Need I say more!?!
Tag: Beach
Another Lazy Day
Today was another reading day. I am getting antsy to go out and do something, but we sat around reading again. It is nice sitting in the warm weather, despite the constant wind, but I still want to take advantage of being in a foreign country, on an island that I will probably never visit again.
Sarah and I did look into diving, but the wind is too strong and the seas too rough; all of the diving trips are being canceled. I was hoping to do Shark Ray Alley and possibly the Blue Hole, but was told that they probably will not be taking people out diving again until Thursday or Friday. We go home on Thursday. Parasailing was also canceled because of the wind, although we were told that Jet Skis would be great right now with the waves. They are pretty expensive, but we may have to look into them. We did end up reserving a golf cart for tomorrow (at $90 for a 24 hour period–ouch), and will do some exploring on Monday.
We have dinner plans coming up in just a little while, and the restaurant is going to send a boat out to our resort to pick us up. It sounds like a fancy place, and the food should be good.
Just off the coast, maybe a mile out, we can see the surf crashing against the barrier reef. There are huge waves, and the reef is the second longest in the world. I would love to get a kayak out to get a little closer, but today was too windy for that as well. Perhaps tomorrow will be better.
Update
We were picked up for dinner by a pretty fast speed boat, and taken along the super-highway that lies between the coastline and the reef. It was dark when we left, and the stars were bright in the sky. The boat was quite fast, and it was a thrilling trip. Coming into the dock, we barely missed ramming a dark boat that was running with no lights. Our captain was quite upset at the other boat, and reasonably so. Dinner at Portofino was good. Sarah and I shared a lobster with angel hair pasta and Aglio Eolio. We each took haft of each dish. The wind was still blowing on the way back, and we had to dodge waves crashing through the cracks of the dock, but the boat ride itself was relatively smooth, with just a bit of spray.
Belize Navidad
First off, I have to apologize for the punny title, but I couldn’t resist.
I have spent several Christmases in tropical places. In Hawaii, we tend to go to the beach and snorkel. In Viet Nam, there was a Christmas Eve show. Here, we hardly noticed that it was Christmas. We had no gifts to exchange, and there were minimal decorations. Although it sounds like there was a white Christmas back home, we had a white sand Christmas here. The day was lazy, and I have no pictures to share. We read outside for most of the day, with the ocean waves and some island Christmas music as a back-drop. The resort restaurant had a special turkey dinner, and we watched Frozen before going to bed.
It was a quiet and restful day.
Island Hopping
We woke up early again today, and I once again watched the sun rise over the horizon before packing up all of my belongings. The wind was blowing, and waves were splashing up on our front dock. We ate breakfast and said our final good-byes, before boarding the boat for the last time.
We got to the airport about 20 minutes before our flight–which was plenty of time to do everything we needed to. We took the island hopper again, and flew the 25 minutes to Belize International Airport. After letting Seth and Mai off–they were headed for Costa Rica–we flew another five minutes to a smaller airport, where we caught a flight to San Pedro. Done was our all-inclusive. We had to start tipping by the job, and we had ground crew, a driver, a boat driver, and the concierge all looking for a tip.
When we were showed our room, it was incredible. It was a two bedroom condo with a kitchen. The floors were hard-wood and marble, the family bathroom was tiled, and the master bathroom had a soaking tub with lounger for two people, and a stone shower. There was a walk-in closet that was bigger than all of our closet space at home. David and Anita were kind enough to let us take the master bedroom. (I know, pictures of a hotel room in a vacation blog is not the thing people want to see, but I was just too impressed.)
After settling in, we went to lunch, and then I rode a hotel bike the three and a half miles into town. I had accidentally left my swimsuit at the resort where we went cave tubing, so I needed to buy a new one. I also needed to pick up a few groceries for our stay. The store I was told to go to had just closed, so I found another store where I could purchase swim wear. After that, I got groceries and raced back to the hotel. The bicycle was supposed to be back by 4, and I got it there by 4:15–close.
While typing up this blog post on the veranda, the power went out for about 10 minutes. Something must have happened in town, but we got it back pretty quick. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful.
Thatch Caye
Although technically this is the same day as my last post, that day was today. Since one post is travel, while the other is our new home, I hope that my readers will forgive me for creating a journal entry starting with our arrival at Thatch Caye. We were greeted at the dock by Sarah. This was an easy one. It didn’t take me long to learn that by the end of the day, everyone that I dealt with would know my name, and to keep from sounding like a complete fool, I made a strong effort to learn their names. By the end of the day, I learned our host’s name, Sarah (think Mr. Rourke from Fantasy Island), our bartenders, Omar and Clarence (think Isaac from The Love Boat), and the head grounds keeper Indie (think–er., the head grounds keeper, Indie).
We have a thatch-roofed hut over the water with slate floor, and a shell faucet. There are hammocks hanging on our porch, which we promptly fell into. Sarah took a nap while I went out exploring. The island is nine acres. Our Enumclaw property was 8 acres. It is a one-mile walk from one end of the island to the other. The north end is still pretty undeveloped, and needs some cleaning, but it also provides the most private beach. The power comes from a combination of a wind turbine and solar power, with a gas generator to take up the slack. The toilets flush with salt water from the ocean, while the shower runs on recycled rain water. Every meal so far has been gourmet.
At night, the weather got a bit stormy. The hammocks were sideways, one chair was blown against our deck railing, and we could hear the sea getting rough. The side of the hut was battered by rain. It was a very comforting thing to fall asleep to.
