A Belize Vacation Story...

Last December we decided that we should do a last vacation just the two of us.  We have gone on a lot of trips together and are excited to take the kid, but one last travel adventure as just the two of us seemed appropriate.  We settled on Belize, because it is a relatively short fight, March is a good time to go somewhere warm, and I love Central America.  France is neat, but Central America is far more relaxing. Its one of those countries that would be really easy to bring kids and we said that quite often during our trip. 

When we planned our trip we decided to include an overnight layover in Miami.  We have never been there except to go through the airport and it ended up being a fun way to get a glimpse of another place.  We stayed on Ocean Drive in South Beach, walked off the main drag into the neighborhood to find a more local type of spot for my birthday dinner, and the next morning strolled along the beach.

After our morning at South Beach, we flew in to Belize City and, as usual Dan & Tara trips, rented a little SUV.  I was prepared this time, I purchased a Garmin eTrex with the map of Belize.  This new Garmin used both GPS and GLONASS satellites, for a far more accurate signal than just the basic GPS.

Our first stop was an Eco-Resort deep in the forest.  Getting there involved driving on a road made up of boulders....for 6 miles....doing between 2 and 20 mph...mostly 5mph.  We thought the little SUV was going to fall apart with all the rattling, but she held together...even getting me in trouble for going too fast and passing a resort van.  Tara never complained so obviously they were going too slow.

The best part of this lodge was the dining....or the location...or the serenity.  The dinners were done communal table style, where they would assign seats and rotate everyone around.  We met people from all over the place and actually talked to them!  That's very un-Dan&Tara-like.  One of my favorite times was Tara and I reading our Kindles (both reading The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) sitting on the Yoga studio overlooking the water.  Her drinking her Orange Fanta and me drinking Belikin, the local beer.  The lodge was one of our favorite places we have stayed to date.

One of the benefits to having our own SUV was the ability to leave the resort on our own and explore the country on our own terms.  One of our favorites was visiting the ruins.  We were in complete awe of them.  They towered over the landscape and after hiking all the way up we found them truly remarkable that without the construction tools of today they were able to construct something that beautiful that remains even today from these ancient civilization.

After a few days of exploring the area and the lodge we headed back to Belize City.  Unfortunately there wasn't a Hertz drop off location where we needed to go, so we headed back to the airport and jumped on a local puddle jumper plane to take us across the country to a small town.  Our next stop was a private island 9 miles off the coast near the second largest barrier reef in the world.  In order to get there, we had to take a boat which was relaxing, even at 40 miles an hour.

Having your own island resort only shared with the staff and a few other visitors was something we can get used to.  We spent hours each day sitting on the hammock and beach chairs reading our kindles, and taking pictures of the hermit crabs.  The island was filled with them and little Geckos. 

The package we went with included two guided snorkel tours.  These were amazing!  Tara and I jumped in and were all over the reef.  The guide would point out different fish and I would dive down and take lots of pictures with my fancy new waterproof camera.  Of course a pregnant woman snorkeling is a sight on its own. :)  This was the best snorkeling we have done to date- we saw so many different species, including three different kinds of rays.

Our nights were filled with relaxing on our private cabana deck sitting in hammocks.  We parted from the island on the boat and picked up the puddle jumper to the airport then our main flight back to the states.  Another nice thing about Central America....no 8 hour time difference. 

We felt truly at peace the whole time we were in Belize.  It was an amazing experience and we intend to go back to this beautiful country.