Extraneous Melodies by Emily Bee: Mayan Ruins, Selfies and Snuba

Welcome back to my Belize Travel Journal...thing.

If you want to check out the first few days you can click here!

The 4th day I spent in Belize was ~~a bit boring compared to the others~~, but fun all the same! We visited Xunantunich Mayan Ruins (It took me the whole trip to learn how to say that... shoe-nan-too-nitch) which were quite spectacular. We then hopped on the bus and drove to Chaa Creek History Center where we got to learn loads about blue morpho butterflies and walk into a cage full of them. BLUEtiful! I think we visited a few schools on this day, but I'm not entirely sure. I'm not very good at interacting with children, so I didn't really enjoy the school trips. The kids did seem to enjoy us though! :)

Day 5 was our last day on the mainland of Belize and we spent it by visiting a baboon sanctuary. I don't know why they called it a baboon sanctuary seeing as all that was there was howler monkeys. Hm.

The lady who was our monkey guide so-to-speak was a character. In an effort to attract the monkeys to where we were she made grunting monkey noises, without any thought as to what a bunch of 13 years olds would think of it.

Well there, I told you about everything we did on the mainland of Belize. Obviously I left things out, like souvenir shopping, water stops at local grocery stores, what the money there was like, and hotel free time, but you get the jist.

Next we traveled via water taxi to Ambergris Caye (Ambergris means whale vomit f.y.i.). The water taxi was probably one of the worst things I have ever experienced. First off, the ride from Belize to the island was 2 and a half hours. The boat we were on was not made for such a long journey; we were all jammed in the undercarriage of the boat, no fresh air was capable of getting in. There was at least 40 people on the boat, and there was only 27 life jackets. Terrible.

Although I prefered the jungle compared to Ambergris Caye, it was still a great time. We got the chance to Snuba and snorkel which I jumped on the chance to do. It was such a great experience to swim above the second largest coral reef in the world and look down at the millions of fish below you. I will never forget that in my life. (Before anyone asks, Snuba is essentially scuba diving, but you don't have an air regulator attached to your back- it floats about you on a raft.)

Out hotel was right on the beach, and if you walked down to the dock you could see a man of war jellyfish floating around... so glad I didn't go swimming there! There was also a family of seahorses that hung around the dock which were incredible.

On the last day we rode the dreaded water taxi back to the mainland and started the long drive back to the airport. I am so glad I went on this trip, and it is definitely life changing. After I got home I went into a post-trip depression for a few days... that's how much I loved it there! All the people in Belize are so lovely and they treat everyone like family. I never encountered an unfriendly Belizian.

Flairwell!