Trips, Pics, and Tales

We went to Belize in August, which is their rainy season.  However, we were lucky and it really didn't rain much while we were there.  The nice part about the rainy season is that prices are generally lower and crowds are typically down!  We flew Continental, which was great.  No charge for the first bag and the Belize departure tax is already included in the price of the ticket, which saves some hassles and money leaving the country at the end of the trip as well.  We arrived in Belize City around 10:30 am ready to go, customs was smooth and we were out the door of the airport quickly and immediately greeted by Miguel from Chaa Creek.  Our package included a stop at the Belize Zoo  so we decided to stop on our way to Chaa Creek rather on our way to the second resort after our stay at Chaa Creek.  At first, I thought, ok - why stop at a zoo?  How strange that everyone makes such a fuss about this zoo and why is it such a destination in Belize...

My kids were really going to miss us on this trip.  Especially M, our daughter.  She just couldn't get past the fact that we weren't taking them this time!  After all they went with us last summer to Costa Rica and had a blast, we all did.  We'd had a busy summer and she just came back from a week of overnight Girl Scout camp and now we were leaving her.  She was really disappointed.  A knew he'd miss us and wanted a way to stay in touch.  Calling to and from Belize on a cell phone is really expensive, if you can get coverage.  Expensive as in approx $3/minute expensive.  So, what to do?  First I tried the route of an international sim card for my phone, which has international calling.  This would work great.  It would allow me calling at about 39 cents a minute instead!  I did everything possible, however due to an issue with PayPal and then with FedEx, it just didn't arrive in time!  Bummer....so we relied o...

Now we had picked our hotels and in my eyes they were going to be the greatest!  In the jungle we chose Chaa Creek .  Not only is Chaa Creek an amazing lodge, but its been recognized by several magazines such as Travel and Leisure and Conde Naste as one of the best places in Central America to stay.  They've won awards for their environmental standards and the owners have over 300 acres of land they use as a nature preserve.  On Ambergris Caye we chose Portofino  which is a small beach resort with thatched roof cottages steps away from the ocean.  It's accessable only by a fifteen minute boat ride from San Pedro, which is the main town on Ambergris Caye.  The details we had to figure out would be of course, how many nights would we stay at each place?  How would we get from the airport to Chaa Creek, which we had decided would be our first destination.  Then how do we get from Chaa Creek to Portofino?  Each resort offers packages...

The one thing that K seemed to mind the most about our last big trip, the one we took last year to Costa Rica with the kids, was too much time travelling from spot to spot.  Me, I think that's part of the fun.  I like to see parts of the country and think driving or flying within the country is part of the vacation.  K thinks it's wasted time.  It's tiring and he wants to just get to the next spot.  So I wanted to find a bit of a compromise here.  K has fondly named my vacations Shelley's terror tours!  I don't do well just relaxing...I like to do!  I like to explore - get out there and see the places we're at.  I'm a different person when I travel.  At home I don't seem to have much motivation to do much at all.  When we're travelling I can't wait to get up and get moving!  Show me the world!  Even if it's just going to the pool or the beach, I can't wait to feel the sand, or feel the breeze in my hair!  Just get me ...

That's right - Belize.  The first question so many people would ask was, where's Belize? They hadn't even heard of the country!  This was common I found because Belize was formerly known as British Honduras and didn't change it's name until 1973.  The second question I was asked was why do you want to go to Belize?  Belize suddenly began popping up to me in my obsessive travel research about two years ago.  I had been planning our second trip to Costa Rica and kept seeing great travel information about Belize and of course I wanted to see what was the big draw!  K and I have been to Mexico several times and had been to Costa Rica once previously and since I was planning our second trip to Costa Rica I kept Belize in the back of my mind for a future trip.  I started to do some research and found Belize has the second largest barrier reef in the world!  Now that's something!  Neither K nor I dive, but we both enjoy snorkeling so right t...

I love to travel.  I enjoy photography.  My career is neither of those things, not even close.  I spend hours dreaming and planning for trips, wondering where we'll go next.  How many days can we take off - what destination will we visit next?  How will I learn about it?  I don't remember exactly when this started.  This passion for travelling.  I don't just vacation - I truly have a passion for it.  Growing up we went on a family vacation every summer. Faithfully.  I don't think we ever missed one and they were not exotic, but my parents made sure they were special.  Each one was unique and usually to a different destination each year.  I think maybe that started my desire to go to new countries and cities.  We camped a lot so we could to to new places.  This was more affordable.  We went up and down the East Coast - from Nova Scotia and Bar Harbor, Maine one summer to the Skyline Drive in ...