Belize -Another Day In Paradise

Even though I'm blogging in Belize, I can't post my blogs - strange, huh??? I've tried everything but they just won't post so a big thank you to Jessi for posting them for me - I really appreciate it!!

So Thursday was another fishing day - but this time Joleen went out with the guys! She loves to fish and looks forward to it every time her and Martin come to Belize!! Now me - NO WAY - I was looking forward to a morning on the deck with a book in hand and some time to catch up on blogging and posting pictures!!

The 3 of them set out early in the morning and I enjoyed having my coffee on the balcony and finishing the current book I was reading - of course it was a tear jerker so here I am on vacation, crying my eyes out over a book!!! I loved just reading the morning away and spending some time on the computer!!

Before long they were back with lots more fish - since they weren't deep sea fishing, the fish were much smaller but all 3 of them had a great time and we put more fish in the freezer!!

After lunch, Joleen and I decided to head back down to Ramon's to try the snorkeling again - we walked out to the end of the dock and climbed down the ladder to the water and saw hundreds of fish!! The sun was shining so the fish looked brilliant with their colors of blue, purple, yellow and the beautiful striped ones too - I'm so glad we went back!!

We also did some grocery shopping and had a feast that night with fantastic grilled fish and chicken!! It was getting pretty dark out by the time I snapped this picture but I wanted to get a shot of the guys grilling! Although I think Martin is doing most of the work..............I made foil potatoes and carrots and everything tasted WONDERFUL - especially with the type of briquettes that is used here in Belize - bamboo!! It takes a while for them to get hot but the flavor is fantastic!!

Here we are enjoying our meal!!

After dinner we headed downtown on the golf cart to a bar that features the chicken drop - yes, that's right - it's called the chicken drop!!

Doesn't Joleen look cute on their swing?

So here's how the chicken drop works- when you get to the bar, you buy tickets - I think they're about $1.00 per ticket and each ticket you get has a number on it - Glenn and I bought 5 tickets!! Then at an appointed time, you go outside on the beach and there's this fenced in area with square blocks that each have a number of them. A chicken or rooster is brought out and someone in the crowd holds the chicken and then places the chicken in the ring. The picture below shows a gal holding the chicken right before she places it in the ring.

And then the fun begins - the chicken usually walks around a little bit and whatever spot the chicken poops on, well the number underneath it wins $100!! It was hilarious!! And darn it, the chicken did NOT poop on any of our numbers!!!

Anyway, it was a fun time and something we'll probably never experience again but I think somebody should do it in the US - I can see the bar in Soldier doing something like this when they have their motorcycle rallies!!! As I said, a good time was had by all!!

And the day ended again............and our time is getting shorter............To Be Cont'd........

Belize - Snorkeling Tour

A serene view of the dock taken in the early morning!! We woke to clouds - bummer - this was our snorkeling day trip and we all wanted sunshine - but it was NOT to be!!

Glenn fixed us a nice breakfast scramble of bacon, eggs, potatoes and cheese and it was delicious!! Then it was out to the dock to wait for the boat to pick us up!! 3 other people were on the snorkeling tour with us and soon we headed out across the ocean to the reef!! It was breezy but still warm of course.

Soon we were out to the reef and I was dismayed at the waves - oh my - did I really think the ocean was going to be calm??? I guess so since the shoreline was as smooth as glass!! As soon as we got out there Joel, our guide, pulled over to the ranger (yes, there was a ranger stationed in a boat out there - I questioned Glenn about it and he said of course there was - just like we have rangers in our parks, there are rangers out at the reef also!!) to check in and soon we were getting on our equipment and crawling into the water.

Oh my, the waves were bad - I panicked for a little while and didn't have my mask tight enough so kept swallowing salt water - finally we got it tightened enough that it was secure and I felt much better then!!

It was a guided tour by Joel and we kind of followed him in the water and he would stop and point out certain things in the water that we would see!! At times the water was quite cloudy - and Joel explained that because of all the rain, it made the sea water cloudy at the top - if you would dive down about 5 feet, it was crystal clear - but I didn't do that!!

There were lots of places though that it was clear and we saw lots of brightly colored fish and it was amazing that they just swim right by you!! We saw eels and a shark and lots of coral on the reef - the colors weren't as vibrant as we had hoped since the sun wasn't shining through on them but we enjoyed it all the same!!

Going out to the reef was easy as we were going with the current - coming back was another story as you had to actually swim against the current to get back to the boat!! Glenn did great for the little time he had to practice and thoroughly enjoyed seeing the reef and all the places that fish could get under and break his line when he's fishing - it's a whole other world down below!! I felt like I was on the movie set to Nemo!

It was back to the boat after our time was up and it was REALLY cold as the wind was blowing and there was no sunshine!! Joel drove the boat another 3 or 4 minutes to Shark Ray Alley!! Some of the people jumped in right away with their snorkeling gear but I opted to stay in the boat a few minutes to take pictures!! Joel threw some chum out and before long, the sharks arrived and were eating away!! It was hard to capture the sharks but at least this picture turned out pretty well!!

We snorkeled around the boat for quite a while and soon it was time to head back!! We took pictures (that are on all accounts pretty bad!!) of what we looked like after we pulled our snorkeling gear off and were sitting there COLD!!!

Then it was back to the condo to wash off the seawater and head downtown for lunch!!

We picked up a few more grocery items that the guys hauled back as were spending the afternoon shopping since it had cooled off some and was cloudy!! There were a lot of nice shops we browsed through and I even found my Christmas ornament - I love it!!! Also picked up a nice pair of brown wooden earrings to match a necklace I have and another shell necklace with earrings to match!! A mango/pineapple smoothie rounded out the afternoon before we walked home - and just in time too as it started POURING not long after we reached the condo!!

We headed back downtown late afternoon for drinks at a local place and then came back home for fish tacos, guacamole and cerviche!! Joleen had said before we went that she would do the cooking so I do the clean up - works out great for both of us!!!

We finished our game of Phase 10 and once again Joleen was the winner -it's time to replace her winning streak with someone else I think - ME!!!!! To Be Cont'd....................

Belize - A Tour Of The Island

I just LOVE the picture of this "fan plant" (which I'm sure is not the proper name) but they are all over this island and I would love to have one of them in my house - but it probably wouldn't fit, huh? Oh well, they were fun to look at!!

After breakfast, the 4 of us hopped into the golf cart to take a tour of the southern 1/2 of the island. Ambergris Caye is the largest of Belizes' islands and is 25 miles long and up to a mile wide. Its coastline is protected by the 190 mile long Barrier Reef and the town on this island is called San Pedro! The locals on this island speak a mixture of English, Spanish, Creole and Maya so you never know what language you might hear but EVERYONE speaks English which is great for us dummies that can't speak a second language!!

Since Martin and Joleen have been here several times, they know the island pretty well!! We enjoyed driving the cart past all the really nice resorts on the southern part - I had researched a lot of them a year ago when looking for a place to go with the "Gran Family Farms" and it was neat to see where they were actually located!

Below is a picture of the leaves on this tree that I thought was pretty unique because they looked like ferns!!

We stopped down at the fish market and they also had local fruits and vegetables for sale that had been brought in by locals. We bought a few things, along with a watermelon that we were so excited to eat but it turned out to be the worst watermelon ever!!! It ended up in the trash!!

Joleen and I laid out a little bit when we got back as our "spray tans" were fading fast but we didn't last too long with the humidity and heat!! So we decided to take the cart down to "Ramons", a beautiful place that has some good snorkeling at the end of their dock - Glenn hadn't snorkeled before and needed to practice before our tour. Unfortunately, the skies clouded up FAST and it started to rain not too long after we arrived - but Glenn did get a chance to practice some which was a good thing!!

Check out this guy that was up in the tree right outside our condo, knocking coconuts to the ground!! I missed him crawling up but got a couple of good shots as he was climbing down BACKWARDS!!!

He sat over at the side of the road and cracked the coconuts open and drained the juice out to sell! Maybe I should have gotten some for my pina coladas!!

We decided to "dress up" for our evening meal back down at Ramons where they were doing a BBQ! So we got all ready and went outside to take pictures - of course the air was on inside the condo but the humidity was SO GREAT when we went outside to take pictures that the camera lens immediately fogged up!! It took several tries to get a clear shot!!

We had a great dinner down at Ramons, despite the mosquitoes - after getting all showered and smelling nice, we had to spray ourselves from head to foot with OFF so we didn't smell quite so nice after that!!

After the BBQ, we even ordered dessert!! The key lime pie was great but of course would have been better with some coffee - but I can only drink decaff at night and that's not always available in other countries!!

One more shot of us by the water - it was dusk and I was hoping the ocean would show in the background but we waited too long..................

Then it was back to the condo for another round of Phase 10, complete with their yummy juice and popcorn - we cranked the music up and had a great evening..............To Be Cont'd..........

Belize - Island Paradise!!

The above picture is our condo at the Seven Seas Resort! Glenn and I stayed on the second floor on the right! And the picture below shows the beautiful palm trees in the front! And yes, that's our cute little golf cart we rented for the week right out front - but more on that later........

I woke up early on Monday morning, probably because Glenn got up VERY early - they were going deep sea fishing and of course he was pretty excited!! So I crept outside about 6:00am and snapped this picture from our balcony!!

The guys got left on their fishing trip and Joleen and I decided we better get some groceries as the refrigerators were empty!! It was hot - very hot - but it was even more humid!! Not being used to any humidity at all made it tough for me for a while!! Joleen and I walked quite a few blocks and then decided to go ahead and pick up some food to eat - and that was a big mistake - we over bought what we could easily carry!! So not only were we both sweating like crazy, now we had heavy grocery bags to carry all the way back home!

But I wanted fresh flour tortillas!! So we went to the tortilla factory and as figured, they were only doing corn tortillas - but the gal there said her neighbor next door would make us some! She came out the door, yelled up at a 2 story house and this lady came out, asked us how many we wanted and said to come back in 1/2 hour to pick them up - doesn't get much fresher than that!! She actually went back into her home and made the tortillas for us!!

After picking them up, nice and warm, we trudged back to our condo and decided then and there we were getting the golf cart for the week and NOT waiting for the guys to come back and do it!! Roberto, the manager of the condos, got us a great deal on the golf cart and before we knew it, it was delivered to us!

But BEFORE that happened, we ate the tortillas - oh my gosh, I had forgotten the taste of a freshly made flour tortilla, complete with mango jelly that I had bought!! It was SO GOOD!! Jill and Jessi will remember the tortillas we used to buy in Kino Bay - we would stand at the factory and wait till they were done - then go to the car and eat them on the way home!!

After our long walk around town, we laid in the sun for a little bit before the clouds took over and before we knew it, the guys were back!!

It was a VERY successful day fishing for the guys and they had big smiles as they got off the boat!! Here's Glenn's catch of the day, about a 30# amber jack fish!!

This next one is a grouper!

Glenn said they were fishing very deep, about 200 feet and the captain of the boat kept telling them when they got a fish on, to reel as fast as they could - apparently Glenn didn't reel fast enough on this black snapper that he caught because the picture shows what was left of the fish after a barracuda bit it right off for his lunch!!

4 happy guys after a great day of fishing!!

We had fresh grilled fish for dinner that night and it was excellent, along with a big batch of rice and beans!! I had bought the makings for pina coladas so made up a batch for me and they tasted just as good as what the bar had served the other night!! Joleen picked up the makings for rum punch and her batch was good too!!

The only downside of the night were the mosquitoes - they came out in FULL FORCE and Martin and I got bit up pretty bad - yikes - I haven't had mosquito bites in years!!! And I had forgotten how bad they itched!!! Luckily I had a few alcohol wipes that I used until we could shop the next day for a bottle of it!! Another day in paradise................To Be Cont'd.............

Belize - In The Air Again!

We woke up Sunday morning to a beautiful sunrise and this view from our little cabin!!

Glenn was already out on the dock fishing but not having any luck - we all met for breakfast and since the sun was shining, it was time to snorkel!!! We headed back to our cabins to change and I kept hearing this pounding sound - it was the guys in this boat who were taking the conch out of the shells!!! What a sight!! Check out their piles of shells!!!

We headed out to snorkel - I had purchased a cheap mask at Walmart - big mistake!! It wouldn't seal around my face so I kept getting salt water in my eyes and nose! Not fun!! And since I've only snorkeled really one time, I wasn't very good at it so needed a lot of practice!! After seeing me struggle time and time again, I tried Joleen's mask and oh my, what a world of difference that made!! I caught right on then and soon I was snorkeling around Belize's barrier reef - the second longest in the world!!! We saw lots of blue, yellow and purple fish and some beautiful coral and that was enough to get me excited!!!

But it was time to pack up, eat a quick lunch and take one more picture of our view before we headed to the boat for our trip back to Dangriga!!

The boat ride was beautiful in the daytime and we all greatly enjoyed it!! Then it was once again, the quick taxi ride to the airport!! Here's a picture of their terminal!!! Yes, a one room terminal and of course we were the only ones there as we had an hour wait before our plane would arrive!!

It was a LONG hour as we were all so excited to get to our final destination, Ambergris Caye!! But first we had to fly back into Belize City and THEN another short plane ride to Am. Caye!! Soon our little plane arrived and the guy in the terminal said he had great news for us - since there were just the 4 of us, our pilot was taking us directly to Ambergris Caye - no layover in Belize City!!!

Wow - did we ever feel special with our own "private" plane!!! This one was REALLY tiny - it just seated a total of 7 people!!

Glenn and I were seated behind Martin and Joleen and the pilot asked us if we wanted to fly right over the reef - OF COURSE WE WANTED TO!!! It was absolutely breathtaking!!! We were flying right over this beautiful water and reef and had a birds eye view of it all!! Then he turned and asked if anybody wanted to sit up front with him!! Joleen said she didn't want to so I immediately crawled up there, fastened my seat belt and felt EXTREMELY important sitting in the co-pilot's seat!! Here is one of the pictures taken from the plane!!

And how neat is this picture??? I was smiling so much I thought my face was going to crack as the pilot pointed out special things in the water below - wow - probably something none of us will ever experience again!!!

Before we knew it, we were flying over Ambergris Caye and what a thrill to be in that front seat when the pilot landed that little plane!! It's something I'll never forget!!!

We found a taxi to take us to our home for the next 7 nights - Seven Seas - where Joleen and Martin have a time share at and where we booked a condo for the week!! It was hot and humid and after finally deciding which condo we wanted (we chose one on the second floor), the air was turned on and we unpacked our suitcases, finally!!

Next it was down to the bar where I had a fantastic pina colada and we started to relax on this paradise island!! It wasn't long before Glenn, Martin and a skipper started making plans for their fishing trip the next day!

Dinner that evening was at Caramba's - and the garlic shrimp was excellent!! Over dinner we made our plans for the week and it was GREAT to sleep in an air-conditioned bedroom that night - the humidity was pretty intense during the day and I was certainly glad the condo had air!!

Right next to my side of the bed was a reading lamp - the owners MUST have known I was coming!!! To Be Cont'd..................

Belize - Tobacco Caye - Saturday

Tobacco Caye - this tiny island is home to about 20 full-time Belizeans - no school building of course so any children spend the week on a nearby island and come home only on the weekends!! There's very little space on this island that isn't occupied by something - in fact, Hurricane Mitch leveled most of the island in 1998 so most everything has been rebuilt - which is ALSO hard to believe!! Sand, sun and salt are certainly hard on the buildings!!

Even though I slept so badly, I awoke early as Glenn had headed out the door a little earlier to fish!! I crept outside to take this picture of the brightly colored chairs, noting the gray, cloudy skies at the same time!!

Here's a picture of our little cabin - Joleen and Martin were on one side and we were on the other side!!

One thing I immediately noticed about the island were the abundance of conch shells - those beautiful pink large shells!! In fact, there are hundreds and hundreds of these on the island and they're used partly to decorate and partly to put along the shore to help keep the island intact!! I loved how every tree was surrounded by these beautiful shells!!

Soon the dinner bell was clanging - yes, the cook had a western type triangle that she used when it was time to eat and of course you could hear it all over the island!! Breakfast was great and we were famished once again - sausage, scrambled eggs, fry jacks and juice!!! The fry jacks were kind of like a fry bread and they had the best mango jelly to put on them!! Now coffee was another story - it was instant!! But we weren't complaining!!

Jo and I took a walk around the little island to check it out - I think it took all of 5 minutes to circle around!! We saw this huge nest on top of this old building and pretty soon this large bird flew out of it!!

The skies soon opened up and it rained off and on all day - I was really hoping to see the sun but it just didn't happen on Saturday!! Below is a picture of the smallness of the island - I am standing on the boat dock where we came in last night - and on the other side you can see the ocean - amazing!!! The red building is where we ate our meals - I LOVED all the brightly colored buildings!!

Here's a picture of the little bar - the sun must have peeked out for a moment because the background sure looks bright!!!

The two guys and Joleen fished quite a bit - I of course opted to read - I believe I was on book #2. Here's the catch of the day -which of course was cooked for dinner that evening!

Even though the sun hardly came out and we didn't feel like snorkeling with no sun on our backs, we did enjoy the day and it was very relaxing!! Lunch consisted of meat patties (these deep fat fried pockets with fish inside - delicious!!) coleslaw and fruit and it was all very good!! I was surprised when the darkness arrived, about 5:30!! Once again we used our flashlights when we walked over to eat!

I think the guys look a little grumpy in this picture - but actually they were SO hungry that they didn't even want to stop eating to smile!!! It's amazing what "island life" does to your appetite!!

We headed over to the bar after dinner to have one quick drink and even though the guys really thought they should head to bed (at 7:30????? on vacation????) we told them they HAD to come back to the dining room to play a game with us!! I had brought Phase 10 to play, and my IPOD and docking station and we cranked the music up and had a great evening together!!!

No storm on Saturday night - no breeze either - but I slept like a rock.........To Be Cont'd.......

Belize - Travel Day/Friday

Writing a blog on vacation???? Yes, I am!! 2 reasons prompted me to write: 1) I was journeling by hand and decided that was a waste of time to HAND write it and then type later and 2) I know how incredibly busy I am once I get home and never seem to do my vacation blogs justice!!!

So since I now have Internet and the sun goes down early here, why not spend a little bit of time downloading my pics and writing..................

I'm already 4 days behind and I probably won't get caught up before I come back home but at least it's a good start!!!

Last Friday seems SO LONG AGO already!!! Glenn, Joleen and I headed up to Denver on Thursday night and Brad took us to the airport on Friday morning where we met Martin!! For once, we didn't have a 6:00AM flight so it was nice to sleep in a little bit and just have to be there by 6:30!!

Our journey for the day consisted of 3 flights - Denver to Houston, Houston to Belize City, and Belize City to Dangriga - and a boat ride, Dangriga to Tobacco Caye!! All the flights went great - we had a wonderful lunch in Houston and were all excited to head into Belize City!! I was surprised at how small the airport was and after finally getting through customs (since we were at the back of the plane), we headed to the wing where the "small" airlines were!!

Tropic Air was the name of our next airline but since we had an hour layover, we went to Jet's Bar - a famous bar that is TINY, TINY and run by this little old wizard looking guy named Jet - his voice sounds like a munchkin!!

Of course Joleen and I had to walk around the bar to get our picture taken with him!!

This guy was kind of cute so I thought I better get a picture of him - and also because my sister Patty, told me to take a picture BEFORE I got to Belize since I had this beautiful tan!!

Jet made some pretty darn good rum punches and before long, we were heading out to catch our ride!! The plane was pretty small - probably held about 15 total people and because I was snapping pictures, Glenn and I were the last ones in and had to sit on a bench seat at the back along with another guy!! No seat belt checks here - we were in the air before I even got mine fastened!!

The guy I sat next to was a wealth of information and pointed out all kinds of stuff from the airplane as we flew along!! It was really neat to see the shrimp fields and I think a tour of that would have been fun!!!

After a short 15 minute flight to Dangriga, we unloaded and there was a taxi waiting for us to take us down to the boat dock, another 5 or so minutes away!!!

Captain Fermin was our captain and it was just the 4 of us riding out to Tobacco Caye!! Because it was stormy looking out, the waves were pretty high - and yes, we got wet!!! But not a lot!!

It was a great boat ride which took about 30 minutes - and soon we saw the tiny island ahead, our home for the next 2 nights!! It was almost dark as we pulled up to the dock and a guy came with a wheelbarrow to take our luggage to our places!!

With just a generator for electricity, it was dark - I mean REALLY dark!!! Luckily we had both brought flashlights!! We walked to our cabins and yes, they were quite dark too!! An extremely basic room with a double bed and a set of bunk beds, a night stand, a shelf for some clothes and a small bathroom!! The lights were so dim, we had to dig out the flashlight to find what we needed for the night!!

They told us to come and eat, as soon as we got the bags to our rooms and we headed to the small dining room to eat our dinner - the only other people visiting on the island were 5 Canadians and a guy from Holland!! They were already done as we were served a plate of food ( just a tad different all-inclusive!!) and it was delicious - a huge serving of rice, BBQ meatballs and a soup which we decided was a split pea and potato type - it tasted SO good, probably because we were all starving by this time!!

After dinner, we headed over to the gathering area - a bar on the beach with some music coming out of a boom box and the 10 of us visitors, sitting around the bar having a drink - it was great - probably the most LOW-KEY place we have EVER been to!!

Since it had been an exhausting day traveling, we didn't stay too late and headed back to our cabins, with flashlights in hand!! All the beds had on them were a bottom sheet and a top sheet but I didn't need to worry about getting cold - it was hot and humid and before long the rain started pouring down on the tin roofs!! It was one heck of a storm and all I could think of was that I was glad the cabin was on stilts!! Did I forget to mention that Tobacco Caye is only about 200 feet wide and 400 feet long??? That when you pull into the dock to unload, you can see the water on the other side of the island???? That a grand total of 5 acres is all that makes up this island????

But the storm passed - the humidity stayed - and it wasn't a great nights' sleep for me - I think I had JUST gotten to sleep when the first BANG woke me up!! I knew exactly what it was as Martin and Joleen had prepared me - the biggest threat on the island, coconuts falling from the trees!! And the BANG is when they hit your roof!!! Ah, the memories I'll have from this tiny island................To be cont'd...............