Holiday pt3: Punta Gorda town and adventures in Stann Creek District

this is the last holiday installment, honestly!
Sunday 22nd-Weds 24th
After church on Sunday (8am, remember) I headed home and finished packing before catching the bus at around midday. After about 7 hours of wind-whipped bus travel, through dry flatlands and beautiful mountains, orange and banana plantations, two stops in towns and innumerable stops to pick people up in various villages, I arrived in Punta Gorda. PG is the district town of Toledo district in the South, an area of very different ethnic make up to the city- lots of Maya still live down south- and made my way to the home of the JVIs there, which sits on the seafront. The next few days were spent swimming, lazing on a sofa swatting mosquitoes and devouring 2 1/2 novels (I may have mentioned before that I sometimes risk treating the JVIs as a personal library), enjoying good conversation, admiring the views of Honduran and Guatemalan hills across the bay, having drumming lessons (!) and watching nightly lightening displays (big storms hit PG pretty much every night, but the days were still and clear.) All in all, a wonderful two days!
On Wednesday I took my leave and headed north as far as Hopkins, a small town on the coast in Stann Creek district (next up from Toledo) and found myself surrounded by American expats for the afternoon. I then met up with Shelly, an American volunteer at Sitte River Methodist School who I'd been emailing lots to arrange a meeting with, and went out for a fabulous dinner.
Thurs 25th-Friday 26th
Headed to Cockscomb basin national park and 'jaguar sanctuary'. Getting there was a minor adventure but once I did I enjoyed lots of butterflies, sightings of an armadillo, a tarantula and a hummingbird, two waterfalls and lots of climbing up hills in ridiculous heat! The views were well worth the exertion and the realisation that I have become very unfit. The second waterfall was visited in a torrential downpour however, which seems to have done for my camera screen. Which is bad. When I emerged from the national park I met Shelly again who took me on a tour of a shrimp farm and a VERY good evening meal before a good night's sleeo.
Sat 27th
Went out on a very nice boat (courtesy of Shelly's connections, again). I have never seen the sea so still, the way it merged into the sky, and the patches of colour, were truly breathtaking. Inside the reef, that was; outside the reef it was rocky enough to make some feel the worse for wear but I managed to stave it off and enjoyed a beautiful day clambering around the boat, swimming in the clear blue Caribbean, not getting burnt (!), eating smoked fish, watching people catch barracuda, and generally enjoying life. A pod of dolphins accompanied us back, too- what could be better? (except seeing a seaturtle, which others did while I was looking the wrong way. Doh.)
In the evening we hung out at a friend's house, listened to music, played games, and swam in the sea (a hazardous occupation seeing as I always end up with cuts and bruises when I swim in the sea in the dark- this was no exception).
Sunday 28th
Lazed before helping Shelly paint a mural at the school- she is a very talented artist and I can just about manage painting blocks of colour when instructed, and we made good progress. In the evening we headed into Hopkins to watch 'Duets', the Belizean xfactor type thing, on TV in a chinese.
Monday 29th
After another adventurous journey to get into Dangriga, the district town of Stann Creek, caught a very hot and sticky bus home to Belize (Belize City that is), where I swear it is hotter than down south!!!