Our Jungle & Underwater Adventure In Belize (Part 1)

 

A few weeks ago my husband and I went on an amazing trip to Belize to celebrate our 10th anniversary and my 40th birthday.  Wow, what an adventure this trip turned out to be.  Our schedule was jammed packed with jungle waterfall hikes, zip lining through the jungle, 5 dives (scuba diving) into the top 5 best diving spots in the world, a cave adventure (I had to crawl on my tummy to get through the tight spaces) and a trip to the Mayan ruins near Guatemala.  So today I thought I would share a few photos of our trip.

 My husband usually plans our trips.  We always like to go to new places and this place is a little gem tucked away in the small village of Hopkins in Belize.  The resort we stayed at was Hamanasi Adventure & Dive Resort in Belize.  Haminasi sits on a 12 miles stretch of beautiful beaches and is a day trip away from Mayan ruins, caves, jungle rivers, birding, horseback riding, rainforest trekking, norkeling (norkeling is spearfishing while snorkeling), diving, fishing, local culture and more.

 

 

When we were planning our trip, my husband asked me if I wanted to stay on the beach or in a tree house in the jungle.  Uh no brainer….a tree house in the jungle of course, it isn’t every day that you have that opportunity.  Now we were in the jungle in a tree house, but it was a mighty nice tree house to say the least.  No phones, no internet, no television, just me and my husband, some strange sounding animals and birds and the room….ah, how nice!

 

Our first day there we made it into the village of Hopkins.  There are no paved roads or cabs in this small area, so we jumped on some bicycles and headed into the village.  The villagers are very welcoming and offered us an invitation to come into their homes where they shared some stories and cooked us a home cooked meal!

 

What a treat!  Here was the wonderful lady who invited us into her home and shared with us her photo albums (she just renewed her vows with her husband of 25 years), life stories and cooked us some wonderful food.  We met her daughters, grand children and husband.  They were so open and welcomed us with open arms.  Talking with her and her family was definitely a highlight of my trip.

 

The next day we were in for a grueling hike into the jungle.  I don’t think my spouse and I were mentally prepared for this very vigorous hike.  We had to climb a mountain along side a waterfall and needed helmets, ropes (there is no way we could have climbed without them) and probably would have been fitted better with hiking boots rather than tennis shoes, but we made it!   🙂 

 

The scenery was amazing and we had 2 guides who educated us about the wild life and botany of the jungle. 

 

So our guide shared with us survivalism tips of what to eat and do if stranded in the jungle.  Did you know that termites are edible and are an incredible source of protein?  Our guide showed us some termites and then put them right into his mouth.  He asked me if I wanted to try them and I politely declined!

 

On our way up, we  ran into the 5th most poisonous snake in the world, the Fer-de-Lance Viper!  Another hiker and I were boulder hopping to get a better picture of the water fall and we almost stepped on this snake.  Our guide quickly told us to get back, but I managed to shoot a photo before I really knew what it was.

 

Our hike was very vigorous but our reward was a water spring at the top of the mountain that we could swim in.  Look how beautiful!

 

My husband wouldn’t swim in this spring it was to cold for him.  I dove right in and enjoyed every minute of it!

     I can’t wait to share with you our underwater adventure in my next post.  If you are ever looking for an adventurous trip, this is the trip for you!