This morning we woke up and went up to get breakfast. Overnight we had made our way to the island of St. Thomas. The view from the boat was beautiful.
Seeing the houses on the island and the very blue water reminded me a bit of Greece.
Once we got off the boat we walked around a bit and found a beach to go to. We got in a cab and went to the beach. Our excursion wasn’t until 1 pm so we had some time on our own.
It was here at the beach we discovered that our old underwater camera wasn’t waterproof anymore. On our last trip in Belize the SD card holder broke in the underwater camera. Since then we had taken it to a repair man but were unsure if it would still be water tight…it wasn’t. Not a complete loss though because before this trip we had bought the new updated Olympus Tough camera. It was just kind of a downer because we thought we would both have Tough cameras haha.
I can’t remember the name of the beach but it was very beautiful.
At 1 pm we went back to the boat to meet for our Snorkeling Trip. The snorkeling was good, but definitely not as good as Belize. We did see turtles though! We didn’t get good pictures of the turtles because they were far away. But we did get some good pictures of a Sting Ray.
After snorkeling we went to an awesome beach and had some rum punch.
Once we got back we got cleaned up and went to the dining room for dinner!
So today was our last full day in Belize and we went snorkeling again. When I woke up my sunburn on my arms felt better and it wasn’t really red but the back of my thighs hurt like crazy! It was such a weird sunburn, none of it is very red. Maybe the medication I’m taking for Malaria prevention is making me sensitive to sun.
We were able to eat breakfast because Splash Diving wasn’t picking us up until 8. They had even called to see if we wanted to cancel because it was going to be rainy off and on. I’m so glad we didn’t cancel. The guy who picked us up was really cool. We talked to him a bit and found out he used to live in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
I thought the dive shop was a lot better looking than Avadon’s. It seemed newer and bigger. The boat we took today was much smaller though. The seats were a lot more comfortable though. The group we went with was also smaller, probably because of the weather. There were only 2 divers and 3 other snorkelers besides us. Everyone was from Spain also.
The weather was very stormy looking while we on the boat ride there. When we got to the island it was clearing up a little but still pretty overcast. This made me happy though because I didn’t know how much more sun I could take. The island was like nothing I’ve ever seen in real life. It was very small, like maybe 100 feet long…it was very picturesque. White sand, palm trees, a few picnic tables, one grill and one bathroom. That’s all.
We saw a lemon shark in the water off the shore immediately when we got off the boat. That was so cool. I love sharks but have only seen them on TV or in the aquarium. We got ready for our first snorkel of the day with our guide Brian. We saw a lot of sea life. Tons of different kinds of coral and fish, a lot more than the day before. We saw one sting ray that was pretty cool looking. It was light brown with black spots. We also saw little squid that looked like cuttlefish. We even saw jellyfish that didn’t sting and we could hold them in our hands.
Then we got out and I was applying sunscreen like crazy. The sun was hurting me so I was also trying to stay covered up. While we were waiting for lunch to be made Don got in the water and tried to get a picture of the lemon shark that kept coming close to shore. He never got a good shot though, but all throughout lunch we could see the shark. That was very cool. Lunch was bbq chicken, cole slaw, augratin potatoes and watermelon. It was much better than the lunch Avadon served us the day before.
We saw a bunch of the cutest hermit crabs on the island. I love hermit crabs! We stayed on shore for about an hour and then we got back in for our second snorkel. We saw more fish, but the highlight of the snorkel was seeing a nurse shark. It was so fast so we chased it for awhile. Finally we got close and it turned around. It was coming right at me from about 8 feet below. I got a picture of it. I thought I was taking a video of it swimming below me. It would have been such a cool video…but I guess in the excitement of it all I didn’t hit the record button. So then we went back to shore so we could get back on the boat.
We took the boat out a little ways to where another boat was throwing bait into the sea to attract turtles, rays, and sharks. When I jumped in the water I couldn’t believe what I saw! A huge sea turtle right next to me and about 8 nurse sharks all around. I was so excited! It was the coolest thing I have ever seen or done. When I went to the other side of the boat I could see there were about 4 sea turtles, 6 rays and maybe about a dozen nurse sharks total. We took a bunch of videos and pictures. It was amazing. The rays were giant. They were mostly Spotted Eagle Rays, there was a gray one there also that I didn’t catch the name of. We swam right next to the turtles and over the sharks. One of the coolest days ever!
When we got back we prepared for our last dinner in Belize. We couldn’t decide where to go but eventually decided on Mangos. We walked the beach there. I got a cheeseburger, it was very good. Don got the fried chicken and rice. It was a much better experience than last time at Mangos because there were hardly any fries. I love the waitress at Mangos she was so nice and cool. We decided to walk the beach back, it was pitch black. So Don used his flashlight on his phone. I have to admit it was a bit scary not knowing where you were putting your feet. We saw a ton of crabs! It was pretty cool. And there were so many stars in the sky. I’m glad we took the beach walk back to the hotel even though I was a little scared. It was a good end to our vacation.
This morning we got picked up at 7 by Avadon Divers. We didn’t have time for breakfast. We met another young couple that was staying at our hotel, Andrea and Kyle from Michigan. They went on this snorkeling excursion with us.
Once we got to the dive shop we filled out paperwork and got sized for fins. We brought our own snorkels and masks. When we finally got on the boat, it was awesome. It was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. It had an upper deck and a bathroom. They set out some coffee and banana bread for breakfast. When the boat started moving we stayed mostly on the bottom. We went up top for a little while, but I really wanted to stay out of the sun.
The first snorkel site was really cool. It was a small island that had a marine biologist resort there along with a couple of other resorts. Our guides James and Giovanni did their best to point out the different sea life. We saw a couple Barracudas and many smaller fish. It was really cool to see the coral because I’ve never really seen anything like that in the wild.
The island looked so cool but after the first snorkel we got back on the boat for lunch. They had made tuna, chicken and egg salad to choose from. I had the chicken and the egg. It was pretty good, although I have to say I was expecting a better lunch from some of the reviews I read.
For the next snorkel location we were in the middle of the sea and jumped off the boat. The water was deep, probably around 15 feet, but you could still see the bottom perfectly. There was so much coral and so many different types of fish. We saw a sting ray! And a lobster!
During about half way through the snorkel I could feel the back of my arms getting burnt. It was such an intense burning feeling, like nothing I’ve ever felt. Pretty much every time I’ve gotten burnt I haven’t felt it until afterwards. This was like my skin was frying. It was pretty bad, some of the worst skin pain I’ve ever felt. It made the snorkeling not so great but I didn’t want it to ruin my trip so I tried to ignore it.
We got back on the boat and James cut up a variety of fruits for us. My arms felt like they were on fire. I’ve really never felt anything like it. If any sunlight touched me I felt like I was burning, like a vampire. I sat with my towel draped around me. It was so uncomfortable. Sometimes it felt like I was getting an Indian Burn over and over.
Once I got off the boat the sun was so intense I just wanted to hide from it. We took a picture with the guides and got in the van to go back to the hotel. By now I am feeling the burn on the back of my arms and the back up my legs right below my butt.
After getting cleaned up we biked to the grocery store to look for aloe. There was none. So we biked to Singing Sands Inn because Don said their gift shop had a lot of stuff. Luckily they had a bottle of aloe. We also bought tshirts from our hotel that we could wear the next day because we booked another snorkeling trip.
We ate dinner at the hotel. I had a spicy chicken sandwich, which I didn’t really like at all. Luckily Don shared half of his pork sandwich with me. What a nice husband. My sunburn just felt weird…and wasn’t very red when I went to bed. I really lathered on the aloe.
We woke up today pretty early around 7 but just laid in bed kind of fell back asleep until 8ish. Then we decided to go out and snorkel for a bit since the water was calm.
Before getting in the water a woman approached me and asked if we were staying here. She said she had hitch-hiked from Placencia. Then she asked if I wanted to look at her crafts. I told her I had no money on me now so maybe later. When we got in the water we didn’t see much because it’s mostly sand. Then we saw a few fish and we were getting further out and I heard Don say “Andi come back!” We’ve been snorkeling quite a bit in our lives and I’ve never heard him say this so I was scared…like was there a shark?? So I just started swimming back to shore fast. In my head I was a little disappointed on the swim back like…”man if there was a shark out there and he just made us swim like this and draw all this attention to us!!” I wanna see a shark so bad and if it’s far away and you just stay calm it should be alright…but we when got closer to shore he told me he saw a big jellyfish and I was swimming right for it. So that ended our snorkeling this morning.
Then we came back in and got cleaned up for breakfast. Don had a dish called Belizian Fried Jacks. It had black beans, scrambled eggs and these pastry like things. I had a Bacon Egg Burger. It was good. It was just bacon and 2 eggs over easy on ciabatta bread. During breakfast we could see the woman spreading out all her jewelry and trinkets on the beach to sell.
After breakfast we talked to the hotel owner about our tours. Now I think we are adding another snorkeling trip. It sounds pretty awesome. We also made friends with the Maya Beach Hotel cat..
Then we decided to take the bus to Placencia Village. While waiting for it though….guess who caught us. The woman selling her crafts. She was also waiting for the bus. But she convinced us to look at her items. I ended up buying a bracelet for $10, because I am a sucker. The bus came around 12:15 and you get on by waving it down. It was an old school bus painted blue and it said “Richies Bus” on it. The ride was $1 per person. It took us to the end of the peninsula.
Once we got off the bus we walked around a bit. We looked at the beaches and then just walked around. It was sooo hot! We decided there wasn’t really much there so we planned to take the bus back at 2:30, which is the last bus of the day on Sunday. We decided we wanted to try a different restaurant so we tried a place called Wendy’s. It was good. The quesadilla I had was great.
After that we walked the town some more just basically waiting for the bus. The bus was so crowded on the way back but the driver dropped us right off at our hotel. Can’t really beat the price of $1 for a bus ride.
Once we got back I wanted to go for another swim….so we went back out to the beach and snorkeled again. We love snorkeling. We didn’t really see anything too crazy just a few fish here and there. The water felt so good, it’s so nice and warm. After our swim we got cleaned up again and decided to walk about a mile to a different restaurant.
On the walk there the hotel owner saw us and said she would give us a lift. That was nice of her. The restaurant was Mangos and it looked really cool. The food was good. I had nachos. Don had fried chicken. The problem was when the food came immediately we were surrounded by flies. It was so annoying. We just ate so fast. I feel like all we did today was eat hahaha.
We had to walk back and it was pretty dark. But it was a nice walk. When we got to the hotel the whole front of the building had little lizards on it.
Now we are back and we are just getting ready for our excursion tomorrow to the ruins.
Our alarm didn’t go off this morning. We wanted it set for 7 am, because we wanted to go to the bank and get more euros. Then we had a 9 am pick up for a car rental. Maybe the reason the alarm failed to go off was because there were power outages all over the island. So we had no power and also no shower. The power luckily came back on soon and I was able to take a shower, while Don went to the bank.
He came back with no euros though because the front desk failed to tell us banks are not open on Saturday. So after breakfast we walked to a place to get some euros. Then we got a call at 9 am from the car rental place. The guy was out front and ready to take us to get our car. We rented a smartcar. It was kind of purple and Don drove it first.
We wanted the car so we could go beach hopping. We went to Psarou Beach first. There were people every where as Don tried to park the car on a hill. It was challenging because the hill was so steep and the car had such a weird brake/accelerator system. Finally we walked down to the beach and the beach had a bunch of nice chairs and tables. The beachfront had a bunch of restaurants on it also. Even though it was busy, it was pretty quiet. We had to have lunch from the restaurant to sit at the chairs or pay 10 euros for 2 people. We figured we would just have lunch since we needed to eat. We ordered a cheeseburger and pizza. The pizza was very good.
When we first got in the water it was cold, but then it felt good. The water was so clear and the salt in it made it sparkle. Don wanted to snorkel so we got our snorkels, good thing because it was awesome. On the side there were rocks with tons of fish and sea life. Fish were surrounding us. It was so cool. I think it was my favorite beach of the day.
Next we drove to Kalafatis Beach. It was much quieter; people were mostly sleeping. There were a few restaurants on the side but we didn’t go there. We wanted to snorkel. There were big rocks with tons of sea life. I think this was Don’s favorite beach. It was fun to just ride the waves and see the fish doing the same.
Next we went to Kalo Livadi. We thought we would snorkel again but the beach was sandy with no sea life really. We saw a few fish following us around but mostly it was a beach to have a good time. We mostly just laid out and tried to get dry. The sun felt so good.
After this beach I tried driving the car. The car was very rough shifting, probably because it had the option to be a manual and it was also very hilly. Going uphill felt like you were just going to fall back down it. But after awhile the driving was okay. I did fine. Don was the navigator. We decided to stop at one more beach, Lia. It was surrounded by rocks, kind of like a mountain. We saw some people hiking. There were hardly any people at this beach. We just walked around, but didn’t get in the water. We took some pictures with some random dog. It was very quiet there. There was a restaurant that seemed kind of weird but relaxing.
Then we took the car back to the rental place. My first time driving in a foreign country was not too bad. Driving in Greece was crazy though! There were bikes, atvs, people and other cars all on these tiny winding hilly streets.
After we returned the cars we got a ride back to the hotel and took showers. Then we went out and had some gyros at a little place not far from the hotel.
After eating we did some more exploring. We found a little desert café place. We had a chocolate cake thing with ice cream. It was probably the best desert I’ve ever had. The people running the place were so nice also.
We got back to the hotel pretty early, but we were tired. But before we got home…we found cats…
