New Places in Belize with the Reals!

This picture of the reef was taken from the BERT plane on our way to Ambergris Caye!

Debbie and Chuck Real arrived from California on Tuesday, March 25th.  

The week following was a vacation for Dave and me as much as it was a vacation for the Reals!  What fun we had!

Our first day was a planned day of rest with just a drive through Belize City. Dave had a flight so we took Dave to the airport and picked him up, giving the Reals a chance to see the hangar and the plane.  We also visited the Children's Centre and Belize Medical Associates!  (Well, Debbie and Chuck did say they wanted to experience a day in the life of the Browns!)  Two mosquito bites on my two ankles developed into cellulitis, so I had to start the week with a handful of pills prescribed for me!  (I did not let this slow me down, or the others, hopefully!)

On Thursday afternoon, the four of us climbed into the BERT plane (thank you, Yvette) for the trip to Ambergris Caye!  We flew over the reef on the way by, and the view was spectacular!  (See above.)

My view was particularly interesting, in that I was seated backwards on the stretcher!  LOL!

We arrived at the San Pedro Airport and took a taxi to Caye Casa!










Caye Casa was a lovely spot in paradise!

 The "pool" was really amusing...I captured the whole pool in one camera shot!  I'd say "pool" was stretching the name!

The first thing that we did was walk to the downtown San Pedro area.  We were told it was a 10-minute walk, but I think that it was a long 10 minutes, given the heat inland.  If we had walked the whole way along the beach, we would have been cooled by the sea breeze.
But we were in search of a micro brewery that Dave had heard about.  The man at the hotel desk was able to locate the address, and we set off in search of the Island Time brewery.  I actually found it!  A very insignificant glass door with the name of the brewery and an "employees only" sign!  We were then off to find Lulu's Bar, which presumably carried said micro-brew.  We found it on a dead-end street--and no, they did not have the beer and looked a little mystified
that we thought they should!

We gave up on this search and headed for the beach to walk back, passing vendors along the way.  A much more pleasant walk!


After relaxing on the deck, we took a cab to return to the center of San Pedro and dinner
at Elvi's!  This meal was certainly one of
the best I've had since arriving in Belize!

Our plan was to go snorkeling with Lil' Alphonse on the following morning.  After we ate our breakfast of pastries from the bakery around the corner, we received word from Lil' Alphonse that morning snorkeling was called off due to choppy seas.  The wind was blowing hard, and the water was churning.  Whereas Nathan and Megan had been able to see stingrays in the shallow water at the shoreline, we only saw churned up sandy water, and the water looked brown a long ways out! Disappointing!

We returned to Belize City to briefly unpack.

As Friday was Debbie's birthday, we went to the Riverside Tavern for dinner--in the air conditioning! (I might add that late March is certainly the beginning of warm weather--high 80's.  Luckily, the humidity is still around 80% and not 99%!)  Debbie received a free brownie sundae that we shared!

On Saturday morning, we packed again for our next adventure, this time by car!  We drove north, the first time that Dave and I had the opportunity to do so.  We drove through sugar cane fields to see the town of Orange Walk.  Because of the heavy rains, the      

sugar cane harvest was slow to begin, but it is in full swing
right now!

We found a restaurant that was mentioned in the guidebook for Belize, Nahil Mayab, which served Mayan food.  It was a beautiful place, and we really enjoyed our stop there.  Of course, Chuck had to have the local beer!

The four of us drove through the town of Orange Walk, then headed for Crooked Tree.  Crooked Tree experienced severe flooding this year, and there is a dirt causeway across which one must travel to get to the town of Crooked Tree.  Through most of the winter, residents had to take a boat to get back and forth, including teens going to high school in Belize City.  About one month ago, the road opened. And a rough road it was!  Lagoons on either side of the cause way are beautiful!

We arrived at Bird's Eye View Lodge where we were four of about 10 people at the Lodge.

Debbie and I headed straight for the hammocks for a rest!  A lovely place!  Dinner was served in the dining room, and soon after we went to bed to get ready for our early morning bird watching trip!

We were up and having coffee and fruit at 6:15 AM before our trip by boat for bird watching.

Being on the boat early in the morning was lovely!  Much cooler on the water.  Rudy, our guide, pointed out birds that only he could see--until we became more adept at looking for them!  (I certainly could have used a better set of eyes!)  I have listed about 38 different birds, and Chuck may have more than that.  At times I couldn't write fast enough...and watch them as well!  We went across the lagoon and up Spanish Creek.  The water is so high that we were boating across an area that is typically dry. We saw a couple of crocodiles...well, they are rather shy, so we saw the bubbles where they dove underwater at our approach.  And we saw howlers in the trees!  Even a baby on the back of its mama! I was able to get pictures, but as I found in looking at birds, I really need to have a "real" camera to capture them.  But here are a couple of pictures with my little camera.

Here is Spanish Creek:

And here are Howler monkeys in the trees:

I wish that I had pictures of birds, and I do, but you can't see them in the pictures!  I've spent a good deal of time recording the birds that we saw in my annotated checklist!  And even more time studying the beautiful "Birds of Belize" book that Mary and Judi gave to us!  Very, very helpful!

After a 3-hour boat trip, we ate breakfast and left Crooked Tree.  Having some time, we went to the Belize Zoo.  It was a hot afternoon, and the animals were napping.  Not the best day for the Zoo!  But we did see a very large iguana.  I tried not to take anymore pictures at the Zoo.  I have hundreds already!  With lunch at Cheers, we were done with our sight-seeing and went back to Belize City.

Monday morning, Dave was back on call, and Debbie, Chuck and I took off for Cayo.  We arrived at the ferry to cross the river to Xunantunich Mayan ruins.  Finally, it was open (the ferry was not operating on my previous two attempts to visit).  We hired Javier as a guide, and he was enthusiastic in telling us about the ruins and about the trees that grow in the area.  He showed us the copal tree with its fragrant sap used for incense in Mayan (and Catholic) ceremonies.  Of course, the mahogany tree was there, the tree that brought the loggers to Belize.  As there are no brochures or signs about the ruins, having a guide is very helpful in understanding what the area was about.  There is a new visitors' center that gives an overview of the history, and it is a beautiful addition to the area!

While the ruins are spectacular, hearing the howlers in the trees was really exciting!  I was afraid that Debbie and Chuck would not have the opportunity to hear their call, but the tribe that lives at Xunantunich was very noisy!

Sadly, the last morning of Debbie and Chuck's visit arrived.  We had just enough time to run over to the House of Culture, the former residence for the colonial governors.  And then it was off to the airport.

Dave and I had a wonderful time with our friends.  What a very special time that we much appreciated!