Honeymoon in Belize! - jchoneymooninbelize

Here's a scattershot of the wild adventures which we encountered in Belize and beyond. For the most part, albums are seperated out into the chronological order in which we experienced the contents. We had some issues in developing our "water proof" cameras but we've salvaged and restored as much of the imagery as we could. Overall, we definitely stress that the photos only begin to capture our encounters but they give a general idea for some of the wonders which Central America holds.

Enjoy and thanks again to the many of you who helped to contribute through Smart Honeymoon!

Pictures

Arrival & The Jungle Dome

Speedometer
To get our journey going, we celebrated as the old Escort crossed the 150K mile mark.

Wake Up
Bleary eyed before an early morning flight.

Ze Plane
The sun rises as the plane is prepped.

Splat
Wasting time between flights/ avoiding disaster

CBC
Sampling some suds between flights.

Window Shot

Coast from above
Cozumel, Mexico.... maybe next time.

Plane
Anxious to land.

Roadside1
A shot of the houses along the roadside. Most of these homes were a bit shabby in nature and were primarily inhabited by the Creole speaking populace.

Roadside2
A glimpse of some of the local land. Near the highways, most of the terrain was flat and the vegetation minimal. But there was plenty of jungle to come...

Amigos!
With rain falling down, this was where we ate our first Belizean meal on our way to the lodge. Chicken, beans and rice made up the common eats.

Roadside3
Outside of the 4ish major highways which were paved, the majority of side roads were compacted dirt and/or gravel. Inevitably, flat tires are a commonality so there were several tire shops on the roadside.

Local Gas
Even though these are listed in Belize Dollars, almost makes you appreciate American gas prices.

Welcome Sign

JD1
Upon first stepping onto the grounds at the Jungle Dome.

JD2
Jungle Dome from poolside.

Room1
Our bedroom.

Room2

Room3

Room4
IMG_0058.JPG 2009-07-25

Cookies & Flowers
Homemade cookies and fresh cut flowers awaited us in our room.

JD3
The deck outside our room.

JD4

Pool1

Pool2

Horses
From our balcony you could see the horses from the neighboring lodge grazing.

JD5
One of many paths which wound their way throughout the grounds.

JD6
More paths

Max & Phoebe
The family dogs of the Jungle Dome. They were also our initial tour guides in getting to know the grounds.

JD7

Guanacaste Tree
Christine puts into perspective how big these giant trees can get.

JD8
Throughout the grounds, lots of fruit was locally grown including bananas, limes and papayas shown here.

River 1
The Belize River flowed behind the property and was evidently home to many crocodiles, iguanas and flora and fauna.

Belize River 2
Communing with the wild.

Riverside
Before the rain...

Tree by the River
Still a before shot.

After the rain
With many smaller rivers and tributaries feeding into the Belize River, 24 hours of heavy rain caused the water to rise more than 12 feet throughout the week (note the tree now partially submerged). This made for some convenient fishing in which we caught several catfish which were cooked up and served along with dinner.

Partners in Crime
The children of the proprietors had their hand in the fishing as well.

Flowers

More Flowers

Still More Flowers

Road to the JD
This was one of the many bumpy roads we traversed on our daily travels. It contrasts well the constant juxtaposition of the dense jungle vs large cleared tracts of land used for farming or raising cattle.

Stampede
Horses from the neighboring lodge being rounded up.

Honeymoon Dinner
On our first night, the cooks whipped us up a delicious feast which we ate in private up on our deck. All other meals were served family style and eaten with below with the other guests.

Dinner continued
Looks fancier with the sundown.

Ready to Eat
To local Belizean cooks at our lodge tended to prepare American or European style dishes with a local Belize or Mayan flair. This one consisted of chicken, veggies and potatoes in a red wine sauce which was probably one of our favorites. Later on in the week, we ended up eating some Iguana as well....

Full Bellies

"Wild"life

Tree Frog
Red-eyed Tree Frog on the porch.

Jaguar
At the lodge down the road, they had a bit of a menagerie of animals which we were free to visit.

Chico the Monkey
The first encounter. Seems friendly enough.

More Monkey.

David
One of the guys who worked at the Jungle Dome and often had to chauffeur us around while entertaining with his knowledge of the local culture and wild life.

Christine & Chico

Christine & Chico2

You Have Been Warned
He seemed innocent enough.... until that little *%$# chomped Jamie's finger.

Cockatoo

Toucan

Bird
Don't recall from our field guide what species this was.

Night Hike 1
One night we went for a wilderness trek through the jungle. We saw an anteater, armadillo, tree possum, a pair of baby crocs, and giant termite nest pictured on left (with finger inserted into nest).

Night Hike 2
We were told that the true survivalist will readily consume the termites for nourishment.... (when eat about a dozen of em at once, they taste a bit like carrots).

T-Rex
Belize is a truly wild and wondrous place. You never know what you will encounter in the jungle.

Black Hole Drop

Trek Into the Jungle
For our first trip we went to the local Caves Branch for a day of hiking, repelling, abseiling and more hiking.

Bus

Our ride into the jungle.

The Moutain

A view of where we would hike from afar.

Hikiing

Hiking to the trail head.

Cahoon Palm

Our trail guide, Arnold, teaches us about the vegetation.

Dark in the Day

Once into the jungle, the rain started to pour. Paired with the density of the vegetation, much of the like was blocked out.

Jungle Hike1

Jungle Hike2

Taking a breather.

Jungle Hike3

Jungle Hike4

Looking down a ravine.

At the Top

At the top, just before our discent. We got harnessed up, locked in a prepared to drop.

The "Black Hole"

A shot of the giant cavern which we were dropping down to view.

Mid Drop

After repelling the first 15' off the ledge, the rest of the 300' down was a self-paced drop. Christine was brave enough to snap a shot as she went down.

Descending

Descending2

Looking Back Up the Rockface

Rocks

Beneath the cliff which we abseiled down from, there were a variety of neat, cavernous rock formations.

Rocks2

Rocks3

Rocks4

Lunch

Lunch on a rock at the bottom.

Safely On the Ground

Blackhole1

You really needed a panoramic to properly capture it.

Blackhole2

Hiking Back Up

Lots of Rocks to Climb

Almost Back Up

During parts of our ascent, we had to harness back up as the climb became quite treacherous.

Tikal

Guatemala

To get to the capital city of the Mayan empire, we had to drive across the boarder into Guatemala.

Roadside lake

After passing through the initial town, there wasn't much to see other than some scattered houses and low lying land.

More Roadside

Tikal

In the visitor's center, a scale model of what was once the enormous city of Tikal. Hard to get a feel for its size in this picture but the construction of the city represented 1600 years of continuous building (800BC - 800AD), the vast majority of which was built out of limestone.

Kapok Tree
Central to Mayan culture, trees like these connected the 13 levels of the overworld with the 9 levels of the underworld.

Monument1

The first structure we saw. The flat circular stones were used for sacrifice in the form of decapitation.

Temple I in the Distance

Looking Down

Temple of the Great Jaguar

Shown from behind as we approached.

The Plaza

Plaza and Temples

Originally all of the grassy areas were paved roads, long sense overgrown.

Plaza2

At the Top of Temple II

Temple II

On many of the temples, the original stairs are no longer used (like this one) due to too many tourists "incidents." Most of the temples are around 200' tall.

Exploring

Crystal Skulls Galore

Discovering the first of the lost crystal skulls of legend.

Stone Face

More Temples

The Last Mayan

Altunich Ak'lubitun aka Jorge

Spider Monkeys

Lots of these guys and Howler monkeys up in the trees.

Temples Under Excavation

Recently Excavated Temple

Temple Overseeing Ancient Ball Court

We tried to strike up a game of tlachtli with the locals but they just looked confused.

More Temples

About to Take the Plunge... Again

This was suposedly the tallest of the temples. More importantly, this site was used for filming parts of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Our guide also claimed that it was used for scenes in Episode VI as well, a fact which we hotly disputed, as the vegetation on the moon of Endor is clearly different.

IMG_0238.JPG
IMG_0238.JPG 2009-07-27

Actun Tunichil Muknal Cave

Jungle Road
The 8 mile rocky road leading us towards our third adventure at "ATM," the partially submerged cavern system which the Mayans considered to be a portal to the underworld of Xibalba.

River Crossing
We had to wade through 3 rivers to get to the cave.

River Crossing 2

Trail Guide
"Toro Sentado" or Sitting Bull

Tropical Frog
One lick of his backside and your vision quest begins. The picture doesn't capture the proportion but he was as big as your face.

Cave Entrance 1

Cave Entrance 2

Riverside
IMG_0249.JPG 2009-07-28

In the cave
After hiking, wading, and swimming a few miles into the cave, we climbed a rock face which led into several enormous chambers which formed a Mayan "cathedral."

Rock forms

Rock forms 2

Pottery
Over 1400 separate artifacts have been found in the chambers.

Sweet Helmets
IMG_0266.JPG 2009-07-28

Monkey Pot

Monkey Pot 2

The Skull
14 bodies/ sacrifices were found in the chambers, 5 of which are still there.

Limestone

Formation Pose

Formation Pose 2

Skeleton

Cave Tubing & Zip Line

Tubing

River tube ride through 3 cave systems.

After hiking for an hour and a half into the jungle, we jumped into the water with tubes and let the current carry us away. Unfortunately, our underwater camera was broken so no other pictures turned out.

Zip lining
Later that afternoon, we took to the air and zip lined through a portion of the rain forest.

Christine sailing in

Harnessed Up

Repelling Off the Last Tower

San Pedro Isle

Puddle Jumper
Our last few days were spent on the island of San Pedro, just off the coast. Mayan Island Air made sure to get us there in style.

Cozy Cabin

The New Copilot
The scary thing is, this wasn't just posing for a picture. This was the permanent seat. Chewbacca would've been proud.

Posing on the Beach

beach.jpg
beach.jpg 2009-08-03

More posing
Sorry.... these get old

A Toast
Belikin: "The Mayan Temple Beer" and Belize's finest.

Banana Beach
Our hotel on the island.

The Pool

View from the Balcony

Downtown San Pedro
IMG_0334.JPG 2009-07-31

Beach by Night

Sun & the Sea

Nap Time

Hammock 1

Hammock 2
IMG_0357.JPG 2009-07-31

Shark Ray Alley

Off to Go Diving
San Pedro is home to the second largest reef system in the world which makes it a diving hot spot. Our second day on the island took us out into the ocean to experience the undersea life.