Today’s blog adventure doesn’t involve any tutorials or images from paid shoots, instead, I’m going to post some shots from a recent personal adventure. I had the pleasure of going to Belize for 8 days at the end of May.
Thanks to the kindness of a friend, we we’re able to stay free of charge at a lovely resort on the island of Ambergris Caye. This was my first real vacation in a couple of years and I really couldn’t have asked for a better one.
Most of my travel these days tends to revolve around attending a wedding, which is always lots of fun, but it’s nice to get away for a week when there is truly nothing to do.
We flew into mainland Belize and then took a two hour ferry to Ambergris Caye, which is an island of about 25 miles long, by one mile wide. There is essentially no car traffic on the island and everyone gets from place to place via golf cart or bike.
Island exploration, drinking and eating were a huge portion of our trip. English is the official language so there are no communication barriers. Everyone is incredibly friendly and eager to chat to you about their lives. It’s a really fascinating mix of ex-pats and people who have lived on the island for their whole lives. The food is amazing, not to mention a carrot-based hot sauce that we all fell in love with. Seriously, try it. Marie Sharp’s. It’s on amazon and you won’t regret it. We also had the pleasure of attending chef’s table at Pirate’s Treasure where Maresha cooked us the most delicious three course meal, using local ingredients. It was all amazing, but the Lionfish was the highlight.
For the first two days we settled in and explored the area near the resort, as well as San Pedro (which is the town on the island). On our third day we went on a snorkeling day trip and swam in the beautiful coral reef, before we moved on to dive down and swim with a manatee, and later, sharks, sting rays and a barracuda. I wish I could produce images from our underwater adventures, but the underwater housing for my camera is just a touch out of my price range.
The next day we awoke at 6am, exhausted, but ready for another adventure. The day’s trip was to Lamanai, Mayan ruins hidden in the jungle in the north of Belize. We took an hour-long boat trip, followed by a brief stop in the Village of Bomba. After spending time in the village and buying some souvenirs we continued by climbing aboard a bus for an hour-long ride, and then another hour-long boat ride to reach our destination. Despite being quite touristy, the site was worth the wait and our guide was wonderfully knowledgeable and hilarious. Plus, we were treated to an amazing lunch of stewed chicken and rice and some fried plantains, which I could eat forever.
The final days were spent exploring the island more. It’s a small place, but I still feel like I only scratched the surface on all the things I wanted to do, both on the island and off. We did find the “secret beach,” which is, in fact, not that secret. All of the locals are very familiar with it. Still, it involves a 20 minute trek by golf cart through what look to be scenes from the latest Mad Max movie. It took us two tries through totally abandoned dirt trails to find it, but I’m so glad we did. At the end of a small pier is a perfectly aqua colored lagoon, with an island in the far distance. Rumor has it, it belongs to Leonardo DiCaprio, but Leo has not confirmed with me directly. There were only about 4 other people there, so I guess it’s still a bit of a secret.
Sadly, all good things must come to an end. On Saturday we took a 20 minute 8 seater flight from Ambergris back to the mainland and boarded a large plane back to reality. I would go back in a heartbeat.
Below are a few images from the experience:
