Belize Trip

~ OUR BELIZE TRIP ~

Durng the period 6-13 December, 2003, Karen, Kirsten, Kris and I traveled to the small country of Belize on the East Coast of Central America, just below Mexico. It was our first true family vacation for several years. It was also our Christmas present to ourselves. The trip was arranged by Roatan Charters, Inc, located in Florida. They are on the Internet. I would recommend them for trips to Belize or Honduras. We stayed in Ramon's Village Resort on Ambergris Caye. Ramon's was very nice and among the top places to stay on Ambergris. It was unique in that it had a great deal of greenery and a "South Pacific" ambiance. The other resorts did not. It also had a beach, which many of the other resorts lacked. Ambergris Caye is the most prosperous areas in all of Belize, but I'll have to say that the locals didn't live much higher than subsistence level. In spite of this, the prices for food, services, and commodities were the same or higher than in the US. Unless you want to SCUBA-dive (our pasttime), deep sea fish, or just get away from it all, Ambergis is NOT for you. Everything, other than the activities I just mentioned, are on the Belize mainland and you must take a boat or plane to enjoy them. To break up the diving week we did take one trip to some Mayan ruins at Lamanai (Land of the Sleeping Crocodile). Kris and Kirsten also took a cave tubing excursion, which included a side trip to a zoo and some other mainland sights. The diving there was extraordinary as the barrier reef, the second longest in the world, is only a ten minute boat ride from the shore, rather than a couple of hours boat ride, as in Australia. We saw most of the normal sea life around reefs: barracuda, grouper, spotted eagle rays, southern sting rays, green sea turtles, nurse sharks, moray eels, lots of sponges, lots of coral, and lots of small, colorful reef fish. The fish I saw there were the largest I have seen in the Caribbean to date.

For those of you who have been there or are contemplating a trip there, here are the sites we dove:

7 December - Tres Cocos (97') and Cypress Reef (71').
8 December - Hol Chan Canyons (94') and Pillar Coral (72').
9 December - Family excursion to Lamanai on the mainland - an all-day trip.
10 December - Blue Hole (132'), Half Moon Caye Wall (72') and Long's Caye Wall (76').
11 December - Cypress Caverns (97'), Esmeralda Canyons (72') and Hol Chan Marine Reserve (28')(Night dive).
12 December - Devil's Caverns (97') and Mosquito Coast Caverns (66').

I must comment on the Blue Hole dive at Lighthouse Reef, as that dive site is world reknown. Blue Hole is about 1000' in diameter and 418' deep. It is a collapsed limestone cave so, at about 130', the sheer vertical wall ends and a horizontal ceiling of stalactites begins. There may be large pelagic sharks there - some said they saw a few way below us; I saw nothing. Other than that there was no other significant sea life. I would NOT do it again. To me it was cold, dark, gloomy and boring. It is also a three-hour boat ride from Ambergris. But the second two dives that day salvaged everything - they were FABULOUS! The Long's Caye Wall dive had fish so thick you almost had to push them out of the way to make headway. That dive spot is nicknamed "The Aquarium".

In summary, our Belize/Ambergris Caye vacation was a unique, fun diving experience, but, more than that, it was memorable opportunity to come together as a family and to enjoy each other's company. This is the way we are using the kid's inheritance - leaving them memories, rather than money.

But enough of words - now on to the pictures. For ease and speed of loading I will use only thumbnails. Click on them to see the full sized photos.

GETTING THERE

RAMONS VILLAGE RESORT & VICINITY

DIVING AND SNORKELING

EXCURSION TO THE MAYAN RUINS AT LAMANAI

HALF MOON CAYE AND MISCELLANEOUS PHOTOS