Coconuts Caribean Hotel San Pedro

Our bus drove us from Palenque to Chetumal, we walked the border into Belize and passed customs in the little town of Corazal. Border crossing went smoothly, the girls hadnīt paid their entry into Mexico so we were a little concerned it would be a problem, the friendly Belizean officers didnīt seem to have a care in the world and just asked them to pay 200 pesos each, probably later used on a bottle of rum. We borded ...

Bit of a change arriving into a country with the Queen's head on its banknotes and an being surrounded by often indecipherable English after six weeks in Mexico. Belize City isn't all that pleasant so grabbed a 45 minute water taxi out to one of the nearby islands. Caye Caulker is tiny but a lot of travellers I met warned me how easy it ...

... Costa Maya is filled with activities and as expected, far too many ways to spend oney. We did some shopping in town before coming down this way and stoked the kitchen for a few days. Oh ya, and most everybody here in Belize seems to think that Im looking to buy pot, or I've got the herb to sell, or give to them...People willl yell out at me "Hey Rasta Man!" and stome me for a purchase of some kind. I guess one's hair goes a long ...

... made the most of the free cinnamon bread and strong coffee) the dive centre asked whether we would mind postponing our trip to the following day, as they were wary of taking us out while the lightning persisted. In the circumstances we were only too happy to agree, especially when we heard that one of the dive masters had spent a month in hospital after his boat had been hit by lightning, whilst a fellow passenger had not been so lucky. So at 6am we found ourselves back at ...

... Caulker. The first two or three hours on the island were hot and beautiful. It was at this point that we encountered Arthur, the first tropical storm of the season. Starting at about 3 on this day, it began to rain. It continued to rain, and rain, and rain some more. In fact it is still raining as I write this, and is supposed to continue for four more days straight. Needless to say, this put a damper on our island fun ...

... a nice dinner of fresh barracuda. As we lolled on the sand, or swam in the warm ocean, it was wonderful to imagine living here on your own island. That night we were sitting around a campfire, roasting marshmallows (Fact: Central American marshmallows don't burn easily like American ones) and telling stories, when a few rain drops splashed down. Thus began a hilarious scramble to put our rain flys on in the dark. The tents were not symmetrical so even ...

... be out on a boat in, I too would have stayed behind. He encouraged me to go ahead, and I am glad I went, because I saw sharks!!! The divemaster took a cannister of food, which wasn't really the same as encountering them by chance, but we still swam with sharks (nurse sharks, so pretty harmless), and then saw a giant green moray eel AND a TURTLE! A huge loggerhead! That was really cool because my main goal had been to see a turtle while scuba diving, and on my very last dive I did! yay me!

... day, were also on the bus, so we chatted with them on the way down. They were six weeks into traveling Central and South America for a year after selling their house back in Oxford, which I thought sounded like a super plan. Other than a lot of squishing together on the bus seat (remember elementary school field trips?) whenever the bus would get full, the ride down was even less eventful than the ride up. Since it started raining awhile after we passed ...

... plentiful, big and colourful. The second stop proved to be the most amazing when we swam with sharks and sting rays. This stop is called sting ray alley for obvious reasons, your surrouned by sting rays. At times it got a bit scary as there must have been at least 20 of them swimming around us at one point. We couldn`t help but think of Steve Irwin. We only (which was more than enough!) saw ...

... especially when it involves well-known Belizeans.) School is wrapping up for the year now, but stay tuned for - hopefully - more progress in January. THANKSGIVING (better known as the week of over-indulgence) First, the week of Thanksgiving brought a truly unexpected turn for Belize: a bitter cold front. As temperatures plummeted into the low 60's overnight, the fleece blanket emerged, and items such as jeans and socks were excavated from deep in the closet. We know it may not ...