Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Belize! Part 2

For the second half of our Belize trip, we headed to the island of San Pedro.  We took a two hour shuttle from Chaa Creek to Belize City, where we then took a tiny plane to San Pedro.  The plane only sat 10 people and gave us the most amazing views of the sea and islands.
It was about a 20 minute flight and then we landed in San Pedro Town.  We hopped on a water taxi for a 3 mile ride to our resort, Coco Beach.  When we arrived, we were greeted by a woman with complimentary arrival drinks and then she took us to our room.  The resort was beautiful and the pool was AMAZING.  In fact, we spent most of our time at the pool, rather than the beach (the shoreline had lots of seaweed and wasn't ideal for swimming).
Our first day we relaxed at the pool.  Later that night, we took a water taxi to the town of San Pedro for dinner and drinks and shopping.  The second day we rented bikes and rode down to town to catch a boat to the tiny island of Caye Caulker for the day.  Caye Caulker was much less touristy and much more quiet.  We were able to walk around along the beach and even got to take a dip in the crystal clear blue/green water.
At Caye Caulker
 One night, we went to town to watch the "Chicken Drop".  This was a weekly activity that drew a big crowd.  They sold tickets for squares with numbers on them and wherever the chicken pooped, whoever held that ticket would win money.  It was definitely entertaining but we didn't win!  
We had dinner at a restaurant called Caliente's afterward and it was so delicious.  Matt bought a Cuban cigar to smoke on our last night in Belize.  We also got to see some pretty beautiful sunsets while we were there!
  Finally, after six amazing days, our trip came to an end.  We took a tiny plane from San Pedro to the International airport.  I was lucky enough to get to ride in the co-pilot seat!  It was so cool to see the pilot fly the plane right next to me!
After we landed at the International airport, we waited to board our plane to Houston.  Apparently, Prince Harry landed at the airport while we were there!  We were so lucky to be able to take this trip and also lucky to be able to see all of our friends while in Houston!  Matt and I are ready to plan our next get-away...

Belize! Part 1

Matt and I just got back from our amazing trip to Belize.  For the first part of the trip, we stayed in San Ignacio, a small town in the jungle.  We stayed at The Lodge at Chaa Creek for three days.  When we landed at the international airport, we were picked up by a driver from Chaa Creek and rode two hours to the resort.  Along the way it was so interesting to pass through the small villages.  Most of the houses were small, colorful, one story houses with clothes hanging on lines outside.  There were lots of chickens, horses, and dogs.  The schools were open buildings with no windows!  It is such a different world there.  Between the villages there was so much open land with beautiful views.
Pretty church that we saw along the way
When we arrived at Chaa Creek, we were amazed at how peaceful and beautiful it was.  We were surrounded by palm trees and flowers and colorful plants.  We were taken to our cottage and immediately I was so excited to be staying there.  The cottages had screened windows all around and tall thatched roofs.  It was a rustic but lovely.  There was no AC, it was just the perfect way to experience the jungle.
The resort was located on the Macal River and had an amazing pool.  The restaurant served authentic meals that were delicious.  
Our first full day there, we took a two hour canoe trip in the morning down the Macal River to the town of San Ignacio.  The views as we were canoeing were amazing and we even saw three river otters run and jump into the water as we passed.  Once we arrived at the town, we walked around and had a Belikin beer (the official beer of Belize) and nachos while we waited to be picked up.
Giant bamboo!
That afternoon, we went horseback riding through the jungle with our guide, Robert.  My horse's name was Sugar and Matt's horse's name was Destiny.  We rode the horses through tiny paths in the jungle, up hill, down hill, through a pond, and through tall grass.  It was such an awesome experience.  At one point, Robert got all of the horses to gallop for a little bit.  It was really exciting - definitely the fastest I've ever ridden on a horse!
Each night that we slept, we were woken up by the LOUD noise of the howler monkeys.  It was terrifying!  It sounded more like lions growling than monkeys!  Although the monkey noises were a little unsettling, the other noises of the jungle (birds, bugs, and rain) were so nice to fall asleep to.
Matt got a great picture of the monkey howling one morning
Our next full day at Chaa Creek, we traveled to Guatemala to see Tikal, a Mayan ruins site.  We were taken to the Belize-Guatemala border and had to get out of our van and physically walk across the border.  It was a little scary walking across and seeing men dressed in military uniforms, holding very large guns.  Then, we got our passports stamped and then hopped into a different van with our guide Miguel.  It was a two hour drive from the border to Tikal and some of the road was not paved along the way.  It was incredible to see the way people live there.  Small houses, no running water, people gathering sticks to burn for cooking, clothes hanging on lines, dogs everywhere, people riding bikes or walking along the road...so different form how we live!
Lake that we saw in Guatemala on the way to Tikal
A school we passed along the way
Finally, we arrived at Tikal.  It was huge!  So many Mayan ruins to see and there are even tons more that haven't been excavated yet.  They were literally breathtaking.  We we able to climb up most of them, except for a huge pyramid that someone had fallen from and so was now closed.  The first temple that we climbed was Temple IV and was the tallest at 230 ft tall!  We had to climb 195 wooden steps that were built along the side to get to the top.  The view was amazing, but also terrifying (I am slightly afraid of heights).  We continued to walk around and see palaces, other temples, ball courts, and the Grand Plaza.  It's amazing that the whole city was abandoned by the Maya people over a thousand years ago and no one really knows what happened.  There are still so many ruins that are covered in a thick layer of earth that haven't been touched!
Top of Temple IV
Super steep steps!
The view from the top of the temple...those are all the tops of huge trees
Toucan
Spider Monkey
You can barely see Matt at the very top with his arms up!
The Pyramid that we were not able to climb up 
So amazing how tall the ruins are
We had such an awesome time with our adventures in the jungle.  Although we were only there for three days, it felt like a whole vacation because of all of the activities we were able to do.  We were so excited that we had three more days ahead of us on the island of San Pedro!