Belize, Part 2

If you haven't already, start here:

You're back! Now join me for more excursions from our trip: (and fair warning, there are WAY too many pictures...and I like to chat.)

After a day of training in a pool, in which I cracked under pressure during test drills and failed the goggle cleaning test (no joke), I found myself on a boat heading for the barrier reef. I was running on no sleep, as I was so nervous to scuba dive I tossed and turned in bed while having visions of drowning. The ride to the reef wouldn't have been complete without the veteran divers asking if I needed to throw up ("...I swear, you may feel better.")

Thankfully, Mario, my instructor, was as calm as a cucumber. Following a small anxiety attack while already in the water, I prayed, looked down, held Kyle's hand, and began to sink. Then, I fell in love.

There really is nothing like being submerged in water and peacefully floating around reef. So glad I trusted Kyle and let him convince me to do it! The real thing was 100 times better than any National Geographic magazine or any movie could portray.

There are no words for this picture. We just look hard core.

Two thumbs up for scuba diving! Moving on...

We wanted to make sure we saw more of the country than just the 6 miles of the village, so we rented a motorcycle for a day, drove down the highway, took detours and wandered through a few towns.

We drove through the Jaguar Reserve but I'm sad to report we did not spot one.

We took advantage of any side road, revealing breathtaking mountain views, grazing cattle, banana farms, the scent of citrus from the orange trees and the ocean breeze.

Although we LOVED visiting some towns on the way, they didn't compare to the warmth that Hopkins offered.
There is something about this small town that warms your heart, makes you want to put your feet up and relax, go for a stroll, become best friends with your waiter, and talk to every person that passes you by. Its those things that have drawn so many retirees to begin building homes in the area and settling into this slow, peaceful way of life. To give you an idea of just how relaxed, I used a blow dryer, worn a nice dress and used mascara three times in 11 days. I also didn't use my "pro" camera more than a handful of times (more on that later.)

Based on the number of homes under construction up and down the beach, Hopkins will look quite different in just a few years. However, I hope it never loses the heart beat that draws people in and makes it feel like a home.


Let me introduce you to this little village.

The local market, with the best pineapple this mouth has never tasted.

I had read many travel blogs that continually mentioned how kind Belizeans are, but I'd say that would be an understatement. Everyone we met was incredibly gracious. They take great pride in their country and wanted to share it with us - it made the trip that much better! We were so thankful for Marto and Nicholasa, our little Belizean family, who let us into their lives and showed us a side of the country that we otherwise would never have experienced.


If you are ever looking for an inexpensive, relaxing vacation that offers plenty of adventure (if you are so willing)...I'm happy to send a few recommendations your way.


And who knows, maybe you'll get to sit in the cockpit too!

UnBELIZEable, Part 1

Kyle can't stop describing our trip without saying "it was unBELIZEable." To be quite honest, this was a bit annoying at first, but now I find it endearing. It was an incredible vacation and we feel so blessed to have had that time together! Sometimes you don't realize how much you miss each other until you are away from everything else, and just have one another.

We laughed so hard we I cried. We slept in, went on bike rides, kayak trips and tried new foods. We went primitive and ate coconut right from the tree, fish from the ocean and I even learned how to make mouth-watering tortillas. We found ourselves looking like tourists in a golf cart (but only let that nonsense happen once), meeting locals for dinner, riding a motorcycle across the countryside, and searching for crocodiles at nightfall. Since that doesn't even begin to describe our entire trip, I'll revert to the pictures for further explanation.

Grab a glass of wine and get comfortable, I may have you here for a few minutes :)


We stayed in a home right outside of Hopkins, a small fishing village on the eastern coast. In order to get there, we hopped on one of these:

Our first introduction to Belize:

15 minutes later we arrived in another town, then had a 40 minute ride to Hopkins. We had decided early on that we didn't want to be stuck in a resort somewhere - we wanted to explore the country with free reign.

That idea took us here: The house we stayed in was crazy beautiful, built right beside the ocean. (We booked from vrbo.com, which is a great resource if you ever want to find less expensive, non-resort type vacations) Also, don't think just the two of us took up this mansion. It was split into four condos ;)

We ended up becoming great friends with the Belizean family who cared for the home as their full time work. We spent a lot of time with them throughout the two weeks...more on that later.

So how did we spend all of our time, you ask? Well I mentioned here that Kyle is Mr. Busy Pants when it comes to vacation- he wants to go, go, go and do everything possible. I, on the other hand, need a good balance between busy and laying-in-the-sun-bliss. I will say Kyle won this disagreement most of the time, but the one day we did lay out was sensational.



The first few days we went on some adventures.

I learned I can't keep up with my husband in paddling,

or biking on the dirt roads,

BUT, I also learned I can out-fish him. GASP! He will be rolling his eyes reading this, and his friends will surely make fun of him. But I only speak the truth:

My barracudas were bigger than his. What can I say.

To my husbands defense, he was trying to help Marto and Pedro catch their first barracuda,

In return, they took Kyle spear fishing. At night, in a river. That's way more legit than my sea fishing. I definitely didn't have the guts to even go with them. I waited at the condo and prayed he would return safely (but, seriously :)

 Each time we went out on the reef, we ended with buckets like this of our catch:

Which was excellent, since we only were able to eat a sliver of that, and give the rest away. It made for a few nice nights with our Belizean family, learning their fish recipes and having dinner around the table- complete with homemade tortillas, sweet potato fries and fresh fruit from the trees.

We decided that while in Belize, we wanted to see some of the Mayan Ruins. A 3 hour car ride later, we ended up here:
at Xunantunich, at the border of Guatemala and Belize.

Then we climbed to the top,

 and enjoyed a gorgeous view of other ruins, cities and the Guatemala border

As nerve-racking as it was to stand at the top and blow with the wind, it did dry out sweat from the hot weather (did I mention, it was SO, SO hot there!!)

Okay, I'm wrapping this up for the night. One post was way to ambitious for the whole trip, I'll pick it up  tomorrow with our scuba adventures, a tour of Hopkins and our motorcycle adventures.


Goodnight :)