On Wednesday we arrived home late from an amazing vacation to mostly Belize with a little two day stint in Guatemala. The girls once again proved themselves to be amazing travelers! Much like our trip to Costa Rica two years ago we traveled around quite a bit, and as Patrick put it made the trip "adventure forward"where we did the more adventurous portion of the vacation at the beginning. (Although we ended up ending the vacation with one last fabulous adventure). On the trip we started in the Cayo District of Belize, traveled to Guatamala, and then out to the Turneffe Atoll in Belize.
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| Canoeing. Patrick and Izzy were in one canoe and Evie and I in the other... it was supposed to be a two hour canoe trip but we made it last all day with frequent stops. |
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| Floating dock for swimming in the river. Evie is hanging onto the rope swing, which we all had fun using! The water was amazingly warm. |
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| At the summit after a steep hike. |
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| Hanging out in the hammock on our porch |
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| Evie and Patrick at the start of their tubing adventure. |
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| Izzy and Evie at a lookout tower during a break from the canoes... |
We started our trip in the Cayo district of Belize at a jungle lodge called Black Rock. There we ate amazing food (well Patrick and I did... luckily for the girls the folks there were super nice and made a trip into a nearby town to get them the makings of mac and cheese for dinner...) slept in a cabin overlooking a river and the jungle, canoed the river, tubed the river, swam in the river, hiked up to a summit (to see what we could see), and visited an amazing botanical garden.
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| Dawn atop Temple IV... |
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| View through the mists from Temple IV at dawn |
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| Later in the day at the Grand Plaza |
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| Temple I |
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| Coolest turkey ever! |
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| Its rough when the steps are as big as your leg.... |
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| Temple V |
We then made the trek (not long in terms of miles but long for the drive time and border crossing) from Belize into Guatemala to visit Tikal. We stayed in a hotel in the park for two nights. The animals were amazing, as were, of course, the Mayan ruins. We even woke up at 3:30 in the morning to trek into the jungle and the ruins to see the dawn break atop the highest monument in the park. It was misty and other worldly and down right amazing! After a morning nap we set out into the park again to see the monuments in full daylight, and they did not disappoint! The girls trekked up monument after monument, and Tikal is so big that even in the middle of the day we found ourselves wandering around and coming across ruins with no one else around.
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| Playing on the beach |
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| Getting ready to snorkel off of Half Moon Caye |
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| Nesting red footed boobies |
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| Baby boobie... |
After two nights in Guatemala we made the trek back over to Belize City to catch a boat to the Turneffe Atoll and Blackbird Caye. The boat ride was 1.5 hours to get out to the remote island resort where we stayed, but it was well worth it! We spent the next few days mostly relaxing and playing on the beach and in the ocean. On our last full day of the trip we decided to go out to the Blue Hole, which is a 900 ft across and 400 ft deep submarine sinkhole about 43 miles off the coast of Belize, and the Half Moon Caye. Both of the girls proved themselves to be amazing snorkelers on the trip. Evie used a real snorkel and on the Blue Hole trip day went out for 3 separate snorkels with us. Izzy went with a floatie and goggles and just floated along putting her head under the water to look at the fish. At one point, while snorkeling the Blue Hole she said to Patrick "Daddy, I am going to swim to you in the deep end!" Awesome. We are both so proud of the way the girls just rolled with it on this adventure!!
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