We took off from our Lima hotel at 2am to make our 5am flight to Belize City. We ended up not going to sleep since we would’ve only gotten a couple of hours any way. Another decent sized travel day. We flew from Lima to Panama City to San Salvador to Belize City. Stayed in a little guesthouse for the night and then headed to Altun Ha, the closest Mayan ruins to Belize City. It’s older than the Incan ruins that we saw and very well preserved.
Belize is definitely the hottest location we’ve been. Well, it was probably a little hotter in Goa but the humidity here is insane. Not complaining though because it’s perfect swimming weather. It’s also refreshing that the national language is English, something we weren’t expecting. Another nice thing is that the Belizean dollar is 2:1 to the US dollar. Not that anything is super cheap though…
We enjoyed seeing the ruins, but got completed eaten up by mosquitoes at Altun Ha as it’s surrounded by thick jungle. After seeing the ruins we caught the water taxi to San Pedro island and then took another 30 minute boat ride to our remote hotel on Ambergris Key. The resort is amazing and I can’t stop humming the Madonna song about San Pedro…”la isla bonita.” Again, we felt like we had the place completely to ourselves. There are fun activities like snorkeling, fishing and hiking. We basically planted ourselves here for 6 days with a couple of trips back to San Pedro for groceries.
Our resort is called Sapphire and is in the midst of different phases of construction. Luckily we didn’t hear any construction. They are sets of condos steps from the beach and all of the guests either own or are just renting for a week or two. We met a few couples who were here scouting out second home locations. Still, the place is fairly empty, which is fine with us! Certainly lots of mosquitoes that quickly found me, as usual, but nothing a little bug spray can’t handle. There are also sand flies/fleas that are tiny but have a nasty bite.
We did a couple of long hikes along the coastline. The first couple of days the water was a bit rough, but it’s super shallow for long distances and a gorgeous turquoise blue. There is a huge barrier reef a half mile or so out in the ocean that is a perfectly straight line of breaking waves.
Belize and our entire trip has been one of the most rewarding experiences of our lives and we are so grateful to have been able to do this together for a second time in 8 years. We're ready to come home but will never forget this trip of a lifetime!