Belize It

Erin and I went to Belize for a week of vacation.... and it was awesome! We stayed at Ramon's Village, and spent most of our time in hammocks on the beach! For the first three days we were there we just chilled out on the beach. Our room was the top part of a thatched hut, and it had a mini fridge, and a microwave.... but no TV. At first the no TV through me for a loop, but it turned out to be really good. There were no distractions. Erin and I could just hang out. We played a lot of cards, and I've discovered that deep down inside of me lies a Rummy Champion waiting to be unleashed on the world.

The first tour we went on was to the national Belize Zoo and Cave tubing. The Belize Zoo was beautiful, and we had the tour guide all to ourselves. All the animals in the zoo are native to Belize, and in their natural habitat. It seemed like very few of the enclosures were artificial... it was almost as though they'd thrown up fences in random areas and whatever happened to be there during fence construction was what you saw. After the Zoo, we went out to a jungle resort for cave tubing. A river had cut through some limestone outcrop creating some spectacular caves...... and being a geo-geek I really liked it. We hiked for 30 min or so upstream with our intertubes and then floated the river. The river was high, and the water was really moving. At one point there was a fork in the river, and everyone else went one way andI got sucked the other direction where I was sure to be eaten by crocodiles..... somehow I managed to right myself, and caught up with the group... but it definitely wasn't pleasant for a few minutes.....

The next tour we went on was of some Mayan ruins called Lamanai'na which means 'submerged crocodile.' Because we were staying on an island (Ambergris Caye) we traveled by boat everywhere.... the total trip to Lamanai'na was ~3 hrs.... but the trip was beautiful. Our first time to the mainland on boat we saw dolphins, and what our guide claimed to be Tiger Woods yacht.....When we went to Lamanai'na we passed a huge Mennonite/Amish settlement...which was pretty sweet.....after an hour so up one particular river, it opened up into a beautiful lagoon and peaking above the trees you could make out the tallest temple. The ruins were really cool, and Erin and I climbed the tallest one.... unfortunately we had to go back down which is brutal since I have 'height issues.' Anyway, this temple was smaller than one we'd climbed at Chichen Itza on our honeymoon so I felt OK about it.

The next day we snorkeled and saw sharks, and sting rays, and a random assortment of colorful fish. Overall we had an amazing time in Belize. There was a couple on the island who ran a frozen custard shop which changed my life......they had pumpkin pie custard..... two scoops pumpkin pie + one scoop vanilla.... = thanksgiving any day of the year....

But I digress... After we got back from Belize we drove out to Beaumont to pick up a puppy for Erin to bring to Juanita.... the puppy - Aspen - and Battelcat got on quite well... I think Battelcat misses her. I miss Aspen's cuteness... but not her need to pee at 4 in the morning every night she was here!

And now: pictures

View from the plane

Corey Duncan and another monkey

Italy v Germany..... I only caught parts of it, and it caused me much angst

Erin and I: Self Portrait outside the caves

Ramon's from the pier

View from the High Temple at Lamanai'na

Erin snorkeling at Shark Ray Alley

Erin and I in are natural habitat

Ramon's by night

Battlecat and Aspen