.:Omega20:.

nikinikinine

I'm dying reading your poll below. I started off as a tech writer too, I still do a ton of tech writing, but I am managing my department now.

AND we went to Ambergris Caye for our HM too. Where did you guys stay? We stayed at Victoria House for a week and we were supposed to head over to Cayo Espanto for a week after but we were evacuated by Hurricane Dean!

I loved it there! 

Omega20

Weird!  I just fell into this job and it has been great.  I was a sociology/religious studies major so I'm lucky they hired me.  What type of company are you working for? 

Double weird!  Victoria House was our first choice!  We ended up staying at Portofino because they were doing construction on a pool and their rooms were half price.  After one of our trips we dropped some people off at Victoria House and it was SO PRETTY! 

What trips did you do?  Scuba?  Hol Chan?  Did you go to the mainland at all?

Omega20

Here are some places that you might recognize!

 

nikinikinine

I work for an open source software company, they do mostly software development and consulting work (and a lot of government contracting = lots of proposal writing). What about you?

VH was amazing. I can't say enough good things about it. We HM'd in 2007 and I thought VH was pretty cheap then, I think we paid $165 for a mid-level room. Not sure what it might be like now...

We managed to do a few trips before hightailing it to Texas, ha! We did the cave tubing/zip lining tour in the jungle, a half day of bonefish fishing in the flats, hol chan (we did the Shark Ray Alley trip) and a half day of reef fishing/snorkeling/beach BBQ. The only thing we didn't get to do was see any Mayan ruins. I really wanted to go to Xunantunich though  

Wow that sounded very Griswold, ha! I swear we weren't running around with clipboards and watches. What about you guys what did you do while you were there? How long did you stay? 

Omega20

We make super computers for the military, and also software.  I do more of the reference manuals, data sheets, etc.  People always think it's so complicated but it's not that bad.

If we ever go back I think we'll have to stay at VH.  I agree that Belize was unbelievably cheap compared to other trips we researched. 

We did the shark ray alley, half day of fishing/snorkeling/BBQ, and Caye Caulker.  We also did a trip to the mainland by boat through the mangroves.  So cool.  We ended up in a little village where we took a bus to the Altun Ha Mayan ruins.  Then we went to the Maruba Jungle spa and got lunch and did the couples mood mud massage.  That was the highlight of our trip.  Let's just say you can't be modest AT ALL!

If you go back, the jungle spa is definitely a must!

nikinikinine

omg the jungle spa sounds ridiculous. And I thought we mostly did it all. H is dying to go back, but I am one of those vacationers that doesn't like to repeat places. I feel like we've been there now I want to see other countries, KWIM?

Although we do go to Nantucket every summer now for a week. It's where we ended up going to finish our HM after the hurricane LOL.

I wonder if my company has ever worked with yours. We also do supercomputing (and biomedical imaging, computer vision, informatics, etc.) most of it is for the government too. ARL, DARPA, AFRL, DoD, etc. It's pretty cool stuff and, as you said, not as complicated as people think

I wish I got to focus on one development area and learn it inside out, but I'm all over the place.  

Omega20

Ridiculous to say the least!  Our tour guide was high as a kite driving like a mad man through the mangroves.  I thought we were going to end up in the water and get eaten by alligators, or snakes, or whatever.  I have an overactive imagination though.

I agree with you about going to the same place twice.  There is way to much out there that I want to see.

When was Dean?  We went September 2007 and there was ALOT of damage from a hurricane, but I can't remember which one it was.  I'm sure the whole evacuation process was very scary, especially considering the tiny plane you have to take to get back to Belize City.

We are a really small private company (55 employees) but it sounds like we work with very similar government companies.  NRL, DoD, NG, LM, GD, etc.

Well, look at it this way...you have lots of stuff to put on your resume!

nikinikinine

Yup we work with the exact same companies - even the private corps you mentioned. Too funny. We're also small (I think we're up to 68 ppl, but when I started 2 yrs ago we only had 36 empls!)

Ha! for the hurricane, that was OUR hurricane. We HM'd in August 2007. The whole time we were there they kept telling us how Belize hadn't been hit by a hurricane in 17 years (since hurricane Hattie...) blah, blah, blah. VH has no TVs, phones, etc. so we didn't even know a hurricane was coming. We went on that fishing/beachside bbq excursion and they dropped us off at a tiki bar while they prepared our meals and we saw the hurricane coming at us on TV. I almost crapped my pants.

Leaving on the puddle jumper wasn't so bad, but Delta cancelled our flight out of San Pedro so we got stuck at the airport. No joke we were sitting there and they were drilling metal sheets to the outside of the airport walls to keep the windows from shattering.

We flew out just as the outer bands of the hurricane moved in and by the time we landed in Houston the hurricane had already hit Belize/Mexico. Totally insane.