Unbelizeable

It has been really hard these past few months with Drew gone, but I have definitely been spoiled with all of the traveling and fun things I've been doing.  Now I have one more fantastic experience to add to the list.  Drew's sister, Maggie, and I went down to Belize and Guatemala last week.  We had such a fabulous time!  It was the first visit for both of us to Belize and we absolutely loved it.  It is such an easy country to travel in - the people are so nice, everyone speaks English (it used to be a British colony), they accept U.S. dollars everywhere, there is so much delicious fresh fruit, and there is tons of excursioning to be done!

We spent three nights in the jungle near San Ignacio, which is right on the Guatemala border.  We stayed in an eco-lodge with cute little cabins, hammocks everywhere, a view overlooking the river and tons of wildlife.  From there we went on a hike (and saw a tarantula!), took a side trip to Guatemala to see the breathtaking Maya ruin, Tikal, and did quite a bit of relaxing.

Our jungle cabin - it was so dark at night!  I woke up in the middle of the night and
thought I was blind because I couldn't even see my own hand.

A little cribbage with river views and some Belikins (the national beer of Belize)

Amazing Tikal ruins rising up out of the jungle

The second half of our trip was a bit derailed by Tropical Storm/Hurricane Ernesto.  We had planned to go out to the islands off the northern coast of Belize, but they were evacuated due to the storm so instead we headed down to the beaches in the south - a little place called Placencia.  I think our last-minute trip ended up even more wonderfully than we could have planned.  We stayed two nights at a lovely little guesthouse (where the owner baked us fresh chocolate chip cookies!) that was right in the town.  We rode our bikes into town, tried out all of the local restaurants and enjoyed watching the Olympics.  For our last two nights we moved to a hotel right on the beach with a swimming pool, its own dock and the best restaurant in Belize.  It was truly perfect.  We wished we could have stayed about three more months there.  It was a wonderful trip!  I had so much fun traveling with you, Maggie.  Can't wait until next August!  

Placencia Village

View from our room - couldn't get much better!