March 7 – 17th, 2018

Birthday trip 2018 – the beach is my happy place so I’ve always tried to spend my birthday on a beach somewhere.  2018 – I chose Belize.  A small country on the eastern coast of Central America.  With Mexico to the north and Guatemala surrounding its other border, it is prime location to explore the Caribbean Sea.  Belize is not only comprised of a mainland area, but a number of Cayes (pronounced “keys”) which are small islands made up of coral and sand.

With a brand new open water dive certification in my back pocket (obtained through Channel Island Scuba in Thousand, Oaks – highly recommend them btw).  I was excited to get into the water at the second largest barrier reef in the world.  Flying over the crystal blue green water had me like a mermaid out of water.

Along for this adventure.. two friends from Winterpeg – Tom & Beth and my travel partner in crime – Amber.  (Yup, we are all badass nurses).  We all were wanting a beach vaca and conveniently we all are open water certified.

We each flew into Belize City and met up at the airport.  Our itineraries varied slightly but we spent the first few days lounging and diving together.

Bonus:  The official language of Belize is….English.  Making this trip super easy to maneuver and venture out.  After landing in Belize City we immediately took a 20 minute cab ride to the waterfront to catch a water taxi to our first destination.  The little island of Caye (“key”) Caulker.

Caye Caulker

This is a tiny island (5 miles x 1 mile), with a population of about 2,000 people.  Literally you can walk from one end of the island to the other in less than 30 minutes.  Absolutely no car traffic.  Only golf carts and pedestrians.  We spent our first day exploring Caye Caulker village and partaking in the local beer and sunset. Great first day in Belize.

Breakfast: we were told to try a Belize staple:  the fryjack.  It did not disappoint.

We planned to either dive or snorkel the next day.  We didn’t have a real plan, so we walked down the main road and checked out all the local outfitters until we settled on one.  We booked a morning tour.

Hol Chan Marine Reserve and Shark Ray Alley

A mid morning snorkel at 3 locations.  We saw tons of marine life, from nurse sharks, to sting rays, sea turtles, a ton of fish and coral and an unexpected bonus…we got to swim up close and personal with some manatees!!  Definitely recommend this tour.

(BTW: No feeding of the wildlife was done.  The animals just flocked as habit from previous tours feeding them.  Please don’t feed the wildlife).

After an amazing snorkel tour and a little sunburn.  We spent the rest of the afternoon into the evening at the Sip ‘n Dip and the Lazy Lizard.

The vibe on Caye Caulker is super chill and the sunsets are killer.  Loved the ease of the island and the lack of roads and normal traffic was truly a step away from the norm.  We spent a super chill second day doing a little morning rooftop yoga and daydrinking.

Our last dinner on Caye Caulker was pretty epic.  We decided to partake on some good grub at the beach at Fran’s Grill.  The food is fantastic and the owner is even better.  The unlimited rum punch is a little suspect but the vibe and food is worth it.  We indulged in some coconut curry fish and it came with two sides.  Best meal we had on island.

Note: the “bread/cake lady” you will encounter.  She starts selling her cakes in the morning and stays through the evening until she sells them all.  Her cake is yummy and worth a taste.  Also, we jokingly asked her for a different kind of “cake” and she happily whipped them out LOL.

Ambergris Caye (San Pedro, Belize)

Next stop on the Belize trip,  neighboring island of Ambergris Caye.  Another water taxi over, which took about an hour.  This Caye was much larger than Caye Caulker.  More roads with cars, but preferred mode of transport was the trusty ol’ golf cart.  I had never driven one before, so I got first dibs on taking our rental for a spin.

We were only there for a couple days so we went out in search of a PADI dive shop as we wanted to book our dives for the next couple days.  After some trip advisor research we settled on Neptune’s Cove.  The dive shop was small, but the staff was very friendly.  We split our dives as Amber and I wanted to dive the Blue Hole.  Beth and Tom did a two tank dive instead.

Sidenote: So the Blue hole is a lot more pricey than the 2 and 3 tank local dives and in hindsight I probably wouldn’t do another Blue Hole.  (This is strictly my opinion,  for the price and the sights, which is mostly stalactites and stalagmites and very dark and not very much wildlife).  Amber and I signed up to dive the Blue hole the next day which was outsourced to another dive company Amigos del Mar as they were the company going out that day.

Blue Hole – I got my open water cert in January and this was my first dive since then so I was feeling slightly anxious about descending so deep on my first dive post certification. With much reassurance from my personal dive expert Amber, she convinced me I would be fine.  It was a long ride out there, about 2.5 hours.  Once there the view from above was gorgeous.  A drone pic would have been amazing.

I will also make a note that all my travels aren’t without hangups here and there.  The night before the blue hole there was some kind of festival or holiday that resulted in our hotel bar playing room shaking dance music until 3am and our dive trip starting at 5am. As well as the “questionable clientele” that frequented the hotel made this stay less than desirable.  Thus, I won’t mention the name of it.  LOL

After the blue hole, we ventured to another close by caye to do another dive, where we did see some sharks and other marine life.

Secret Beach – Highly recommend this bumpy golf cart ride to secret beach, I can’t remember how we found directions, google probably and trip advisor. Also, note on the way out of town there’s a toll bridge you have to cross, so have some cash on you.  We set out on our wheels for this spot, stopped for some beers along the way.  Once there, we caught some rays and lounged for a few hours with a fresh coconut.

The Truck Stop – Enroute to secret beach you pass this cool little spot set up as a hang out with a bar and food stalls set up in shipping containers.  There’s a game area with and dock with chairs as well as a movie screen.   Great hang out spot on our way back to San Pedro.

We all did a 3 tank dive with Neptune’s cove the next day.  Super easy short boat rides from the dock to several dive sites.  The reefs were beautiful and the marine life plentiful.  On our middle dive, we experienced something very special.

Some friends decided to come check out the weird humans on the bottom of the ocean with them.  Truly blessed to have experienced this.

Placencia

Amber and I wanted to continue the beach and diving vibe so we decided to go to Placencia and stay on the coast while Beth and Tom went on to explore the interior of Belize. With much struggle trying to hire a driver to take us to Placencia with a cost of $75 – $100 each way, and lack of prompt responses an wifi, we had an epiphany and decided to just rent a car and navigate ourselves down to the beach town of Placencia.  We made our way back to the mainland and back to the airport where we easily rented a car from a local company called Crystal Auto Rental.

My only experience with driving in central america was maneuvering the crappy pot hole/gravel roads throughout Costa Rica thus, I was crossing my fingers that the terrain in Belize would be an improvement. Surprisingly the road to Placencia was well maintained and easy to maneuver as they drove on the right side of the road, just like at home.

You know when you reach Placencia by the beautiful beach homes the line each side of the road.  Amazingly beautiful homes and beach side properties are plentiful in this area.  We found a very cute place to stay, the owners were from… and the place had just emptied out so we lucked out with a beach front room at a discount.  I highly recommend the Singing Sands Inn if you are heading to Placencia.  Warm atmosphere with a large dock and plenty of hammocks to lounge in and a very good restaurant on the grounds.

We dropped off our stuff and headed to town to check out the dive options we had.  We booked a 2 tank dive for the next day with a local dive shop called Seahorse .  The cost was a bit pricey,  but the reefs are a lot further out than they were in San Pedro.  We were able to see some amazing reef walls and a ton of marine life.  From eels, sea turtles, nurse sharks, lobster, barracuda, etc.  We were really hoping to go to Glover’s Reef the next day, but they didn’t have anything scheduled,  luckily a few other tourists were wanting to go there as well, so we were able to convince the dive shop to go out the next day.

The town of Placencia is rather small, with a few shops and a downtown area by the beach with some beachside restaurants.  We ended up at the cutely name Tipsy Tuna a lot as the vibe there was easy and they had a good happy hour and local entertainment.

Belize has some amazing things to offer, but it’s definitely a diver’s paradise.   A great place to celebrate the 10th anniversary of my 29th birthday.  Thanks to Amber, Beth and Tom for sharing in this travel adventure.