"Not all Who Wander are Lost": The sea breeze. Mexico. Birthday. Fun!

We finally took a trip up north for Ginnie's birthday. Fortunately, the trainees' visits to PCVs sites fell on her birthday weekend, so we planned a trip to Chetumal, Mexico for some shopping, as well as to get away for rest and relaxation at the mid-point of community-based training.

The trip gave us our first chance to see Corozal and finally spend some time with our good friend Mateo in his site. Corozal is absolutely beautiful - we loved being able to spend the weekend overlooking the beautiful blue-green water of the bay.

Beginning on Friday afternoon, we hopped the bus heading to Belize City to transfer to a northbound bus. After nearly 5 hours, we reached and found ourselves at The Sea Breeze Inn where we settled in and headed out for dinner and then a restful evening so we were alert and ready to go early in the AM. In the morning, we met Mateo, got our pesos, and hopped on a bus bound for Mexico! Just about 30 minutes later, we were crossing the border and into a whole new world.

The sign outside the bus station pointing us to our destination!

Our plan for the day was simple - go to the mall and shop, eat, and see a movie (if time allowed). We never made it to the movie because we just took our time enjoying browsing the stores. Strangely enough, our favorite was the ginormous Chedraui, which reminds us of a WalMart-type place. The aisles are so long and stocked full of so many choices, it was paradise. Not to mention the bakery and panaderia were filled with the most delicious-looking (and tasting, as we discovered) treats.

We were mesmerized by the bakery - look at those doughnuts and muffins, so many flavors!

There are fruit loops on these muffins - who would have thought of cooking muffins with cereal? They had zucaritas muffins and cocoa puff muffins, too.

All decked out for Mexican Independence Day

Granted they don't celebrate Thanksgiving, but isn't it still early for Christmas supplies?

They have a lot of flavors of Oreos that I've never seen, having been in Belize for so long; this one caught my eye since choco-bananas are such a staple treat around here. Considering I do not like banana flavor, I could not justify purchasing them, but the photo was a must!

I really miss Special K! Look how much cereal this store has! We're lucky to get three shelves of a half aisle (and an aisle is not very long, folks!)

Anthony wanted to share the fun flavors all the North American folks are missing out on

During all that shopping in the mall, we never stopped to eat (well, ok, Ginnie did get some gelato) so in the taxi ride back to the border, she had her birthday doughnut and coke zero {that is the best doughnut she's ever had, she thinks, but it may be perspective since it's rare to eat a doughnut these days}

The clock tower in a park in Corozal looks so pretty against that bright blue sky

Just hanging out by the bay on Ginnie's birthday

We got pizza for the birthday dinner, and this sign was in the restaurant; we found it a bit funny

I love pizza, especially on my birthday! Somehow, it had ham under the cheese even though we did ask for no meat at all. The woman said there was no meat at all (maybe she doesn't consider pork meat?). It was all good, we just picked it off and the friendly cat who hung out with us ate most of it.