You better BELIZE it!!!

Tara Larkai
Oct 5, 2016
4 min read

I had another awesome trip this past month. It may be hard to believe but I did not do any of the planning for this trip. The only planning I did was what activities to participate in once we got there. He planned the flights, dates, hotels etc. It was our first wedding anniversary so of course Hubz wanted to impress and that it exactly what he did. He chose Belize!!

Belize, a culturally diverse nation situated in central America on the coast of the Caribbean sea, completely misunderstood on my part until I arrived. Prior to arriving, my expectation was a Spanish speaking country with Latinos of course. But I got quite the opposite. Imagine my surprise when I walked out of the airport and I saw quite a few black people looking just like me and speaking broken English. Belizeans are a mix of Hispanics, Mayans, Black people (as dark as myself) and Chinese. Yes, Chinese! One Belizeans described Belize as a big pot of Gumbo as it is made of all kinds of people living peacefully together. Belize is the only country in Central America with English as their official language. Here I was looking forward to practicing my Spanish!! Obviously, they also speak Spanish but English is spoken throughout. Some of their other languages are English Creole (sounds like Jamaican Patwah), Garifuna and Mandarin.

So the first thing on our agenda after exiting the airport, was to pick up our rental car. He did all the research and decided that we weren’t going to stay in Belize City. He said he had real adventure planned. If you do visit Belize and decide to embark on adventure outside of the city, a rental car is recommended. But if you are on a budget, I would suggest the bus. The buses go everywhere. We did not take the bus but we saw it everywhere we went. Our first destination was a little village in the jungle called Ringtail, just outside the capital, Belmopan. The drive was very smooth and took about an hour and a half. There was hardly any traffic and overtaken is very legal. Lol In fact, we did not really encounter any major traffic the entire trip. We were staying at the Caves Branches situated in the jungle and I do not use jungle loosely here at all. That is actually one of the reasons I love Belize. It has the beautiful picturesque jungles, beaches/islands and the lively cities. There is something to do for everyone. Anyone who knows me knows that while I love adventure/hiking anywhere, I am also deathly afraid of snakes so staying in the jungle would not have been my first choice but Hubz made me feel at ease.

The rooms at the Caves Branches are super cute. They are detached bungalows and tree houses. We were staying in one of their bungalows, a 5-minute walk through the "jungle" from the reception area. Our bungalow was surrounded by their natural gardens of trees, plants, flowers etc. The suite is very quaint with a bed, sitting area and screened with picture windows that allow the breeze and jungle sounds through. In addition to an indoor bathroom, it also had an outside shower for the people who want to really connect with the jungle.

After settling in and freshening up, we took the advice of one of the hotel workers and took a drive to San Ignacio for dinner and a slight turn up. Since the only turn up in Ringtail is Las Cabanas located in Belmopan. It is truly a village. Might I mention that it was Belize Independence Day weekend so there were lots to do just not in Ringtail. San Ignacio is another lively city on the west side of Belize, about an hour drive from Ringtail. We were looking to eat and turn up but we went out too early that the thought of waiting for the party scene to start at midnight seemed like a daunting task to me. Hubz was fine with staying up all night but I am too old for that now especially because I did not get any sleep the night before. We had dinner at Thirsty Thursdays, also the place that we were supposed to stay for the Socajazz party. We ordered shrimp ceviche and jerk chicken. The ceviche was not that great but their jerk chicken though...It will change your life! Lol I really tried to stay up for the party but when I tell you, my body was giving up on me, I was not playing. So of course we headed back to our little village. It was only 8pm yall! The sun goes down very early at 5:30pm therefore it plays games with your mind and makes you think it’s late when in actuality it’s early as heck. I fell asleep to the chorus of crickets and the soothing sound of rain while hubby enjoyed these sounds in the hammock on the patio. Nature at its best!!

Stay tuned for the rest of the tales!!