Trip to Belize

Karla and I decided back in June to go on a beach vacation sometime in September.  It was between Costa Rica and Belize, and since it was going to be a short trip, and relaxation was the goal, Belize won out.  Ambergris Caye is an island that we had to take a puddle jumper to from Belize City, but we had heard good things about the place.  Karla found the hotel we stayed at on trip advsior, called X'tan Ha.  It was a great deal, and right on the beach.

We left early Saturday, and got to the town of San Pedro around 4pm, which was odd since Belize was on mountain time as well, although it is pretty much due south of alabama.  We stopped in town to get some provisions such as eggs, bread, peanut butter...and rum.

The next day we got up early, kayaked to Mexico Rocks, and snorkeled.  We saw mostly small colorful fish, stingrays, and a nurse shark.  The rest of the day was relaxing, but we did try paddle boarding, which Karla
did very well at.  We met some fun other couples as well, from mostly the states, but also one from Canada, although Gerad was from Ireland, and a Liverpool fan to boot, so I got along swimmingly with him.

On Monday we had a "chill day". Nothing huge planned. We slept in, read for a while, and then took some bikes for a 3 mile bike ride down the beach to visit some friends of my parents who have a house in Belize. After visiting for a few hours, we decided to head back to the resort before it got dark. The ride back was an adventure because it was raining, Karla's chain kept slipping off her bike (so we'd stop and put it back on every 10 minutes), and it was rush hour on the beach. Lots of workers on bikes heading home! We went with another couple to a neighboring resort, Portofino, for dinner. It was pretty snazzy as they send a boat to pick you up and bring you home. Of course, we had seafood and all agreed it was the best meal we'd had so far.

For our last full day in Belize, we decided to take a snorkeling tour. It was small tour - two couples from our resort, our driver Kevin, and our guide Mario. Our first stop was Hol Chan Marine reserve. We spent a good hour snorkeling seeing lots of fish, some beautiful reefs, a crab or two, and, my favorite part, some sea turtles!

Next on the tour was Shark/Ray alley. And it lived up to its name! As soon as Kevin attached the boat to the buoy, Mario threw out some food and up came the nurse sharks and a ton of fish. We all jumped in so we could get a close look at all of the animals (although I think Karla pushed me in before her to make sure it was safe). Once the animals ate all the food, then it was just us snorkeling around looking at them. Mario caught a shark and a sting ray for us to touch.

After we got enough of swimming with the sharks and rays, we headed to Coral Gardens. On the way, Mario had us stop at a few lobster traps he had set so we could bring lobster back with us and have lobster ceviche when we got back to the resort. When we got to Coral Gardens, we all jumped in and quickly determined that the current was too strong that day. We were snorkeling for about a minute and the current had already taken us 30 yards from the boat! So we all quickly swam back to the boat.

We were supposed to also go to Caye Caulker, which was about a 30 minute boat ride further from the resort, for relaxing and lunch, but it had been raining for a while so the 6 of us voted to head back to the resort. We stopped at a bar on the way back for a drink and lunch. Mario and Kevin also took us to Mexico Rocks to get more snorkeling in since we skipped Caye Caulker. After getting back to the resort, we all took 30 minutes to shower and warm up (it was a little chilly on the way back in the rain), and then went to the bar to eat our fresh lobster ceviche, which was amazing.

That night was just hanging out at the bar, having a dinner on-site, and drinking with everyone. We had bought a bottle of rum when we landed, so we had to make sure we drank most of it! We gave the rest (maybe 1/4 of the bottle) to the newlyweds staying next to us since they were there for another few days. Can't let rum go to waste!

Our trip home was pretty uneventful. Our flight from Belize City was delayed a bit, but luckily so was our flight from Miami to Denver. Overall, we had a great trip and would definitely go back to both Belize and to X'Tan Ha!