We arrived in PG really excited to meet Reyes and to learn all about the work that the TEA does. We loved the place as soon as we arrived, it had a great laid back feel even as the streets bustled with the midweek market. Stalls filled with fruit and veg, flip flops, tupperwear…the list goes on. The eclectic mix of people (Maya, Mennonites and Afro-Caribbean) all worked and socialised together around the stalls and shouted their morning greetings as we squeezed Peggy through the main market street to the TEA HQ.
HQ was in the reception area of PG’s busy backpacker hostel ‘Naturesway’ and we were greeted enthusiastically by Reyes. He told us about the TEA and their work (which I will post a blog about) and how we would be helping by holding a wedding within one of the Toledo villages.
We discussed the different villages and chose Reyes’ home village San Antonio for the location for the wedding as this would make it easier for Reyes to help us as he knows everyone there, the best locations in the area and who we could ask for help.
We left naturesway after Reyes had finished work and set off to his brothers house to ask him as the local pastor if he would be happy to hold a ceremony for us. Venustiano and his wife Fernanda live in Colombia (San Antonio) and the drive there was on a terrible dirt road in the dark. When we arrived we were welcomed into their home and offered a cup of home grown and ground cacao (and yes it was AMAZING). we explained our story to Venustiano and he said he would be happy to hold the ceremony for us and when we asked how much we could pay him he said he would like to do it as a gift to us. We couldn’t thank him enough and promised to return the next day to confirm the location for the wedding once we had decided.
We drove back to Reyes’ house and found a spot to park…the school field! Reyes invited us to his home and we accepted. Once we were settled we walked in the pitch black night to his house where he explained they do not have electricity as it is so expensive and the nearest electric post is 40 meters away. Our eyes had finally adjusted to the dark and we were invited into the front room where Reyes and his family were gathered around a large laptop watching a movie. Reyes explained that he would take the laptop to work to charge it so they had something to do for the evenings. His 6 children aged between 4 and 18 huddled together on 3 garden chairs and sat glued to the screen. The movie was SKIN and once we had brought the bench in from outdoors so we could all sit, we watched the children intently watch the film. Not a peep, not a fidget, just silence and absolute concentration in the candle light. once the film had finished we said our goodnights and thoughtfully walked back to the van where we turned on our lights.

We live in a camper van and have more basic facilities than the family of 8 who have so kindly invited us to share in their lives for a few days, yet they are not unhappy. They are not complaining about the things they COULD have, they are happy with what they do have.
We went to bed humbled by this family and listened to the heavy rain, wondering how we would manage without those things we take for granted.
The roosters and the children arriving for school woke us nice and early and we collected Reyes and his wife, Luciana to go and find our perfect Belize wedding location. Our first stop was Lubaantun a maya ruin near to the village. A crystal skull was apparently found here and is still shrouded in great mystery.

The rain had not abated and we half drove, half slid along the muddy track to the site of the ruins. Peggy made some funny noises as we bumped and rattled along. We squelched our way up the last of the muddy track in our all terrain flip flops and wandered the site of the ruins. The rain really picked up and we sheltered under a tree. I asked Reyes what the large seeds were that had fallen from the tree and he opened them uo for us to eat. They were palm nuts and they were delicious. Like a cross between a brazil nut and a coconut. Oily and tasty. We ate as many as we could find while we waited for the rain to slow and then headed into back to the van. We loved the site of the ruins and Belize is one of the only places left where you can actually marry on a Maya ruin.
Back in the van thick mud and soaked to the skin, our next stop was Blue Hole where Luciana’s Dad takes tours into the cave. Again the drive was terrible, the bumpy dirt roads saturated with water made small pools to splash through but Peggy rattled on through it all. When we finally arrived at the house we watched the small river rage through the garden and Luciana’s Dad told us the rains had been so heavy we wouldn’t be able to get to the caves let alone inside. We sat with the family for a while and watched the rain pour, seemingly never ending.
Next stop was the church back in San Antonio. By the time we arrived there the rain had finally stopped and the sun peeped out from behind the remaining cloud. The children from the school were tidying up the church grounds with machetes, swinging them through the grass. I cringed at the thought of the accidents as I watched them bare foot and uninterested in their pedulum like swinging blade. They stood together in close groups chatting and somehow avoiding each others blades! The church was beautiful. Simple stone with colourful glass windows and a small statue of Saint Anthony outside. Reyes told us how the statue had survived against all odds and ben gifted to San Antonio village.
With the sun shining brightly now our last stop for the day was at the village waterfall. In a lovely serene setting the rain swelled river crashed down over rocks and wound its way out of sight. A palapa by the waterfall was going to be great if the rain continued for the wedding!
It was almost dark by the time we arrived back in Punta Gorda where we had booked into a hotel for the night so that we could shower and blog. We ate at a small local restaurant and made plans to take Peggy into the garage for a check up in the morning and help at the cacao plantation in the afternoon…all the best laid plans…go to waste when you are on the road!
Day 3 of planning a wedding in PG and Peggy spent the whole day in the shop. She had parts flown in and fitted to stop her rattle. All of the bumpy tracks had given her suspension a bit of a shock but once she came out of the garage (also minus a catalytic converter!) she sounded like a new beast..literally!
We had spent the day working online at the TEA office trying to arrange a photographer and trying so hard to decide where to hold the ceremony. We had told Reyes we would give him a lift home from work and we also had to pop in to see Diego, the Marimba player to ask him if he would play for us at the wedding.
So the first 3 days of planning our Belize wedding had already been eventful so things could only get easier…right???
well another bumpy ride in the dark, a muddy treck in torrential rain in bare feet (as my all terrain flip flops finally gave up), a dog bite to my ankle (not enough to bleed Mums, don’t panic!), getting Peggy stuck in the thick mud and yet another bumpy ride back to the school field and we had a choice of wedding location, a Marimba and 3 players, a pastor, an outfit, a photographer and an offer from Luciana to make bread and cake!
Surely it will get easier from here?!?! Wedding number 12 in 2 more sleeps!

Find out what happens next on our travelling wedding adventure!