Liz: Days 51 & 52: Placencia Boardwalk and Monkey River Tour

Placencia boasts the longest continuous sidewalk in Belize.  We enjoyed a walk on the sidewalk, followed by lunch at De Tatch, an open air restaurant overlooking the beach. The views from the sidewalk are beautiful! (see below) The temperature has been steadily increasing these last couple weeks and we kept moving from shady spot to shady spot on our walk.  In Oregon it's 48 degrees today, the inverse of the temperature here, 84. After lunch we hurried home and took naps with the air conditioner blasting.

The following day we took a tour of Monkey River. The town of Monkey River became a town officially in 1891 with a population of 2,500.  It thrived on the banana and lumber trades but was reclassified as a village in 1981 after a banana blight stopped banana production and the lumber trade faltered. Then in 1981, Hurricane Ivy hit the town and completely destroyed it. Now it has a population of around 200 and it's primary income source is tourism. Our tour guide lives in Monkey River and after our tour we ate a traditional lunch in the village.

On our tour we saw many different kinds of birds, turtles, bats, lizards and even a larger troup of Black Howler Monkeys up in the trees.  We saw fresh (two hour old) jaguar tracks in the mud.  We drank water from a tree that stores water in its trunk that is good to drink and tastes fresh. We also rekindled a relationship with our old friends the fire ants. We hadn't realized that the boat trip would involve a jungle trek and were wearing sandals and shorts. It kept us hopping for a bit. We highly recommend that you wear long pants, socks and full shoes in the jungle.

Liz: Day 46: Travel Nirvana in Hopkins, Belize

Last night the kids experienced their first 4 course meal at a very nice restaurant.  They went in ready to use their best manners and they did a great job. They practiced polite conversation and did not mention the items that were not their favorite, even though they were eating from the adult menu.  At the end of the meal (which lasted about two hours) our server complimented them and said they had been perfectly behaved. We were very proud of them.  Six and eight are great ages to travel!

Today (Monday) was our catching up, errand day.  We shopped for groceries and Valentines, filled up our water bottles with bottled water, and took our laundry to be washed. We cooked lunch at home on a hot plate and it was very satisfying.  We bought some fresh local veggies and sausages made by the local Mennonites and sauteed them.  After a while eating out gets tiring.  It is nice to be cooking again.  We're going to have our own kitchen for the next ten days so we're going to try to eat at home more.  It's a fraction of the cost and we have to recharge our eating out batteries so we can live it up our last week.

About the travel nirvana, I've been having these blissful moments lately when I feel so intensely happy about life, thinking about how much beauty is in the world and how interesting people are.  I was thinking that I had finally hit that point in a long trip where you let go and just enjoy the moment, no matter what happens.  However, Patrick has noticed that I seem most blissful during and directly following our morning coffee, which does happen to be true.  I'm not sure what to make of it as coffee doesn't do that for me at home.  Maybe it's a little of both.

Tomorrow we are headed for a tour of Marie Sharps' Hot Sauce factory.  We've seen and tried her hot sauce all around Belize and are looking forward to seeing where the magic happens.

Liz: Day 45: On the Road to Hopkins, Belize

Yesterday was somewhat surreal. We found ourselves driving through mountains covered with jungle and valleys full of orange trees just ready for harvest.  It was a stormy day and misty clouds covered the mountain tops.  On the radio, a Belizean radio host with perfect British English played a memorial tribute to Whitney Houston.  Along the sides of the road, kids were out playing or riding their bikes. Others carried big bundles of branches on their backs and a pair of women in brightly colored shirts stood chatting while watching the oncoming clouds.  Here and there the bright shape of a white crane stood out amongst the many shades of green.  It was ache-ingly beautiful and also sad with Whitney's ballads playing; a strange mix of life elements: lush beauty, stormy weather, playful innocence, tragedy and perfection.

We arrived in Hopkins and checked in to our hotel, which is right on the ocean. We felt blessed to get this place as they had been booked out for a long time and then the night before I emailed last week someone canceled for a two bedroom beachfront apartment. We were able to get all five nights that we needed.  It felt like home on the Oregon coast as the wind shook the cottage and the waves crashed all night.  It was a fitting end to the day.

This morning dawned bright and beautiful and calm. Travel nirvana. More about that later.

Sofia: Days 41 & 42: Rio on Pools Waterfall and Butterfly Ranch

The Butterfly Ranch: We saw brown and green cocoons. Some were hatching and we could see the wings. Blood comes out of the cocoons when they hatch.  We saw so many butterflies: blue, green, glasswing, yellow and black. Butterflies will only land on you if you stay still for some time. One was tasting my hair and it tickled.  One butterfly laid five eggs on a leaf and another laid more eggs.

Rio on Pools:  My dad and brother went on a waterslide in the river, a God-made waterslide, and my mom and I played in gigantic pools.  I played in the rocks.

Liz: Day 43: Tranquility Bay, Ambergris Caye

Sofia is working on an update for our last couple days, a trip to the Butterfly Ranch and swimming at Rio On Pools. That will be coming soon.

Yesterday we traveled by ferry from Belize City to San Pedro on Ambergris Caye, about an hour and a half ride. At the dock we boarded a small speedboat that zipped thirty minutes up the east side of the island to Tranquility Bay. Tranquility Bay is located in the Bacalar Chica National Marine Park and is a United Nations World Heritage Site.  The reef meets the shore just to the north so you can easily snorkel out to the reef and the boat traffic is limited as there is no outlet to the north.

This is "La Isla Bonita" of the popular song by that name. Our cabana looks down through coconut trees and over 50 feet of white sand to the water.  Sofia woke me up this morning to come watch the sunrise with her.  We watched a heron catch its' morning meal and enjoyed the bright pinks in the sky and on the water.  It was beautiful morning and a relaxing day of playing in the water, snorkeling, making skirts out of palm tree leaves and reading.

The restaurant is out on a dock over the water. During the day you can look down through the floorboards and see fish swimming around. You can meander down to the restaurant in bare feet if you like. It's very casual and a great place for kids of all ages to sit on a stool sipping a soda watching the ocean float by. At night they light the water under the dock which draws all kinds of fish. You can stand at the end of the dock and see rays, barracudas, trumpet fish and a variety of other fish.

Tomorrow we are going to try our hand(s) at fishing.  If we catch anything big enough the kitchen will prepare it for us for dinner.