When Ben & I were dating, I told him I wanted to take him back to my mission after we had married. He didn't seem opposed to a trip to Central America (big surprise :) ) so we bought our tickets to visit my home of 18 months even before we'd picked out a wedding photographer. Little did we know, the return to my mission would be an amazing, breath-taking, and possibly life-threatening experience. We decided not to call it our honeymoon, but a "learn-to-survive-in-Central-America-moon".Day #1- Arrive in Belize. Visit the Altun Ha Mayan ruins, go to Orange Walk to visit members there.
Day #2- Take the Lamanai r
iver cruise. Have a wild monkey sit in my lab. Hike up the tallest Mayan temples in Belize. Take a bus to Belmopan. Visit with the Bonilla's and many other families I love so much.Day #3- More Belmopan vis
its, take a bus to 
Dangriga, then to Placencia. Enjoy a beautiful ocean view in a seaside cabana.Day #4- Take the boat to Honduras. Have our passports taken away by immigration, get ripped off by a taxi driver, stay in the hotel because we're too afraid to leave, visit Andi (Ben's friend from his mission) and eat dinner at his home in Choloma, take a $25 late-night taxi ride back to the coast in a torrential rain storm while clinging to each other in the back seat.
Day #5- Bus into Tegucigalpa. See the angelic face of my mission companion. Go to dinner with Karen, Geraldine and Hermana Macias and enjoy reminiscing and great meat. Sleep at Karen's home.
Day #6- Church in Karen's branch. Fun in La Valle de Los Angeles.
Quickly say goodbye to Karen and her mom after running a
n
d banging on the cabin door to catch the bus back to the coast. 5 more hours on the bus feeling exhausted. Sleep in a hole-in-the-wall hotel in San Pedro Sula for $20 American.Day #7- Get on a bus in San Pedro Sula to catch the boat back to Belize. Hit a strike on the highway and take back roads that men charge buses to get through (think rocks in the road, chains across it, etc.). Make it just at the time the boat is leaving, wait 2 hours for the boat to leave, cry tears of joy on boat to have made it out of Honduras alive. Arrive in Placencia, Belize and take small airplane to Belize City, where the Dunford's pick us up. Ferry to Caye Caulker where we FINALLY get to rel
ax in a hotel on the beach.Day #8- Snorkel in the sea, get sun burnt to the max. Find ants in my backpack and all
over our hotel bed, move hotel rooms. Relax in a hammock on the porch, walk the dirt path by the ocean.Day #9- Take ferry back from Caye Caulker, taxi to the airport and fly home. Amazing, and event-filled trip :)
