Do You Belize in Love?

And so we begin the recounting of our adventures in Belize & Guatemala. I've been trying to figure out the best way to do it and I think I'll talk about everything chronologically. I'm debating whether or not to put everything in one or two or three HUGE posts or to break it up even more. We'll see.

I kept a log of a few trip quotes, as well as wrote some journal entries or blips describing various events. I will intersperse them throughout the post(s).

The travel day went pretty smoothly and it was very exciting. Though it makes me ill and uncomfortable to fly, I love airports and I love using my passport. Our flight left at 6am, thus we arrived at the airport at 4am, thus we woke up at 2:30am, after having gone to bed at 12:30am. We were off to a good, giddy, and loopy start.

Airport quote in Charlotte, NC

Walking through the terminals among all the airport food stands.

SEAN: Sometimes my OCD-ness tells me to never eat food again.

When we arrived in Belize City we were met with a kind lady who told us two can travel.


(Ok, that's me in the picture. I am not schizo. We snapped this pic when the lady was off making further arrangements for us.)

I knew I liked Belize when I saw their vast selection of t-shirt puns using "Belize" any way they could. Here is an example, which is the title of this post:


Then it was time to get on the tiny plane.





I'd never been on a tiny plane before and was very excited. However, I was also frustrated because I have this annoying claustrophobia problem as well as an annoying motion sickness problem and I knew there was a good chance they would get in the way of my excitement. This is a picture of me being excited/nervous.


We sat in the front behind the cockpit.



The view was crazy cool.





I'm beginning to love small airports. This was the one in San Pedro.


San Pedro is a tiny narrow village that consists of 3 long streets and several hotels. The roads are cobbley, the shops are small and dusty, and everyone gets around via golf cart. Some are in vans but most are in carts, or on bikes, or feet. Our greeter from our hotel gave us a tour of the town before taking us to Caribbean Villas. We took a trip to the grocery store to stock up on water and breakfast items to put in our fridge in the room.




This is our beach.

Beach quote

SEAN, whilst painting with his cute watercolor set: Why would I ever paint in anything that isn't purple?

San Pedro is a bit more touristy than we thought/hoped. Fortunately our hotel was kind of on the edge of town, away from the noise and people.

My favorite thing to do on beach vacations is to sit on the beach and read for hours and hours and hours.
There is a lizard on this coconut tree. Can you see it?

Beach quote

SEAN, looking at the pictures on the camera: Why do I look like Stephen Hawking in all of these pictures?

After we get tired of lazing, we might be a little hungry. So we'd walk along the beach to where all the beach front restaurants are and eat delicious food and drink tropical drinks all the live long day. As hot as it was, there's something I really like about being in the sun & being sticky and sweaty all the time and wearing a swimsuit nonstop. You're just sitting in your sticky sweatiness and for some reason, I love it. The air was so humid and thick with salt. You are sticky regardless of if you sweat or not and you are totally saturated in the saltiness. But that sea air makes you feel oh so good.

The expression on my face is supposed to depict how hot I am, mid-panting, but being happy at the same time.


The food was delicioso. We had a mix of Latin food and American. Normally I recoil at a lot of touristy stuff and want to enjoy the real "foreign" experience, or just be completely isolated. But we were in a touristy place so we just embraced it.





I cannot convey to you how much I loved these shrimp kabobs. I think I literally gasped when I bit into them, (and gladly did not choke--eating and gasping can be a bad combo. Can be.) because they were A-MAZING. I do not love shrimp. I am not a shrimp lover. But these coconut shrimp in a pool of sweet and tart sauce of dreams were phenomenal. So sweet and crispy on the outside and juicy and buttery on the inside. Oh heavens. I got them twice.

This picture was taken before eating, when I still lived in ignorance of the bliss and beauty that are the coconut shrimp kabob.


This picture was the 2nd time and when I knew. And as you can see, I wanted to make the kabobs last so I started eating some carrot string.

Dinner dialogue

SEAN: "This cake kicks the butt off that key lime pie we had last night."

JEN: *long pause* "Did you just say kicks the butt OFF the key lime pie?"

SEAN: "yeah."

JEN: "That makes no sense."

SEAN: "Sure it does."

JEN: "Kicks the butt OFF? No. That isn't said. Makes zero sense."

SEAN: "It makes medium sense."

JEN: "Haha, what?? That's a Jen thing to say."

SEAN: "Just trying to speak your language so you'll understand."

haha...punk.


Another dinner quote

JEN: "Ohhh I am SO FULL. I can NOT eat another bite--hey, is that mashed potatoes?" *reaches over to Sean's plate.*

SEAN: "Yes, and are you crazy?"

having a beverage at our hotel.


This is a picture of Maria and Bernardo, the kids who kept trying to sell us things. We probably should have purchased something but didn't. They were cute. They were intrigued by Sean's painting and requested a partcular picture. Sean painted them a picture of a boat (and a rainbow). We couldn't find them when we were leaving so we left it with another vendor who gave us her word she would give it to the kids.


...to be continued.