Don't Stop BELIZE-ing!

For Christmas, my parents gave the family a trip to Belize! It was really fun and gave way to endless jokes playing on the word “Belize.” Example: You better Belize I took a grip of pictures!

 

There was riding a fun little “hopper” plane from Belize City into Danguira.

 There was Zip lining and tubing through caves.

 There was the epic “Mayflower Hike.” 

Hello straight up vertical climb through tons of mud. Despite the rigorous nature, this day was almost everyone’s favorite as the hike ended a beautiful waterfall that was perfect for jumping off of.  

There was hiking through a jaguar preserve. 

I had my sights set on finding not only a jaguar, but a rare all black jaguar!!! That is  until our guide, a lifelong resident of the area, admitted he had seen ONE JAGUAR in HIS ENTIRE LIFE. Yeah, didn’t see one. It wasn't a total loss, we borrowed (stole) oranges from from a nearby orchard and there was yet another swimmable waterfall area. 

There was floating down Monkey river 

We saw the interesting village of Monkey river and went hiking in the jungle in search of Howler Monkeys, which unlike the jaguars, were found!

 After our adventures, a daily favorite activity was using the single speed bikes from the resort to pedal into the nearby village of Hopkins. The residents were all of African descent and super friendly. There we stocked up on the official beverage of the trip, Coke Light, and the official snack of the trip, Cadbury Half and Half Bars.

 The last day was the ill-fated scuba diving day. 

We had intended to dive more, but the weather was not cooperating. In the end, it would have been better had we never dived at all… The seas were really rough – all of us were pretty sea sick by the time we got out there. Between the rough water, strong current, and too advanced nature of the first dive – none of us enjoyed it much. The second dive was a bit better, Dan certainly enjoyed shooting a lionfish with a spear gun. But our dive guides totally didn’t pay attention to us and Katheryn ran completely out of air! I about had a nervous breakdown that she was going to drown... But she made it up. The worst part came when we stopped on a little island for lunch. There my father had the misfortune of stepping on a plank on the dock that gave way. He got hurt quite badly and ended up with a massive hematoma. So my parent’s last night in Belize was spent in the ER of a sketchy hospital in Dangiura. They weren’t able to perform the surgery he needed there, so they bandaged him up and we headed for home. Luckily my dad is a tough cookie and made it through 3 flights in excruciating pain (though him being in a wheel chair acted as a “fast pass” getting us to the front of all customs lines). He got to St. George and was able to be treated and is at home recovering.

With the exception of the ill-fated dive day and my poor dad’s accident, overall we had an amazing time together. 

One might even say, it was UNBELIZABLE! Thank You Mom and Dad!