The Ruins!

When I was in second grade, my friend (Stacie Palmer) and I decided that we wanted to be archaeologists when we grew up!  While my career path changed, my fascination of artifacts and ancient societies remained.  So getting to not only see but also climb some Mayan ruins in Belize was a total dream come true!  We went to a site called Xunantunich, and it is right along the Belize/Guatemala border.  Apparently there is some conflict between the two countries, and when we arrived to the site, it was guarded by men with machine guns.  I don't believe I've ever been so close to a machine gun before, and let's just say I didn't love it.  

The trip began with a 6 am boat ride to town, a walk to the airport, a flight to the mainland, and a 2 hour van ride to the ruins.  WHEW!

The entrance to the ruins

The official flower of Belize: the black orchid

Our guide (behind Todd) couldn't resist his "Favorite jungle snack" of fresh termites.  And you guessed it, Todd gave it a try.  Says it tastes like mint and bark.  I'll take their word for it!

Only 5 percent of this site has been excavated.  

Temple Altar

This is the main temple of the site.  Over 130 feet high.  We climbed to the top.  Very fun to climb up.  A little scarier going down.  It was so steep!

Here we are standing under a carving of their fertility God.  :)

I love this picture.  It is like looking back in time.  

We liked looking for any Book of Mormon signs.  There were some obvious ones like towns called Lamanai and Lemueli.  Then there were some things like decapitating winners of sporting events so they could avoid the 13 levels of hell that didn't quite jive...

Standing at the top of the temple.  I was a little nervous...

Here Todd is trying an allspice leaf.  We all tried this one.  It actually numbs your mouth, and scientists believe the Mayans used these leaves to do dental work.

Crossing the bridge to leave the ruins, and drinking a coke.  This poor guy was NOT in Dr. Pepper country.  :)

Culture

I thought I would dress up every night for dinner, but it was so hot and humid that I only dressed up one time!  So since it was a rare occasion, I made Todd take some pictures of me.  :)

 Belize is truly beautiful.  It is the perfect background for the incredibly laid back lifestyle of the people who live there.  5 minutes before a thunder shower they will assure you that it's not going to rain; they will smile and assure you that you are totally safe even though the place you are at (Mayan ruins for us) is guarded by men with machine guns; and they only use their car brakes if absolutely needed.

Todd ate alot more seafood than I did.  I'm more of a coconut shrimp and salmon girl.  But here Todd is enjoying some fresh snapper will papaya salsa.  I didn't think I would like it, but it was delish!

The traditional meal of Belize is stewed chicken with rice and beans, and grilled plantains.  Sounds simple.  But it is seriously soooo yummy!

We totally lucked out and ended up in Belize on their Independence Day!  They have only been their own country for 30 years, and the party was nonstop.  They don't do a set parade that starts at 10:00 and runs down one street like we are used to.  They parade ALL day.  Apparently the party started at midnight, and the parade was still going strong in the mid afternoon.  There was lots of drumming and dancing, and TONS of sirens and horns.  It was extremely loud and fun!

One thing I was really excited about was eating all the fresh fruit in Belize.  I ordered a tropical salad and got this beautiful thing.  Pineapple, oranges, onions, peppers, tomatoes, and lettuce covered in melted cheese and a light dressing.  I know, it sounds so weird!  But it was honestly the most tasty and memorable thing I ate all week.  Thank you, Belize!

Snorkeling the Reef!

Many people have asked us why we chose Belize for our destination, and this video shows one of the main reasons.  Yes, we originally saw Belize on an episode of "The Bachelor", which spurred on our initial interest.  But after researching it a bit, I just couldn't resist the opportunity to snorkel at the second largest coral reef in the world.  And it did not disappoint!

We sailed in style on a Catamaran boat.  We were served fresh pineapple, fresh chips and salsa, and got to see the underworld up close and personal.  It was one of the greatest days of my life!

We went to two popular snorkeling sites:  Hol Chan (right along the reef) and Shark Ray Ally.

The reef was amazing.  We were out in the middle of the ocean, and the water was only several feet deep!  When we got to the edge of the reef, you could see a drastic dip in depth.  Amazing.

Monday in Belize

Since it gets dark (and I mean DARK.  No light pollution on a deserted island!), we decided that sleeping in wasn’t really an option.  So we are going to bed “earlyish” and waking up “early”.  Today we rolled out of bed at 8;30 and immediately grabbed a kayak and headed for the ocean.  Neither of us has ever kayaked before, but it didn’t take too long to figure it out.  It was really fun, and hopefully helped balance out the 4 pina coladas and 2 ice creams cones we ate today!  

After we kayaked, Todd kicked my trash at a game of horseshoes.  So after that, I needed to do something I was better at than Todd. 

SHOPPING!

We hopped on the ferry and headed to San Pedro for a local lunch and gift shopping.  

(The shore of San Pedro.  The only city on the island we were on.)

We found a fun restaurant right next to the water.  We saw several HUGE stingrays swim by, and we even got to feed some tarpons. And thus began our pina colada binge!

This is a video of me attempting to feed the tarpon fish.  I was excited until I saw their huge mouth with pointy teeth...

 San Pedro itself isn’t too impressive.  It is small and poor.  There are only 3 streets.  I literally saw advertisements for businesses, and for the address it would say middle street!  Most people ride bikes or drive golf carts.  And pedestrians definitely do NOT have the right of way!  We found some great gifts for the kids, and thoroughly enjoyed eating coconut ice cream to cool down.

 (Hmmm... is that coconut ice cream or a pina colada?)

 Belizean beaches weren't as nice as we had expected.  They are small, and because the water is clear, tons of plants grow along the ocean floor.  That also means they wash ashore in huge piles of dead plant.  We hardly spent any time just hanging out on the beach.  But we spent hours in the warm ocean water!

I snapped a picture of this boat because it is named "Gi Gi", which is what our children and our nieces call their great grandma.  Coincidentally, grandma Gigi passed away the following morning (more on that in a different post though).

Did I mention that Belize is really hot and humid?  We have been sweating our faces off!