Belize 2024

 Chan and I took this trip for our 20th anniversary.  We have always dreamed of a backpacking trip like this.  Luggage was what could fit in our backpacks only!  Been a breeze traveling like this  no luggage to worry about.  Quick facts… gas is around $6 a gallon in Belize Population of Belize is about 400,000. That’s about the same as the population of Wichita, KS!  The size of Belize compares to  Massachusetts which has a population of almost 7 million people. 

 Left San Ignacio this morning a little before 8 to catch our flight home.  Arrival in Wichita at 8:06 p.m.  Hopefully home before midnight and then back to work tomorrow morning! Gonna be good to see the kids again. 

 Today is Sunday. Been looking forward to visiting the church here at San Ignacio. Was a beautiful setting and a nice service.  A young couple from Lonetree are the missionaries there.  Lunch of onion soup at D’s Family Restaurant .   Hiked Big Rock Falls this afternoon and just relaxing now.  Heading for home in the morning!

 Today we toured the ATM cave . Was amazing!  We had 3 river crossings on the 2+ mile walk in to the entrance of the cave. To enter the cave we had to swim a bit but more of the time we were in ankle deep water.  Definitely not the American commercial cave tour experience. Once we were about 200-300 meters into the cave we started seeing pottery from the Maya’s. A bit further and we started seeing the human remains from sacrifices. Saw 5 or 6 of them. I think there were maybe 14-16 known remains. Some are not accessible to the tour.  Coming out our guide took us thru some kinda gnarly spots. One called the washing machine and another called the neck cutter.  Three river crossings again on the way out and a total of about 5 miles hiking.  Lunch was waiting for us back at the car park. All told, an amazing day!  Back to the market to find Janet and Naomi. Browsed a bit and then they loaded up and we hoped a ride back to the cabana. Dinner this evening wi...

 Left Tobacco Caye around 9:00. Water was rough and it rained enough to merit our raincoats but it didn’t slow the boat down much. I never heard the motor leave the water but I’ll bet it was close a few times! Visited the inland blue hole . It was truly a little gem very worth the stop. $2 for both of us and a short hike down to the hole. It’s a sinkhole in the jungle that is aqua blue water. Coulda swam there but didn’t take the time to change. Ended up wading downstream to see where the water disappeared in a cave.  Drove to another parking lot and hiked to another cave. Was able to go in a couple hundred meters without a guide. Only had one cell phone light which didn’t do much for the darkness.  To go further you need a guide and it’s in the water so you have to take tubes.  Drove to Xunantunich and snagged a guide for $40 to give us a tour. Xunantunich was really impressive. I was amazed though that the structures have had to be rebuilt. They are basically a hu...

 Up around 5:30 for an early morning snorkel. Didn’t see the manatees or sharks liked we hoped.  Snorkeled and took it easy all day.  Time to shower and hit the hay. 

 Snorkeled. Rested. Paddle Boarded, Kayaked around the island, snorkeled, ate lunch, snorkeled more… you get the idea!  Had fish and lobster creole for supper. Did some night snorkeling but the dive lights weren’t fully charged so had to quit before we were ready.  Sunset was indescribably beautiful!

 First thing this morning we visited  Eladio’s cacao farm.  Thanks for the recommendation Travis! Most of the cacao trees died last year from drought but it was still interesting to see their farm. Eladio’s daughter showed us how they roast the cacao beans and then she made us a hot cocoa drink and we sampled the chocolate bars they make. The tour concluded with lunch of heart of palm soup, fresh hand made corn tortillas, and rice. Hot lemon grass tea for drink. All products of their farm.  The farm was maybe a half mile walk down a road that is too bad to drive in rainy season. We got a good shower on the way out!  We left there by 11:00 to get to Dangriga to catch our boat to Tobacco Caye . Ended up waiting on the boat for an hour or so  but were soon on our way. The boat was probably 25’ long and wide enough to seat four across. It clipped along at 30 or 40 mph I’m guessing. Still took about 45 minutes to get to the island.  Weather was lovely. Did ...

 We had an uneventful flight to Dallas and used our voucher to stay the night there. This morning we had a relaxed breakfast and then grabbed the last two spots on the 9:30 shuttle back to DFW. Our flight didn’t leave till shortly after noon so we had a lot of time to explore the airport. We road the Skylink around and got off in several different terminals. Took stairs when possible and got a lot of walking in.   Got to Belize around 3:00 local time. Immigration and Customs was a breeze. Car rental took maybe 20 min and we were on the road.  I was amazed at the amount of desolate country we drove thru. Mile after mile of scrub and swampy country. Once we got closer to the south end of the country that all changed and was much more what I had expected.  We arrived at  Sun Creek Lodge  just before dark. Found our room and then headed back a couple mile to  Southern Eats , a place we had seen on the way in. I got grilled grouper and Chan got the Belizean...

 Well, I woke up about 3 am and checked the time and noticed that our flight had been canceled. What a deal!  I tried rebooking but couldn’t find anything until Tuesday going out of Wichita. There was an earlier flight leaving around 6 but it wasn’t showing up as an option. We decided to drive to the airport and see if we could catch that flight. Long story short, we couldn’t find anything to Dallas in time to catch the second leg. We finally got an evening flight with an overnight in Dallas and so we got shorted a day in Belize.  We went and had breakfast at one of our favorite joints in Wichita then went for a walk along the river. Was a nice way to unwind from the wild morning.  Overall I think it will work out and may save us some money in the end as they gave us a voucher for the night in Dallas. More tomorrow!