2024-FEB-17
Oh my goodness it is 4am and we set an alarm to wake us. Lame. Our plane leaves at 6am to LAX. Corey arrives and lets himself in at 4:30. We leave at 5:10 a little past our estimation of by 5. I drop everyone off and they take May bag. I go find the holiday inn and park in the back. I call. They come. I get thru security. As I walk I see Corey and Niamh in line at Pete’s so I hang with them and get a chocolate croissant and and ice mocha. We get on the plane at 6:20 and I watch criminal record and masters of the air. Then we land. Out gate change is the best ever ; litterly 2 gates away. Then we rush for breakfast as we board in 10 minutes at 8:30, oh but wait we didn’t need to rush as we actually boarded at 9:30. We finally left and was quite happy with my breakfast burrito. We arrive in Belize 4.5 hours later plus a two hours time change so around 3:30. We didn’t have a pen so we each had to fill out our form in pencil as that is all we had to get thru customs by 4:30. We got out bags and then went across the way to get on a tropic air flight that was scheduled at 6:30, but we managed to leave at 6:20 for our 30 minute flight to San Pedro. Before we left we had pizza and beer. The pizza was not very good and I had my first Belize beer! Anywho, we got in at 7pm ish and didn’t know how to get to the Brahma Blue. Turns out you need a boat. In the way to I watched a movie about Adam driver shooting dinosaurs with a laser gun for 90 minutes before the asteroid came to kill them all! I then found a good satire on Netflix called Loudermilk which is pretty funny. Any who a taxi drops us off before 8 and we meet another couple from Canada who asks us if we are waiting for the boat to Brahama Blue.
We got in and no idea where to go. We are in condo 8? Sure. We had to go ask to figure out where to go. We went up some narrow ass stairs and arrived. Oh wait the place only has 2 rooms and 2 bathrooms. Not what we expected. We had to find sheets. Oh wait they r too small to fit the pull out couch bed. We find another set and it works. I watch more loudermilk and give many chuckles.
Sunday 2024-FEB-18
We woke up late. we got the 11am boat ride in the rain. We stopped at the first nice place thru the down pour and stopped at Maxie’s to get out of the rain. I had veggie tacos and 4 different beers. Everything was super. We then went off to the red ginger and had another cocktail and a pee. It cleared up a little. We found the Monkey Fart soap shop looking for smelly people. We went to dinner back at the coconut cafe where I had fry jack chicken tacos otherwise known as breakfast tacos. They were better than Maxie’s veggie tacos at lunch. I ran my 30 minutes in the rain. We watched John Wick 1.
Monday 2024-FEB-19
I did 60 minutes of running in circles around the island avoiding crocodiles. Took a shower. Had some iced coffee via uncle Corey who brewed a pot. We got the 11am boat back to the mainland and a 6 person golf cart with monster wheels greeted us. it was 130 US dollars. Highway robbery, but about the going rate for a golf cart from 12 to 7. We then drove 40ish minutes to secret beach. We stopped at Guapo’s for the last beer, which of course was not the last place for beer. The urinal was made from a 5 gallon water bucket with a section cut out of it with a house leading some where. I didn’t use it but uncle Corey did and said it was quite the experience. Lawson found a cat. I drove more. There was no more jungle with a one lane path with giant holes. Now there was a two lane cement road with the occasional hole or some mounts of dirt next to the road. We found secret beach along with everyone else. The kids, Corey, and my self did an inflatable obstacle course on the water that went up mid chest. Niamh and have up after about 15 minutes and she got a tow back from her father as she couldn’t possibly walk herself back to shore the 100 yards. Corey and Lawson went the entire hour. I think Corey had more courage since he had about 4 double rum punches. I of course kept pace and ate a veggie quesadilla.
On our return we stopped at rum dog for more rum punch and another veggie quesadilla. This was a very good quesadilla probably the best on the island.
We stopped for gas and I spent 29.01 BZD for gas which is 14.50 USD for 2 gallons of gas. I went the wrong way. We found the dock and got the 7:30 boat back. We watched John Wick 2.
Tuesday 2024-FEB-20
Snorkel day today on a private tour that left at 8am. I did my 30 minutes run in circles. Took a shower and we waited for the boat. The boat was 15 minutes late, but we met Howie and Captain Siete (e.g the number 7). Off to Mexico Rocks for our first dive. In the water for 50 minutes and it was fantastic. We saw grouper, stag coral, brain coral, fan coral, and many fish. Before we arrived we stopped back by Ramon’s Village where Fiona and I stayed 10 years ago. Apparently they had a fire and no longer serve hard alcohol. Bummer.
The second dive site no one got in but me was an entrance to a Suva diving cave. I free dove down 15 feet. It was nice. Not much fish. Back to the boat and off to lunch. We ate at a place right off the water with potatoes, chicken, and rice. It was very good.
We then popped over to Shark and Ray alley and saw many eagle and sting rays. We got a bonus dive off the reef but it was too cold. The thermal layer was good for about 2 feet to swim and float on the top, but at your feet dropped 15 degrees. Crazy. Niamh was fried, and we all got too much sun. We were back by 3. I walked in and there was no power, no water pressure, the coffee pot that Corey ‘left on’ was off. Luckily power came back and had pressure to take a shower. We got the 5:30 boat to town.
We wanted to go to the Humgry grouper for dinner, but they were closed. The kids wanted Maxie’s again. Lame. So we went and had drinks as the sun set. We didn’t get a sunset picture as we were worried about finding a place to eat. I found a place called ZZ Beach bar and grill. It was too fishy for Fiona and Corey. The menus were bad photo copies. We were just left and walked to the Black Pearl for dinner.
The kids liked the menu and Corey saw chicken parmesan so he was set. I had a veggie quesadilla so I was happy. Lawson had a burger with pickles so he was happy. Niamh wanted a steak but they ran out, so she opted for chicken parmesan too. Fiona had a monster garden salad. I had a belkin stout. We managed to squeeze onto the 7:30 boat back. We watched John Wick 3.
Wednesday 2024-FEB-21
Up at 5am to get our boat to town at 5:30. Captain Dino arose from the Coconut Cafe and got his boat working by 5:30. In town by 5:40 to walk all the way across the town to get the 6am ferry. We are now on a 1.5 hour ferry ride to Belize City.
Turns out we got on the wrong water taxi. We should have gotten on one without a stopover at Cayes Caulker for a 15 minute faster boat ride. We found Mike at the end of the ferry terminal who then drove us out an hour to Lamanai.
We then had our own private boat with Colin. He stopped and showed us spiny tailed iguanas, green iguanas, an American mudslide turtle. A Stork that delivered babies. Osprey. Blue catfish. Mangrove swallows. Apparently this a a big Mennonite place. We passed a few home grown powered boats one with a weed whacked or a lawn mower for a boat motor.
Colin was also out tour guide at the Mayan ruins anew learned he had 3 kids Annya, Roselyn, Andre. 13, 11, and 8.
We learned a bit about the site such as it was a city in 1050 BC., has 783 temples, the 3rd largest Mayan city and is known as the longest living Mayan city,. At it peak had around 70k people. Site six had 9 layers of temple and is known as the jaguar temple and was painted red from iron ore.
We also saw the highest place is Belize, lol. Literally called the High temple. We couldn’t walk to the top since some lady killed herself in the 70’s by not using the provided rope. It was cool but a bummer we couldn’t make it up.
On our way back we saw a black collared hawk. If we want to boat another tour with Colin it is under. Kings or Reyes. We then was back in the van with Mike who got us back to the incorrect ferry since we had booked a round trip ticket. We are now on the 4:30 boat back and again stopped by Cayes Caulker. I think we will be back in town around 6:30 to 6:45. So am not sure if we will be able to get a table for dinner. Oh hum.