My Winter Break Trip, Belize

Hey everyone! I hope your winter has been going fine. During break I had the chance to go to Belize with Woods Around the World again, let me tell you it was a lot warmer there then it is here right now. Like my last post when I went to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands, I will be sharing my travels with you. Also, if you've never flown international, go and check out my post about international travel. 

December 29th, 2017
This was our travel day, we left campus around 3:30am and ended up in Belize around 230pm. While at the airport in St. Louis we had a head up that we might have to pay for luggage but we might not either. Well it turns out we did have to pay for luggage, $25 to get it to Belize and another $25 to get it back to the states. As it turns out you're only allowed to pay with Credit/Debit cards. They have this little converter where you can turn you cash into a card. Travis (our group leader) paid for Lindy and I's bags to be sent to Belize so we went and converted some money. We had to pay $5 for the card itself then $25 for our luggage on the way back. This time my baggage weighed 17 pounds while on my last trip it weighed 18 pounds. For the flights I had this amazing book, Turtles All the Way Down by John Green, definitely a book worth reading. 

Left to right: Bee, Nic, Me, Lindy, Brittney, Abby

On the flight to Belize I had the window seat, the guy in the middle seat was as you would say, "A chatty Cathy" the entire flight with the girl on the isle and the two men in front of us, learning all he could about Belize in that short amount of time. As our plane was getting ready to land, if the windows opened we could have touched the clouds. 
We all made it through customs and once through we met our tour director Ken Thompson, who on the bus taught us a little bit about the history of the island and his language was Creole, African not French Creole. We stopped at this nice little store called, Little Joe's and purchased things for the hotel and anything we forgot. 

December 30th 2017
Today was the day we went and saw the Myan Ruins. We had to take a boat from our hotel which the ride was about an hour and a half to get there. Once there we visited 3 temple sites, the Masked Temple, High Hill, and Jaguar Temple all were incredible, and they have a nice history behind them. We could climb up Masked Temple and High Hill, but we could not on Jaguar Temple because it started to down pour and that made the rocks too slippery and unsafe. 

After visiting Jaguar Temple we went and saw the old Sugar Mill which exploded and the remains of the building are still there. 

We had an opportunity to go into town and see how it operates, which was nice and it helped that the town was only 10 minutes from our hotel. Ken took us all to this taco shop which is small, but they make them right in front of you and apparently people travel from Belize City to get these tacos. 

When we got back to our hotel we found out the hotel offered Night Crocodile hunting, with a research team that tags the crocodiles and releases them back into the water for $35, so many of us took them up on that offer and went out. We left at 7:30pm and came back to our hotel at 10pm, we caught 1, he was about 2 years old and we named him Callaway. We also spotted others but we could not catch them, which was disappointing, but still an amazing experience. 

December 31st, 2017 
We left hotel number one today and traveled to our next stop. Along the way though we stopped and had a survival hike. Through this hike we learned how to survive in the jungle with what we could find. 
Our second stop was at the Baboon Sanctuary, it's really not Baboons, but Howler Monkey, they were just known as Baboons for the longest time. We saw a male, 2 mommas with babies, and the alfa male. The alfa male ended up pooping and peeing on a few of the people because they were standing right underneath him, it was on accident though. 

Our third stop was my favorite was at the place we did zip lining and an unexpected cave tubing offer. We did 6 zip lines and 3 hikes which was not bad it was over the jungle which was an impeccable view. The cave tubing lasted for 2 hours and that was also a lot of fun. Not many people did it, but it was relaxing. On the way to the place we were going to be starting out cave tubing, we had a 25-minute hike and I ended up eating a termite. The termite tasted like lemon grass and they're also high in protein. Once we got to our location we could jump off rocks and so I jumped off rocks and that was great! Tonight was also the last day in the year and so we stayed up until midnight and we watched the fireworks go off for 10 minutes then went to bed. 

January 01, 2018
We went to the second Mayan Ruins today which was the Xunantunich Ruins which is also the Plaza. We climbed the the 2nd highest Ruins and from the very top you can see Guatemala. After the ruins we went to this Restaurant called Benny's and we were given these burritos and they were heavenly. Leah, Olivia, and I went and bought a chocolate milkshake which was actually real chocolate. 

Today was also the day we went to the history center where the butterflies were. On the way up to center we could not touch any of the tress because they were poisonous. I had several butterflies land on me and Lacey (not the other writer for Friends at the Woods) had many land on her, she was the butterfly queen. We then had to leave the butterfly place after an hour and we went to another superstore and bought more snacks and drinks

for the next hotel. We then had time for the rest of the night, so I chilled out in my room. 

January 2nd 2018
Today was our last day on the main land!! Today we went to the zoo which houses 45 native species of Belize and it mostly houses rescue and animals that have been used in documentaries. At the zoo we were able to be in a cage within a jaguar cage and we were able to encounter it. 
After the zoo we had to race to the ferry. This ferry was an hour and a half ride and it was not comfortable at all! Hard seat, bumpy ride and rain. At San Pedro we ended up on have 2 people per room and that was really nice. Hannah and I ended up sharing a room together and we had an extra bed for our suitcases to sit on. We put our stuff in our room and went out to the beach and walked around and collected shells. After dinner there was a crab race and we watched the first one and headed back to our hotel. Hannah and I grabbed our flashlights and went walking the beach shoreline. We headed away from the crab races and hotel and walked a good half mile then we walked back. On our way to the other side of the shoreline we stopped and watched the second crab races. We were getting ready to leave and Mitchell ended up coming with us and we saw a giant hermit crab in a conch shell, 2 squids, and 3 sea urchins. 

January 3rd 2018

Today was our water activities day. We were supposed to do seatrek, which is walking on the sea floor, but the boat that does seatrek was damaged. We went snorkeling at the Belize Reef which is the 2nd largest reef in the world. After the snorkeling we went back to the hotel, and we had 2 hours. I sat outside for an hour and I ended up getting fried. We then went out and did snuba which is snorkeling and scuba at the same time, we did this at the Mexican rocks. 
Once we got back to the hotel some of us went into town and got homemade ice cream, I got Salted Carmel, and it was pretty good. We also went to some shops before dinner. 

January 4th 2018
Today was our last day on the island. Hannah, Lindy, and I went into town at 9:15 am and we went to some more shops and explored the area. We found our way to the French bakery and I had a vanilla cannoli which was great! We headed back to the hotel at 11 and once we got back we changed and went to the beach and laid in the hammocks and played with the owner’s dogs, Jambo, Gizmo, and Jeger. We just hung out at the beach all day. We bought wristbands to play on the water slides and trampolines, but we never actually did that... 

January 5th 2018
Today we took the ferry back to the mainland then we flew back to the states. At the airport in Belize I tried to pay for my bag with the card I got at the other airport and guess what? The card didn't work, so I had to pay with cash. So, all together I paid $80 for my bag. On the flight from St. Louis to home I had the entire row to myself on the plane and that was pretty nice being able to stretch out. 

I hope you all enjoyed my "little" post about my big trip and that you don't hate me for the warm weather. I was sending warm thoughts the entire time! 

Until the ‘morrow we will speak again

~Megan