ride em cowboy

dear friends

i am writing this today from montana, in north west america. me and bert decided to leave belize for a while, he has some things to do in america, and business was going slow in belize, in fact so slow it was going nowhere, for various reasons, which i won't clog up the blog with. bert is from montana originally, and hasn't been back for around 5 years, so he is very excited and happy to be here. i am very happy to be here too, as it is more adventure and new things to do and see, which i like. we are going to go camping in glacier park and get eaten by grizzly bears and catch fish and eat them like in little house on the prairie and the waltons.

so we left belize on saturday morning, and our friend frank plett who is a mennonite and also a pilot, flew us to corozal in the north of belize, in his little 4 seater plane. this was really cool, we flew low, under the clouds. i needed a wee for a lot of the journey which ruined it. i know that's not an important fact, but it was a kind of all consuming situation for me, so i feel it's important a bit. then we got a cab to the border and were in chetumal airport for our 2pm flight. we flew to mexico city - flying into mexico city is always amazing, it was a bit bumpy and cloudy so not as amazing as it can be, plus i didn't see that gigantic stone dog again, so was a bit upset about that. then we flew from mexico city to los angeles, this was a 3 and a half hour flight, i ate veggie lasagne, and bert had chicken with rice. we were delayed because of the weather, it was stormy, i was getting vaguely panicky that we would be struck by lightning, but once we were flying the weather was fine.

we arrived in la airport, and queued up for the customs bit. finally it was my turn, and the man asked me some questions, and asked for my fingerprints, as is the customs custom now. then he asked me some more questions - like what was the purpose of my trip, who was i with, when was my return flight? i don't have one, i said, because we only booked one way. he wrote a thing on a piece of paper and stapled it to my customs form and rang a little bell and told me to wait please. another man came along and said please come with me. he walked me to the other end of the airport, and told me to sit and wait in the waiting room. there were a few indian and chinese people in there. i was in the interview section. uh oh. i tried not to look like i had anything to hide (which i didn't) or like i was suspicious (which i'm not). a man at a desk called my name and i went over and sat down. he asked me questions, and i answered them. the main one of most importance, was when is your return flight out of here? i don't have one, we booked one-way. did i know this was a contravention of my visa waiver conditions? no. had i gone online and filled in the visa waiver form for all visitors to the u.s? um, no. i'm very sorry, i really didn't know i had to. he beeped my passport and asked me when i had last been to the u.s. um, 2002 i came here. for how long. about a month. and what about 2006? um? oh i went through miami on the way to peru. phew, i answered correctly it seems. he told me my travel history was all fine, and for that reason, and because of my answers, he wasn't going to make me buy a return flight to the uk there and then (which would have cost around $4000 i'm sure). he told me, as his father used to tell him, the first time is a mistake, the second time is not. if i do this again, i will be deported he said. i said i was very sorry and i just didn't know at all all these rules, and i promise not to make this mistake again, and i have learned my lesson. he gave me a 3 month visa waiver (very kind under the circumstances). and sent me away. i felt somewhat euphoric to have nearly got in big trouble and then been released. and felt sorry for the boy next to me who was chinese or korean and who they were really cross examining, about who his boss was and why didn't he have a business card on him and had his boss ever had a visa extension here etc etc. he couldn't even hardly speak english. they were rude to an indian lady who was in front of me too. i guess they were ok with me as i am white and english speaking and obviously just made a stupid mistake, but it's not nice how they treat people there. i guess they want to scare people into admitting something or other, and they do have to be security conscious these days, but it all feels a bit over the top. america seems so adamant on protecting what it has and creating fear in its people and they take themselves too seriously for my liking.

we stayed at la airport at a hotel for the night, got a room service pizza, then got up at 5 for our next flights on sunday. first flight was from la to salt lake city in utah, over big big landscapes that looked a bit like the moon, kind of desert and mountains it seemed, it was hard to tell really the colour of the rock and whether it was rock or sand. there were lots of patchwork quilt fields, orange and green and brown, and little lakes and small towns gathered around roads. it really is amazing seeing the world from up in the sky. flying into la the night before was totally amazing too, it is huge, and it was dark and there were a million glittering lights, and the roads look like arteries of molten lava moving slowly through the city. there were fireworks going off, i've never seen fireworks from above and without the noise. imagine how it must look to people who have lived their whole lives in a country like belize, whose population of the whole country you could fit into one appartment building in la almost. it must be so strange, i found it overwhelming and i've only been away from civilization like that for a year.

we then flew from salt lake city to missoula in montana. on a small little plane. we got a cup of tea and a biscuit (not a very nice one, there was no chocolate on it). we flew over mountains, then came lots of clouds so we couldn't look at the scenery anymore. missoula airport is near the mountains and hills that bert used to do a ton of hang gliding from, so he pointed out lots of things to me on our descent to the ground. on arriving and having got our bags, i went and stood outside while we waited for our lift to our hire car. it was drizzling and the air was beautiful and cold, pure mountain air. the sky was absolutely huge, with mountains surrounding us as far as you could see, with clouds on the top of them. i felt like lying on the ground and hugging it, i was so amazed to be back in that kind of climate. no more humidity and heat and huge jungle rain for a while, just cold refreshing cleansing clean air - no bugs buzzing around either. we got our hire car and went to missoula to get a few things we needed. we went to a camping shop and i literally stood looking in amazement at all the things you can buy there, i felt like a total alien who didn't know how to interact in this strange consumerist world full of all these choices - bert needed a sleeping bag, there are 25 sleeping bags to choose from, all with their pros and cons listed on a little tag, their weight when packed up, their dimensions. in belize, if you want to buy things, you generally either can't, or if do find what you need, you certainly won't have a choice. it was all a bit much. especially when we went to pay for our things they said they are a co-operative, so at the end of the year they send you a 10% dividend refund of what you have spent in their shop over the year. what - you are going to give us some of this money back? yes. they said. bert had a watch he'd got there that had broken, and they gave him a whole new one, even though it was over a year ago, and then they gave him some money back, as it was a different price. i nearly fainted. you're giving us some money back? yes, they said. i can't believe it, this shop is amazing. i felt like hugging the shop. i think i am suffering from severe culture shock. we then went to get a sandwich at a diner, and i couldn't get over the customer service and politeness of it all and how much they want to serve you and make you have a great time at their diner. it is just the absolute opposite of belize. i don't know which i prefer in actual fact. i guess once i get used to it it'll stop freaking out and just accept it, but it sure is interesting seeing this culture with these eyes and not just taking it for granted as the only way of existence.

we are staying with robert's daughter and family, they are really lovely - jessica and her husband toby and their daughter madi, who is 2 and a half, and does a really cute dolphin impression. they have a big spacious house with wooden floors, and i can't get over that there is hot water in the taps - you don't have to heat it up in the kettle before doing the washing up, and there is a washing maching and dryer, the biggest washing machine i've ever seen, and none of their glasses or mugs have chips in them, they all match, and there are no bugs flying round the house. today we are meeting them for lunch, so i will finish writing now. more to come on our last 2 weeks in belize, but for now that is all from the almost-deported-and-slightly-overwhelmed-by-modern-western-life pickles. xx