It was the spring of my junior year in high school and that means time for a vacation! My mom is the travel planner of our family and she surprised us all with a cruise of Mexico, Belize, and Honduras. I was so excited just to get away for a while, relax, and of course shop. I had been to Mexico before so this was nothing new to me but to go to Belize and Honduras was refreshingly different. I didn’t know what to expect, part of me thought that those locations would all be like Mexico but after I experienced these cities I found that they are very different.
When you arrive to the locations when you are on a cruise ship, they are often too large for the port so you go out on a tender, which is a small boat, and that brings you to the dock to walk into the town. The first city I will tell you about is Belize. I got an immediate feeling as I got off of the boat. At first you are greeted by an person dressed up in a ‘native’ costume for you to take pictures with, so this made me think that there would be a lot of street performers and people like this man walking around. So as I walk up the dock I see a huge metal gateway that is there to keep the locals from getting to the cruise ships. At that point I realized that my first impression was totally off, and that if I needed not only a gate but also armed guards for protection that this was not the paradise I expected. The streets were literally packed with people, and every other person offers you small souvenirs or a ‘tour’ and it was very overwhelming. I was wary of speaking with the locals but I soon realized how friendly and easy going some are. The shop keepers stand outside their stores asking you to come in and stay awhile, after talking with a restaurant owner he told us that though there are a lot of peddlers in Belize, there are also good people who will welcome you and treat you well like he did. After speaking with him I opened up and let my guard down a little and met people from all walks of life and I learned their way of life and it actually didn’t sound too bad! In Belize I learned that though some things may cause you to put up your guard, that you should still have an open mind because even in bad places there are good people. I realized after stepping foot into the city of Belize that I was in for a different vacation than I expected. I think that even my mom was a little shocked because my family typically goes to resorts and does the beach, eat, sleep thing so for all of us to experience this culture was eye-opening and shocking at the same time.
In Honduras is where I really was sent into culture shock. I had always traveled throughout my childhood so I thought that I had a good grasp on the differences between cultures, however Honduras is like no other place I’d been. My immediate reaction was that this place was beautifully green and lush, but then as we got closer and closer into town I saw something different. I saw how these people lived, and how when tourists came in the children wouldn’t go to school instead they would come and try to sell souvenirs. I was in school myself and I couldn’t imagine how it was no big deal for them to just not go! We went to a luxurious resort in Honduras on it’s only private island for the day and it was wonderful. The water is clear and there is lots of sun and the best word to describe this place was paradise. I thought that this is what I had expected all along. As I walked out to one of the huts I began to notice how the locals got around. Instead of cars they used beaten up canoes that I’m still surprised to this day could float! After seeing that and looking around me and seeing the houses these people lived in I felt guilty. I was confused how this place could be the epitome of luxury and then across the river was houses made of tarps and without running water. It was at this point that I realized how different this place was to where I’m from. Where I’m from there is diversity among people, rich and poor, but these two are widely separated. So for me to be placed here where you turn your head one direction and you see a gazebo at the end of a dock, and then to look the other way and see these ‘houses’ really confused me. I could see in Honduras how the rich get richer and how the poor deal with whatever they can work for, even forcing their children to peddle.
As you can tell I got a lot more out of this vacation than I had ever expected. I thought I was going on another one of our resort vacations and instead got a lesson on diversity and culture. I am glad that I was able to see these places and talk to the people because I now see my life at home differently. I look at kids here and think about the kids in Honduras who skip school to peddle, and about the people of Belize who have such a carefree lifestyle.
