Day 1
Larry and Ellen, KB, Kelsi, Missy and Burke, and myself flew from Salt Lake City on Saturday. We arrived in Belize City in mid-afternoon. We grabbed rental cars and drove two hours west to the jungle hills of San Ignacio. We ate dinner in town and then drove through the dark along super rugged dirt roads up to our jungle lodge. Everyone was pretty bushed, so we went to bed early and made plans to sleep in late the next morning.
Highlight: The rental car guy, Julio, locked the keys in one of our vehicles at the airport, then broke the antennae off the car and used it to jimmy the door unlocked.
Lowlight: We were a little shocked by the bugs in our cabanas. I tried to block out that I'd already seen a couple roaches, and Missy screamed when she saw the spiders. Ron, the proprietor, tried to sooth her with "Oh, that's just a house spider. Just a little guy." If that was little, I don't want to see big!
Day 2:
Our group gathered for breakfast around 10:30. Then we grabbed some inner tubes and hiked upriver for about half an hour. We saw lots of leaf cutter ants. I thought that was cool.
We floated the Macaw River for a couple of hours. We ate a late lunch at the lodge and then drove into town to meet up with the rest of our group: Todd, Laura and Tyler, Erika and Steve, and Beany. We ate dinner together, grabbed a few supplies at a local market, and headed back to our lodging for the night.
Highlights: Reuniting with Todd after two weeks apart. Playing with Ron's super cute pet cody. Sleeping in for the first time in a long time (and the only time the entire trip!). Al (the other owner of the lodge), perched on his seat in the dining room, leg crossed, had only two things to say - in his nasally voice - to every exclamation of ours about the humidity, the bugs, the food, the rain, anything: "Welcome to Belize," and "Well, you're in the jungle."
Lowlights: We were looking for a little unexcavated area of Mayan ruins as we hiked, and completely passed it unknowingly. Also, the river was really low and slow, so it got a little dull by the end. We got tired of picking up our tubes to walk over the rocks that were supposed to be our rapids. Plus, it was raining, so we didn't see any toucans, when we had thought we'd see a ton while we tubed and I was really looking forward to that.
Day 3
We drove out to Caracol to see the biggest Mayan city in Belize. We had to drive through a military check point along the way and drive with an escort as protection from bandits from Guatamala. The ruins were incredibly cool to see. We got quite a workout climbing up all the steps to the top of every single pyramid.
On the way home we took a short hike down to Big Rock Falls, a beautiful waterfall along a river with a natural pool at the base that we could swim in.
Highlights: We saw no banditos, but had quite a few laughs joking about them. It rained heavily while we were at Caracol, which gave us a (welcome) break from the sweltering heat. And I saw a bright, beautiful toucan as we were hiking out!
Lowlight: I left my swimsuit in the car when we hiked down to the falls, so I was fully dressed in a t-shirt and nylon pants when we swam in the pool. My wet pants were dragging me down and I couldn't fight the current, so I mostly lounged on the rocks while everyone else swam and cliff jumped.
Day 4
It rained and rained and rained all night long, and in the morning we received the terribly disappointing news that our tour of the ATM cave had been canceled due to flooding concerns. We were so bummed because we were leaving for the islands the next day so there went our only chance for what we'd heard was one of the coolest tours ever. We scrambled to put together a good itinerary for the day with several activities Todd had researched but hadn't chosen because we didn't have time for it all.
We went to the Belize Zoo and saw all the animals native to the country, including more toucans, huge harpy eagles, tapirs (the national animal), crocodiles, jaguars and ocelots.
Then we drove to the Blue Hole National Park and planned to swim in a gorgeous water hole and check out St. Herman's Cave, but both were closed to the public due to the rain. So disappointing.
Eventually we made it to another ruin sight, Cahl Pech, but by the time we arrived everyone was wet and ticked off and the ruins were going to close in just thirty minutes, and we just bagged it.
We went back to our lodging and swam in the pool instead, and that was lots of fun. We played Marco Polo and everyone became friends again.
Highlight: We made a stop in San Ignacio in the afternoon and chatted it up with the tour company. Somehow we landed ourselves new spots in the ATM tour for the following day, pending weather. We rearranged all of our travel plans out to the island to be able to make it to the tour. Everyone was praying for no rain that night!
Lowlight: We did a ton of driving and got not a lot out of it. Everyone was restless and snippy by the afternoon. It was kind of a bad day.
Day 5
It didn't rain all night! Everyone woke up elated. The ATM cave tour was on! The tour started with a drive out, followed by a 45 minute hike up to the cave. We had to cross a river four times, with water heights varying from ankle to waist deep.
At the mouth of the cave, we put on helmets mounted with headlamps and swam through a pool in the cave opening. We were in water almost the entire time. Sometimes the water was low, just up to our ankles or shins, but it was frequently waist or chest deep. We climbed over boulders and often had to maneuver support positions with both feet and both hands. It was intense, challenging, and completely exhilarating.
Once far enough into the cave, there was a spot you could climb up higher and get out of the water, and it was here that the Mayans had offered sacrifices, both food and human. There were pottery remains all over, as well as skeletons. The touted highlight of the tour is the "Crystal Maiden," a complete female skeleton crystalized to the limestone floor.
Highlight: For me, the best part was the hike back out of the cave. I wasn't as intimidated by the challenging maneuvers required, and our guide took us back by a slightly different route that was even more adventurous. We were all pumped to think he had evaluated our skills and deemed us worthy to go back a more dangerous, more exciting way. There was one spot we had to squeeze through a jagged opening that only had enough room for your body when you contorted it just right. The current was pushing the water along and you had to really hold on to the rocks and use your body strength to control when you moved where. You had to turn your head sideways to fit through and we were all advised to "watch your jugular." It was exhilarating. When we reached the pool at the end, we each dived into the water, helmets and all.
Lowlight: Our tour lasted about an hour and a half longer than we'd been told it would, so when it ended we were really booking it to get to our island on time. We drove as fast as the sleeping policemen would let us (massive speedbumps in each village) 
and made it to our port town of Dangriga half an hour after our boat captain gave up on waiting for us and left. It was a race against the setting sun to find another boat out to Tobacco Caye, and Dangriga didn't seem like the safest place to spend the night if we couldn't find anything.
Eventually our eleven-person crew (Erika and Steve didn't come with us for this portion of the trip) squeezed onto a speedboat with our luggage and off we went, away from land and across the ocean as darkness settled upon us. Everyone was freaked out. It seemed pretty dangerous, but was (hopefully) the better choice of two evils. But (highlight) once I stopped worrying about our ship captain throwing us overboard in the middle of the ocean and taking off with our luggage and money, watching the stars appear in the night sky as we crossed the ocean was truly incredible. There were no lights to mask their beauty. They beamed and were breathtaking.
Day 6
We woke up to this view:
Todd and I, Missy and Burke, and Beany went scuba diving on the reef just past our caye. We saw tons of colorful fish and beautiful coral in the nice, warm, turquoise water. In the afternoon Todd went on a fishing trip while I read in the hammock on the deck of our cabana that, yes, hung over the water.
Highlight: Great visibility in the water. We could see for about 50 feet. Our guide, Erik, was annoyed with it because apparently it's normally 200 foot viz, clear as far as you can look. But for Todd and me, who certified in 4 foot viz in Monterey, it was fabulous.
Lowlight: Our accommodations came with a sweet deck, but were otherwise nothing to brag about. It was hot and there were no fans so our windows were always open. We had pretty much zero privacy because everyone else's cabanas were just a couple feet apart and we all had our windows open. Our bed was terrible. Our mattress was a foam pad. But, (highlight) that second night there we took that foam pad out to the deck and slept out there. It was much more comfortable, and we once again had a terrific view of the stars.
Day 7
Early in the morning Todd and I went snorkeling. We saw just as many fish as we did scuba diving the day before. That's double sided: incredible (and free) snorkeling, but it made the time and money spent getting scuba certified seem like such a waste.
Todd and I and Missy and Burke went back out with Erik and scuba dived all day. We went to Grover's Reef and did a couple of wall dives which were sweet. It was much better diving than the day before and blew the snorkeling out of the water, so certifying paid off after all. We saw huge lobsters (2 or 3 feet long), quite a few lion fish, puffer fish, barracuda fish, tons I don't know the names of. There were several different types that had irridescent colors that were so beautiful. We saw two different sea turtles, the first from a bit of a distance and the second right up close. I swam inches away from it for a solid minute and wanted to touch it, but didn't want to scare it away. That was incredible.
That night Missy and Burke and Todd and I went night snorkeling with dive lights. It was kind of nerve wracking not being able to see what was around us. We saw a couple of octopus, a squid, and several more rays.
Highlight: On the boat ride back from diving, we rode alongside a pod of dolphins, probably eight or so. They swam right by our boat for several minutes. Todd and I layed down on the nose of the boat and reached our arms out. Todd came within inches of touching one.
Lowlight: The lunch our lodging packed for us was tuna salad. It was kind of gross but we had to eat it because we were starving and there was no other option.
Day 8
Todd and I, Missy and Burke, Ellen, Beany, KB, and Kelsi all went on a boat ride out to a different part of the reef to snorkel. We saw a ton of eagle and bat rays, as well as plenty of other gorgeous fish and coral.
On the way out, we found an abandoned lobster trap and hauled it in. None of them were huge like we'd been seeing diving, but it was cool to hold them, and we had some for dinner that night.
Late that afternoon Missy and Burke, Kelsi, Todd and I went on a shark hunt, snorkeling on the outer side of the reef just beyond our island, hoping to find a shark. Alas, we were not successful. Also, the way we took to get out was difficult, so we chose to snorkel all the way around the entire island to get back (it was little, 100 yards across).
Highlight: There were huge conch shells all over our island, in the water along the shore, and decorating the bases of trees and pathways all throughout our lodging. I found a couple really beautiful conches to take home. Todd found a teeny tiny one (two inches) that was beautifully colored, but still had half a creature living in it. We snagged it and are still working on killing the stink out of it, but it's going to look fantastic on our bookshelf.
Lowlight: By the end of the day I was seasick from all the swaying: wind blowing, hammocks swinging, waves pushing you in the water... I didn't enjoy that last snorkel much. I also felt overheated. I would stop in all the cold pockets of water to try to cool off. It was the only place that wasn't hot and humid and I had had enough.
Day 9
We traveled home. First leg: speed boat ride back to Dangriga. Second: a quick taxi ride to a little airport. Third: a 15 minute flight on a tiny 13 passenger airplane to Belize City.
Fourth: Check through customs and get on a big plane to Houston, then on to Salt Lake City. Todd and I grabbed our bags and immediately left in our car to drive two more hours to Logan. The next day held a 13 hour drive from Logan to Sunnyvale, with the kids. It wasn't the end of the world, but we were tired.
Long enough? Sorry. This is the only place our Belize trip is being recorded.
