RAC, weird I know - that's so true. We really only saw this one because of Levy's eagle eye. I tried to get a photo, but it was too quick for me. Seems like they're usually so high up too. Thanks for all your help in our planning.

You saw so much more wildlife than we did, I am jealous. But it was still raining when we went (even though the rainy season was supposed to be over), so maybe that had something to do with it.

I think we got really lucky with the weather. It only rained during the night, and they told us we were having unseasonably cool weather. x, you can be jealous of me because I'm jealous of RAC and his awesome croc picture. I told all the guides that we'd like to see some crocs, and they just kept saying that they were very shy. We did have more than our share of monkeys though. By the end of our stay, I was like YAWN, oh is that another troop of howler monkeys posing in front of our cabin? :)

Wait....RAC is in a totally different category, I will not even dare to compare myself with him. I think he uses some magic...

Luckily we had our howlers encounter by the ruins, but the birds were in hiding. Not a problem, we'll go back someday. Chan Chich is still a place I'm dreaming of.

Nothing magic, just traveling during the dry season.

Great places for river crocs are the Usumacinta river between Mexico and Guatemala (part of every tour to see the Yaxchilan ruins in Chiapas) and of course the Tarcoles River in Costa Rica.

At 4:30 we get to do the best tour of all - the Sunset Cocktail Cruise! We had debated if we wanted to do this tour, but I read so many good reviews about it that we decided to go for it. We weren't sure what to expect, but we headed down to the dock to find not our tiny 2-seater boat, but a big long covered pontoon boat with some nice lounge furniture on deck. There was also a little table and some munchies set up - tortilla chips and awesome homemade cheese dip to go with it. Levy was there to act as our guide and Reoul, a server from the restaurant, to act as our own personal bartender! It was so much fun; we had the boat all to ourselves and cruised all over the lagoon spotting wildlife. They had cold Belikin beers, Cokes, etc. and also offered to make us any cocktails, so we ended up having banana coladas - big ones served in huge glasses. Thumbs up on those - very tasty. They also joked that we couldn't leave the boat until all the alcohol was consumed! While we cruised around, little mangrove swallows flitted all around the boat. We also saw vultures, big flocks of white ibis(es)?, cormorants, anhingas. kingfishers, herons, egrets, limpkins, and snail kites. My husband said that next time we come, we'll sign up for six of these and not do any other tours - ha, ha!!

For anyone who has done the Cano Negro tour or gone to Tortuguero, this reminded me a lot of those only with cocktails!

After the cruise we head back up for dinner (way too much food!) and have tamales, salad, black bean soup, and banana cream pie. This is our last night at the lodge, and we'll be sorry to say goodbye.

Oh yeah, the Sunset Cocktail Cruise was great. Loved the munchies, and I still remember how generous they were with the rum in the cocktails.
Most of our wildlife sightings were during this cruise and during the night safari.

Enjoying your report, Volcanogirl. That spotlight safari and going full speed in the dark would have freaked me out!

I know, janie - maybe I should have had the cocktails on the spotlight safari instead!

For our last morning, we've signed up to do an extra tour - Savannah Birding with super awesome Levy. We board our two seater boat, and he takes us all around the lagoon and up the New River. We also get to know Levy a little better, and he tells us that arranged marriages are still part of the local culture. In fact, he was to have an arranged marriage, but eventually told his parents he couldn't go through with it. It seems like it's an interesting time - people trying to preserve their heritage but adapting to a more modern world. He said that the ironic thing is that he ended up marrying someone Spanish! And they're very happy together. On our trip, we see a gorgeous purple gallinule, more anhingas and cormorants, a tiger heron, egrets, a pygmy kingfisher, and a great blue heron. The water is very calm and full of beautiful water lilies. We come upon a little open area, and Levy parks the boat and says that we'll do a little hiking. This area looks so different from the rest of the lodge. It's a dry grassy savannah with a lot of open space. It conjures up images of the African plains. It's fun to see an area that looks so different, but is still so close to the lodge. There are the remains of a campfire on the ground. Local people come here to camp and to hunt. There are even spent shell casings sprinkled around. We spend so much time oohing and aahing over the wildlife; it's hard for me to imagine people hunting here. We see quite a few birds. My favorite are the squawky white-fronted parrots. Eventually we head back to the lodge, and on the way back Levy points out something in the brush. I can't see anything. He says to look closely, and then I see a small nest full of fluffy green heron babies. They're very young and tiny and have wispy little Don King hairdos. Their nest is right on the river's edge. Seeing them seems like the perfect way to end our stay at L.O.L.

So here's a list of all the birds we saw in Belize: magnificent frigatebird, annhinga, neotropic cormorant, green heron, black-crowned night heron, limpkin, agami heron, bare-throated tiger heron, great blue heron, wood stork, cattle egret, white ibis, black-bellied whistling duck, turkey vulture, osprey, roadside hawk, bicolored hawk, aplomado falcon, snail kite, laughing falcon, thicket tinamou, plain chachalaca, northern jacana, purple gallinule, red-billed pigeon, yellow-lored parrot, white-fronted parrot, red-lored parrot, groove-billed ani, black-headed trogon, slaty-tailed trogon, blue-crowned mot mot, collared aracari, keel-billed toucan, ringed kingfisher, amazon kingfisher, green kingfisher, American pygmy kingfisher, golden-olive woodpecker, golden-fronted woodpecker, smoky-brown woodpecker, vermilion flycatcher, Yucatan flycatcher, tropical and couch's kingbirds, sulphur-bellied flycatcher, social flycatcher, great kiskadee, boat-billed flycatcher, blue-gray gnatcatcher, brown jay, black catbird, mangrove swallow, spot-breasted wren, yellow-winged tanager, red-legged honeycreeper, white-collared seedeater, blue-black grassquit, black-headed saltator, green-backed sparrow, botteri's sparrow, red-winged blackbird, great-tailed grackle, melodious blackbird, hooded oriole, and black-cowled oriole. Whew!

Kudos to the guides at Lamanai who helped us identify every single one.

As I said before...jealous. But I'm so happy for you, and can't wait to go back.

Anxious to hear more about your amazing trip. Keep it coming.

Did you see the agami on the spotlight safari? That's where we saw it at LOL--that's a very prized sighting--agamis are not easy to see anywhere, as far as I can tell.

Thanks, x - I wish you great weather and lots of wildlife on your next trip. And an agami heron!

RAC, no we saw it during the day on the water's edge. I didn't realize that was a rare one. It was beautiful - more colorful than any other heron I've seen. I'm even happier that we got to see it now that I know it's not very common.

We end the Lamanai portion of the trip by having huevos rancheros and beans with yummy homemade tortillas. Lamanai Outpost Lodge only runs the boat shuttle at certain times of the day, so we linger around until 11:30 for our pickup. We have George again, the same driver that had brought us in on our first day, and I mention to him that we haven't seen many crocs. He promises to keep a lookout for us, and we take off zooming across the lagoon. This boat is a little different and has a covered compartment on the front for our luggage. George is going to make a grocery run while he's in town. We see a lot of herons, egrets, and other water birds once we reach the river. And then I spot it - yes! The eyes of a croc in the water on the right side of the boat! As we go flying past it, I yell to George that I'd like to try to get a picture, and he points and replies, "How about that one?" I look to my left and there's another big croc sunning itself right on the river bank! I snap a quick photo before it slips back into the water. They really do seem shy. We also see a lot of Mennonites along the water's edge as we go past Shipyard, the women in their long dresses and men in their overalls. They all wave as we go past. After an hour, we land back at the dock, and Calvin picks us up for our trip to the Tropic Air Terminal. It's about an hour's drive and we're in a huge air-conditioned bus since he needs to pick up a big group at the airport. He offers us cold bottled water and tells us he's glad we're not birders - trips with them take twice as long because they have to stop and look at all the birds! That cracked me up!

It's an easy drive, not a lot to see along the way, but quite a few Chinese owned businesses with Asian writing out front. There are no fast food restaurants anywhere, very unlike our trips to Costa Rica where McD's and Burger King have become commonplace. Finally we reach the airport and go to the counter to check in. We're each handed a laminated boarding pass that says "Boarding Pass" on it - no seat assignment, row, or anything else. No security. They tell us that if everyone arrives soon we can leave early. Before I know it, they announce our flight, and we head out to board the tiny plane that will take us to Ambergris Caye.

We get in line, hand over our not so official looking boarding passes, and walk out to the plane. It's just us and a mom with two teenagers. We can sit wherever we want, and the girl comments to the pilot that she wants to be a military pilot someday. He says that she should come sit up front with him then and be his co-pilot. Another moment you would never see in the U.S., but I love how friendly Belizeans are. The girl climbs up front and proceeds to take lots of selfies to show her friends "the best day ever"! The flight is quick, only about 15 minutes, and we fly over the most beautiful bright, vibrant teal-colored water. As we come in for a landing, we can see all the pretty little painted houses that are common here. We debark the plane and go to pick up our luggage that has all been brought to a small cement area. They put a rope between us and our luggage, and we're not allowed to take it without presenting our claim tickets. Luckily we have them, get our stuff, and then get on the little golf cart that will take us to Victoria House.

VG, I'd love an agami even if it rains :)

We took the same flight from BC to Ambergris Caye in February. There were so many passengers, that they needed 6 planes. We were all waiting in the airport, and we all held similar laminated "boarding passes". Some blue, some yellow, some pink, etc. Each color for a different plane. And they would announce: "Blue boarding passes" to identify the next plane to take off and the people on that plane. But other than that, same process that you experienced. Great way to fly!

Didn't you love Victoria House?

Yes, I could get used to it. It took us longer to get through customs and immigration back home than it took us to fly all the way to Belize!

Victoria House - love it! It hasn't changed at all since our trip a few years ago except there's a new little pier on the beach where you can have massages, and they've placed little white twinkle lights in all the trees. This is the cushy part of our trip. After a long day of travel, we just want to relax at the beach bar, enjoy the air conditioning, and get a good night's sleep before our morning snorkel trip. We have a second floor plantation room, and it's beautiful with a private balcony. We drop our luggage off and head down to the beach bar to grab a couple of drinks and some burgers - very good, but a little pricey, about what you would expect to pay for hotel food though. The beach is gorgeous - white soft sand, palm trees, hammocks, and beautiful water. Everyone is friendly and the service is great. The bellman tells us, "You'll be glad to know we still don't have phones or t.v.s." My husband was hoping to catch a little ESPN, but it is very relaxing and romantic. After a good night's sleep, we head down to the pier around 9:00 a.m. to get picked up for our snorkel trip to Hol Chan and Shark Ray Alley. We had booked it with VH, but they farm their tours out, and Searious Adventures is the group that picks us up.

It only takes about 10 minutes to get out to the reef, and the water is calm. We have a great time with Searious. They divide us into two groups so we can get personalized attention. Our group only has 4 people in it which is fantastic. The guide swims around pointing out various things - huge rays, lots of sea turtles, big nurse sharks, and more beautiful colorful fish than I can count. At one point he even dives down into a little underwater cave tunnel about 30 feet below us. He swims in one side and comes out the other and asks who else wants to try it. None of us can even hold our breath long enough to get down to the cave!

This is probably one of my favorite vacation things we've ever done. There's just so much to see, something beautiful everywhere you look.

In addition to the big ticket items, there are some neat little smaller things to see as well. Moray eels and spotted eels, conch shells, and a sea urchin that the guide lets us hold - it adheres itself to one of our fellow snorkelers, and he tells me it is sucking out his soul!

I really like that we get to spend a lot of time here because it's more natural feeling than Shark Ray Alley. After we've made our way around the reef, we all climb back into the boat and head out to Shark Ray Alley. It's a very quick trip. Once there, the guides chum the water to attract sharks and rays. Our boat has some kind of pipe full of fish that attracts them, and before long huge rays and nurse sharks are all competing to get a taste. I have mixed feelings about this. It's nice to get up close to the animals, but doesn't seem very natural. The sharks are just like a group of hungry dogs that go from boat to boat to get food. Once the food is gone, they're gone so you have to be quick with the photos.

We all get into the water to swim with them. They tell us we don't even need our fins since we'll all stay close to the boat. One shark is nine or ten feet long, and they call him Big Papa. The guides pick up rays and sharks, and everyone comes back with all their fingers. Bonus, we see a huge sea turtle that comes very close to our boat. Nearby fisherman are cleaning their catch of conch shells, and it's attracting the turtles too. On the trip back to shore, the Searious crew breaks out the most delicious little coconut tarts. They taste like something a Belizean grandma would make. And we have red Fanta soda in a bottle - which is very hard to drink on a bumpy boat. All in all a very good day.

The next morning we've signed up to do a snorkeling tour to the North Channel and Coral Gardens. The person who books the tours tells us that we have a very good chance to see a manatee, something we've never seen before. I really want to see one.

We board the boat at 9:00 a.m., and this time we're on a big sailboat. There are two "guides" - an older gentleman and a teenage boy. Neither seems to speak English all that well. There's no introduction or instructions, we just take off. There's a fun group of people on this boat, just a few other couples, all older than we are and very friendly. We sail for a while and then the older guide drops the anchor and tells us to get in. The kid dives off the boat and I guess we're supposed to follow him. I'm thinking it will be a guided tour like the one we did at Hol Chan, but this seems to be more of a fend for yourself type thing. The boy starts hauling ass, and my husband and I swim as fast as we can to keep up with him. He tells me, "Manatee!" And then starts swimming even faster. I honestly can barely see the kid; he's just a dot that I'm trying to follow. The older people start yelling, "Slow down, slow down.." But he just keeps on going. I catch up and ask him if he can slow down a little for the older folks, and he says, "I AM going slow." At this point the older folks are just bobbing dots behind us. The water is very choppy. I'm glad they have on life preservers. Then the kid points ahead of me and says, "Manatee!" I can't see anything, so I ask him where, and he just points again and tells me it's right there. I'm expecting it to be below me as I snorkel above it, but it's right in front of me, a huge animal bobbing at the top of the water. I duck my head under and see the whole thing. This was worth burning about 2,000 calories for!

I'm surprised at how fast it's swimming. I've always thought they were awkward and sort of lumbering, but in the water it is moving really swiftly. I tell my husband to catch up, and he does, but he never gets to see it; he says that as long as I saw it he's happy because I was the one that really wanted to.

We snorkel around some more. At one point I'm swimming behind the boy and he starts spearing lion fish. There are several in this area, and I've heard that they're very bad for the reef. I'm not sure I want to be around bloody injured fish on a spear though, so my husband and I swim off on our own. There's not much else in the way of wildlife, but there is some beautiful coral. Eventually the man yells for us to come back to the boat, so we do, and we're rewarded with bottled water and some nice fresh fruit. There's no cover on the boat. We end up getting massively sunburned, but we have a fun sail back, and it was all worth it to get to see something so amazing.

We loved the Hol Chan so much, that we booked it again the 2nd day. I always wondered after that what we missed by not doing the Coral garden instead.
It seems that other than the manatee, which is probably not a resident there, there is less there in terms of fish, turtles, rays, etc., so I guess Hol Chan was a better option. What do you think after doing both?

Glad you saw a manatee! Have you looked into Global Entry for immigration and customs?

Do you know which company took you on a tour to the North Channel and Coral Gardens?

x, it's funny you say that because guess what we did the following day? We went back to Hol Chan again! The manatee was very cool, but other than that we didn't see much on the other tour. We've also been to Mexico Rocks and saw some nice smaller things like lobsters and eels, but to me, nothing has compared to Hol Chan.

Patty, yes, we've talked about it but never done it. Have you done it?

alisa, it was just some local guy, not an official tour company or anything. I'm not sure if the boy was his son or grandson, or just someone he hired. I think I would stick to a known named company from now on, or the Bradley brothers. We used them also, and they were wonderful. I felt terrible for the other people on the tour. I don't think they got to see much. Two of them had just had open heart surgery and this was the first time they were getting out and exploring again. One of the women was terrified of snorkeling. The waves were kind of rough too, where you're snorkeling and then the wave drops out from under you. I wore a life jacket, and I'm glad I had it. I think it really helps to keep your feet off the coral. My husband didn't have one, and I think he was pretty wiped out by the time we got back to the boat.

I forgot to mention that they served us some awesome rum punch though. That was very good. And of course, I was really happy that we saw the manatee. I guess we got babied at Hol Chan, and I was expecting the same kind of thing here. There may have been some great stuff that we never saw, but it seems like there just wasn't much there. The funny thing is when we booked it, they weren't sure there would be enough people to do the tour because a certain number of people have to go for it to be worth their while. The guy reserving the tour told me that we could have our own private tour for twelve hundred bucks. You should have seen my husband's and my eyes when he said that! Afterward my husband whispered to me, "If we paid $1,200 for that I would be really pissed!" :) I guess a higher class of people usually goes on these tours, but that would be a little out of our budget.

Yes we did 2 years ago. It's great!

Since we had loved Hol Chan so much, we decided to go back again for a second time. This time we have the Bradley brothers as our guides. They're a group of brothers very well known on the island for leading tours and teaching diving. Renee is our guide, and he's fantastic, very smart and patient. Not bad to look at either - very debonair I would say. This time we only have two other people on the boat with us, a couple from Texas on their honeymoon. It seems like 80% of the people we've met are from Texas. We take the quick trip out to Hol Chan, and Renee parks the boat a little further back than the spot where we were on our other tour. He has us get out where it's shallow and grassy so everyone can test their equipment and make sure they feel safe. He tells us that the sea turtles love this area. I put my head under and see several swimming around. Love this! They aren't even afraid of us so we can get close. Big silvery jacks swim around us too.

The man on his honeymoon is big and brawny, but he can't get the hang of the snorkeling. Every time he tries to do it he ends up swallowing water and looks miserable. After several tries, he decides to quit and head back to the boat. His sweet wife offers to stay with him, but he sends her out so she won't miss all the fun. This honeymoon is off to a rocky start. We all head back to the boat to make sure he gets there safely and then all head out again.

Renee is a fantastic guide. He takes us down one side of the reef, then we swim across the opening, and back down the other side. Hol Chan means little channel, and that's exactly what this is - an opening in the reef that allows all the big sea life to swim through. It's about 30 feet deep, and we can easily see to the bottom. Renee points out all the turtles, rays, eels, and sharks, and names several of the pretty fish that we see - tangs, parrotfish, jacks, barracudas, angelfish. Some are bright blue, some yellow. It really is the best snorkeling we've ever done. Really beautiful. I see another guide pick up a shark, and he tells me, "We've grown up together." It almost seems like the guides recognize the animals that swim here.

Renee dives down and swims through the same little cave that our other guide swam through and sees a moray eel inside. When he comes back up, he offers to take our underwater cameras down to take photos for us. He also spots some tiny little brightly colored fish and tells us, "Watch, they'll attack me" because they're so territorial. And they do. When he gets close they all try to nibble him. He says, "They don't realize how tiny they are!" He dives down for a conch shell and shows us the animal inside. We spend a lot of time here, making new discoveries, and then it's time to head to Shark Ray Alley again. I hate to see this part of the trip end.

When we get to the alley, they chum the water and Renee encourages us to get in. He warns us to keep our hands clenched so the sharks don't take a nibble out of our fingers. I know we don't need our fins since we didn't use them last time, so I jump in without them. I'm treading water with all the sharks and rays around me when Renee notices I'm not wearing my flippers. "VG, you need your flippers!" He tells me that they'll take a bite out of my toes if I keep wiggling them around, and he plunges into the water after me and promptly plants the flippers on my feet. Meanwhile the woman on her honeymoon says that a stingray is getting a little close to her. Before we know what's happened, it's sucking on her back and attaches itself to her. It's huge and she's kind of tiny. She's brave and takes it like a trooper, but I can tell it freaks her out. I put my head under, and a big shark comes swimming towards me and bumps my face mask, like a real 3D experience. I think Renee has his hands full with us! He asks if I want to touch a shark, and I'm tentative, so he grabs my hand and gently places it on the shark. It's scratchy like sand paper. At this point we decide to call it a day and climb back aboard the boat. I like being able to get good photos here, but Hol Chan is the best, and nothing else really compares to it. They offer us some cold, bottled sodas, and we settle in for the boat ride back. I would definitely go out with Searious or the Bradley Brothers again; we had a great time with both of them, and I don't think I could ever get tired of snorkeling at Hol Chan. Awesome day. When we get back to the hotel, we decide to take the free shuttle into town and see what San Pedro has to offer.

Thank you for the description. We will be with relatively small kids so I won't mind some babying :)

I agree, Hol Chan is the best.
We also had some great snorkeling in Bonaire, and we will try Curacao next Feb. Can't wait!

The Shark Alley was interesting, but I'm not ok with the chumming part, so I have mixed feelings about that.

alisa, yes, I'd try to inquire ahead about who you're going with or if it will be a guided snorkel. All of the guides we went with carried life rings with them. I really think wearing the life jacket makes it so much easier even if you're a great swimmer. I started getting water in my mask, and it would have been really hard to take my mask off or tighten it if I were treading water the whole time. You also have to really keep your feet elevated so you don't damage the coral. I saw several people accidentally kick coral that was close to the surface. They tie the life jackets around your waist, and not your neck, so it's still easy to get around.

x, yep, we see it the same. The animals weren't aggressive, but I think the chumming obviously changes their natural behavior. The honeymoon girl ended up having a huge hickey on her back from the ray. I think they'll still be talking about their honeymoon 50 years from now and hope things got better for them.

I love that Victoria House has a free shuttle into town. It only runs at certain times of day, but you can also use their bikes or rent a golf cart. The shuttle is taking another couple to El Fogon, so we decide to go there too. I've read several good reviews about this place.

The food was excellent. The restaurant is in a little blue and white house, but it also has a palapa area outside with a thatched roof and a sand floor, and that's where we sat. We had conch fritters as an appetizer, and they were very good. I noticed that they had salbutes on the menu, the same yummy little corn tortillas topped with chicken that we had had during our cooking lesson, so I ordered those, and my husband had their bbq chicken. I also have sangria. We enjoyed all of it, and the service was really good and friendly. Prices were nice too - salbutes were eight bucks. The couple we came with orders fish, and it comes on the plate with the head and everything still on it. They love it.

San Pedro is a very walkable little town with tons of restaurants and shops. It's fun to get away from the resort for a bit and have some local food. After we eat, we stop in at a small chocolate shop where they make organic chocolate bars, and we buy one to split and a few to take back as gifts. They have some exotic flavors - some spiced with chile, some filled with cocoa nibs, and some just filled with almonds. Inside are colorful little cards that tell the story of the farmer and family who grew the cacao.

After some more exploring in the heat, we stop in at a little shop and get ice cream. They have some exotic flavors - I order the coconut, and it's great. Eventually we catch a taxi and get the world's most friendly taxi driver. He has his wife riding around in the backseat, and they're the sweetest people. They recommend restaurants for us and tell us which ones are too expensive and which ones have a good price. The wife invites us to come by her fruit stand sometime; she says she's been running it for over 25 years. When we get back to the hotel we ask how much for the taxi, and the driver says he doesn't know. There's no meter or anything. Our hotel had said it costs $5-7 to go into town, so we offer seven and he takes it. He offers to give us his business card, but this will be our last night in San Pedro.

We go back to the room to relax and the combo of Dramamine, sun, sangria, and the best beds ever lure us into an afternoon nap.

We usually wear wetsuits. They are a bit buoyant, which helps. And the kids usually wear a wetsuit and some kind of floatie. We will definitely inquire who the tours will be with. We are fine with non-guided but I definitely want a safe experience :)

For the flight from BZE to San Pedro, did you have tickets for a particular flight?

alisa, does wearing a wetsuit get hot if you're just snorkeling? Yes, we had all of our flight pre-booked. My husband had it down to an exact science of which flights we needed to take to get each shuttle time and all that.

After a long day, we decide to just get takeout for dinner. There's a place called Robin's Kitchen right near Victoria House, and I've read fantastic reviews about the place. We've seen it several times when we've driven by. It's just an open air spot with a sand floor and a thatched roof and barbecue grill. My husband walks over and gets one fish dinner and one chicken dinner - only $6 each! The fish is good, but the chicken is fantastic. It has a lot of yummy herbs and spices all over it, and is served with rice and beans and cole slaw. Next time we would definitely get two of the chicken plates. We take it out on our balcony to eat and relax and enjoy the sunset. It's the perfect way to end our trip. Tomorrow we have an early flight back to the mainland.

We have an early morning flight back so we get all packed up and board our VH golf cart to head to Tropic Air. VH even gives us our free continental breakfast to go, so we have some nice little muffins for breakfast. I forgot to mention that every day we had free breakfast included in our room rate - very good fruit, either toast or muffins, and fresh juice - that really was juice this time! Tropic Air is only about five minutes away, so we get our last view of town, pull up, and head inside with our luggage. Check in is so easy. I wish all airports could be like this.

We get our boarding pass again, and this time we're assigned a color - pink. It's a nice little airport with a huge beautiful aquarium in it. Pretty soon they call for anyone "pink" and we're off. As we fly over the water I see a beautiful rainbow, and fifteen easy minutes later we're back in Belize City. We head to the United Counter and guess what? There's not a soul there. That's the one thing we neglected to think about - that the airport wasn't even open. It's 8:15, and we've got nothing but an empty counter.

For anyone else making this flight - they don't open until 8:30 a.m. I kinda wish we had known that. Promptly at 8:30, the agents come out and help us get checked in. They tell us that we've gotten bumped up to first class! I'm kind of surprised since we paid for our flights with miles, but thanks, United! My husband flies a lot for business, but I rarely get to fly up front.

We have to go outside to get to the big airport terminal. When we get there, it looks closed too. Business aren't open, no lights on, and no a.c. We're the only people there. Eventually things come to life, and we hear my husband's name being paged. We know what's going to happen. Every time we fly one or the other of us is whisked away for some weird security check. Something about us must look suspicious - 1ol. They say it's just random, but it's funny how often it happens. They take my husband away, and I never see him again until we board the plane. I'm kind of bored without him, and I remember that we've packed a DVD player with some movies. I pull out Game of Thrones and watch that until I realize it's not something you can really watch in public - wow, violent, so I go explore some of the little shops that are opening. There's a nice selection of souvenirs, and I pick up some hot sauce and mango jam to bring back as gifts. Marie Sharp's is a brand that's really popular. When they call our flight, I'm ready to go and happy to find my husband safe and sound on the plane looking pretty happy in his big cushy seat. Two hours later we're back home after a wonderful trip!

When we land, we discover that our airport has installed self checkout at immigration. Has anyone seen this? Instead of the huge long line of agents that are usually there, there are kiosks where you scan your own passport. You stand in front of the kiosk and questions appear - Do you have fruits or vegetables with you? Have you been on a farm? You have to push yes or no to answer each question, and then the machine takes a picture of you and prints it out! The pictures look hilarious - so bad - we didn't know where to look, plus we're all sweaty from sitting around the Belize airport. We're instructed to take our photos and give them to the only woman working here. Every one of us has to form a line and give our form and photo to this woman. Once we make it past her, we go to get our luggage, but it's not where they tell us it will be. They had said carousel 8, so our entire flight is waiting there, and the board says 8, but we all see our stuff circling around on 12. We get the luggage and head to another line for customs - this takes almost 2 hours to get through. When we finally make it, my husband mentions that it took us longer to get through our own airport than it took to fly all the way to Belize! Put looking into Global Entry on our to do list! We had a wonderful time but are happy to be home.

We go to Costa Rica a lot, and we loved Belize just as much. I would go back in a heartbeat. For anyone interested in history and seeing ruins or exploring the water via snorkeling or diving, Belize is absolutely amazing and hard to beat.

The self serve immigration kiosks are fairly new. You also use a kiosk for Global Entry which scans your passort, fingerprints and takes a photo. There should be a customs line bypass or separate customs line for GE. Did you notice one?

Thanks for your report!

Patty, no, I didn't notice that, but that would be amazing to get to bypass that line. Thanks for the info. on that and especially helping us plan our trip. We loved all of it!

We get cold even in a wetsuit :)
We have 3mm shorties so it is hard to get hot in them in the water.
Another plus is that you don't have to worry about scratching your stomach. I mean ideally you would never touch any coral but things happen.

Thank you for such a detailed and helpful report! We plan to buy our tickets this week!

Where are you going next? :)