Un-BELIZE-able

Thomas and I celebrated our TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY this spring! This was a big one and we wanted to do something really special to celebrate. We were debating on a trip and where we would want to go. One of his friends had just gone to Belize and spoke very highly of it, and it sounded exotic and "off the beaten path" so we took the plunge and went. And it was just as incredible as we were expecting it to be. We absolutely, unequivocally, completely fell in love with Belize! I highly, highly recommend it to anyone looking for a fun vacation spot!

We had a small army of alternating helpers that came to our house to keep the boys for us while we were gone. We had Thomas's aunt Fifi; my aunts, the Nanas; and then MaSha was the overall constant and stayed the whole week and kept everything running. We were and are so immensely grateful for all of the sweet ladies for letting us do this!

At the airport and READY TO GO!

We landed in the mainland at the quaint little airport in Belize City and then waited to hop on a tiny puddle jumper plane to go to Ambergris Caye, where we were staying. 

Enjoying a Belikin at the airport

Boarding pass for little plane LOL

Teeny plane!

Our plane (I was in the very back)

Off we go!
I couldn't stop staring out the window!!!

The most beautiful water!

Gorgeous Belize!

Waiting for us at our hotel. <3

Balcony overlooking the pool

Hotel

ahhhhh

Cute hubby

Love birds

First morning in Belize

Waiting on the water taxi to take us to town to rent a golf cart!

We rented a golf cart and used it all week to get around the island. Most people are just driving golf carts around and it was so fun!

San Pedro, Belize

In love with Belize already

First stop: Hurricanes

Yasssss

I'll just be here all day. Bartender, keep the
drinks coming!

Life is good.

A great way to relax

Lunch @ PUR. Loved this place

yummy!

Chillin' on the golf cart

Blue Bayou at Secret Beach

Picnic tables in the water - coolest bar

We loved this bar. It was supposedly a
"local favorite" as well.

The clear, shallow water goes on forever.
You can just keep walking and walking.
So cool. 

Take note.

So many selfies! ;)

Truck Stop was a place with several food trucks, a bar,
a stage for live music/games, an outdoor movie and a dock.
What else could you possibly need?

hot tub at hotel after a super fun day!

Breakfast at Estel's by the sea. Perfection.

yes, please!
Fry Jacks, a Belizean specialty

Beach-front massage time

Had to check it out!

Yep, we had to.

Stopped here to find gifts for our peeps back home!

Artisan Market

ROJO BAR - it gets its own description. It's way out of the way, not downtown. You have to make an effort to go here. But it is SO worth it. It was one of the many, many highlights of this vacation. I was a bit obsessed with this place!

Entrance to Rojo Bar, which
is seriously one of my fave
bars in the entire world.
Loved it so much & tried to go
back once later in the week
and it was closed!

Don't mind if I do!

We asked another person in the pool to take a pic for us.
Incidentally, she was an Alabama fan, no kidding!
She was not too happy to take this picture, but begrudgingly did it.
GO TIGERS

Conch fritters

Hello, there, bar parrot!

So perfect

This does not do the water justice. It was
beautiful!

Inside the grotto at hotel pool

Happy Hour at Croc's to catch the sunset

We had dinner at Juvenie's, a local place
with INCREDIBLE ceviche!

Possibly my favorite meal! 

Truck Stop visit #2!
We just stopped by on our way back to the hotel!

Too much fun LOL

Our snorkeling excursion was the next morning. An unfortunate thing happened. My "waterproof" iPhone case, purchased for my brand new phone, was not acting very waterproof. It may partially be because we took quite a few videos at the hotel pool the day before while jumping off the rock grotto and going down the big pool slide with the phone to "test it out". Worked perfectly at hotel pool. During snorkeling? Not so much. I had planned on taking tons of cool pictures of all the marine life in Belize!!! In real life, I was so preoccupied with trying not to let my phone get too wet that I didn't even really get to embrace the snorkeling. Not cool. Also, it was not the sunniest day, so the colors were muted and we unfortunately didn't see any turtles. We saw lots of fish and sharks though! I only got a few decent pictures.

Example of pic when phone case had water in it. URGH.

That afternoon we took a water ferry over to Caye Caulker to go check it out. 

Hahahahaha

I jumped off this big wall into the water at
The Split a few times. The current is
really strong here!

Having a ball!

Sign for the Lazy Lizard bar

Another sign pic

Yet another one LOL

Gotta love Belize

Hammock time!

Jenga!

Another fun day in paradise

We did an ATM cave tour in the mainland one day that took the whole day. Just to clarify, the ATM cave tour has nothing to do with getting money from the bank. LOL! ATM, in this case, stands for Actun Tunichil Mukna, the name of this Mayan cave. We were unable to take any cameras or anything with us so I have absolutely zero pictures of it. It was very cool though. After a 1.5 hour ferry ride early AM, multiple car/driver changes (kind of sketchy), driving through very bumpy, unpaved roads, and getting connected to another couple that only spoke Portuguese, we hiked through the jungle for a while and went to the cave. It was part swimming, part hiking, part climbing, but we got to see crystalized skeletons, historic and antique Mayan pottery, small spaces and a cool cave! We did not love our tour guide, unfortunately, but this was very cool and worth it for us. I wonder if they will stop these tours at some point due to deterioration of the cave from tourists. Side note: the reason cameras aren't allowed is because a tourist dropped their camera onto a Mayan skeleton and BROKE it.

Took a picture with an ATM tour ad ;)

Breakfast at Marbucks.
This place was super cool!
It's connected to a tiny bed and breakfast.

View from Marbucks

I can't even

Stalking ALLLLLLL the signs

Take me back!

With my man!

Go Tigers

Kayaking!

WATER!! Just look at it.

Again...Go Tigers!

Oh look, I found another sign!

Made Thomas take a pic, too!

Ahhhhh

Beautiful water, as far as you can see!!

We found a Clemson shirt in the bar!

Last night in Belize...sunset dinner at a rooftop restaurant

Post-dinner stop at Loser's

Welp, that's all. We had an amazing time. Going back through the pictures and writing this post is semi-helping me relive this fantastic vacation. The other thing is that because it's been so long since we went, I had forgotten some of the things and had to Google stuff to remind me of the names of things. Also, we found out when we got to Atlanta that all was not well on the home-front while we were gone. The dogs got out and had to be chased down the street, William went across the street to play with neighbors without asking anyone that they couldn't find him for a while, and Ryan had multiple seizures and 911 was called twice. So yeah. There's that. It was a bit of a reality check that Thomas and I can't really do another vacation like that so far away and for a week until stuff is a bit more settled with our real life. Our miraculous kid-sitting family members were saints for the week, but definitely went through the ringer. We felt really bad about that. At least we went out on our international travel streak with a bang in Belize. From now on, we will be stateside and probably just long weekends. ;) 

But, oh Belize, you have our hearts!!! You better Belize that.