swim

here's a good way to understand the pace of life down in Belize.  A couple of Saturdays ago a bunch of us volunteers went to float the river.  This is how one does it.  You tie some cash into a little plastic bag on the your clothes and head to the riverside bar.  Drink a beer or two, try to talk over the blasting Mexican music.  Then clamber down to the river and start floating.  You literally just flow with it, making only the effort to keept afloat.  You hold your breath for "the flush,"  a stretch of rapids that will hold you under.  "Just don't worry about breathing," counsels Mr. Mail, the teacher who hosts the event.  After about a mile of so of float, you climb onto the shore and head up the bank,  to another bar.  That's where the plastic bag with money comes in. Enjoy the cold beer and warm sun.  Jumb off a tree back into the river and keep going.  The rope swing is the best part, launching you ten feet up and twenty feet out over the water.  (I did not attempt the back-flip)  This itinarary can only be complete with an open fire barbecue and another... coke, which is the national drink of Belize