Our trip to tropical paradise - adventures in the thick jungles of Belize, exploration of the ancient cities of Guatemala, and lazy days in the sun at the Caribbean. Perfect!
Black tailed deer (Tami Doughty)It was a rude awakening, the alarm clock, but despite the early morning hour we were so excited to get the day started. We’d left cold, snowy Montana yesterday morning arriving at Houston just after midnight. Crashing at the pricey airport hotel seemed like a good idea last night since we were so tired, and this morning it again proved convenient as we hopped on the underground train and arrived at the terminal in just 5 minutes. The security line literally took hours longer than we’d anticipated, but we managed to make it to the gate with 30 minutes to spare. Phew!
The 2 hour flight to Belize City was uneventful, and as soon as we stepped off the plane onto the tarmac Belize gave us a warm, breezy welcome. I’m so excited to be here! We waited our turn in customs and quickly found Francisco from Pook’s Hill waiting outside for us. We joined Kelly and Daniel, another couple arriving on our flight, and boarded the van. About an hour out of Belize City we pulled into Amigos Restaurant for a potty break and lunch. After we all enjoyed our first Belizean meal of chicken, rice and beans, we drove the short distance to the Belize Zoo. All 4 of us pasty-white tourists lathered on the sunscreen and we headed in. First thing in the gate was a young man holding his pet Boa Constrictor…did we want to hold it too? Of course we did! I was surprised at how heavy and soft it was. Photo op competed; we spent the rest of the afternoon wandering the tropical trails of the zoo listening to Francisco sharing about the incredible variety of animals, many of whom I’d never even heard of.
We were back on the highway for another hour when we turned off the main road at TeaKettle Village onto the road to Pook’s Hill. We bumped and jostled our way through the clear-cut jungle for about 30 minutes. As soon as we crossed into the 300 acres of Pook’s Hill the jungle crowded in dense and thick on all sides, including above. Pulling into the lodge, we received a warm welcome from Vicki, the owner. After our first Belikan beer (the only Belize beer – better than we’d thought!) she showed us to our cabana located high on the hill above the maya site in the middle of the property. Dave, one of the managers of Pook’s just happened to be having his birthday, so Vicki left us in our cabana with an invite and instructions to a party for Dave up on the roof of her house.
After resting and cleaning up, we headed out for the first incredible night we’d have in Belize. If we weren’t already breathless from the trek up the hill to Vicki’s house, the view certainly took our breath away. From the vantage point of Vicki’s roof we could see over the jungle canopy – miles and miles of dense jungle stretched out beneath us. The sun was setting, birds were flying overhead….amazing. Simply amazing. Ryan and I just tried to soak it in, shed thoughts of home and responsibility, and relax into this tropical wonderland. We mingled on the roof for some time with the lodge guests, Dave, Cat and Vicki, sharing drinks and hor d’oeuvres while the sun set and a million stars popped out overhead. Soon we all strapped on our headlamps and trekked down to the lodge to share in our first meal in the cozy, lantern-lit dining room. After getting instructions on how to prepare for our day tomorrow, we took our tired selves up to our cabana. Crossing through the excavated Mayan ruin, our headlamps kept catching thousands of blue glitters. Fascinated but puzzled, we chalked it up to yet another way Belize had amazed us that day, and headed for bed, excited for tomorrow.
Our agent Jessica was very helpful with the whole process and always responded in a timely way to all of our questions.
K Van
1 day ago
Chern was very patient snd helpful.
CaBaba
2 days ago
Cruse ship was great. Fantastic food and service. Cruise itinary got changed so not what we expected, but not an major issue. Japan portion was great. Drivers/guides arranged by 80 Days were great. Hotels were mostly ok. Did not know that most hotels outside of major cities do not allow shoes to be worn in the hotel. again a minor inconvenience. Overall a great trip. Adventure Life communications were timely and much appreciated as far as changes/requests.
Peter Goff
3 days ago
We were a group of three that initiated our research by independently searching for the best agency to help us in the somewhat complex experience of traveling to the Galapagos. We chose adventure life because they were the most responsive in the website provided the most comprehensive overview of the trip. Their reviews were also very good.
Adventure, life splits up its booking process in two parts. First Jeff, the booking agent helped us decide which experience best suited are interests. We chose a small 14 to 16 group sized yacht. Once the booking was made with Jeff, we were handed off to Coleene, who oversaw the complex process of assembling all of the necessary documents and making sure we had everything we needed to make the trip go smoothly. The adventure, life website, then becomes your personal place of reference for all things related to your trip from door to door. It’s a lot of information to assemble, especially for three travelers, but the website makes it easy and Colleen‘s gentle reminders kept us on track. In all, from the beginning, we had four months from the time we started our research till the time we departed. We felt that was, a good amount of preparation time and don’t think it would be wise to do it in less than four months. Mostly because I think you have more options with that amount of time. There were others on our trip that took six months and more from the time they started planning.
The trip itself was outstanding. We ended up on an excellent yacht (Galapagos Angel II) with a great group of guests that we were able to connect with and put together a really nice google photos album to share.
Jed
1 week ago
Mary was very helpful. Quick to reply with helpful information and closure on arrangements.