Day Fifteen: BAD No-See-Ums, HEAVENLY Lorenzo's Italian Gelato

Our final place to stay for the last four days: Harbour Hideaway. Lovely spot in the Mangrove Trees on the harbour side of Placencia, 1,000 steps from the ocean and a 2 minute bike ride to town. Fabulous mango trees surround us in our yard...but there are also WICKED no-see-ums (also called black mosquitos) eating us up! We escape to the upper Crow's Nest for a respite, but tend to jump on the bikes and kayaks and move to avoid them. We discover Lorenzo's Tutti Frutti Gelato Bar and are ALL in love. Just for curiosity, I googled it, and found over 870 comments absolutely raving about this place! One lady gave only a fair review and I read it...then wanted to slap her. She's an idiot.

Day Fourteen: Caribbean Thunder and Goodbye Bird Island

What a great ending to our stay on Bird Island - an honest to goodness thunder, lightening, and wind storm through the night! The curtains on our cabana were blowing straight out and I even got up to check that the paddle boat and gear had not blown away. Next morning, all is well and a beautiful sunrise. Time to explore "our" reef, read books, and take naps until 3 pm when Fred comes to get us with his long boat. Sweet goodbyes...BUT, we'll get GELATO at our favorite place tonight :)

Day Thirteen: A Little Bit of Bird Island Paradise Continued...

Up at the crack of dawn and Vern and I snorkel around the circular mile reef. Adam and Amanda snorkel to a tiny neighboring island to find huge piles of Queen Conch shells and an itty bitty picnic table! They pass the "home" of a Manatee (Sea Cow) but fortunately do not see it...that 700 pound critter might be a bit daunting!? Syd makes us a fish taco dinner with fresh mango and avocado tonight...yum!

Day Twelve: Hello Bird Island!

Fred picked us up in his long boat and motored 15 miles out to Bird Island which looks like it's a floating house and cabana. It's an actual coral atoll which is 90' long and 60' wide with a gorgeous reef forming a perfect one mile circle around us. Then, just a bit farther out from the reef is the DEEP blue - just like in Finding Nemo! Yikes!  Pelicans are diving from our trees and a Manatee (Sea Cow) lives about 100 feet away. We all go snorkeling immediately :). It is just unbelievably beautiful underneath the surface. I loved seeing this 6' Spotted Ray soaring before me and a very cool Scrawled Filefish.

Day Eleven: Fish Monger Paradise and Goodbye Pearl Beach

We are feeling quite at home in Placencia with our favorite haunts, i.e., Tipsy Tuna, Barefoot Bar, Treehouse Coffee, three favorite fruit markets, handcrafted souvenirs, and the fish monger table where at about 4 pm, daily catches are cleaned, gutted, and sold from a picnic table. Spent today enjoying the heck out of our last day at Pearl Beach :)

Day Ten: Reef Snorkeling at Last and Five Fish Dinner :)

Went out about 12 miles on Mikey Mike's catamaran to two very awesome reefs. Just dropped anchor and we all popped off the boat. What a snorkeler's delight...except I got a little seasick on the way out. I still went in, but it wasn't the most pleasant day to snorkel for me! Still, the colors of the fish, centipedes, starfish, lobsters, Queen conchs, needlefish, brain coral and purple fans were AMAZING. A lunch of fried chicken, pasta, and Fruity Rum drinks was served on the boat and after our second equally cool reef, we headed back to town. Out to eat at Wendy's (not the burger one) tonight well known for Creole and superb fish. :) It certainly was an incredible meal!

Day Nine: Pearl Dome Beach House and the Caribbean Sea :)

Vern and I walk 1.5 miles to town, rent a golf cart, and bring home lots of wonderful strange fruit. Now we can bop back and forth to the fruit markets, fish mongers table, tree-house coffee shop, and beaches in town. We take turns driving the cart - with Amanda giving "eeeep" warnings over the speed bumps :)  But most of all, we are loving the magical Pearl Dome Beach House with it's gorgeous gardens and a vast coconut tree covered white sandy beach. Just hanging out on the hammocks and our own pier is perfect. A giant chair under a huge Sea Pine called to me this morning where I ate my fruity breakfast, tried to read, but mostly just sat and stared at the numerous blues of the Caribbean Sea.

Day Eight: Xunantuvich and Stuck at Pearl Beach

Jose drove Vern and I to Xunantuvich, crossed the Mopan River by hand crank, and wandered among the 3,000 year old ruins which served as the ceremonial center for Mayan culture. Chena and I hatch a plan to fund a local youth at university each year, and the five of us leave lovely Clarissa Falls Camp.  After a beautiful FAST four hour drive, we meet Stefano (oh the stories...) who leads us to Pearl Dome Beach House on an unmaintained road in Placencia. Our van follows him wildly on his motorcycle and we get DEEPLY stuck in the sand. Two Belizians dashing by in their pickup help get us out and our beach adventure begins! We all end the night dancing at the Tipsy Tuna on the beach :)

Day Seven: Guatemala Tikal Ruins and Third World Lifestyle

Crossed the border into Guatemala this morning. Third World reminder of women washing their clothes in the lake - AND the importance of tips!  Visited the ancient ruins of Tikal, once home to 100,000 people, which thrived from 600 BC until AD 900 when the Mayan civilization mysteriously disappeared. Amazing, vast, eerie...soooo many voices and stories in these stones. Long van ride, through customs, then home to Chena's good cooking and dinner conversation about all the summer jobs we ever had! :)

Day Six: Mopan River and Che Chem Ha Cave

Morning walk to Calla Creek Village, crossing a very long swinging bridge on the lovely Mopan River (no crocs in sight). Later, we descended deep into the ten levels of the Che Chem Ha Cave with tour guide William - who had a combination of cool accents including Boston, British, and Creole Lisp.  As we stepped into the small ornate opening, William remarks, "I smell a reptile." Boy, the hairs on my arms certainly stood up! SUCH cool ancient history and the largest collection of Mayan pots, bats, and even the type of cave spider that suffered the Crutiatus Curse in Harry Potter!

Day Five: Boa Constrictors and Mayan Chocolate!?!

Other than the cute little (haha!) Boa Constrictor that was found in the INSIDE of a Jungle Cabana (like ours) lounging in the rafters, it was a fun day to relax by the pool, read books, and head down the road to a new little Chocolate Shop. Four sweet Mayan women, Zoila, Naralia, Transila, and Dorlene are starting a new business called Lamanai Chocolate: Seed of the Gods and we REALLY experienced how the world's delicious chocolate is made - and it is a ton of work!!

Day Four: Ancient Caves and Waterfalls

This was the MOST amazing day. From 8 am till 3 pm, two guides took the five of us deep into ancient caves with cascading coral-like formations, cave spiders, stalagtites, stalagmites, crabs, eel, and vast gigantic rooms. We clamored and climbed up five different waterfalls with headlamps and ropes, then turned around and JUMPED down each one, the last being about a 12 foot drop...YIKES.  I was the last and basically fell into it, just hoping I would not die. Talk about adrenaline!

Day Three: The 300' Blue Hole

"This is NOT a Disney cruise" was a comment heard today! First, a challenging hike INTO the jungle w/ several tarantulas, way cool trees with unique names like The Give and Take Tree (covered with thorns), The Tourist Tree (because the bark was peeling!) and The Tree of Life (many underworld stories). Then, harnessed and roped, we descended into a 300 foot, mile wide "hole" where the roof of the cave collapsed millions of years ago. Lunch was served below by our awesome guides and we hiked two hours to get back. Lounged by the pool, Adam and Amanda sang for dinner tonight, and we all played PIG with a great little family!

Day Two: Dawn from a Jungle Hammock

Oh the SOUNDS in the jungle as I witness dawn from my hammock! From Howler Monkeys screeching/growling from 4 am to 5 am and the bird songs from 5 am on. It's just LIFE on steroids :)

Day One: Arriving in Belize!

Thought I would "re-live" our Belize Adventure on this blog! Just a photo or two to capture the flavor of that particular day :)