also, disregard any words that are spelled incorrectly as we do not know how to spell some of the local animals/plants Here is a map of where Belize is located.
- Belize Location
Day 1 in Maya Beach, Placencia Belize
We flew from Spokane to Seattle to Houston to Belize City through the first night. We landed in Belize City and went through Customs. Then we waited for a “Cessna Caravan” airplane to take us from Belize City to Placencia. Below is a picture of the Cessna we traveled in.Tropic Air Cessna Caravan Airplane.
- Tropic Air Cessna Caravan Airplane
This is the airstrip we landed on in Placencia. The Cessna used every single inch of the strip to land and take off from. The take off’s were a little uneasy cause you barely get over the water.
- Placencia Airstrip
Below is the turn around on the airstrip….I wasnt kidding when I said it used every inch 
- Wingtip over the ocean inlet
Once we landed in Placencia we were only 5 miles from the Maya Breeze Inn that we were staying at. Below is a zoomed in map of Placencia. The 5 miles consisted of a terrible unimproved road, eating dust, and no air conditioning….our first taste of the next 5 days.
- Placencia airstrip to Maya Breeze Inn
Keep in mind we had to do a last minute switch, due to a change in ownership and remodeling, from our original place of stay called “Singing Sands” to the Maya Breeze Inn. We Chose Maya Breeze Inn because it had a fresh water pool and a “cabana” right on the beach … supposedly. Needless to say, as you can tell in the following google maps image, we were a little ways back and our view of the ocean was blocked by a big bush and two other cabanas.
- Maya Breeze Cabana location
In addition to the disappointing view, the pool was open to the public, they added a pool side bar that was playing “another gringo in belize” music until 4 am every night. The second to the last night I finally went out at 2am and asked the owner to turn it down. Needless to say, although it provided a convenient hub to do the tourist activities, its not the relaxing place we were hoping for. And it was a little sad to see the owner consumed by alcohol every minute of every day. Here’s a few pics from the Maya Breeze Inn:
- The side of our cabana…this is the same path that the public took to use the pool and bar….that window was our bedroom window
- The porch of our cabana
- The pool … our porch entrance is to the right….the bar is the thatch roof past the pool
- Beach Chairs
Looking from the ocean back on the Maya Breeze Inn. Our cabana is hidden back in the far left corner behind that bush
Now that I have the only “disappointment” out of the way I can move on to the rest of the absolutely most incredible memorable, and blessed trip we have ever been on. The first day was a kick back and recoup from the red eye flight day. We had dinner at the infamous Maya Beach Hotel and it was pretty good food. Here are a few pics.
- Maya Beach Hotel Restaurant - from the ocean looking in
- Maya Beach Hotel Restaurant
- Us at the Maya Beach Hotel Restaurant
- Maya Beach Hotel shot
- Fresh fish, beans of course, and mashed potatoes
Day 2 in Maya Beach, Placencia Belize
The second day we kind of vegged around, checked out the lagoon on the western side of our penninsula and tried for some barracuda, crocodiles, and whatever else would bite a fly. Nothing took except little fish smaller than the fly I was using. We scheduled our tourist activities for the following days and decided to do the Jungle Zip Line tour, jaguar preserve with river tubing, waterfalls, and rocks sliding.
We decided to take a “bus”, actually a converted school bus, to the city of Placencia. I didnt take any pictures because I was a little nervous to pull my camera out on the bus It was an experience, for lack of better words.
Prior to loading on the bus we decided to take the kayak out to a little island. Here’s an aerial shot of the distance we had to row. We rowed out, snorkeled for a few, and rowed back.
- An aerial shot of how far we rowed out
Here are a few pics from Days 2. The “Purple Space Monkey” restaurant served a Mango & Teriyaki glazed snapper that was hands down the best fish I have ever had!! I didnt get a picture of the dish but I did get a picture of the Purple Space Monkey
- Fishing the Lagoon
- the Purple Space Monkey restaurant
Just one of the many crabs we saw. The sand was alive with crabs once it got dark.
We finished the 3rd day with fresh lobster caught right out of the ocean in Placencia and bbq’d by some people we met at Maya Breeze Inn.
Day 3 - Jungle Zip Line tour
The third day we decided to do the Jungle Zip Line tour. Our “guide”, honestly nothing more than a taxi driver, showed up at 7:30am. The first thing I noticed was the padding in a very “deteriorated” state on the chairs in the diesel van leaving only mostly medal bars to sit on with a little vinyl over them. Something that everyone failed to mention was that the drive time was 3 hours to the zip lines. About 45 minutes down the nasty bumpy rough road we get stopped by some locals telling us we had a flat tire. So we spend 20 minutes replacing the flat tire while consuming oil vapors that were dripping on the exhaust manifold, which come to realize later was giving us carbon monoxide poisoning…..yipppeeee.
Our wonderful non air conditioned oil burning diesel van
So we get the flat repaired and moved on down the road, making one stop every 30 minutes looking for a new spare, a repair on the existing, or just for some reason? After we get all this behind us we finally arrive at the Zip Line tour to find no other tourists which was a relief after running through the previous issues. We bounce through jungle check in, mozy down the path the meet our zip line guides Jesus and Angel…..what better guides to have than two that God would provide to make Aaron feel more comfortable
One of the better parts of the road to the Zip Line tour
Jesus and Angel go through the steps and explain everything at the first platform. We hook up and I go first. The next few pics are of Aaron’s first zip line.
Standing on the first platform
Aaron stepping off the first platform
Aaron arriving at the platform after her first zip line
Aaron's ecstatic appearance after her first zip line
After the first zip line they make sure your OK and then continue on. Following are a few misc shots from either the walk in between zip line platforms or zip lines themselves. It was a blast as you zipped at high speeds through the jungle canopy. Some of the lines you barely miss the jungle foliage as you fly through the air. Some speeds are pretty fast too.
Pat getting ready to drop off the platform
watching Jesus run a zip line
Aaron zipping another line
Pat zipping a line
One of the paths between zip lines
The jungle was full of wonderful vegetation. Here are a few pics that we snapped while running through the zip lines.
the Bird of Paradise flower
Jungle water vines
We wrapped up the 3rd day with dinner at the Maya Beach hotel’s restaurant again. I ordered some form of truffle fish and it was awful…..it was like a fish soup with a truffle over the top. Here’s a pic of what not to order at the Maya Beach Hotel restaurant
Do not order the Boat fish dinner
Us on the dock outside the Maya Beach Hotel after dinner
Another shot of us out on the dock
The next morning I woke up early and took the fly rod to the beach out our front door. Caught a snapper and missed a barracuda. Had some gorgeous sunrise shots though.
- Sunrise beach shot
Another beautiful sunrise
Belikin beer sunrise shot
Beach chair sunrise shot
12" snapper caught on a fly
After a beautiful sunrise Aaron woke up and we headed to the office to eat breakfast and get ready for our Jaguar Preserve tour. We inquired about our guide hoping we would have someone different with air conditioning and non oil leaking van. To our deep gratitude we found out Zeph was guiding us today and he had a 2004 van with air conditioning. He was an awesome guide!! Zeph arrived around 7:30 and we hit the road to start our 45 minute drive to the Jaguar Preserve.
our tour guide, Zeph, came with a much better ride for today's tour.
Jaguar Preserve entrance gift shop
- the modern Banyo
- a dense jungle shot
- entrance to the Jaguar Preserve
- this plant was about the size of a 50 cent piece..a very cool plant
- another close up of some of the flowers
a very cool flower
more jungle plant life.....it was amazing how many different plants and vegetation was in the jungle.
- trekking through the jungle
- More trekking through the jungle. Zeph was an incredible guide and would always be showing us something that we had no idea was there.
More of the jungle water vines....you can hack these open and drink the water out of them if needed
- Termite nest…..Zeph, our guide, actually stuck his finger in one of these and ate some of the termites that climbed on his finger
turtles in the jungle???
Jungle frog
- ANTS ANTS ANTS!!! we never even knew it until Zeph pointed out that there were ants everywhere!! these ants had a very defined well worn path in the jungle floor and we were always walking on them without even knowing it.
- Soldier Ant - Zeph stomped on the ground near the nest and said “watch these soldier ants come out first”. Sure enough they came out like bulldogs and ran right at us
After we ventured through the jungle for an hour and a half, Zeph brought us back to the center of the park and gave us lunch. After we ate our very tastey lunch, we suited up for tubing down a jungle river….something I never dreamed I would do.
- And our tubing journey began
