Greetings from Belize!

[450knotOffice]

So my wife and I are spending a week here in Belize. We got here on Saturday late afternoon after taking a flight to DFW and then on to Belize City, finally hopping on a single engine Cessna turboprop called a Caravan. We landed on a sidewalk, er, I mean runway, in Dangriga and then took a 30 minute car ride over dusty pot-holed roads to a nice quiet resort just outside Hopkins. We are staying in a little cabin up about 15 feet on stilts in the jungle, which runs right up to the beach here (this is a coastal resort).

So far we've relaxed for a couple of days, but tomorrow are going diving at 7:45 in the morning on the barrier reef just off shore. Can't wait!

We've biked all over the place in the mornings and had a great, very inexpensive meal outside at this little hole in the wall place in Hopkins while listening to four guys who had a little too much beer pound on their drums and maracas, while making up the rythmic words as they went. It was actually really cool. We enjoyed it.

My wife and I are getting hammered by the mosquitoes and "no-see-ums", but are trying to keep them at bay with the "off" spray. Oh well, that's the way it goes Central America. We got hammered last year too in Panama.

Anyway, we're having agreat time and I've known many of you personally and through this forum for many years now, so I thought you might like to know of my adventures.

Photos so far:

[Superman]

I went to Belize in May. Ambergris Caye. The diving is indescribable. Dive the Great Blue Hole.

[tcar]

I was told (it works) by one of the natives in Belize several years ago to take a B12 pill evey AM and PM.

Mosquitos hate the smell of your B12 sweat.

Flew around in a Cessna Caravan also.

We also went up in the jungle near Guatamala and did ruins. Very cool.

Diving is fantastic.

[Hugh R]

Ok, Ok, I get it!! I'll take a B12 pill!!!

Have a nice time, looks great.

[old man neri]

Originally Posted by tcar

I was told (it works) by one of the natives in Belize several years ago to take a B12 pill evey AM and PM.

Mosquitos hate the smell of your B12 sweat.

I searched it and found conflicting reports. Didn't end up taking it myself, just used deet.

We also went up in the jungle near Guatemala and did ruins. Very cool.

Diving is fantastico.

Spent a month there by myself with a backpack, it was an awesome place, OP, if you get the chance travel through, it will cost next to nothing.

-matt

[Porsche virgin]

Looks like fun. Please post a picture of your cabin and your view!

[JeremyD]

Good for you Scott - enjoy your time. One of my fraternity buddies just got a one year assignment there - I'm going to try and arrange a trip to see him.

[charleskieffner]

[QUOTE=tcar;4127535]I was told (it works) by one of the natives in Belize several years ago to take a B12 pill evey AM and PM.

Mosquitos hate the smell of your B12 sweat.

Flew around in a Cessna Caravan also.

We also went up in the jungle near Guatamala and did ruins. Very cool.

Diving is fantastic.[/Q

"diving is fantastic" you suck big time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


here i am sweating my huevos off at werk, and then i come home and sweat some more rebuilding 2 outbuildings, getting juan ready for stucco(new t-111,tar paper, drip edge, schicken wire) 50 bazzillion whacks with a stanley bostich stapler, sweating my brains out(dying here), humidity thru the roof, not enough beer, and you have the huevos to tell us about yer lil jaunt to freeeeeeking BELIZE!

you truly are a dirty rotten scoundrel!!!!

dive yer brains out, take a million underwater pics, wear a computer cuz youll be in the repetitive dive tables im sure. check rental gear functions (3) times to be safe. do NOT TRUST RENTAL GEAR! ask me how i know, and how much i pay each and every dive trip on overweight dive bags stuffed with 3 cameras/2-strobes/bc/regs/suits/gloves/booties/masks etc.

have read and heard a 1000 stories on how WAYYY COOL BELIZE diving is!!!!

fer sure on my "bucket list".

break the FUN BARRIER!

i want unta-wata pics!

[daepp]

More photos!

[David]

We were in Belize a month ago today. We stayed on Cocoplum Caye, about 10 miles offshore from Dangriga.

Have a Belikin at King Cassava for me

Cocoplum:

[David]

BTW, that runway looks familiar:

[The Gaijin]

Originally Posted by Hugh R

Ok, Ok, I get it!! I'll take a B12 pill!!!

Have a nice time, looks great.

I thought it was B1? My dad swears by it.

[450knotOffice]

Two dives today. Great time. Dove up to and just off of a wall today. No underwater camera unfortunately.

More to come.

[Superman]

Here are a couple of my Belize pics. Next time......I'm taking an underwater camera. for sure!







And as a bonus, here's one of me in an old-fashioned wool bathing suit. I bet you guys didn't know I was a fashion model.

[widgeon13]

Did you change in the phone booth??

[DanL911sc]

All I gotta ask is: what are you doing in front of a computer when you're in a place like that??

[David]

Originally Posted by DanL911sc

All I gotta ask is: what are you doing in front of a computer when you're in a place like that??

I was wondering the same thing. One of the big draws for us is absolutely no contact with work, home, news, etc.

I think Dolly grazed us the last night we were there and we didn't know how bad it would be. It felt like 50-60 mph winds on the island.

[azasadny]

David,
Have a great time and get off the computer!

[450knotOffice]

Wednesday.

The great thing (among many) has been that I haven't seen a TV since we arrived here on Saturday afternoon. It's refreshing to pull away from the news of the world once in a while and just relax. As for sitting in front of a computer...well hey, that's what a laptop is great for, right? Mobility. It's 4:35 right now and I'm actually sitting out by the pool and ocean enjoying a glass of wine and some chips and salsa. The wind is blowing about 10 to 12 knots right now, straight off the ocean and it's a humid 80ish degrees. I'm actually sitting on a Chaise lounge in the shade of a coconut palm, so the sun isn't beating down on me. It actually reminds me of my years living in South Florida (climate and ocean anyway). So, sitting with my laptop in front of me is just fine. It allows me to check in on my favorite cyber-world - Pelican.

Today we went out into the jungle of Belize in the mountains, which are about 10 miles inland. The group (six of us) hiked through the always amazing jungle and stopped frequently to look at and learn a little about some of the plants and animals in there. We checked out the ever-common leaf cutter ants and their amazing little trails of what appear to be walking leaves. We learned a little about the termite "homes" that are built right onto the sides of trees up off the forest floor, in some cases almost up at the canopy level. We saw some amazing butterflies, saw many, many different kinds of colorful birds, and even stumbled right up on a big tarantula resting on the little trail, just outside his hole. I took a few pictures of him while the guide took a short 10" long stick with a leaf on the end and offered it to the spider, which promptly jumped on it , apparently thinking it might be a moth or something like that. Then, the spider decided something wasn't right and dashed back into his hole, but the guide was able to lure him out with the stick and leaf again, like a fishing line. It was a pretty cool experience. My wife wouldn't come anywhere near it.

The preserve is also home to about 60 to 80 Jaguars (in fact, they are the reason for the preserve), but they are mostly nocturnal creatures, so we didn't sight any. We did hear howler monkeys a few hundred yards away, but didn't see them (this time, anyway. My wife and I have seen them up close and personal in Costa Rica and in Honduras).

Tomorrow I'll start the day with another two dives in the morning. I'm hoping to see some sea turtles and spotted Eagle rays this time. I saw one on the wall yesterday, but it was down a little deeper and was just cruising by.

Ah, paradise. Gotta love it. (but, I'm still thinking about that roll bar that Dave B. at TRE is going to make for my black car next month and the R-comp tires I'm buying for my newly acquired "track" wheels after that. And, of course, I brought the Porsche magazines.)

My wife on the trail


A waterfall and pool that we hiked to


The tarantula


In between dives yesterday

[David]

Glad to hear you're having a great time. Belize is a great place to vacation if you can deal with everything happening on Belize time, which means it may or may not happen

A few pics from our trip in July:


Here's a shot of one of the peirs on Cocoplum:



A pic my wife took from that peir of my friend and me coming back to the island on a Hobie we rented in Hopkins:




A pic from our cabana looking out at the other cabanas: