Belize 2003 (Part 2)
Day three was supposed to be a trip to the mainland to see some Mayan ruins, but since it was the low season, there weren’t enough people signed up for the trip, so it was cancelled. Since “Semper Gumbi” (always flexible) is my motto, I opted for an afternoon snorkeling trip. The upside of this change in plans meant more beach time for me. So I lowered my dosage to SPF 8, grabbed my book, and hit the beach. The weather was just awesome. Hot with the sun on you, but with a cool refreshing breeze every once in awhile. I managed to finish off book number 2, and then had lunch and got ready got my snorkeling trip. At 2PM, a decent size motor boat pulled up to the dock and I was off. The area where we were going to snorkel was north of San Pedro, so this was my chance to see the hotels north of the town. One of the resorts, Capt Morgans’ Resort, was where I had wanted to stay originally, but it was closed for renovations. Interestingly enough, Capt Morgan’s was where they filmed Temptation Island. The snorkeling was awesome. Belize has the second largest barrier reef in the world and it’s only about half a mile off shore. We snorkeled for about 2 hours and saw just so many different kinds and colors of fish. It was great. But totally exhausting. I had planned to check out the club (yes club, as in one) in San Pedro, but I was just wiped out.
Day four was my trip to Altun-ha, the Mayan ruins on the mainland. Another big motorboat pickedme up at 8AM and we were off. We headedsouth around the tip to Ambergris Caye. We were cruising pretty fast but it still took almost 45 minutes to get to the mainland. We then went upriver in a channel flanked with mangroves trees on either side. The channel was only about twenty feet wide, but our boat driver was flying down it. It was wild. We landed at a small, kind of sad, little village and boarded a school bus (I’m not kidding) to ride to Altun-Ha. Away from the coast there was no breeze and it got really hot, really really hot. So there we were on school bus sweating to death. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? But Altun-Ha was awesome. Several large temples had been unearthed and other areas werestill covered by earth to protect them from erosion. After the ruins at Macchu Picu, they seemed kind of small, but still spectacular. After walking around the site, we boarded the bus and headed off to the Marubajungle spa. Located deep in the rain forest is this amazing spa, which coincidentally was where some of the couple from Temptation Island went for mud massages. Now I’m always up for a massage, so I signed up for one. But when you are hot and sweaty, having someone rub oil into your skin, while relaxing, probably isn’t that good for you. The massage was great. But I could have put a couple of gallons of gas in my car from the excess oil that I wiped off my body. After our trip to the spa, we returned to the village and boarded our boat for the trip back to Ambergris Caye.
Day five, I got up early. I wanted to take some sun rise photos and I wanted to get a last couple of hours of tanning before I had to head back to DC. The whole time I was in Belize the weather was just awesome. High in the mid-80s, a constant breeze coming off the sea, and sunny skies in the morning that would get partly cloudy in the afternoon. Anyways, I had a great time and I definitely plan on going back.