Belize - Beach (Part 2)

As we departed Caves Branch, we had 1 garbage bag full of wet clothes. Luckily I had brought plenty of plastic bags with us on this trip because I had read about the humidity/rain issue beforehand. The car service took us to the ferry terminal to catch the boat to Ambergris Caye. The journey was 90 minutes long but the kids weren't allowed on the upper deck so we were just down below which was a bit boring.  The boat was also packed and the mid-day journey made me super sleepy. It made a stop at Caye Caulker and then continued onward. Overall it took a while from boarding time to  baggage pickup that it made me wish we had just booked a plane ride.

View from outside our room

When we arrived at Ambergris Caye, the difference in temperature was astounding. While we were almost chilly in the jungle, it was now blazing hot and bright here. We got a taxi ride to the hotel and though our room wasn't ready yet, the kids jumped right into the pool.  Xanadu Island Resort was perfect - they had shade around the pool, there was a walkable grocery store nearby and the beach had barey any people. They included kayaks, paddle boards, and bikes though we ended up not using anything but was a nice option. It would have been nice to have had food available at this hotel though.

Once the room was ready, we gratefully entered the well air conditioned suite (#11) with the ocean front view. I also immediately rinsed off our shoes and laid them all out to dry in front of our unit. There was also laundry services which I was so excited to be able to do since we had a ton of wet clothes still too. We didn't do much the rest of the day except for nap, watch tv and then go out to dinner.`

Thursday

The night before I had asked for a combo manatee and shark ray alley snorkel adventure but the other group cancelled so our excursion got cancelled at the last minute. I had also tried booking excursions a week beforehand but none of the vendors really followed up with me oddly enough. The hotel then called up another local guy to just do a half day snorkeling to Shark Ray Alley. They picked us up on the pier right outside of our hotel which was super cool. It was just the owner Alex and his helper Arnold. Alex also brought his 3 year old son. What was great was it was just our own private tour!

They put Christopher in a life jacket with a floating thing so that he could just put his head down to look into the water as needed and towed him. Arnold  basically just took care of the 2 kids and we were able to snorkel freely on our own. So it was an actual vacation. The first day, Hannah also had a life jacket but by the second day, she asked to go without so I let her. We had a great time with these guides that we requested them again for the next day to see if they would take us fishing. Luckily they were available and we did a full day this time! They were Belizean natives and we talked a lot with them about the local economy and Alex mentioned his website which I looked up later. He could do with some IT help for sure. He said he mostly got his bookings from the hotels directly.

One thing I should have done on this trip was bring more cash, I didn't anticipate the amount of tipping I should be doing and I never actually got Belizean money so I was basically counting dollars at the end.

For dinner, we rented a cart and drove to the other side of the island to check out the Truck Stop (food truck vendors). Even though it took sooo long to drive over (and then the local police asked us to pay a fee to go over a bridge which confused us), it was well worth it. This is a wonderful place for sunset - the end of the dock was gorgeous and had great seating. They also have movies though nothing was showing when we were there but there were also some kid activities for them to play with.

The pier at the Truck Stop

Friday

They picked us up for our fishing expedition and the kids looooved it. Especially since the guide actually cut up fish to lure the other fish to come and they got to throw bait in the water. Unfortunately the waters were rough at times and I got a little seasick and I had to go lay down to recover (it was a small boat).

Prepping the bait

We did catch enough fish and they took us to Caye Caulker to have a local restaurant cook it for us. At first the guides were going to eat lunch with us but they suddenly said they were going to go get something more casual. When we looked at the menu more carefully, we realized it was a pretty pricey place. I'm glad they didn't eat with us - I would have felt bad. Hannah even ate a bunch of the fish and said it tasted like chicken. Hrmph.

We found the boat again after walking through a bit of Caye Caulker which seemed like a fun island. They drove us to the other side of the island to the sea horse reserve where Alex tried super hard to find us seahorses to see. I kind of felt bad for how hard he was trying and eventually I told him it was okay and that we could keep going. They then drove a little farther to where the giant tarpon fish were and it was super cool to see them jump up to get fish that we fed them. I was pretty fried by now and the guides were still determined to try to find manatees to show us so we did a few stops with no luck and headed back. They were a great crew and I'm a huge fan of private tours now!

Saturday

It was a long travel day - wake up early, wait for ferry, take ferry, take taxi to airport. Wait for plane. Connect in denver. Arrive home.