Belize - Day 3

This morning we woke up again to a quiet ocean breeze, then walked down to the pier to catch a boat to another island, Ambergris Caye.  Their largest town on the island, San Pedro, is supposedly the better tourist destination.

When we arrived in San Pedro, we immediately noticed a much faster paced environment.  Their streets were paved and they had lots of real vehicles as well as golf carts.  The drivers don't yield to pedestrians, either.  In fact, Ashlyn got side-swiped by a mirror while we were walking! 

So we decided to play it safe and get around in our own golf cart.

Eric drove while the two girls sat in the back with the camera taking selfies.

We passed by this little side vendor and decided to sample some authentic Belizan food.

They sold tortas, a really small taco filled with either chicken or pork, a spoonful of onions, then a squirt of green chili sauce.  We opted for $2 worth to sample, which was 10 tortas.

Quite tasty!  They were small little things that you could eat in two bites.  They made a great late-morning snack.

After a quick bite and getting our bearings, we headed out for the beach.  This island did have a few pockets of public beaches.  It was still early enough that they weren't crowded yet.

By noon, we were ready to eat a bigger meal.  A unique dish is called the pupusa.  It's like a flat pancake with something stuffed inside of it.  A plate is served with any 3 pupusas and a side of cabbage.  I ordered my trio to be a cheese, a bean, and a pumpkin (which was squash/zucchini).  Delicious!

After lunch, the little one and I decided to catch a boat back to Caye Caulker where the pace was a bit slower.  Eric and Ashlyn kept the golf cart and did more sight seeing for another few hours.  

I decided that swinging in a hammock in Belize wasn't complete without a fresh coconut.  Then the little one saw an ice cream shop.  Have you ever heard of corn ice cream?  Us neither.  But it tasted like sweet creamed corn!  So yummy.

We met back up with the other two and hung out again at the Split for drinks and to watch the sunset.  I could get used to this!

Belize - Day 2

Despite being on "island time", we woke up early to watch the sunrise.  The instant coffee and cloud cover didn't put a damper on it, though.  It was still so peaceful.

At 10am, we headed out for our snorkel reservation about a 15 min. walk up the coastline.  There, we got fitted for our gear.  They even had +5.0 prescription goggles for the little one.  After liberally applying our reef-safe suntan lotion, our guide, Zach, boated us out to the barrier reef.

We saw huge schools of fish, lots of coral, and conch shells.  

Then when we came upon a shark or stingray, we dove down to get a close up.

  

Sometimes the water was really shallow and we had to watch our flippers.  We didn't want to hurt the coral.

Under the rocks below, our guide found an Amore eel, so Ashlyn had to go see it.

 On the way back to the boat, we saw this sweet sea turtle nibbling on the sea grass.

Our next snorkel spot was shark and stingray alley.  Zach had a scented bait stick which attracted the marine life.

These are nurse sharks.  They aren't aggressive like most of the sharks we see on TV.  Although that gave me some comfort, we still opted to jump in on the other side of the boat!  

I had fun swimming after the sting rays.

The little one was finally getting used to the snorkel mouth piece and enjoying the salt water, so we stayed a few minutes longer to look at the large shells.

 Then one last selfie before we loaded up...

The boat ride back to Caye Caulker was quite intense!  I was sure one of us would fly out from going top speed and hitting the waves.  These three seemed to be all smiles, though.

 Then one wave smacked the side of the boat and I gripped on for dear life!

Safely back on land, we decided to get a drink and get the saltwater taste out of our mouths.

Then walked over to the west side of the island to catch the sunset!

Belize - Day 1

Our trip began with Ashlyn getting upgraded to First Class on both her flight to Houston and onto Belize.  Her international travels gave her enough mileage for the free perk!

We said hello to her as us pheasants passed by her on our way to economy.

During our 3 hour layover in Houston, we decided to have a little fun.  We found a conveyor belt walkway and pretended to be a bicycle.

We finally arrived in beautiful Belize!  Warm temperatures, sun, and an English language we can understand with a hint of Caribbean and Spanish dialects.

Eric hailed us a taxi to the water port.  Our first three days were on the island of Caye Caulker.  Here's us on the hour boat ride out to the island.

Destination success!

 Now to find our hotel for the next few days...

Found it!  It's called the Anchorage (like in Alaska).  Not too crowded, and we loved it!

Now to find a bite to eat... These were the "streets" on the island.  They only had 3 - Beach Street, Central, and West St.  No vehicles were here, but we did see a few golf carts.

Most people got around on foot or bicycle.

For dinner, we ordered from a local place that served Red Snapper fish (the whole fish), with cole slaw, rice & beans, and a fried plantain.  The rice here is cooked in coconut milk and was very flavorful!

After dinner, we headed out exploring the other areas of the island and came up on something called the "split".  In 1961, a hurricane devastated Belize City and split this small island in two.  The locals made the best of it, and had this area developed into a fun night scene.

For an island with not many beaches, this area was one of the few places you feel like taking a swim.  

The sun goes down pretty quick in the evening, so we enjoyed the music as it neared sunset.  Here you can see where the waterway splits the island in two.

Such a gorgeous sunset after a busy day of travel!