Belize Day 3--Placenciaaaaaahhhhhh

Our third day in Belize was all about enjoying the beach at Placencia. As soon as I caught a glimpse of the beach and these chairs, I wanted to move here.

Placencia is on a peninsula and is absolutely gorgeous!  Evin and Tony live a short 10 minute boat ride from here, and Tony's brother owns the best bar on the beach, the Tipsy Tuna.

We had seen a lot of really cool stuff in the previous days, so we wanted to take this day to just chill out and enjoy the beach.

First thing's first.  Breakfast.  Tony and Evin took us to eat at Da Thach.  It was a great little beach restaurant that served the best breakfast burrito I had ever tasted. Instead of a tortilla, they used flat bread. And as a side item, fry jacks, which are essentially sopapillas served with jelly or beans. Who would have thought...jelly on a sopapilla.  Well let me tell ya, I've been missing out!

Next on the agenda...sit around and do nothing. And that's all we did all the live long day.

The beach and sand are beautiful, and it was totally cool to sit there and enjoy the view, Tipsy Tuna food an beverages and the sound of the ocean. To read my review of the Tipsy Tuna on Trip Advisor, click here.

I paid enough for the pedicure, so I had to show it off.

Tony sliced us up a lovely bunch of coconuts.
We drank the coconut milk.

Reading on the beach

Awake from my nap. 

Following a day on the beach, we had to go experience the town. We enjoyed a great crab dinner with Tony's brother and sister in law, had some wonderful gellato, and then went to the Purple Space Monkey for karaoke. Evin and I paid homage to our motherland with a performance of Oklahoma. More importantly, Scott sang!  He did a lovely "Amarillo by Morning." Evin and Tony sang "Summer Lovin." How fitting.

Belize Day 2--Cave Tubing & Ruins

We woke up to a woodpecker beating on our shutters. I thought it was Evin, so I yelled at it. 

We had breakfast in the hotel's restaurant. It’s been a while since I’ve had pancakes, and although these were not as good as Scott’s or McDonalds’, these were still mighty tasty.

Next we went to the Mayan ruin, Xunantunich.  According to the Internet, which is always reliable, it’s the second tallest Mayan structure in Belize and was used by the ancient Mayans as a ceremonial center.  It was allegedly abandoned after an earthquake.

To get to the ruin, we had to take a hand cranked ferry across the Mopan River. The man in charge of the ferry was more than happy to let a couple of dorky tourists run the ship.

Over the river and through the woods, followed by a pretty good uphill hike to get to the ruins, we saw an impressive ancient city. It was absolutely incredible. To think the ancient Mayans built that temple is so hard to belive! No cranes or bulldozers. Just man power. 

We climbed to the top of the Castillo, which was where archaeologists say was where the Mayan priests lived. There are replicas of reliefs on the sides of the building. The complex also included residences and a sports field.

The reliefs on the side of the Castillo are replicas.

The actual artwork is on display in a museum.

Looking straight down. Yikes!

Historians think these may have been the
residences within the Castillo.

The rest of the complex from the Castillo.

We climbed to the top of the ruin and could see the Guatemala border from there. 

Guatemala in the distance

It was quite a hike up to the top and we were amused to find no guardrails near the top. Scott and Evin were a bit more daring than me.

For someone that is as accident-prone as me, I stayed as far away from the edge as possible. I have to admit, it made me a bit nervous.

But I got a little more brave. After all, we were on a mission to find our 2011 Christmas card.

This one won't make it. I'm holding my head funny.

Probably won't use this one either.
It might make it into a frame.

In an attempt for a funny picture, I got a little more brave. I always wondered...if you climb on the ruin, does it ruin it?

Next on the agenda—cave tubing!  I LOVED it! Sadly we don’t have pictures. I made the mistake one time of taking a camera on a tubing trip down the Guadalupe River and was not about to sacrifice another camera to the river. I took a waterproof camera, but the pictures were too dark to post. Although we had to hike a long way with our tubes, we got to see some rainforest. The caves had stalactites, stalagmites, waterfalls, and other very interesting rock formations. Our guide took us back into some secret parts of the cave to see some ancient Mayan pottery. I highly recommend doing this.

On our way to Placencia, we drove through Belmopan, the capitol city of Belize. The capitol was in Belize City, but after a hurricane wiped out the city years ago, they decided it would be safer to have the capitol further inland. The photo below is of the Beliziean president's office. He doesn't live there, but does all of his work there.

Belieze's version of the White House.

Next we drove to Placencia and enjoyed a night at the Tipsy Tuna, Tony’s brother’s bar. It is right on the beach and is awesome. The place includes an indoor sports bar complete with sand floors; an outdoor beach bar with an outdoor dance floor; beach chairs, and a yummy grill. The place was so awesome that we returned the next day and sat by the beach all day long.

Belizean Adventure Day 1

For those of you that don’t know, my baby sister, Evin, now lives in Belize. She lives in a small village about two hours from Belize City and 10 minutes from the beach. Her boyfriend, Tony, is a banana and citrus farmer. Since we now have a free place to vacation, and we have never gone anywhere for spring break, we decided to pay her a visit.

Evin and Tony met us at the airport and promptly whisked us to a hole-in-the-wall that allegedly had the best banana shakes in Belize. I think they could have given Braum’s a run for their money. So delicious!! We drove around Belize City for a while. It's very much a Central American, developing city. Some parts were pretty sketchy while others, particularly the oceanfront, were nice.

We then drove to Cayo, which is a region of the country. We stayed at a very nice cabin in San Ignacio called the Windy Hill Resort. It was just beautiful there. We had dinner in the hotel's restaurant, which was very good. Good service, and good menu, especially for the price.

Plants and landscaping at the Windy Hill Resort.

That night we went into San Ignacio to the Stork Club (funny name, I know). We were the only people there when we arrived; so to liven the joint, Evin and I did a stirring rendition of “Does he Love You” by Reba McEntire and Linda Davis. 

Since I'm the big sister, I got to be Reba.

I later sang “Walkin after Midnight” and “Vogue.” Evin sang “Stand By Your Man.”

Sometimes it's hard to be a woman.

Since the crowd was small, Scott considered singing, but alas, he backed out. But his bashfulness did not last long. More details to come in a future post!

Remember Scotty, I'm the star, you're the manager.

Exactly two other patrons entered the bar and they attempted karaoke, but they were really just stealing our thunder. One of they guys started singing “I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston and insisted that we sing it with him. He was shoving the microphone in our faces and was rather obnoxious.

What part of "I don't want to sing with you"
does he not understand???

Other than Captain Creepy, we had a great time! And I discovered that my relatives are sweetening up this little country. Go Goss Chocolate!

See my review of the Windy Hill Resort by clicking here.