Last thoughts: Belize it or not!

Today marks the end of my stay in Belize.  It was a bittersweet good bye since Belize City was Belize Shitty.  That's actually what the locals call it, no joke!  One weekend there was a shooting on the street where the shooter knocked down an 8 year old boy and shot him in the face and body 5 times!!!  Yes, I said 8 year old.  I think the scariest thing about this place is the fact that there is no clear delineation between sketchy neighborhoods and nice ones, it’s all just sketchy.  Here are some pictures of the neighborhood.

Cave Tubing- Primary Research

Altun Ha - More primary research.  It's hard work out here in Belize!

Street in Belize Shitty

Renaissance Towers where MBAs Without Borders put us up for the month

On the other hand, the project we worked on was extremely interesting.  We got to meet some really cool local artisans and also got to interview a lot of cruise passengers.  The people we worked with were extremely supportive and we actually got to use the skillz we learned in business school, which is always a bonus! 

Me presenting part of our final presentation

Final group picture!

Next stop: San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua!

Diving the Blue Hole: Un-Belize-able!

130ft under the sea! This at the inside of the Blue Hole on the southern end.  We are on our way to check out the underwater stalactites 

More of us heading towards the stalactite wall.  At this point I was feeling a little of the nitrogen narcosis from being so deep! :)

That's me in the yellow flippers, yeah that's right I'm soooo fashionable

Bull shark in the distance! Since it was so deep the visibility was poor so you literally could not see the shark until it was RIGHT THERE! And yes, that's a BULL SHARK

Yup, he got closer! Good thing the dive master clanked his tank and scared the shark away.  I was hiding behind the dive master.  Made for an awkward conversation on the boat when the DM was like "Yeah I KNOW you were using me as a shield" haha, my bad!

I love fishes 'cause they're so delicious! Juuuust kidding, I didn't eat any of them!

Half Moon Caye by the Blue Hole.  This is also a World Heritage site.  We stopped by here for lunch, it was absolutely amazing!

Me on the boat leaving Half Moon Caye.  

I got to ride shotgun in this small commercial flight from Belize City to San Pedro, or "La Isla Bonita".  It was a pretty sweet ride! Unfortunately it was on autopilot so I didn't get go drive :D

Here's a picture of the team that I'm working with in Belize City.  This is us at the Caye Caulker lobster fest along with Fran (who owned a stand at the lobster fest and made the BEST grilled lobsters).  They were totally going to enter me in the Miss Lobster Fest pageant but unfortunately we missed it by a weekend!  Apparently a little 12 year old girl won, I TOTALLY would've been able to beat her!

From left to right: Fran's helper, Ryder (team member from DC), Cameron (team member from DC), me (duh), Fran (seated because she was tired from grilling lobsters all day), Anand (team member from NY) 

Flight Back to LA

Of course it is only fitting that there would be an incident on my flight back to the states.  Halfway through the flight the flight attendants came on the loud speakers asking for a doctor on board.  Since this has happened to me on multiple flights I didn’t think too much of this.  When we landed in LA we were then asked to stay in our seats while the medics boarded the plane, again this seemed pretty procedural to me.  When it finally came time for me to leave the plane I walked past a person who was laid out across the four middle seats completely covered in blankets to which I thought to myself “dang, that person is passed the fuck out!”  As I continued walking I passed 3 seats and a blanket or two that were completely covered in what looked like ketchup.  I thought, “Wow these people were inconsiderate ruining their seats like that!”  As I went through customs the customs guy looked at my immigration form and said:

“Oh! Flight PR102, didn’t somebody die on that plane?!”

”Um, WHAT?! What happened?!?!?!”

“Yeah they were saying something about how they couldn’t stop the bleeding”

Yup, that was a dead body that I walked by and that was NOT ketchup.

Cambodia - More Amazing Than Advertised

No words can describe how amazingly beautiful Cambodia was so here's just some pictures.

Angkor Wat

In the center of Angkor Wat

Famous face temple

Ta Prohm Temple

More Ta Prohm

Even More Ta Prohm (You can guess which temple was my favorite)

Crazy Pho Vietnam

The most creative pick pocketing situation I have ever heard of happened to Chris and Kevin in Vietnam.  Our last night in the city Chris and Kevin decided to stay out later and continue to bar hop.  On their way there a man and his lady pull up in front of them on his scooter.  She jumps off the scooter and comes toward the guys and begins to aggressively proposition for sex.  She grabs their “junk” and asks to see if they’re interested.  Apparently this is where she sneaks the wallets out of the front pocket of the male victim.  Only after they fly off on their scooter did Chris and Kevin realize they’ve been pick pocketed.

Besides the pick pocketing incident Vietnam consisted of visits to the War Remnants Museum, Cu Chi Tunnels,  and the Cao Dai Temple.  It was amazing how much anti American propaganda still existed in those places (minus the temple).  For example, they showed a video at the Cu Chi tunnels  that showed a girl who’s parents were killed by Americans.  She then killed eight Americans and became “American Killer War Hero”.  Awesome.