Scott and i went to Belize for christmas and new year's - we had a fantasic time and are very tan.
We took the train in to SeaTac airport , and it worked like a charm, getting us there with just the right amout to time to check in & go through TSA. I totally recommend it when you go to the airport., works like a charm.
We arrived in Belize City and took a prop plane down to Placencia. Placencia is a 13 mile long peninsula, with a mangrove lagoon on one side and the best beach in Belize on the other. White sands and sloping shore, with not too much turtle grass.
We went on some tours, to Cockscomb National Park (Jaguar preserve) where we had a jungle walk with a wonderful Mayan man named Bascillo, who showed us what we could eat ( including termites - tastes like carrots!) drink, and use medicinally in the jungle. Fascinating. Then we floated on tubes down the river back through the jungle.
We also visited Xunantunich, Mayan ruins that you reach by a hand-cranked ferry. Besides the ruins we saw an actual boa constrictor slithering through the jungle, that then slithered up a tree when it got tired of us staring at it. We saw a spider monkey and howler monkeys, too. The ruins were stunning, see my flicker site for more photos than you will ever want to see.
We went snorkeling to the outer Cayes twice, to the Silk Cayes and one inner Caye I am forgetting the name of. It was amazing - we saw tons of blue tang, yellow tang, butterfly fish, huge schools of parrot fish,damsel fish etc, etc-- most exciting was the nurse shark, the eagle rays, sting rays bat rays, trunk fish, grey angel fish , stoplight parrot fish...obviously I could go on and on. The corals we beautiful too.
Weather for the first week was mostly sunny, and the second week was pretty rainy. We made the most of it though, and the second the sun came out, we were back on the beach. Scott didn't wait for the sun, and spent time swimming and snorkeling even in the rain.
This has been a very dry description of a fantastic and exciting trip. See my flickr site for more photos than you can shake a stick at. I will be organizing them later, right now they are just kind of there in a pile.
http://www.flickr.com/phot
