Oct 10 – Arrive Belize City. Catched a 15 mins connecting flight to San Pedro, Ambergris Caye.  Home for the next 7 days is Las Terrazas Resort, 4.5 miles north of the capital.  New and very high end resort.

Oct 11 – Ambergris Caye. Spent our first full day getting to know the island on a bike. Headed to town for provisions as last night’s dinner at the resort was not impressive at all.

At 25 mi (40 km) long and 4½ mi (7 km) wide, Ambergris is the queen of the cayes. On early maps it was often referred to as Costa de Ambar, or the Amber Coast, a name supposedly derived from the blackish substance secreted by sperm whales—ambergris—that washes up on the beaches. Here the reef is just a few hundred yards from shore, making access to dive sites extremely easy: the journey by boat takes as little as 10 minutes.

Oct 12 - Diving at Hol Chan Marine Reserve and snorkeling at Shark-Ray Alley located approximately 4 miles southeast of San Pedro.  Due to the protected status of the area, the fish populations have exploded. In waters as shallow as 5 feet, large schools of jacks, groupers, snappers, sting rays, barracuda and sea turtles abound.  While at Shark-Ray Alley, we saw nurse sharks and some sting rays again.  This time, our divemaster grab one of the 6 foot nurse sharks and handed it over to us to pet and rub its stomach.  Photo ops.

Oct 13 – Dive trip to Lighthouse Reef with stops at the Blue Hole, Half Moon Caye and Long Caye.

We start this trip bright and early and head 50 miles offshore to the Great Blue Hole at Lighthouse Reef, which takes approximately 2.5 hours.

Lighthouse Reef is about 18 mi (29 km) long and less than 1 mi (2 km) wide and is surrounded by a seemingly endless stretch of coral. Here you'll find two of the country's best dives.

Blue Hole, a breathtaking vertical chute that drops several hundred feet through the reef, looks like a dark blue eye in the center of the shallow lagoon. The Blue Hole was first dived by Jacques Cousteau in 1970 and has since become a diver's pilgrimage site. Just over 1,000 feet wide at the surface and dropping almost vertically to a depth of 412 feet, the Blue Hole is like swimming down a mineshaft, but a mineshaft with hammerhead sharks. This excitement is reflected in the thousands of stickers reading, "I Dived the Blue Hole."  (Since Julie was not comfortable doing 130 ft dive, we ended up snorkeling around its circular boundaries.)

After the Blue Hole, we head a short distance to Half Moon Caye. The dive begins at 35 feet and drops almost vertically to blue infinity. Floating out over the edge is a bit like free-fall parachuting. Magnificent spurs of coral jut out to the seaward side, looking like small tunnels; they're fascinating to explore and invariably full of fish. An exceptionally varied marine life hovers around this caye. On the gently sloping sand flats behind the coral spurs, a vast colony of garden eels stirs, their heads protruding from the sandlike periscopes. Spotted eagle rays, sea turtles, and other underwater wonders frequent the drop-off.

After, we head a short distance to Half Moon Caye Bird Sanctuary for lunch. This 45-acre island managed by the Belize Audubon Society was declared a natural monument in 1981, largely because of its Hawk's Bill and Loggerhead turtle nesting sites, as well as its 4,000 red footed boobies. These rare birds are a glistening white color with bright red webbed feet. The birds nest in the heavily wooded west end of the island where there is a viewing platform allowing visitors an unbelievable view of both the reefs and the trees covered with booby and frigate birds.

For our third and final dive site, we head out to Long Caye. Perched on the edge of the cobalt blue abyss The Aquarium starts in only 15-20 feet of water before plummeting downward.

Oct 14 – Just chilling at the pool and beach. Then kayaking in the afternoon.

Oct 15 – Mainland trip to Lamanai Mayan ruins, which includes an exciting boat ride up the New River.  About 2½ hours northwest of Belize City.

Lamanai ("submerged crocodile") is Belize's longest-occupied Mayan site, inhabited until well after Christopher Columbus discovered the New World in 1492. In fact archaeologists have found signs of continuous occupation from 1500 BC until AD 1700.

In all, 50 to 60 Mayan structures are spread over this 950-acre archaeological reserve. The most impressive is the largest Pre-Classic structure in Belize—a massive, stepped temple built into the hillside overlooking the New River Lagoon.

Oct 16 – Go hobie-cat sailing.

Oct 17 – Depart Belize.