You better Belize it!: 2014

We met some fellow (former) Saskatchewanians.. It's always easy to spot those Rider hats :). Lynn & Denise (Therrien) Eger now from Winnipeg but originally from Fife Lake & Willow Bunch Sask. Their son Marc owns the Lone Star Grill & Cantina here in San Pedro. Wonderful new friends!

On Tuesday we headed over the toll bridge to the north part of the island. We were told that the beaches were much better there, but we still think our place (Tara del Sol) on the south end of the island is the best :)

Denise & Lynn Eger brought a suitcase of supplies for this school for underprivileged kids. What a wonderful idea.

A photo opportunity at one of our many stops along the north road. Monique didn't quite get the timing right for the automatic photo...

This is better :)

A local winery .. notice the wall made of empty wine bottles

We bought a couple bottles of their homemade wine... not really that great, they would have been better had they been aged a bit more.

Another stop along the north shore

Some unique trails along the way

Then the trails got UGLY! We could only have the driver in the cart otherwise it was too heavy and we'd get stuck.. it was a mucky walk!

Poor Shirley got her pretty white dress dirty :(

Cheryl enjoying the water at one of our stops along the way... amazing turquoise water!

We stopped at Palapa Bar & Grill on our way back to the south end.. it's a popular stop.

Notice the people floating on inner tubes near the lower level of the bar...

The servers send down buckets of beer by pail.. we opted to not try that.. not sure how clean that water would be there :)

Wednesday was another snorkelling day.. this time at Mexico Rocks and Tres Cocos. Notice this heart shape made out of Conch shells... pretty cool!

Brian taking a photo of Mike....

And Mike taking a photo of Brian...

I discovered a setting on my new camera that automatically frames a photo.. Here we have Shirley & Tony

Cheryl & Mike... notice how the star shines right in the center of Cheryl's head.. our Star!

Another neat frame.. and subject :)

On Thursday we went to see some some Mayan ruins on the island

A rickety walk along the way

The "ruins"... not sure it was worth the $10 US admission :( We would have needed a guide to explain what everything was.

On our way back we stopped by the Lone Star Grill and Cantina to watch the Canadian Olympic hockey game that was being televised there.

Monique with Marc Eger (owner) and his mom Denise

Brian sitting with all his friends watching the Canadians play hockey :). What a great atmosphere to watch the game!

We discovered Starfish in the shallow water near our condo.

We walked back downtown and happened upon these fishermen who had just brought in two large fish.

The fishermen threw the unwanted fish parts into the water and that quickly attracted a Stingray.. He was hungry!

Our 2014 travel group.. a great bunch of friends! (Belize is written with empty Belikin beer bottles) .. we had fun :)

One of the many quotes on the wall at the Lone Star.. I love this one!

Downtown San Pedro. The streets are so narrow that the majority of the people on the island travel in golf carts. We rented two, a 4 passenger and a 6 passenger. Great fun getting around.

We stopped here for grilled lobster burgers.. it was recommend on TripAdvisor, we would recommend it too!

Mike's T-shirt.. he was wearing it when we stopped at the beer distributor.

The Belikin Beer distributor. If you buy it here it's only $1 per beer. Notice the cases of beer going into our golf cart :)

Grilled chicken or pork sold on the street

The wonderful smell was their best advertising!

We stopped for a bite and it was fantastic!

A local family stops by for chicken too.. the kids are so cute!

We thought it was funny to find a "Cayemart" in town.. it really is a K-Mart

This picture was taken standing on our pier. We were swimming in the water when we saw something jumping out of the water. A boat approached and told us it was a 12 foot Hammerhead Shark and to get out of the water.. yikes! I guess it's a rare site so close to the island. It was about 50 feet from shore.

We took a snorkelling tour with Lil Alphonse tours. It was by far the very best snorkelling tour we have ever experienced! Being so close to the world's second largest Barrier Reef makes for amazing snorkelling. We had two stops, the first was Hol Chan Marine Reserve which was a protected area so there were many, many fish. The second was Shark-Stingray Alley where the guides could feed and play with the fish. Made for two awesome places to experience unique snorkelling.

Alphonse made sure that everyone's equipment was in tip top shape before he let us jump in.

Some of the coral

This Stingray was about 4 feet wide

Alphonse swimming down to the Stingray. The water is about 30 feet deep in this area of the Reef.

A Nurse Shark. They were between 3 to 6 feet long... and they are harmless.

Monique holding a Sea Urchin

Alphonse our guide playing with a Stingray. This one was safe to play with because he lost his long spine and couldn't sting.

Brian having fun

Monique holding a Nurse Shark

Mike holding one too

Tony, Shirley, Monique and Brian

Mike the underwater photographer.. notice the turtle in the bottom right of the photo

Alphonse showed us how they can put the shark to sleep for a few minutes by flipping them upside down. We were able to rub it's belly when he did this.

I can't remember the name of this fish but Alphonse said the local fishermen really liked to find these. I could probably identify it better on my plate :)

Shirley holding a Conch

Tony diving to the bottom

Many, many fish to see

A Nurse Shark and a Barracuda

The grey coral is sleeping (looks dead) and the green coral is awake and feeding. We learned that coral is an animal, not a plant.. interesting!

Monday morning we went fishing. While waiting for our guide to pick us up at our pier we noticed a young lady doing yoga at the end of the pier. Cheryl and Monique followed along for a few minutes.. a great way to start the day :)

Our fishing adventure

Along the way we saw some small shacks on the water. Our guide told us they belonged to lobster fishermen and the staked out areas around the shack is their private property. These areas are handed down from generation to generation.