Belize

Last month Ben and I went to Belize with his parents, brother Alex, and sister-in-law Deena and oh was it amazing! It was a bit of an adventure getting there as we bounced from one airliner to another, on to a smaller prop plane to get us out to the island of Ambergris Caye where we were staying, followed by a cramped non-air conditioned van over to the dock and then a short boat ride out to the resort. Whew! It tires me out again just writing all that.

boarding our plane in Belize City. as you can imagine Ben about had a heart attack -- a turbo prop!? in a foreign country!?

just to give you an idea of where we landed -- Alex collecting our luggage

almost there! waiting for the boat to our resort.

We stayed in the cutest little ocean front bungalows and had the soft sand beaches practically to ourselves.

ours was the pink one, second from the end.

and this was the view from our porch.

one of the local residents.

I spent a lot of time lounging (yes, in my bikini thank you!) while Ben was a bit more adventuresome. He and his brother gave the resort's Hobi cat (sail boat) a good workout to say the least. I did tag along for a ride or two as it's a pretty good time.

my idea of a day on the beach.

Ben's idea of a day on the beach, 'Survivor' style (he collected and cracked that cocounut himself).

Ben, Alex, and Deena out for a spin.

We ventured into the town of San Pedro a couple of times to do some shopping and of course eating. Did I mention how good the food was? As you can imagine, the freshest of fresh seafood was abundant. There was also a lot of cajun/creole influence as well as curried dishes which surprised me a bit. I think I expected more of a Latin feel (being that the country borders Mexico) and got a very Carribean experience. This applied to everything, not just the food.

The highlight of the trip by far had to be the snorkeling though. We went twice while there and were just blown away. On our first time out we saw a nurse shark, beautiful giant spotted eagle ray, and a green sea turtle, all within about a minute of entering the water! The reefs were just amazing.

me, snorkeling. yes gramma in my bikini!

just a glimpse at the amazing reef.

green sea turtle we spotted just seconds after jumping in the water.

shark ray alley. it was only about 5 feet deep here. amazing!

I HIGHLY recommend adding Belize to your list of vacation destinations! A huge thanks to Ben's parents for planning such an amazing trip.

P.S. Did I mention it was "amazing"? Someone please get me a thesaurus!