Why I Named Belize the Unforgettable Country: a Memoir of My First Trip to the Central American Nation (By Ethan)

   It all began when my mom made the announcement “We’re going to Belize!” I was so ecstatic! I swear, when I went to bed the night before we were to make the trip, I could barely sleep due to excitement. I kept seeing ocean before my eyes while I was awake.

   The scenery of Belize completely turned the tables on my imagination. All of the buildings were no bigger than an average 3-story apartment, well, except, maybe the airport and the hotel we stayed at, but all the facades were very colorful, and the food there tasted great (I think my taste buds went giddy). The island where we stayed was small, but noisy, with merchants standing outside shops calling out their wares, and the sea with its rolling waves, and boats zooming past the island every so often, and the chink of dishes and cups and silverware as waiters cleaned up the outdoor tables outside restaurants.

   We stayed in a villa which had three bedrooms and two bathrooms,a family room, a kitchen, and outside, a huge balcony that overlooked the ocean. We even had an iPad that the hotel staff had provided that I played with a lot. I filmed a timelapse of the alarm clock in my bedroom.

   For me, the best part of this oceanview villa was the pillows. I asked my parents if I could have theirs, since they sleep without them, and then, I learned, after counting them, that I had a total of 7 pillows!!! Needless to say, I fell asleep 10 times faster than when I sleep at home. I also bought two figurines, which were handcrafted by ladies from Guatemala(!!!!!!!).One of them shaped like a minion, the other as the Angry Birds bird Bomb, which is the black one, I made forts with the pillows and did battles with the figurines.

   The most memorable event there was when we went on a plane cruise over the big Blue Hole. We were just about to take off when a huge iguana ran across the runway. In fact, it ran so fast that Mom didn’t even have time to photograph it. Our flight was a private plane, and our pilot’s name was Mark. Mark and all three of us were the only people on the plane, so I had plenty of room, happily, because I treasure my personal space as much as Mom treasures her vintage books. My best description of the plane was that it is quite small, white with a bit of red, and it had a propeller that made, surprisingly, very little noise (please don’t search me if you want to know why, because I am as clueless as you). Along the course of the flight, we saw many coral reefs, green as jade, glittering under the sun, stretching for who knows how many kilometers. The sea next to the shore was cyan, but as we got farther away it turned a deep blue. When we finally flew over the Blue Hole, I noticed the center was a really dark blue, and that the coral around the Hole made it look sort of like a round fish, though Mom said that it looked like a man with a bow tie in a top hat. I am constantly amazed that the shape of the Hole is literally a perfect circle.

   There was lots of individual coral, too. They were all sorts of colors. I’m talking red, teal, turquoise, green, blue, puce, gold, brown, you name it. I think I would’ve mistaken it for a rainbow had I myself been a coral.

   Although the land and sea were beautiful, there was a gross part too; the shores were littered with seaweed; I like to eat seaweed, but only when it’s from the grocery store. I once accidentally stepped into a pile and it tickled my foot so bad that the foot itched for several minutes. It was kind of stinky, too.

   The first day there, my dad and I swam in the Caribbean Sea, though I sucked water up into my nose by mistake (also needless to say, I was very happy when the freshwater from my dad’s water bottle was in my mouth, because the salt water from the sea stung like red-hot needles). There was a neat little restaurant right above the sea that I would eat at, but I couldn't concentrate on my food, because the salt from the seawater would make me real scratchy, in fact, I could’ve sworn that I saw little salt grains on my skin.

    In one of the last days there, we went snorkeling; yes, all three of us! and saw a world under the sea that was as unique as the world of microbes. We were swimming for about a minute or two when a small yellow fish swam in front of Mom, and every so often, would stop, turn around, and wait for Mom to catch up, then it would resume swimming, as if it were showing Mom around. Though the yellow fish in front of Mom did not enter my field of vision, I did see a fish-like creature behind Mom. Although this may not be the best description, I remember it as having coarse-looking skin, with little pimple-like protrusions all over it, with its top half being yellow, and its bottom half being white, making it look like some kind of alien corn, and it was swimming so close to Mom that I thought it was trying to sample her hair (should I start calling it the hair-loving cornfish?) But there were other fish around, too. As we were heading back to the boat, we even saw an eel slither out of its hole to catch some food that the tour guide had thrown. It had eyes red as the Devil. Right before we were lining up to head back in, I made an unexpected encounter with a simply enormous fish. It was as big as a dinner plate! Even though I knew it was probably harmless, I swam for it, reaching the boat just as the fish crossed where my head had been seconds before.

   When I used to look at Belize on atlases, I thought that it was no more than a snuff of land, set into Central America. Now, Belize to me is home to the world’s best villa, the bravest iguana, who risked his own life to explore the other side of runway, the friendliest little yellow fish, who gave up all his time to try to befriend Mom and showed us around the vast Caribbean Sea, and the finest crafts ever made by Guatemalan ladies.