom from here too.  Maybe even a trust in its own people to make it all work.  Sometimes the trust fails, sometimes it gets a bit ugly but in return for a moment you might feel alive.  How can you feel anything but that sitting on the top of a Mayan temple overlooking the world after climbing a stone staircase that was properly perilous? 

I think that in the end though, what will stick with me is that smell of smoke, the palm tree over the villa and the little bird with a yellow chest dive bombing the pool for a drink.  The environmental fight for survival, the Caribbean beauty and the energetic vitality in one brief flash.  A colorful spark.