On our Tropic Air "puddle jumper" to the island, Barry was able to take Paisley in his lap in the SturdiBag. This was a tougher leg of the trip as it was quite warm on the plane, and we had to stop to let one person off in Caye Caulker prior to touching down at the San Pedro airstrip, which lengthened the flight. The taxi ride in an old beater mini-van with no A/C to our condo was also hot and uncomfortable for Paisley, and she was really panting. We'd given her some water in the Belize City airport, but we knew she needed more, and she drank with gusto once we got to our condo.
The Grand Caribe staff had really prepared the condo for us with flowers everywhere. They had also put the remaining furniture and household items into place. It looked great!
Once the repairs were complete, we grabbed our backpacks and walked to town for several essential grocery items so that we would have breakfast food in the morning. And rum for a drink, of course! Our bikes, along with the rest of the household items we shipped down from NC, have not yet arrived, so it is a slower trip to town, about two miles of walking each way. It will certainly keep us in good shape! It was dinnertime by the time we got back, so we placed an order for chicken fajitas to go at the Grand Caribe beach bar prior to dropping our grocery items back at our condo. We were able to pick up our dinner order, along with a huge slice of key lime pie to share, soon afterwards.
Right as we were sitting down to eat our feast, Doris knocked on our door. Over the course of the afternoon, we had tried knocking on Bernie and Doris' condo door several times since we had left two suitcases with them in July and needed our linens that were in one of them in order to make our bed that night. Unfortunately, they were not at home, and I was starting to have visions of sleeping on the mattress pad. We had inquired at the front desk, and it turned out that they were involved in a wedding that was going on at Grand Caribe this very day. We decided to leave a note in their door so we could retrieve our suitcases when they got home. Fortunately, Doris came back to Chico Caribe to walk their dog, Lucky, prior to heading from the wedding cocktail party to the dinner, and she was able to let us in to get our suitcases. Since the wedding dinner likely ran rather late into the evening, we were very relieved!
After getting our suitcases, we inhaled our dinner and pie. We finished up our day by watching some Hurricane Irene coverage on TV and doing more unpacking. Until our hangers arrive in our shipment, we're going to be living out of suitcases to some extent, but we do have a few drawers in our dresser for some of our clothes.
Overnight there was a serious thunderstorm with torrential rain and plenty of flashing lightning. Paisley, who had been sleeping on the sofa, came into the bedroom pretty nervous. I put a towel on the floor by my side of the bed for her to sleep on, but she still jumped up for comforting (not onto the bed, just onto the side of it) quite a few times between sometime in the middle of the night and morning, so between that and the noisy storm, we didn't get the best of sleep. The pillows we got in our furniture package are softer than we like as well, so we will probably have to find some better pillows to purchase eventually. Still, it just felt good to get off our feet after such a long day of travel.
This morning (Sunday) we took Paisley out on the beach for a little walking and ball playing. She seemed to have a good time. We saw a HUGE sting ray swimming near the Chico Caribe pier [UPDATE: I have been informed this was actually an eagle ray. They are very common.