Belize - Day 4

This morning was our last in the islands, so ventured out early for breakfast to taste the local fare.  Below is a favorite coffee latte called Cafe Ole Machiatto. It paired well with banana pancakes.

Then we caught the 9am boat to Belize City and headed inland. When we arrived, we rented a car that had a GPS so we wouldn't get lost as we got deeper and deeper into the forests.  But eventually, even the GPS announced that we were on an unknown road.  

An unexpected, but glorious, find was a chocolate farm along our path.  We had to stop. :) 

The owner explained their organic farming process to us that come straight from the Mayan fields. 

The cacao beans are then crushed and sorted by ancient methods using coconut shells and wind.  They sell the cacao nibs in raw form, or you can crush further into a paste which you can consume for a quick "high".  

We got to sample some in both forms, and they were super yummy!  Bought a few sacks, too.

Nearby was a hike to St. Herman's Cave and Blue Hole National Park.  We couldn't resist the adventure.

It didn't take long for that pure chocolate "high" to engage.  I was leaving my family in the dust on that trail, and they had never been so slow!  I think they were doing that on purpose.  Gosh they were slow!  I was even way ahead of this athlete...

The views were nice when we had a break in the lush canopy forest.  We kept our eyes our for jaguars, though.

Once in the cave, I was glad we had our headlamps.  Pitch black.  We walked through as far as we could go without a guide.  This is one of the cave tubing excursions that are popular with tourists.

The river in the cave flows down through a series of tunnels. 

and empties into a Blue Hole that's popular to wade in.  

We enjoyed the refreshing water for a bit and talking with the park staff.  Now to find our AirBNB for the next few nights.

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!