Belize, Please

I surprised Roland for his 50th birthday by taking him to Belize! 

Actually, I accidentally emailed him our flight plan so he wasn't surprised. 

But he was very surprised when Sally and Jason walked onto our flight! 

It was the perfect surprise.

Belize city isn't charming or friendly or beautiful. 

So we only stayed there one night at the 

D'Nest B&B and hired a driver, Raul, to drive us around. On our way from the

airport to the B&B Raul suddenly stopped the van and pointed into the river asking if we could see the manatee. 

We all climbed out and sure enough, there were 4-5 large manatee in the river! 

An auspicious beginning to our trip.

The next morning, after a delicious Belizian breakfast our first stop was the Belize Zoo. It was screaming hot and 

100% humidity (rain) in this zoo that calls itself "the best little zoo in the world". 

Right off the bat I got to pet a boa constrictor and then we were off to view very wild animals caged behind chain link fence. 

Including a crocodile that wanted to bite me.

The signs are hand lettered and the monkeys are free to go wherever they like. I got very close 

to a baby howler monkey. And the leopards walked right up to the fence. 

For only $50 you can get in the leopard cage and pet it.
We all passed on that opportunity. 

The Tapir. The national Belizean animal. It's nose is like a snout.

Also visiting the zoo was a member of the 

British Parliament who is involved the Zoological Society. 

He was dressed in a suit. 

Roland chatted him up in the men's bathroom. 

Raul stopped on the side of the road to pick cashews. This is an upside down cashew:

It grows with the nut (which is actually a seed) on the bottom.

It has a waxy coating and is juicy and sweet but then coats your mouth with a dry feeling.

I didn't much care for it.

Did you know that the national language of Belize is English?

 Makes travel much easier. 

I expected it to be like Mexico but Sally and I kept talking about how different it was. 

No photos for the next part: near the place where "Mosquito Coast" was filmed we got into our swimsuits 

and hiked 2 miles through the jungle carrying inner tubes, in warm pouring rain, 

until we reached the river where we tubed through 1.5 miles of a completely dark cave 

filled with stalagmites and stalactites. 

Then we had a nice little run in with a group of howler monkeys who howled and howled. 

Not a sound you want to hear in the jungle. I kept telling myself how brave I was. 

Turns out there weren't piranhas in the river! 

Then back to Belize City where we had a fabulous dinner at Cheviche Hut right before we jumped on our little plane to San Pedro Island. 

I was feeling pretty glamorous.

The little town of San Pedro was much more charming than Belize City. But we stayed at our house up north, 

we were ready for some serious relaxing.  There are no cars on San Pedro Island, Jason 

rented a golf cart that was fun but the roads were very bumpy and muddy, 

so we traveled mostly by water taxi.

Our front yard and our private dock (that anyone can use, but it was still ours).
Thats where you catch the water taxi by waving at it and it is a wonderful place to star gaze.

The house we rented was called El Castillo de Arena.

This is William.
He is the caretaker of the house. He was amazingly helpful and kind. 

He cooked a meal for us and also made us ceviche from the conchs we (he) caught!

 He also cut coconuts for us to drink. The green coconut water tasted 

bubbly - slightly fermented? and the dried coconut water tasted more like the stuff I am used too.

While the men went fishing William took Sally and I out on the sea kayaks to the reef 

- the second largest barrier reef in the world - 

to snorkel and catch conch. We saw beautiful fish and coral and
I got a nice long coral scrape on my leg - ouch! 

William was spear fishing and aimed for a snapper just as a puffer fish swam in front of it and he speared the puffer.

I will always remember how that puffer fish puffed up larger than a basketball. 

William felt so bad but I thought it was awesome! 

When I get the water camera film developed I will post pictures.

That night we had a fresh fish bake (the men caught 30 fish) and fresh conch ceviche for dinner.
Perfect!

We spent lots of time under the palapa, reading, sleeping, watching lizards and birds, and gazing at the ocean. 

This was the view we gazed at. 

The men went spear fishing while Sally and I sat in the Caribbean sea 

 and talked about how incredibly lucky we were.

At night, on the days William cleaned fish/conch, you could go out on the dock and watch sting rays and nurse sharks

 battling with crabs for the fishy bits. In this picture you can see Roland holding a flashlight on a sting ray 

and the conch shells from that day's catch lined up on our dock. 

I am standing behind Roland.

We took an awesome snorkel trip to the Hol Chan Marine Reserve where we snorkeled with big schools of fish. 

I've snorkeled lots of places but have never seen anything like it. 

We hired Doreal from Belize Dive Adventures - he was awesome.

We also snorkeled shark ray alley where I got to hold a 4 foot long nurse shark! 

And pet sting rays!

 Pictures to come.

Jason is picking coconuts for us while William holds the ladder.
You can see the BBQ where we grilled fresh fish (on the coals William started) and the
edge of the large palapa in the front yard. 

The house in the background belongs to John Mcafee - of anti-virus software fame. 

He was there but we didn't chat. 

He plays a super cheesy electric piano, 

in the evening, 

when it rains.

 The roof of our house has a view of the ocean on one side and a view of the jungle/lagoon on the other. 

The roof also has a pool that is wonderful after snorkeling and also great to sit in and watch the sunset.

The sunset on our last night.

Time to go home again!

Happy 

50th

Birthday 

Roland!