Belize

by Toni St.Clair on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 at 4:02pm via FB

We arrived in Belize City quicker than I had anticipated which was nice. We were on a nicer bus than the ones we took from Antigua to Lake Atitlan so there was plenty of room to chill and relax. And I didn't realize that the 5 hr time quoted included the stop at the border, which was even nicer!!! Once we reached Belize City, we transferred to the water taxi that took us on an hour and a half trip to the largest caye (pronounced "key") Ambergris Caye. We are staying in the largest town, San Pedro, and it is gorgeous. Most of the restaurants, hotels and such are along the beach and every business has it's own dock. It is BEAUTIFUL here, as you will see from the photos!! We are staying in the cheapest hotel on the island, but it's still quite nice...a step up from the dormitories we were staying in...we share a bathroom, but otherwise all is good...oh an no AC but we have the fans placed perfectly in the room so we can sleep in a nice breeze. The best part about this caye is that even though during the day the sun is HOT and all you want to do is jump in the ocean (which of course we do). the evenings are nice and breezy, a great change.

So far all we have really done is explore the town and island, and chill at some of the very cool bars they have along the beach. Today, however, we went on a snorkeling trip to the Brazilean Barrier Reef. The specific spots we went were Hol Chan and Shark Ray. Hol Chan is gorgeous...so much coral and different types of fish. It was gorgeous, and it was about 30m deep...of course me being a wuss I stayed mainly at the top of the water, but every so often I would be brave and venture a bit further down...Shark Ray was incredible...it has what it names says...sharks and sting rays...although no dangerous ones...don't worry ;) The sharks were about as long as I am tall, and the sting rays were HUGE!! We got to hold one of them and they are quite docile creatures, unless provoked of course...for the most part Belize is more expensive than Mexico or Guatemala and so it took me awhile to adjust back to paying about $15/meal, but our snorkeling trip was only $35 and we were out for about 2 1/2 hrs with a guide, drinks and snacks...not too bad I'd say! Tomorrow Jen and I are going to go on a sunset cruise. We leave around 4:#0pm, get drinks, snacks and a beautiful view of the sunset for a couple hours and then return back to the caye. We think it'll be a nice end to our trip...I'm sad the trip is coming to an end, because that means that my time in Mexico is also coming to an end. But I guess I'll be having another new and amazing experience when I go to Spain!!

- xoxo