Trip to the Embassy!

Time to renew our passports...Can't believe 10 years is already up. Every country has a US Embassy and the process is very easy to renew from what we read on the internet. But still Bob & I find out not everything we do goes so smoothly. We headed out early on our bikes to catch the 7:00 a.m. ferry to Belize City. My legs don't peddle that fast in the morning so, we barely made it. Once we got to Belize City we had to take a taxi to the bus terminal where we would catch a "school bus" to Belmopan; the capitol of Belize and home to the US Embassy. The bus ride was only an hour and not bad at all. We tend to research tons of things on the web but for some reason we failed to look up the exact location of the Embassy. We just assumed it was in the main market square. Bob asked a cap driver if the Embassy was in walking distance; No, was the answer we got back. We walked across the street where we saw the little local bus & asked if he stops at the Embassy. He said, sure and we hopped on...Not sure why, we didn't have our photos or money for the passport process. Well, the Embassy wasn't that far but it would have been longer than I would want to walk. What we hadn't planned on the Embassy being in the middle of nowhere. There was absolutely nothing around this compound. We had to ask our bus driver to take us back where we started which was the main market area we found out. The bank was there and the several photo places within a corner of each other. We used one of the places the Embassy recommended called Venus. The guy in there was very helpful and let us know we weren't dress appropriately for our picture to be taken. Bob had on a white tank top while I had on a beige one. We needed a shirt w/sleeves and had to be bright in color to go against the white backdrop. One more item we didn't research. UGH! We did find a flea market around the corner and bought a shirt that both Bob & I could share. Nothing fancy....A coral/orange t-shirt w/sleeves. We went back to the photo shop and got our pictures taken. (Bob & I wearing the same shirt on our passports crack me up) Now we have money and photo in hand and returned back to the Embassy. From this point everything went very smoothly. No lines to wait in....we walked in, filled out some paperwork and handed them our cash and they told us our new passports will be ready 7-10 days. We'll head back to the Embassy on our way to Guatemala to pick them up. We left Belmopan quickly and spent a little time in Belize City. Cruise ships stop here so there where tons of tourist shops. We had a fabulous lunch (chinese food) and made our way back to the water taxi and back to the island. Another thing we learned while riding the water taxi....NEVER sit in the front of the boat. The water taxis are enclosed except for the back end. The front is very hot and can be closterphobic. (which I am). So always fight your way up to the front of the line and get a seat in the back of the boat. That's what everyone else is doing. Other than that we made it home safely and in time for Happy Hour. Take care & safe to travels to everyone. Love, B&B