Belize Trip Report

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Belize trip report May 17-24

Day 1. Hubby and I flew from BWI- Miami to Belize City.. the flight from Miami was delayed some. We arrived in Belize City over an hour late. Our arranged transportation had to leave since they already had some guest to transport.. Luckily they arranged new transportation to the Sleeping Giant Rainforest Lodge for us. This turned out to be an adventure in itself somewhat. The van ended up with a flat tire which was promptly fixed but our driver had to go and buy a new spare tire. We were ok with this since we figured the first day was going to be just for traveling.  Bryan and Richard were nice to greet us with a yummy rum punch. We arrived at the Sleeping Giant too late for lunch but Richard ( greatest bartender ever)  gave us a snack to hold us over till dinner.  We had a garden view room under the bar which at times was a little noisy. The room itself was beautiful. I loved the bathroom, décor and the cute towel animals.. Oh and the air conditioning worked great. Over the next four days, Richard the bartender was one of our favorite workers at the Sleeping Giant Lodge. Dinner was delicious at the lodge, they have a great cook.

Day 2. I have to say the breakfast at the Sleeping Giant was delicious, most mornings both hubby and I had omelets. We arranged a Mayan Ruins tour with Bryan at the Sleeping Giant thru Caves Branch Adventure Co.  I believe our tour guide for the day was Ching?  He was very informative and led us on a great tour of the Xunantunich and Cahal Pech mayan ruins. I did a blog post here: http://viewingnaturewitheileen.blogspot.com/2014/06/belize-mayan-ruins.html . I love to look for new birds and I was able to find a few new lifers on this day to the ruins and we saw a Spider Monkey at the Xunantunich ruins.

Day 3. Hubby and I were up early each morning and would sometimes take a walk around the Sleeping Giant grounds and down to the river. Breakfast at the lodge was the usual yummy omelets. One this day we arranged for some birding at the Sleeping Giant Rainforest lodge.  Neko from http://www.belizeinlandtours.com/  came to the lodge and spotted some birds right on the lodge’s grounds and then a walk down the road to the orange orchards.. From there we took a separate tour with Neko to the St Hermans Cave and to do some birding at the Blue Hole National Park.  My blog post on our day here: http://viewingnaturewitheileen.blogspot.com/2014/06/blue-hole-national-park.html

 Our cave tour was a guided walking tour led by Neko. I also found out Neko was awesome at spotting some new life birds for me. We had a lunch at local place picked out by Neko, hubby and I both enjoyed the burritos. Back to the resort for a swim in the pool, showers and a yummy dinner. I usually picked a fish dinner which also came with a salad and a dessert. Kudos to the Sleeping Giant cook.

Day 4. We hung around the Sleeping Giant Rainforest lodge for the day.  Walking around the grounds, looking for new birds, breakfast as usual was yummy. The birds around the open air dining room was a distraction at times. It was hard to concentrate on eating while I was watching the beautiful hummingbirds and toucans and other birds around the lodge. Hubby and I did take the hike up to the tower gazebo at our lodge. We had some beautiful views of the orchard, river and the mountains. We did have a rain shower while at the tower and we just waited it out before heading back to our room. Back to shower, swim at the pool and have one of Richard’s delicious Pina Coladas.  As the previous nights, we enjoyed the dinner at the lodge.

Day 5.  This day was our transfer to the Almond beach Resort part of our jungle-beach package. We were up early, again taking an early morning walk around the grounds before breakfast. It was kind of sad leaving this beautiful rainforest lodge. We were enjoying the food, drinks and all the attention.  But, hubby was looking forward to some coastal scenery and snorkeling. Our drive to the next hotel Almond Beach resort in Hopkins went quickly. We were greeted with a Rum Punch, a nice tour of the hotel and grounds and shown to our beach front room. Wow, we had a gorgeous view.  This first night hubby and I did take the night tour of the lagoon to see the Bioluminescence tour. It was neat seeing the jelly fish glowing in the dark.

Day 6. Having a beach front room at the Almond beach resort was great for viewing the sunrises.. Hubby and I were up early every morning to see these beautiful sunrises.  Breakfast at the resort was delicious, the service was always excellent. On this day we arranged a hiking tour to a waterfall at the Mayflower-Bocawina National Park. I believe at this time the hot and humid weather was taking its toll on me. I whimped out and did not make it all the way to the waterfall, I stopped near some cascades while hubby and the group hiked on. It was a beautiful rainforest-jungle area to enjoy, with some great bird sounds all around. Hubby had a camera to take shots of the waterfall. One thing I can recommend is to have a good bug spray with you, the flies were mean. Back at the room, showers done we had dinner at the hotel, food there was always excellent.

Day 7. Another beautiful sunrise from our room, a pretty day in Paradise.. A yummy breakfast at the hotel dining room and we were off on our tours.  On this day hubby and I split up.  Hubby took the snorkeling tour to the Barrier Reef, which he loved. His words.. one of the best he has ever done, except for snorkeling at the Cayman Islands..Hubby has snorkeled in a lot of places. I went off on a birding tour included a local tour of the birds along the Sittee River and also a boat ride on the Sittee River.  I was happy to add a few more lifers to my list. Also, on this day we rented a golf cart to drive into Hopkins for some fun.  We stopped at  The Funky Dodo for a drink. They were reasonably priced drinks and delicious. And then onto another local place Brother Pizza.  Definitely a good choice for the pizza, it was recommended by some friends we met at Almond Beach.

Day 8.  Our last day in Almond beach we were sad to leave this pretty paradise and our great room with it fantastic view. We had an early breakfast and then had to pack up and get ready for our ground transportation to Dangria airport.  We had a smooth Maya flight to Belize City airport. I enjoyed the views from this small plane, the first time I have ever been on a little plane. It was exciting. We arrived at the Belize City Airport with enough hang out time before our flight to Miami and home. Overall we had a great trip to Belize, I would highly recommend visiting this lovely country.. We were happy with the Sleeping Giant Rainforest Lodge and Almond Beach. Sorry for the long report, thanks for reading..

I would recommend the Sleeping Giant Rainforest Resort and the Almond Beach Resort for a good time in Belize..

Thanks for stopping by and  I wish everyone a happy day!

I hope you enjoyed my travel and scenic post.  I wish everyone a safe and happy weekend.  

 Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate your comments. Thanks for stopping by to see my post and thanks to Gemma for hosting Scenic Weekends. also thank to Alma the host @ The Tablescaper
And Keryn from Friday Postcards