Belize is easy to love. It has beautiful Caribbean water in every shade of blue and turquoise, white sandy beaches, palm trees, warm and friendly people, AND their official language is English!

I always do my best to be respectful of a country’s language and culture, but it is nice to not feel apologetic for mashing up their language!

Viveka and I arrived in San Pedro, on the island of Ambergris Caye in Belize, by water taxi from Chetumal in Mexico, after taking the bus down the coast from Puerto Morelos.

The bus trip was an uneventful four and a half hours on a straight highway through mangroves, and the highlight of Chetumal was the excellent food. If you have more money than time, I would suggest looking at flying to San Pedro.

It was a very interesting ferry trip! The demand was double the usual, so the ferry staff and customs were busy trying to herd us all though the system, but on to two boats. Amazingly we were only a half hour late leaving, despite waiting for the drug sniffing dog to finish his investigation of our luggage.

Viveka and I were old enough to be parents to the rest of the passengers, but they were very interested in our story and travels. Another age advantage was being moved to the head of the customs line when we arrived in Belize – after almost military adherence to the sticky note numbers assigned to us at check in.

Ambergris Caye is about 40 km long and 1.6 km wide. In San Pedro the first street follows the beach, then a few more streets are squished in before the lagoon.

The main transportation is the golf cart, which are driven at high speed (at varying skill by the tourists) and parked everywhere

Just looking at this construction after experiencing some tremors from the earthquake in Honduras last night

Such a great masseuse we came back twice. She could sure find the knots, but felt good after!

Happy hour on the beach at sunset with a fruity rum drink

Our wonderful Casa del Rai! There are two one-bedroom, and two two-bedroom suites on the third and fourth floors. The owners are on the second and the caretaker/housekeeper couple on the first.

I was in the process of booking when I noticed the owner’s summer number was ‘306’ (Saskatchewan, the province where I was born and have family), so it was a coincidence. But I’m not sure if that explains the young people from Quebec upstairs, the couple from British Columbia beside us…it’s a mini Canada here.

Love the rooftop pool and palapa, with their 360 degree views, especially since we don’t have to share it with many people.

Amazing sunrises on the ocean side

And amazing sunsets on the lagoon side

Lobster burrito was incredible!

Delicious grilled chicken at our favourite little hole in the wall – with enough left for lunch!

Belizean specialities of curry chicken with coconut rice and pork stew with rice and beans.

Our regular now is fruit and yogurt for breakfast. Always fun to see what variety we can find at our corner fruit and vegetable store

Hot sauce – it is the Caribbean, you know…

And tomorrow we are off for Caye Caulker, another island just south of here. It’s only a 30 minute ride on the water taxi, so we should be back in the water quickly!