This trip was quite the adventure. We did not use any tour guides. My mother set the whole thing up on her own. Luckily English is a common language in Belize; so we had little trouble communicating. Our first stop was at Chateau Caribbean in Belize City. This is a very large and gracious old manor facing the waters of the Caribbean Sea. After a long day’s travel, it was a good landing spot.
From there we drove to Placencia. The country is quite small. Though the roads were really something, and the distances span half the country, we managed to make it there in one day. We even stopped along the way to visit a zoo.
At Maya Beach near Placencia we stayed at The Maya Breeze Inn. We had both a room in the main lodge and a house on the beach. What a treat! Again, this became our home base while we went exploring.
I think it was about in here we went on a zipline. This was my first. I’m hoping to do another sometime.
Probably the highlight of that part of the trip was a snorkel excursion. We loaded up on a fast boat with a bunch of other tourists and went to a small island which we proceeded to swim around. This was when I chased a shark. I also got a bad case of sun poisoning on my legs.
From there we went to Banana Bank Lodge. By then the most I could do was lay around and wait for the pain and swelling in my legs to subside. While everyone else went horseback riding, I lounged around in a bungalow and critiqued a book.
Luckily I recovered enough to be able to move around when we visited the Xunantunich Ruins We were told there were much larger, more impressive ruins to be found just across the boarder in Guatemala, but that going there could be dangerous as civil unrest had lead to some attacks on tourists. What we saw included the residences of the nobility as well as a main pyramid. I was quite satisfied.
Then it was back to Belize City. We had intended to spend a day looking around, but the entire city seemed to have closed down for the day. We drove around a little, then rested up for the flight home.
Over all it was a good trip. I learned one valuable lesson: respect the sun. Water will not protect you.
Directory of Posts:
These are all my posts about the trip.
Belize Highlights
Chasing Sharks
Back to Belize
The Roads of Belize
The Animals of Belize – part 1 – the Zoo of Belize
More Belizian Food Links
The Animals of Belize – part 2 – not behind fences
Chateau Caribbean
Belize City
The Maya Breeze Inn
41/365 Belize Allspice Tree?
42/365 Maya Beach
43/ 365 Strangers on a Boat
38/365 Sand Dollar the size of a dinner plate
39/365 Typical Home in Belize’s Countryside
37/365 Fan Palm
Xunantunich I
36/365 Jaguar
35/365 Hanging Out
34/365 Out of Focus
33/365 The Hills in Belize
Xunantunich II
Xunantunich III
A Zip Line in Belize
