Belize - land

I was in Belize for four days last week. It was amazing!! It was my first rip to Belize and to Central America and I can't wait to go back and see and do more. My friends J and K had a destination wedding in San Pedro on Ambergris Caye. The ceremony was lovely, the location was beautiful and the reception was super fun! I could not be happier for J and K and might post a picture here so you all can see the beautiful and happy couple :-)

San Pedro is a resort town, but not in the way that Cancun is a resort town. It is still very much a local town though you can see where the resorts are moving in and they are starting to cater to tourists more. Belize is super laid back and everyone was very friendly. I'm posting pictures in two posts - one of pictures of the town and the island and the other of a day long snorkeling trip that we went on. I don't think the pictures are going to do it justice! I really can't wait to go back. I'd love to snorkel more, get into the jungle and see the Mayan ruins.

Belize isn't really know for its swimming beaches. Ambergris Caye is just a few miles from the second biggest coral reef in the world so most people come to San Pedro more for snorkeling and scuba diving than lounging on the beach. There were a couple of swimming beaches near the hotel but you couldn't swim out too far without worrying about being swallowed up by seaweed. You could walk for several miles along the sand and it was more than picturesque:

I loved all of the buildings in San Pedro. They were so colorful and fun. As I mentioned it isn't an overly touristy place so everything is still pretty local and funky. Since its the Caribbean it doesn't ever get too cold so a lot of the buildings don't have walls or windows. A restaurant we went to one night even had a sand floor!
There weren't many cars on the island. Most people got around by golf cart or bicycle but you could easily walk everywhere you wanted to go. We took a harrowing two hour water taxi to get from the airport in Belize City to San Pedro. I wisely took a 10-seater plane back to the Belize City airport. Even without being hung over from the wedding reception, the water taxi would have been painful!
Most of the buildings, both houses and businesses, were very colorful. I just loved these two buildings. If I were a painter I would have painted a picture!
These flowers were all over the island and strewn all over our hotel rooms. I am not sure what they were but the petals were paper thin. There were also lots of beautiful hibiscus flowers everywhere.
Belize doesn't celebrate daylight savings so the sun rises at around 5:15am. The sunrises were beautiful! By 8am the hot Caribbean sun was nearly directly overhead. By 7pm it was nearly pitch black, which took some getting used to. As mostly a resort town there weren't a lot of lights, tall buildings, etc. The combo of sun and daylight was a little unnerving. We took a boat ride to a restaurant/bar that sat over the water. We got there at about 5pm and spent several hours talking, hanging out and having fun. After dinner K told us the water shuttle would be taking us home at 8:30pm. It felt like at least 10pm, not 7:50pm!!
This is a view of Belize City from the 10-seater airplane. Even from a few thousand feet you can see how colorful all of the buildings are.
Congratulations J and K!!!!!! SO so so so happy for you guys!!!!! :-)