OUR FIRST LONG WEEKEND

Two weeks into my new gig here in Belize, and we’ve already had our first 3-day weekend.  We took advantage of the extra day to get out of Belmopan for our first opportunity to explore what lies beyond our little town.  Our friends from Portland, Mike and Deb, were wrapping up a vacation in Guatemala by visiting San Pedro, Belize for a couple days, and so we headed out to meet up with them.  San Pedro is on Ambergris Caye, the largest of the Belize cayes, and while it is reachable via a drive to Belize City and a water taxi from there, we opted to fly in order to save time and get more time at the beach. 

Fun fact!  Belmopan DOES have an airport… or, more accurately, a small air strip and a 10x10 shed that serves as the check-in/waiting room.  And we did have a bit of a wait.  Our flight was scheduled to leave around 9am Saturday morning, but the humidity tends to make mornings here very hazy, so we had to wait about an hour for it to burn off enough to allow our 6-person plane – YES, 6 person plane – to land.

The Belmopan "airport"

Le plane!  Le plane!

Once we were up in the air, it was a 20-minute flight to Belize City and then another 20-minute jump to San Pedro.  The teeny tiny plane afforded us some awesome views of the jungle around Belmopan and the gorgeous coastal waters as we neared San Pedro.  Worth the cost of the flight itself!

On board Tropic Air - kind of like Belize's version of Uber.

Looking over the jungle on our way out of Belmopan...

...and over the cayes as we near San Pedro.

Once in San Pedro, we met up Mike and Deb and found a good spot for a cocktail (I mean, it was almost lunchtime, after all) and a bite to eat.  We also walked around little San Pedro town a bit.  It is one of the biggest tourist towns in Belize, and there was no shortage of hostels and hotels, bars, and restaurants to cater to everyone.  The majority of the locals and visitors get around town on golf carts, which definitely gives the town a distinctive feel.  Our hotel room had a distinctive feel as well, since in addition to an awesome view of the waterfront, we also overlooked the beachfront cemetery next door.  

Rush hour in San Pedro.

Golf cart parking along the main drag in San Pedro.

Day drinking with Mike and Deb.

Our room with a view.

Our room provided spectacular views of the sunrise...

...as well as spectacular views of the cemetery.

Not all of the cemetery residents were of the human variety.

The biggest tourist draws are scuba and snorkeling, and we did a half-day trip to do some snorkeling ourselves.  The second longest barrier reef in the world (after the Great Barrier Reef) lies along the Belize coast, and the snorkeling was amazing!  The water was incredibly clear, and we saw all manner of tropical fish, eel, barracuda, a hawksbill sea turtle… even nurse sharks and stingrays.  It was probably the best snorkeling I’ve ever experienced. 

I don't have any photos of our snorkeling trip... but I do have this one of Andrew climbing a coconut tree.

Ambergris Caye is very long in the north-to-south direction, but San Pedro is only about 3 blocks wide, so we walked west to the lagoon side of the caye to take in the incredible sunset on our last night there.

There's something magical about tropical sunsets.

After a lovely long weekend at the beach, we boarded a (slightly larger) 12-passenger plane back to our new jungle home.  But more adventures await!  Another perk of this job… we observe all the Belize AND US national holidays, which means there will be many more 3-day weekends to come.