Tara's Belize Trip

In the name of Lora Beth turning 40, we ventured to Belize JUST THE TWO OF US for a short get-away, and MAN, WAS IT A FUN ADVENTURE!  We shared this not-so-cheap adult beverage upon our arrival to our modest Caribbean villa (super basic hotel) & started the non-stop fun.  The beach right in front of our place wasn't particularly awesome or accessible, but we had a good time no matter what we were doing or where we were.  We truly are kindred spirits.  LB lives in Boerne, Texas, and our friendship started in grad school back in the day, namely when we spent a couple of weeks in Puebla, Mexico, together as part of our program.  

These fellas hang out everywhere, and I knew my boys would want a picture.  They really are mighty large lizards, those iguanas!  

We stumbled on this fun life-size Jenga up the beach on a windy afternoon.  These games were outside of a super posh hotel that did have better beach access, but we'll just say that ours had a whole lot more character ;) And the owner, Peter, DID buy us a yummy fish dinner on our first night, which was so wonderful of him.  

I should clarify that we were on the island of San Pedro, accessible by island hopper (tiny plane) from Belize City.  The island was nothing tremendous, but our experience really was!!!  In the picture above, we were enjoying a random pool after hours and woodfired pizza, sipping on a Fanta.  We had just spent the ENTIRE day at Secret Beach, arguably the best day of our trip, and were stopping by this great spot with food trucks to watch the sun set.  Let's just say that our destinations were always determined by the people, the food, the adventure and the crafts.  

Everyone on San Pedro gets around in golf carts.  Lora Beth dominated the island driving &, if you can BELIZE it, yours truly was the navigator.  I know!  And I actually got us places--the right places --and used landmarks and even a map pretty darn successfully.  (It helped that it was a small island, & that we kept coming back to the same places, but still.)  One day we golf carted ourselves to an awesome yoga retreat for amazing food & an unforgettable yoga practice in a big thatched hut over the ocean.  We tried to speak Spanish everywhere, but not everyone spoke it.  It was a mix of English, Spanish & some kind of island pidgin.  Oh yeah, and at 42 years of age, I was offered "the good stuff" (marijuana) FOR.THE.FIRST.TIME.IN.MY.LIFE.  And to think:  I grew up in Boulder!?!?!  (Of course, we passed on grass.)

I think this picture was taken at Secret Beach, and it aint no secret how much fun we had there that day!  Wading in the crystal clear water, we ran into a guy we sat next to on the plane over from Belize City, and he and his wife and friends ended up buying our dinner later in the trip.  (We thought that we were blessing them by sending over some awesome watermelon juices to their table, and at the end, they blessed our socks off & bought our whole amazing dinner...and their own drinks!)  No picture to document this, but we also snorkeled and swam with nurse sharks & sting rays one afternoon.  Lora Beth Escalante, you are one amazing friend and fellow traveler and I would do it with you all over again.  (You look pretty good in my yellow bathing suit, too, by the way.)  Thank you SO much for giving me a reason to renew my pasaporte.  ¡Seguimos soñando!