Unbelievable Belize

Wednesday was another adventure-packed day for us. We left at 7 am to drive to the Bocawina Rainforest Resort where we would spend the day waterfall rappelling (yikes) and zip lining.  Bocawina Our guides for the day were Carlos, Elvin and Vincent. When we arrived, we were each outfitted with a helmet and climbing gear (carabiners, ropes, etc.). We had a 1.5 hour hike through the jungle ahead of us to reach the falls. Carlos said the first half of the hike was a "warm-up" and the latter half would include about 4,000 steps, mostly in the form of vertical stairs. He does this hike 2-3 times per week and can get to the falls in 25 minutes. I guess we tourists slow him down significantly. As we walked, Carlos pointed out different types of vegetation, trees, insects and animals. He showed us a plant that resembled a fern called a sensitive mimosa (no, you cannot order it as a breakfast drink). When you sprinkle a bit of water on it or touch it, it shrivels up out of v...

On Tuesday, a van retrieved us at 7 am for our day trip. Our driver and tour guide was Oz, who is incredibly knowledgeable about everything. He serenaded us with an oral history of Belize as we made the 2.5 hour, 90 mile journey to Xunantunich (Mayan ruins and archaeological site). Oz is of Mayan and Garifuna descent. In the 1600s, two Spanish ships sank off the coast of St. Vincent but many of the slaves on board survived and swam to shore. They settled alongside the existing Carib Indian people and, over the next century, intermixed and became known as the Garifuna. At the close of the 1700s, French and Britain were battling over the island of St. Vincent. The French and their Garifuna allies were forced to surrender to Britain and the British exiled the Garifuna people to Roatan, Honduras. They later found themselves at the center of yet another war and escaped to what was then known as British Honduras, which is Belize today. Lauren and I were fortunate enough to spend a half day ...

Monday was our "rest" day, which just means we did not have a full day of predetermined adventures planned through our travel package. After breakfast, Lauren and I borrowed the resort's stand up paddleboards and tried them out at sea. These are the real deal. Not the ones I've used in Richmond on the James River that essentially tell you where you place your feet. This is just a flat, smooth board. When I stood up, I fell off as soon as the first wave approached. After that, I figured it out. I wasn't standing close enough to the middle of the board, and I learned to start bending my knees when larger waves rippled through. We paddleboarded for about 2.5 hours and explored the water in both directions from the hotel. After that, we cycled down the dirt road in search of a store so we could buy snacks (let's be honest, these were for me, not Lauren). On our ride, two different animals crossed the road in front of us that we were unfamiliar with. One looked l...

Before deciding to embark on this trip, I knew abysmally little about Belize. So, to ground all of us, i present you with a few facts. Belize boasts a population of about 350,000 people and was British colony until it gained independence in 1981. The official language is English, but almost everyone speaks Spanish as well as Creole (an English derived dialect). Belizeans speak to us in English, but to each other in Creole. You can pick up a few words here and there, but it sounds fast-paced and is different enough that it is challenging to follow. Geographically, Belize is in Central America, bordered by Mexico to the north, Guatemala to the west and south, and the Caribbean Sea to the east. Belize was the center of Mayan civilization, which was founded in 2000 BC, and you can still see the remains of pyramids and temples today. Their currency is the Belize dollar, but US dollars are widely accepted and often preferred. At this time, one US dollar is equivalent to two Belize dollars. ...