We're here!
After several months of anticipation - and a pretty long night of flying - we finally made it to Belize!
We got through Customs without a hitch and were excited to find our wedding coordinator's assistant waiting to meet us. She copied our passports and we signed the application for the marriage license - woohoo - almost legal now!
With about 3 hours of "airplane" sleep and now trying to acclimate to 90 degree very humid weather we got our rental car and started our drive inland. I was surprised that the main highway - even though it was a 2 lane road - didn't have a painted median - and people drive right down the middle of the road until someone comes the other direction. Roger was pleasantly surprised to find the roads much better than Guatemala!
We decided the animals at the zoo wouldn't notice that we needed showers so we stopped at the really pretty cool Belize zoo. Spider monkeys, tapirs, parrots, coatis, agoutis, oh my! The black jaguar though was the coolest thing I've ever seen. She was pacing and panting behind a chicken wire fence about a foot away from us. Every time she snorted we jumped. The harpy eagle was the next coolest thing. He looked surprisingly a lot like Foghorn Leghorn.
We drove through a bunch of little villages on the way to our first lodging. The last 3-1/2 miles took about 20 minutes on a very rocky road. The Crystal Paradise Resort isn't what you'd expect a resort in the US to be like but it's a very cool jungle lodge. The rooms are little cabanas with high thatched roofs really close to the Macal River. They don't have a/c but they do have a ceiling fan. We can hear all kinds of birds, bugs, and geckos through the screen windows. And we are being watched over by our roommate we've named Lyle - a 3 inch gecko. It's definitely an authentic jungle experience!
Here's a photo of our cabana.
Dinner is family style and was awesme - mini tostadas, chicken, rice, cole slaw, fried plantains, and banana bread, and whatever you want to drink from the honor fridge. All of the other couples at dinner are bird watchers who are super obsessive about comparing notes all during dinner about the birds they've seen all day. We're thinking about memorizing some bird species so we fit in at breakfast tomorrow. :-)
Trivia of the day: Did you know that Caye Caulker is one of the only places in Belize you can see the Black Catbird rustling through the brush? Neither did we but we heard all about them at dinner. Our new bird watching friends have told us to keep on the lookout for for an exotic island black bird that apparently looks like a lot like a crow. I guess fledgling birders must start somewhere.
Question of the day: Can someone let us know if the Belizean inch-long ants are harmless leaf cutter ants or their nefarious cousins the painful biting bullet ants? We're anxious to know because there's a boatload of them running around the dining area.
P.S. We're having a great time and Lyle says hello!
We got through Customs without a hitch and were excited to find our wedding coordinator's assistant waiting to meet us. She copied our passports and we signed the application for the marriage license - woohoo - almost legal now!
With about 3 hours of "airplane" sleep and now trying to acclimate to 90 degree very humid weather we got our rental car and started our drive inland. I was surprised that the main highway - even though it was a 2 lane road - didn't have a painted median - and people drive right down the middle of the road until someone comes the other direction. Roger was pleasantly surprised to find the roads much better than Guatemala!
We decided the animals at the zoo wouldn't notice that we needed showers so we stopped at the really pretty cool Belize zoo. Spider monkeys, tapirs, parrots, coatis, agoutis, oh my! The black jaguar though was the coolest thing I've ever seen. She was pacing and panting behind a chicken wire fence about a foot away from us. Every time she snorted we jumped. The harpy eagle was the next coolest thing. He looked surprisingly a lot like Foghorn Leghorn.
We drove through a bunch of little villages on the way to our first lodging. The last 3-1/2 miles took about 20 minutes on a very rocky road. The Crystal Paradise Resort isn't what you'd expect a resort in the US to be like but it's a very cool jungle lodge. The rooms are little cabanas with high thatched roofs really close to the Macal River. They don't have a/c but they do have a ceiling fan. We can hear all kinds of birds, bugs, and geckos through the screen windows. And we are being watched over by our roommate we've named Lyle - a 3 inch gecko. It's definitely an authentic jungle experience!
Here's a photo of our cabana.
Dinner is family style and was awesme - mini tostadas, chicken, rice, cole slaw, fried plantains, and banana bread, and whatever you want to drink from the honor fridge. All of the other couples at dinner are bird watchers who are super obsessive about comparing notes all during dinner about the birds they've seen all day. We're thinking about memorizing some bird species so we fit in at breakfast tomorrow. :-)
Trivia of the day: Did you know that Caye Caulker is one of the only places in Belize you can see the Black Catbird rustling through the brush? Neither did we but we heard all about them at dinner. Our new bird watching friends have told us to keep on the lookout for for an exotic island black bird that apparently looks like a lot like a crow. I guess fledgling birders must start somewhere.
Question of the day: Can someone let us know if the Belizean inch-long ants are harmless leaf cutter ants or their nefarious cousins the painful biting bullet ants? We're anxious to know because there's a boatload of them running around the dining area.
P.S. We're having a great time and Lyle says hello!
3 Comments:
Hi! Love to be able to hear about your trip! Watch out for those bugs and snakes! The cats are doing great. Monday let your dad pet and scratch her last night. Simba loves to eat! They're right at home. Thanks for the pet naming book! I've picked out nine names. (I'll let your dad pick out a few.) Have a great time! Love, Mom @ Dad
I do know those ants are kind of salty but harmless.
Hi there. I don't know about those ants. If they are the same ones I was just reading about in other blogs from Belize, then you need to be "respectful of the ants". They can provide an unpleasant sting. So be careful.
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