Belize, part 1

So. We spent last week in Belize. :) With boys getting older and schedules getting busier, we figure we need to take advantage of family vacations while we can...and all three of them had the full week off for Thanksgiving. 

Yup, so we flew out of Denver on Monday, just before mother nature dumped 18" of snow on Fort Collins. (Woohoo!!) Our flight landed in a balmy Belize City about four hours later (the Southwest flight, btw, was great...the flight attendants invited us to write advice for a newlywed couple on board and we all sang happy birthday to everyone with a November birthday)...we made it through immigration and customs and onto our transfer flight from there to San Pedro (a 15 minute flight on a 12 passenger plane, unfortunately in the dark so we didn't get to see everything from the air)...and our resort's shuttle collected us there and drove us to the resort, Belizean Shores. We ordered dinner to our rooms and mostly called it a night. Whew. Travel days are always long, lol. 

Clockwise from the top left: boys waiting in the airport to get on the little plane, the view of the pool from our rooms, the loft area in our suite (Asher and Noah had beds up there, Micah got the pull out couch, and Nathan and I obviously got the bedroom), the fun folded towels that greeted us on arrival, a view of Belize City just after take off, and my view from my seat to San Pedro. (San Pedro is the only town on the island of Ambergris Caye just off the northeast coast of Belize. The entire area is about 25 miles long and 1 mile wide. Our resort was about 3.5 miles north of town, at the end of the lone "good" road.) 

Tuesday we got up and ready and picked up the golf cart I'd reserved through our resort. We headed north to Secret Beach, which was perhaps not the best choice for an inaugural driving of our six person golf cart, lol. As I mentioned, our resort was literally at the end of the "good" road...further north was all dirt and potholes. But. We found it! (It's really not difficult as there's only the one road and there are huge signs pointing the way, lol.) We unknowingly found ourselves escorted to the Maruba Bar area of the beach, but ended up being really okay with that.

(There are apparently public parking and beach areas along with areas run by individual bars and such...if you set your stuff up at one of the bars you're expected to eat and drink there or, at a minimum, pay for the use of their chairs and umbrellas. Ricky waved us in, got us parked and set us up at chairs and umbrellas without explaining any of that. But. He also got us fun floaty things and a delicious lunch and brought us drinks in the water. So, we were happy.)

These pictures were all at Secret Beach. We were glad to have gotten there in the morning when it was quiet and mostly empty and enjoyed our time just playing. Because it wasn't quite busy season yet, some of the rental vendors (with paddle boards and kayaks and such) weren't open, but we entertained ourselves seeing how far out boys could go and still touch (quite a ways!), exploring under some of the docks, and just lazing in the sun. 

After lunch and drinks, we found our way back to the resort and enjoyed the pool and hot tub a bit before cleaning up and heading into town. We found a great little restaurant called Caramba's on Middle Street (there are three parallel N/S streets in San Pedro--Front Street is along the Caribbean to the east, Middle Street is next and then Back Street). After dinner, we stopped at a grocery store to pick up a few things before making our way back to the resort to play some cards before calling it a night.

Wednesday, we opted to not get in the water and do some exploring of the area instead. We began the day with Nathan walking to get his daily coffee just across the road at one of the little food shacks there and then making eggs in our suite. After that, boys opted to just chill at the resort while Nathan and I drove into town...stopping at a Marbucks along the way (saw the sign and had to check it out) and then finding the artisan market I'd read about. We had a lovely chat with one of the woodworking artisans there, Terril Hemsley, and picked up a few things before heading back. We collected boys and drove south again, stopping for lunch between our resort and the town at a place called The Truck Stop, which is a collection of eateries and a bar in shipping containers that I sadly neglected to actually take any pictures of. It's a pretty cool area that has night time events like trivia and movie nights, had a pool and dock and game area, and just had an overall fun atmosphere. 

We then continued on into town and showed the boys the artisan market, where Asher and Micah and I wandered some more and did some shopping while Nathan and Noah ended up next door at the House of Culture learning about the history of the area. While we were waiting for Nathan and Noah to get back, two little local boys approached us and asked the boys to play soccer with them in the small "courtyard" area of the market...which was great fun! After that, we went looking for a coffee place Nathan wanted to find (at the far south end of town, beyond the paved roads) only to find it closed for the day so ended up at the Belizean Chocolate Company for some treats before heading back to our resort. Along the way, we got caught in a downpour! (Yes, it's the end of the rainy season and, yes, we were warned that perhaps we should keep rain jackets with us but hadn't taken them. Yes, we got completely soaked because golf carts don't offer much protection, lol.)

So. Back to dry off and then we tried to go across the road to the food shacks for dinner but ended up walking down the road just a short bit to the sister resort, Coco Beach, since they actually had a restaurant and people staying at our resort were able to charge things to our rooms there, too. It was a very fancy restaurant, to our surprise. But we ate there and then walked back, checking out some board games from the front desk on our way. 

Top: Nathan with Terril at the artisan market, me with the large iguana just across the road from our resort, Micah walking back toward our resort from the dock

Middle: Our trusty six seater golf cart (almost everyone gets around via golf cart on the island if not walking or biking), boys playing soccer with the local boys

Bottom: Micah found a "climbing wall" LOL (no, we didn't get any rock climbing in during vacation), the Marbucks Coffee House sign, a fun sign along the main road (I don't think it's an actual town...just signs surrounding one of the resort areas), and one of many hilarious signs at The Truck Stop

And that was the first half of our vacation... :) More in just a minute...

Oh! And, btw, while we were enjoying all of this, our house looked like this:

Thank goodness for neighbors with snow blowers and lovely friends who watch over things while you're away!