Finally the post you have all been waiting for...
Our trip to Belize was amazing...unreal...with out a doubt THE BEST vacation I have ever been on. Here is just a sampling of what we did while we were there and some things that happened. Included is a link to our ofoto album of pictures from the trip...keep in mind, none of the pictures do any of the scenery any justice as it was all amazing and gorgeous. Like the ones from our 300 ft repelling into the sink hole and the jungle hike to get there, it was so amazing, and huge and we were so high up and the sink holes, caves etc, were unreal...and in the pictures you will say...what in the heck did they take a picture of a rock for...you'll just have to go and experience it for yourself. You'd be amazed.
The first 3 days we were there we stayed at the
Jungle Dome. David picked us up from the tiny airport in Belize City and drove us to Belmopan (the capital city...though not really a city like we think of cities) to the Jungle Dome which was on the outskirts of the town. We drive on one of the 3 paved roads in Belize for a good 40 min and then turn onto a very bumpy dirt road where we drove for another 20 min or so, until we ended at the Dome which was right next to and across the street from a Equestrian Farm (I was in heaven). Before we can even get out of the van, Karen, the manager comes up and greets us by name and takes us and shows us around. There are only 5 rooms at the Jungle Dome and we were in one of the pool side rooms, right next to the dinner table.
The Dome is more of a bed/dinner/breakfast place, where everyone sits with everyone else and enjoys home cooked Belizean breakfast in themorning, then goes off to do some excursion or another and then we all come back and have dinner together. It was awesome. At first I wasn't sure that I would like this kind of thing, but I'd do it all again in a heartbeat. There was a 'bar' well not really, but it looked like one and had alcohol. There was no bartender --though when we first met David he said he was the part time bartender :) -- so were we all...it was self serve, you go and make a drink (very limited selection -- one barrel local rum was Jimmy's favorite) or grab a belekin beer -- of which there were only 2 kinds, regular or stout...me and the regular belekin beer became really good friends :) and then you'd write what you took on the little tablet and it would all be settled at the end. It was great.
So that night we got there just in time for dinner which was in about 30 min. David put our things in our room and we went and walked around, saw the bar, went for a much needed swim and went and saw the horses, right in the back yard!! Then we had an amazing dinner of Belizean Lasagna and dessert then sat and talked with the other families and people who were there. There was a family with 2 kids from DC, a single lady from Norway, a family with 1 little boy from Houston and an INCREDIBLY HOT backpacker from Canada named Ryan...unfortunately he was only there for one more day and a night...sigh :)
Then the first day we went on our kayaking trip...Jimmy, me and ourguide, Henry (who looked A LOT like Sayid from LOST). It was once again, unreal. Just the 3 of us...on the Mopan River, well just the 3 of us and a menagerie of animals. We saw, Iguanas, Bats, Cattle, Horses, Dogs, Toucans, Goats, Leeches, tons of different birds...and one BIG BULL. I'll get back to the bull in a minute. The Kayaking trip was in total 17 miles...that is a LONG day...the sun was out, the water was green and gorgeous. We saw people washing their clothes in the river, bathing their children etc. (see Belize is a poor country and they rely on rain water to fill up containers at their homes for use...and it was just beginning the rainy season...but there was no rain yet, so the only source of water for them was the river). We kayaked, and kayaked and went down some rapids and more rapids, then stopped at Clarissa Falls for lunch, had lunch, swam some (this is where the leeches come in...they liked Jimmy's hairy legs) and then we went about kayaking some more. I had taken some pictures on the first 1/2 of our kayaking day, of Jimmy, our guide and the baby iguana he caught for us to hold...so after lunch, I decided to keep the camera in the van...no need to bring it with us for the afternoon...boy was I ever wrong!
Here is the part where I am sure you will say..."like that really happened" well it did. And I was in awe. We are kayaking along and Henry told us that he likes to kayak under the canopy so he can stay cool since he has never worn sunscreen...and we wanted to be in the sun as much as possible so we were out in the middle of the river. Then the next thing I know, we hear a really loud groan sound and hear all of this splashing over by Henry...I had no idea what was going on...all Icould see was this HUGE black thing trying to get out of the water. Now when you are in Belize, one of the jokes that the guides always use is"watch out for the jaguars" so first thing that crossed my mind...wasthat is WAY to big to be a cat. So I yell to Henry to find out what is going on and he says "it is a bull, he is tangled in the vines, if Idon't help him he will die" so Jimmy and I of course ask if we can do anything and he just tells us to stay back. So we are about 10 ft away watching. Henry is staying on his kayak so that the bull won't be able to kick him or step on his feet and break any bones. So he goes about trying to untangle him when a caballero comes down on a horse by the water to help. Every few min the bull tries to get out but he is so tangled that he can't. Henry is breaking vines with his bare hands and finally with a little help from the cowboy they get him untangled, but he is still to tired to make it up the embankment. So they put a rope around his neck and lead him down the river a bit and he finally makes it out (this is after at least 20 min of work by Henry). The poor bull is so tired that he can't fully stand up and he crawls out of the water on his elbows. Poor guy...but he made it!! :)
Then we continued on...finished up the 2nd half of the long day kayaking and went back to the Jungle Dome for a much needed swim and dinner.
The next day was the Jungle Hike and 300 ft repel drop into the sink hole. We left the Jungle Dome at about 6am and headed to Caves Branch which is sort of an adventure resort -- they have rooms there where you can stay where there is no electricity and communal bathrooms etc...up to tree houses etc. A very neat place out in the jungle. We left there on a modified school bus and they drove us to an orange orchard, where Jimmy and myself, two newlyweds and our 3 guides, Ching, Justo and another really nice gentleman (whose name I forget right now) who only spoke Spanish. The two newlyweds were Matt and Kat from Tampa...and boy were they out there. First off she was little Miss Priss...I was dying to find out why they were in Belize on their honeymoon staying in a place with only screens as walls and no electricity, when she was so obviously not that kind of girl. Well she said she made a deal with her husband, that if he completely let her plan the wedding that he could completely plan the honeymoon. Boy was she kicking herself after that deal. :) but it was at times very amusing. Plus they were on the honeymoon night on this hike. They were going to sleep in the cave after we repelled down...Jimmy and I hiked back out :)
So we get to the orchard and the one guide took off into the jungle (which there is a picture of from far away, it looks like a mountain covered in jungle :)) If that makes any sense. Then we get the quick and dirty rules of what to touch what not to touch and to drink lots ofwater, and we got our own prepacked backpacks, with 3 big bottles ofwater in it and our repelling gear and then we take off with Ching in the lead...with his machete...and we ask what it is for...and he says to keep the jaguars away and smiles :) Then we start hiking and by hiking I am not talking Maryland hiking - I am talking up hill grabbing onto roots using your arms and legs hiking and it was incredibly hot in the jungle.
In Belize in general, you didn't leave your room to even walk to the pool without sweating. It was unreal how hot it was all the time. And in the jungle it was a little cooler, because you were under the canopy, but not much. You couldn't even tell that it was cooler until we hiked out.
So we hiked and hiked and hiked, took a short break for some water and hiked some more, about an hour and a half up to the top of the sink hole. There is one place where we stopped and could see across the sink hole to where we were going to repel from. There is a picture of this and if you look careful across the picture to the brown dirt looking area on the rock, that is where we eventually repelled down 300 ft from.
So we made it to the top and took another short break while they checked the lines and then we got all suited up (there are some very attractive pictures of this as well) and then we went one by one down...Jimmy went first and took the camera with him, there are a bunch of pictures from his way down. However the pictures don't do it any justice, most of it looks like pictures of rocks and trees etc. but it was amazing. Repelling down was awesome, getting over the cliff was the most difficult part, not scary, but just tough to make yourself step down where there was no step. The ride down was great, you controlled your own speed and time it took got to go down, I'd say it took about 5 min. then we all eventually got to the bottom and our guides went over to a flat rock and set up a buffet lunch for us...make your own burritos with YUMMY fresh tortillas, cheese, veggies and some funky meats and hard boiled eggs and some orange drink. It was yummy, minus the funky meat...but Jimmy ate that I stuck to the hard boiled eggs and the veggies. It was also well needed after the long hike up and now to prepare for the long hike out.
We then hung out for a while and then Justo began the hike out with us...the hike out was almost cooler then the hike up, we got to climb alot of rocks and went a different way because there were trees that were knocked over in the path that we would have usually taken. We had to climb a nice rickety ladder on the way out too. Then once we got out, we hung out with some of there other guides who were setting up the honeymoon cave for the newlyweds. We were sitting by the orchard waiting for the tuck to come and get us, eating oranges off of the trees, it was surreal. By far the best hike ever.
Then we headed back to the Jungle Dome for our last night there... :( Ihad the probably the best time of the trip at the Jungle Dome and would go back in a heartbeat and definitely recommend it to everyone! They drove us to the airport in Dangriga the next morning for our flight to Placencia.
Not much to say about Placencia, we didn't really like the hotel, they were no where near as friendly as the Jungle Dome friends and there was not much at all to do there, but lay on the beach and kayak. We did a little bit of both, took a LONG walk to the town and ended up getting a foot piece to fix my flipper for snorkeling. We stopped by the Turtle Inn – which is one of Francis Ford Coppola's places -- where the room start at about $500 a night, it was gorgeous, we had a beer at the coolest bar I have ever seen...sorry no pictures of it. And then continued our walk. That is about all there is to say about Placencia, if you are looking for seclusion, the beach, and not much else I guess it would be perfect -- not for us, who wanted to go out and have fun and do adventurous things.
That was just 2 days well actually about 1.5 :) then we headed back tothe airport and off to San Pedro -- Ambergyis Caye (pronounced Key) which was an island off of the coast...
San Pedro is a diving island, come there if you want to dive and gosnorkeling, which we did the 2nd day we were there. You can see the reef it is so close to the shore, there is a picture of it, where the water is breaking a ways out, that is the reef, which is the 2nd largest in the world next to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Snorkeling was amazing...we snorkeled with sharks, sting rays, piranha, moray eels, barracudas (Jimmy's favorite...especially when they sneak up on you :)) we got to dive down and pet the sting rays, the sharks never got close enough for us to touch, but I really wanted to touch one...they were very skiddish and would swim away before we could get to them.
The rest of our time on San Pedro was spent, relaxing, laying by the pool, eating wonderful food and enjoying the island. Once we had to leave :( we took a water taxi to the mainland (Belize City) and then a taxi to the airport (even the taxi ride was entertaining...our driver was 80 years old!).
The trip was amazing, one we will never forget. The country was beautiful, the people were incredibly welcoming and friendly, we would recommend a trip to Belize to everyone and we will definitely go back!
I think I covered it all...well most of it anyway, even though there is no way this can do the trip any justice or the pictures for that matter. But enjoy! I tried to add captions to most of the pictures too!
Thanks for waiting!! :)
Click here to see our pictures!
This is from last Fridays appointment...which went great. Still online for being due the 25th of February. We got to see the heart beating too...it was really cool. 165 bpm...a fast little heart!
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