June '04 Trip Report

We spent 24 days in Belize in June, and loved almost every minute of it! The few minutes we didn't enjoy were spent either sweating profusely or being eaten alive! We've discovered that most everything in the tropics, whether in the water or on the land, bites! However, it is a beautiful country filled with natural wonders and wonderful people, and what's a little humidity or a few bugs when you've got all that� Since a day by day, blow by blow account would probably bore you to death, and would certainly be beyond my journalistic skills, here's a summary, kind of arranged by topic.

Accommodations:

We didn't find any we didn't like, although we were looking in the mid range of $80 to $120 per night, depending on what came with the room, etc.

We stayed at Corona Del Mar in San Pedro - nice rooms, not real large, great views from 2nd or 3rd floors, TV, fridge, safe, lovely balcony overlooking ocean, nice beach area, good people, close enuf to town to walk (about 15 minutes), basic continental breakfast included, free rum punch all day (which was a great way to start the trip laugh ) for $85/night in June.

On Caye Caulker, we stayed at Iguana Reef Inn - a great place, deluxe room (huge with couch and table as well as 2 queen beds), really beautiful decor, breezy balconies front and back, nice bar, really good continental breakfast included, wonderful private beach on lagoon side of Caye, with really nice swimming area, good people, easy walk to restaurants, etc (actually, almost any place you stay on Caulker is close to everything else!), no TV, for 120/night.

In the Cayo area, we stayed at Crystal Paradise, which was $80/night including full breakfast and dinner every day (home cooked Belizean food, very tasty, served family style), good tours and guides, nice family atmosphere, rooms (cabanas) pretty basic, no TV, great common areas for dining, hanging out, nice grounds, good horses (met some great people here).

Also stayed at Jaguar Paw for 2 nights (our big splurge) - $180/night, meals extra and there's no place to eat except at the resort. A really nice place, great pool, wonderful grounds, and a great way to do the cave tubing without competing with the cruise ship crowds, since you can plan your tubing when they aren't around.


In Placencia we stayed at Rum Point Inn ($99/night). Very different as you can see from the picture I'll post if I can figure out how to do it. No regular windows, just screened "designer holes" in the walls all around the cabana. Beautiful grounds, 50 feet from the ocean, great beach, very private, good restaurant, wonderful pool, and the best library in Belize, I think! Also extremely friendly and helpful staff, willing to show up at 4:30 in the morning to feed us breakfast so we could go out fishing at 5 a.m. Good snorkel and Monkey River guides, too.

I'll continue on another post.