Today we left the island of Ambergris Caye in Belize to head inland. With no plans regarding transportation or accommodation, we were a little bit uneasy about how the day would unfold. We left Banana Beach at 9:15 to make it into town for our 10AM flight. It was a beautiful morning, perfect for a flight on a 12 seater across to the mainland. We decided to fly into Belize Municipal instead of Belize International because it was exactly 1/2 the price - even though the plane stopped at the international airport first.... whatever. I was crossing my fingers that there would be some sort of tourist booth at the Municipal airport.
We arrived on the ground to find not much more than a little office at the airport. One of the folks from Maya Air asked where we were going and we vaguely mentioned we wanted to go to the Belize Zoo and then San Ignacio but had not transportation or any clue how to get to either place. But as luck would have it, a fellow named Jeff said he would drive us in his minivan with a stop at a zoo and lunch on the way to San Ignacio. Perfect! not to mention he was 1/2 the price a tour guide was quoted to us via our resort.
We piled into the minivan and we were off. Jeff was a great guy and about 45 minutes later we were at the zoo. The Belize Zoo started off when a film crew that came to film a documentary left a bunch of animals that had become tame to fend for themselves. Now the zoo keeps indigenous animals that have been taken as pets or abandoned and are unable to survive in the wild. It is a really great little zoo and the animals looked great in their amazing "cages".
After the zoo we were on our way to San Ignacio, again with no plans. We went to the Hotel San Ignacio first, but the rooms were not big enough for our crew. So, off we went again up the hill to a fantastic hotel called Cahal Pech. There are a bunch of swimming pools with a waterfall and a giant pterodactyl. We have our own thatched roof cabana overlooking the town and we are 10 minutes from a Mayan ruin. And as an added bonus, Lena spotted a giant spider/tarantula??? by the pool while we were waiting for dinner!!
So that is what we have been up to today. Everyone is beat, the boy is fast asleep and Jason and I are going up to the bar to try and make some friends and book some tours for tomorrow. We'll see if planning things out works as well for us as just winging it did today.
