A Trip To Town

Sarah and I decided to bicycle into town for lunch today. There was a little restaurant named Elvi's that several people had recommended to us. We grabbed a pair of bikes, and quickly rode the the three to four miles to our destination. (I know this is a little vague, but we were told it was three and a half miles to town, and Elvi's was perhaps another half mile or so after crossing the bridge, so distance depends on where the "into town" point is located.)

We locked our bikes up, and once again wandered down the streets, looking into tourist shops and wondering the beach. When we had had enough, we went back to Elvi's, and were brought into the dining room to sit. You entered into a normal wooden building, which was where the bar was located, but the dining room was under a very large palapa--a grass roofed hut, with or without walls; this one had walls. Aside from the high grass roof, the first thing I noticed was the floor inside the dining room was covered in sand. There were two young kids building sand castles next to their parent's table. Sarah had lobster mac and cheese, while I had honey rum tacos. The food was excellent, although the chicken on my tacos was a little dry.

 

We finished up and rode back to Captain Morgan's Retreat. I cannot remember whether I have mentioned this before, but we were lucky enough to be staying at the only resort that we saw that was proudly flying the skull and cross-bones.

Tonight was culture night, and we had reservations for the buffet. The entertainment left a little to be desired, but the food was good. Sarah and I were both exhausted, and went to bed as soon as we made it back to the condo. It was 8 at night--or only 6 Pacific time.

La Isla Bonita

Last night I dreamt of San Pedro
Just like I'd never gone, I knew the song
A young girl with eyes like the desert
It all seems like yesterday, not far away

Tropical the island breeze
All of nature wild and free
This is where I long to be
La isla bonita
And when the samba played
The sun would set so high
Ring through my ears and sting my eyes
Your Spanish lullaby

-Madonna

Today we went exploring. We had the golf cart, and decided to make good use of it. At first we went hunting for the Coffee Bean, a little coffee shop that was recommended to us, but the road ended before we found it. We stopped at a little farmer's market, and went to Ramon's Village, where paths wound between small units, with dense foliage planted strategically to hide the buildings. We stopped at a Belizean chocolate store in San Pedro, and got some cookies and a chocochino. Then we walked to a souvenir store, where I got a couple of shirts and a gift for a friend.

After that, we went to the Blue Water Grill for the third time. Their food is not too bad, and it was pretty affordable and on the beach. We then drove back, did a bit of exploring to the south of our resort, before heading back and dropping David and Anita off. Sarah and I were not quite done, so we drove to town again, turning around right before the toll bridge. We took a few pictures of some signs we liked, stopped at a couple of local art stores, and went to Marbucks for coffee.
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 Sarah made an appointment to have her hair braided at our condo, and we spent a rather quiet evening there.

Modes of Transportation

After a a walk to the store and a hearty breakfast, Sarah and I took a pair of the resort bikes into town. These were not as nice as the one I had rode into town earlier--which wasn't that nice to begin with--but they worked as transportation. Plus, bicycles have the added advantage of not having to pay to cross the bridge into town. On the way, Sarah spotted a large lizard. We don't think it was an iguana, but it looked similar.

 

Once we arrived, we stopped at the Blue Water Grill to make dinner reservations, and get a little refreshment--the ride had dehydrated us. Sarah had an iced tea, and I had one of my favorites, a watermelon juice. We also ordered a large plate of fruit which we shared between the two of us.

We then walked over to a store near the small airport which sold swim suits, but they were closed on Sundays. We checked out a gift shop, and then went to the town's largest grocery store. They did not have oranges, but they did have a horchata concentrate mix that we purchased.

We went back to the condo and did some more reading--I've finished both magazines I brought along, and am about a third of the way through my book. At around 4:30, our golf cart arrived. We had reserved one for a 24 hour period so we could go into town for dinner that evening, and do some exploring the next day.

We left for dinner at around 7:00. It was dark, and so we had to figure out where the key hole was by cell phone flashlight. All golf carts use the same key, so there is a bar that locks the steering wheel, that has a padlock on it. As apparently standard for the area, the key had to be in the lock and turned for the lock to be closed. Shifting is done by a knob under the seat, but there were only three "gears": forward, reverse, and neutral. We found that we had one of the slower golf carts, and since the road was full of bumps and I didn't want David and Anita to fall of the back, I was slowing down to almost a stop quite often. We actually got stuck on a speed bump once, and I had to back up and take it a little faster to make it over. The break was not particularly good; stepping on it with full force would gently slow you down, but so would taking your foot off of the accelerator. All in all, it was an adventure, and kind of fun.

Dinner went well, and we were able to get back to the resort after some confusion on the unmarked one-way streets through town. It was a good day.

Another Lazy Day

Today was another reading day. I am getting antsy to go out and do something, but we sat around reading again. It is nice sitting in the warm weather, despite the constant wind, but I still want to take advantage of being in a foreign country, on an island that I will probably never visit again.

Sarah and I did look into diving, but the wind is too strong and the seas too rough; all of the diving trips are being canceled. I was hoping to do Shark Ray Alley and possibly the Blue Hole, but was told that they probably will not be taking people out diving again until Thursday or Friday. We go home on Thursday.  Parasailing was also canceled because of the wind, although we were told that Jet Skis would be great right now with the waves. They are pretty expensive, but we may have to look into them. We did end up reserving a golf cart for tomorrow (at $90 for a 24 hour period--ouch), and will do some exploring on Monday. 

We have dinner plans coming up in just a little while, and the restaurant is going to send a boat out to our resort to pick us up. It sounds like a fancy place, and the food should be good.

Just off the coast, maybe a mile out, we can see the surf crashing against the barrier reef. There are huge waves, and the reef is the second longest in the world. I would love to get a kayak out to get a little closer, but today was too windy for that as well. Perhaps tomorrow will be better.

Update

We were picked up for dinner by a pretty fast speed boat, and taken along the super-highway that lies between the coastline and the reef. It was dark when we left, and the stars were bright in the sky. The boat was quite fast, and it was a thrilling trip. Coming into the dock, we barely missed ramming a dark boat that was running with no lights. Our captain was quite upset at the other boat, and reasonably so. Dinner at Portofino was good. Sarah and I shared a lobster with angel hair pasta and Aglio Eolio. We each took haft of each dish. The wind was still blowing on the way back, and we had to dodge waves crashing through the cracks of the dock, but the boat ride itself was relatively smooth, with just a bit of spray.

Belize Navidad

First off, I have to apologize for the punny title, but I couldn't resist.

I have spent several Christmases in tropical places. In Hawaii, we tend to go to the beach and snorkel. In Viet Nam, there was a Christmas Eve show. Here, we hardly noticed that it was Christmas. We had no gifts to exchange, and there were minimal decorations. Although it sounds like there was a white Christmas back home, we had a white sand Christmas here. The day was lazy, and I have no pictures to share. We read outside for most of the day, with the ocean waves and some island Christmas music as a back-drop. The resort restaurant had a special turkey dinner, and we watched Frozen before going to bed.

It was a quiet and restful day.

Island Hopping

 We woke up early again today, and I once again watched the sun rise over the horizon before packing up all of my belongings. The wind was blowing, and waves were splashing up on our front dock. We ate breakfast and said our final good-byes, before boarding the boat for the last time.

We got to the airport about 20 minutes before our flight--which was plenty of time to do everything we needed to. We took the island hopper again, and flew the 25 minutes to Belize International Airport. After letting Seth and Mai off--they were headed for Costa Rica--we flew another five minutes to a smaller airport, where we caught a flight to San Pedro. Done was our all-inclusive. We had to start tipping by the job, and we had ground crew, a driver, a boat driver, and the concierge all looking for a tip.

When we were showed our room, it was incredible. It was a two bedroom condo with a kitchen. The floors were hard-wood and marble, the family bathroom was tiled, and the master bathroom had a soaking tub with lounger for two people, and a stone shower. There was a walk-in closet that was bigger than all of our closet space at home. David and Anita were kind enough to let us take the master bedroom. (I know, pictures of a hotel room in a vacation blog is not the thing people want to see, but I was just too impressed.)

 

 

 

 

 

After settling in, we went to lunch, and then I rode a hotel bike the three and a half miles into town. I had accidentally left my swimsuit at the resort where we went cave tubing, so I needed to buy a new one. I also needed to pick up a few groceries for our stay. The store I was told to go to had just closed, so I found another store where I could purchase swim wear. After that, I got groceries and raced back to the hotel. The bicycle was supposed to be back by 4, and I got it there by 4:15--close.

While typing up this blog post on the veranda, the power went out for about 10 minutes. Something must have happened in town, but we got it back pretty quick. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. 

Cave Tubeing

Today was another early morning. We got up at 6, ate breakfast, and then boarded the boat for shore once again. Today, we were headed out to do some cave tubing. After dropping a couple off at the airport, we headed up to Cave River Resort, where we boarded the old bus once again. This time, instead of repelling gear, we took along inter tubes. We took a short hike through the orchard, and then got into a slow moving river and started paddling upstream. It wasn't long before we reached the mouth of a large cave system.

 

 

 

Our goal was to tube and hike deep into the cave, exploring and examining Myan artifacts. The river was higher than normal, and the current was stronger. However, Sarah's mom and dad, Seth and Mai,. and Sarah and I were able to make our way into the mouth of the cave, where we saw stalagmites and stalagmites, and large columns. It was a large cave, with lots of things to see. The ceiling must have been 30 to 40 feet up, and the river may have been up to 5 feet or deeper in places.

We traveled upstream past where you could see light from the exit. We were shown brain suckers--strands of sticky web that would attach to passing bugs. We also saw a scorpion spider--very creepy. We saw fruit bats, but were told there were also vampire bats, centipedes and millipedes that made their home in the cave.


 

We had to climb up onto a ledge to get into one of the chambers. There, we were shown a carving of a Myan fertility god. Our guide told us about how the Myans would come and make a sacrifice to the fertility god, and believed that by the time the woman reached the entrance of the cave, she was already pregnant. However, she had to sacrifice her first child to the god, or it would die of sickness, and she would never be able to get pregnant again. If she did sacrifice the child, she would have as many children as she wanted. Archaeologist dug for the bones of the children in the room next to a stalagmite that was carved to look like a pregnant woman, but found none. Another chamber, deeper in the cave, contained several bones from human sacrifices, and this is where the archaeologist believe the children were buried.

 

We went back and ate a nice lunch next to the underground river, and then boarded the tubes to float back out of the cave and into the jungle.

We purchased some cheese at the resort, and then headed back to our island. We had to pick up a few other people at the airport, and the planes were late, so we stopped to watch some children perform a tribal dance, and for some unknown reason they decided to pull me into it. They all had cool masks and shells, and I just had bare feet. Somehow I managed to make it through the ordeal--I wish I could say my pride was still in tact, but I am sure they were laughing at me behind those masks. We picked the late arrivals up from the airport and headed for the docks. The crossing was the roughest yet, but we made it and had another great meal. It was our last night on the island, and we were a little sad that we were leaving. However, tomorrow we will be heading to la isla bonita--San Pedro.