SwiftRambles

Belize At-A-Glance

Days spent: 8

Transportation taken:  Planes= 0, Buses = 4, Taxis = 1, Boats = 5 (6 if you count Tom's fishing trip)

Number of places we stayed: 2

Final daily budget: $135 (way surpassing our goal of $100 a day... the wrong way)

Wildlife spotted: lobsters, eagle rays, sting rays, nurse shark, big crabs,  live conch, octopus, barracuda, scorpion fish, and many other types of fish

Beers tried:

- Bitters (not a beer but a homemade brew good for your "back")

- Lighthouse Lager

- Belikin (light and dark)

- Guinness (Guinness brews a special brew in Belize)

Tours taken:

- Snorkeling on the patch reef near Tobacco Caye

- Glover's Reef Snorkeling

Most Touristy Activity:The whole time we spent in Plancencia

Least Touristy Activity: Getting to know the locals on Tobacco Caye

Amber's favorite memory:Night snorkeling near Tobacco Caye

Tom's favorite memory: Catching 2 large Barracuda on a fishing trip and then having them that night for dinner... it was tasty!

Items lost:

- Amber's nice Maui Jim sunglasses (well, she got them at Costco, but still...)

- Tom's sock liners (he wore them with his snorkel fins to keep from getting blisters, which didn't work but was an awesome look!)

- Amber and Tom

Peaceful Times in Placencia - Placencia, Belize

After having a great and relaxing time in Tobacco Caye, we headed to Placencia to, well... relax a bit more.  Placencia was recommended to us for having a nice beach and a laid back feel.  Although it was fairly touristy and the weather wasn't the best while we were there, we did manage to get in some nice beach time. And I have discovered sometimes the touristy places are more relaxing as they have good restaurants and infrastructure for tourists although they do feel less than authentic. Regardless, after no internet connection on Tobacco Caye, the best part was that we had wifi access on the beach! 

Doing the best surfing he knows how (on the internet). Although he is probably really playing Hearts, Tom's latest addiction:



The beach:

Belize it or not - Tobacco Caye, Belize

This story begins with a German named Marcos, a fellow student in our Spanish school in Antigua who is a photographer on a cruise ship (what an awesome job!). He had mentioned a great place in the southern area of Belize called Tobacco Caye where you can stay and eat 3 good meals a day for $30 US per person. I quickly ran to get a sheet of paper for Marcos to write down the details.

Several weeks later, after spending time in the cool highlands of Guatemala followed by the buggy jungles of El Peten, I was anxiously wishing for some serious beach time. However, we were concerned as Belize is the most expensive country in Central America (but the cheapest one in the Caribbean as I was quick to remind Tom!). We initially went back and forth on whether or not to go, but after some pleading begging nagging discussion, Tom agreed to risk getting a few more freckles and so off we went.

Crossing the border from Guatemala to Belize, we experienced our first bout of culture shock reading the English signs, being able to converse easily with the locals, and the straight 2 for 1 exchange rate with the US dollar. Traveling seemed easy again and after boarding the bus to Dangriga, so civilized after the chicken buses of Guatemala. I sampled some Creole bread being offered by little boy walking up and down the bus aisle, made friends with a couple from Oregon (is anyone even in Oregon right now?! They are all traveling it seems!), and soon we arrived in the Garifuna town of Dangriga.

Our goal was to head to Riverside Cafe to arrange a boat to Tobacco Caye. As we walked, a man with dreadlocks pulled up next to us and informed us his name was Doggie and he was a boat capt'n and he'd take us to Tobacco Caye shortly. So off with Doggie we went. When I told Doggie my name, he laughed and informed me that on Tobacco Caye, they have a saying "Every white girl is named Amber and every white boy is named Bob". The locals really got a kick out of my name actually being Amber during the next few days. And poor Tom got called Bob on more than one occasion.

Soon Tobacco Caye came into view. About the same size of a football field, Tobacco Caye is a tiny island with only about 3 or 4 "resorts" on it. The main draw is that the island is located right on the reef in Belize (the biggest reef outside the Great Barrier Reef) and it's paradise for snorkeling and scuba diving. We headed to Lana's, which is run by a 81-year old Jehovah's Witness known for making the best food on the island. Although the accommodations weren't the best, the food more than made up for it and we experienced 3 wonderful meals a day, with our first being conch soup followed by other fresh seafood. Not to mention the fry jacks for breakfast every day.

Our first view of the island (unfortunately a bit of a cloudy day):