MAINLAND BELIZE

Hi, all!

At the airport in San Pedro Town on Ambergris Caye we parted ways; the Mikes flew to BZE for their flight back to the US. Cherie, John, Susie, Jennifer, and I flew to the Belize City Municipal Airport where we were greeted by Wilfred from duPlooy's Jungle Resort, our awesome guide for the next 3 days. We loaded into the van and headed west to our 1st stop, the very unique and worthwhile Belize Zoo. Check out this Wikipedia page if you're interested in a little background. Here are some of my favorite photos from the zoo.

Tapirs

Spider monkey

Harpy eagle

Morelet's crocodile

Toucan

Jaguar yawning

We stopped at Amigo's for a Belizean Special lunch...

...and then headed west to the Green Iguana Project in San Ignacio.

Then we headed into the jungle to our home for the next 3 nights, duPlooy's Jungle Resort. This is our lovely 3 bedroom Macal House overlooking the Macal River.

The restaurant and bar and a meandering deck were at canopy level and the birdwatching was fantastic. Such a delight to see aracaris (toucanettes) and chachalacas at the feeder and in the trees. 

duPlooy's has a huge, lovely Botanical Garden and we took full advantage of Wilfred's birding skills and spotting scope.

White-fronted parrots

Summer Tanager

We also took the birding on the road, although I think I'm being overly generous to use 'road' to describe the rocks we ground over for hours and the rivers we forded in order to explore the Caracol Maya site one day and to canoe into Barton Creek Cave to see the wonderful formations and 1000-year-old pots and bones the next. Here are some highlights:

Northern Jacana

Roadside hawk

Baltimore oriole

Black-headed trogon

Our last morning in Belize the Botanical Garden offered up more gifts: the Orchid House, the Medicinal Trail, and the River Walk Trail. I left a rock rainbow in return.

Then we headed to the border, left Belize behind, and started the Guatemala chapter of our trip.

You can find the complete photo collections for this trip HERE.

Happy trails!

Stacey

BLUE WATER TIME

Hi, all!

Mike and I flew from PDX on October 13th, had an overnight in Houston with a quick meet up with beloveds, and arrived in beautiful Belize the next morning.

I got to ride in the copilot's seat from the international airport to San Pedro Town on Ambergris Caye where we shopped for groceries...  

...then hopped on a boat for the 14 mile trip to Tranquility Bay Resort on the secluded north part of the island. Paradise! Our little cabin on the beach was lovely and the view speaks for itself.

The others in our travel group were 3 high school friends of mine plus 2 spouses - Jennifer, Susie, Mike, John, and Cherie - and they arrived over the next 2 days to the same warm welcome we had.

The staff took good care of us including the boat captain, the office staff, the housekeeper, the restaurant staff, and the beach cleaner and cook, pictured here with the overwater restaurant and bar.

We ate breakfasts (included in the price) and some of our other meals there and prepared others in our cabins.

Over the next week we enjoyed moonrises and sunrises, lots of birds, and beloved blue water activities. 

For Mike, blue water joy means flyfishing. He caught a satisfying amount of bonefish starting the 1st afternoon.

He saw more sharks in the flats than permit, spent hours casting to big tarpon that gathered around the dock lights at night (some exciting bites but no landings) and caught several nice jacks.

Most of us went kayaking at some point (Cherie and John pictured here).

One day Susie and her husband Mike and I went diving; divemaster Pablo was outstanding and the finger canyons very near the resort were amazing (Susie pictured here). 

Mixed in with the beautiful corals and gorgonians and bright reef fish we encountered a hawksbill turtle, some huge rays, and a life first for all of us - this massive loggerhead turtle.

Another lovely day was spent on the sailboat Sirena Azul.

We made 3 awesome, varied snorkeling stops where we dove for conch for our ceviche, snorkeled with nurse sharks and big jacks (Susie and Jennifer and friends pictured here)...

...and saw some amazing fish including this one I'd never heard of that had massive 'wings' and walked along the bottom on modified fins - a flying gurnard.

Tranquility Bay is one of the few places in the northern cayes of Belize where you can snorkel from shore and some days I was wet more than I was dry. We were blessed with lovely weather; here are 2 photos I took of the restaurant and cabins from the water - the 1st on a typical sunny with some clouds day and the 2nd during a pounding downpour; there were a few of those, mostly at night.

I'll finish with a few more favorite underwater photos, all taken while snorkeling from shore.

A school of grunts

Beautiful column coral feeding and a blue headed wrasse

A tiny coral shrimp

Baby sargeant majors

An octopus that entertained me for half an hour, roiling along, changing colors, and sucking itself into tiny holes

At the end of this wonderful week the 2 Mikes flew home to Oregon. Susie, Jennifer, John, Cherie, and I continued our adventure, heading west into mainland Belize. I'll post about that in the next few days.

You can find the complete photo collections for this trip HERE.

Happy trails!

Stacey