Hi Guys,
Well, Zia and I made it home from our trip to Belize late Tue. night at around 1 in the morning (3am Belize time), then went to work the next day. We had an amazing time despite only a few hiccups. We left Grants Pass at 5am on the 31st of Oct. and arrived in Belize on Nov. 1st at around 4pm. They were the cheapest tickets we could get, but I'm not sure it was worth the 35hrs. of travel with all the layovers!!!!! On the way there the last leg of our flight from the US was delayed and we missed our connecting flight from Belize city to Dangringa where we were to take a bus to Hopkins. We ended up having to stay in Belize city overnight unexpectedly incurring an extra cab fee and nights stay. The next day we caught the first flight out of Belize City to Dangringa then took a cab to the local pharmacy to buy some antibiotic eyedrops as I had gotten an eye infection enroute. With eyedrops in hand we walked to the "bus stop" a place where the bus was parked by the river and waited for it's departure time. The bus finally took off enroute to Hopkins, a 45min. ride away down the Humingbird highway to an unpaved bumpy road into Hopkins. We stayed in Hopkins for 4 nights, a small fishing village with a mix of local Garifuna, Mayan, and Chinese and European business owners. During that time we kayaked for 6 hours on the Sitee River bird watching and looking for Toucans, rented bikes and biked the bumpy road out of town doing more bird watching, and went to the Jaguar Sanctuary to do some more bird watching. Zia was really hoping to see a Toucan but with no luck on any of our outings. In the Jaguar sanctuary I got eaten alive by mosquitos, later counting over 150 bites on one leg. By the end of the hike both of my legs had begun to swell up and it was painful to stand or walk. I took some Benedryl and laid in bed shivering in the heat from some weird reaction. The next day my legs and feet were still swollen but we were scheduled to take a boat to Glovers Atoll Island that was scheduled to leave on Sun. and return on Sat. I wasn't feeling any worse so we caught a ride to where the boat was to depart from. We had done reviews on trip advisor, and not all good, saying that the owners would get drunk at night and harass the customers and even accounts of visitors not being able to leave the island on the scheduled day and missing connecting flights. If you read the terrible reviews on trip advisor you would think we were crazy for even going. We were both understandably hesitant but boarded the boat nevertheless. Off we went some 35miles out in the Carribean Ocean headed to a 9 ac. island. The boat arrived on the island 2 hours or so later and we were given a quick tour of the island after paying the marine preserve and fishing lisence fees. During the tour we were shown the trails around the island lined with conch shells, how to open coconuts, where the self composing latrine was, and our cabana over the ocean. We then carried our bags to the cabana and got settled in. The cabana over the water was a thatched roof which I found later leaked a little when it rained, had 3 doors that opened over the water with the main door leading to a dock to the island, several windows that could be held open with a stick, and no electricity (kerosene lamps provided). It was quite large with one king bed and 2 bunk beds, a kitchen table with a propane stove, pots, pans and utensils, wooden floor boards, and coconut tree walls. We were there towards the end of the hurricane season, so there were a few windy/ rainy nights where the airy walls hardly provided much protection luckily it was warmer air than what I have been used to. Although we had the option of having meals provided we thought it would be cheaper to cook ourselves. We brought several food items from the states (lots of mac and cheese), spagetti, camping food, and oatmeal. Since there was no running water we brought a 5 gallon jug of water from the mainland and ended up buying another one midway through the week. We spent the 6 days there snorkling, fishing, kayaking to a nearby island, and lounging around. The last 2 days there the wind blew pretty hard with occasional rain which we spent couped up in the cabana, wondering if the horror stories about getting off the island would come true. The day the boat was scheduled to leave the sea looked rough but we were told the boat would leave anyway. We packed up our stuff and thankfully hopped on the boat for a rough rainy ride back to Hopkins. We were both sad to be leaving but thankful we weren't deserted. The snorkleing was amazing with lots of unknown fish and coral seen, the fly fishing so-so with only 2 Bar jacks caught, and one bonefish hooked. Zia ended up paying for a fishing trip for me where the fishing was better, catching 3 Barricuda and a 25 pound Waho which we cooked for dinner one night. On the delayed plane ride to Belize Zia met the folks sitting in front of us and told them we were on our honeymoon. As it turned out, they were the owners of a resort in Hopkins and offered us 1 free nights stay there. So when the boat docked we caught a ride to the resort and got a room. They were still closed for the season and doing several renovations, so we decided to go birding for the last time in hunt for the elusive toucan. We walked for 4 miles or so until almost dark with no sightings. We got a ride back into town ate some dinner then caught a ride with the restraunt owners' parents back to the resort who lived next door. The next day we caught a ride to Dangringa in the back of a pickup with the resort owners who were also heading back to Canada. We flew back to Belize City and stayed the night. We had a few hours the next day and had arranged for a cab driver to pick us up and take us to the Belize Zoo in a last ditch effort to see a toucan then to the airport. We saw lots of interseting indigenous animals but found out that the toucan they had, had passed away. We then headed to the airport for our long trip, with a 20 hour layover in LA, back to Grants Pass. We made it home with no unexpected delays. We had a great time all in all and depite not seeing any toucans, we did manage to see, not including our trip to the zoo, almost 70 species of birds not seen before, lizards, iguanas, crocodiles, manatee, tarantula, and heard howler monkeys. The Toucans will just have to wait. Zia took a lot of amazing photos in the hundreds mostly of wildlife, birds, and plants, but here are a few that show some of our trip.
snorkeling with the fish
coral reef
My first Wahoooooo!!!!!!
The battle I lost to the mosquitos
Our neighbors
Zia relaxing in front of our cabana
Our front porch
Day at the resort
Posing for the camera
Me and parrot at the Belize Zoo
View from our cabana towards the island fish hunting
View from the island towards our cabana
My first Bar jack
Last day in Hopkins
Well, Zia and I made it home from our trip to Belize late Tue. night at around 1 in the morning (3am Belize time), then went to work the next day. We had an amazing time despite only a few hiccups. We left Grants Pass at 5am on the 31st of Oct. and arrived in Belize on Nov. 1st at around 4pm. They were the cheapest tickets we could get, but I'm not sure it was worth the 35hrs. of travel with all the layovers!!!!! On the way there the last leg of our flight from the US was delayed and we missed our connecting flight from Belize city to Dangringa where we were to take a bus to Hopkins. We ended up having to stay in Belize city overnight unexpectedly incurring an extra cab fee and nights stay. The next day we caught the first flight out of Belize City to Dangringa then took a cab to the local pharmacy to buy some antibiotic eyedrops as I had gotten an eye infection enroute. With eyedrops in hand we walked to the "bus stop" a place where the bus was parked by the river and waited for it's departure time. The bus finally took off enroute to Hopkins, a 45min. ride away down the Humingbird highway to an unpaved bumpy road into Hopkins. We stayed in Hopkins for 4 nights, a small fishing village with a mix of local Garifuna, Mayan, and Chinese and European business owners. During that time we kayaked for 6 hours on the Sitee River bird watching and looking for Toucans, rented bikes and biked the bumpy road out of town doing more bird watching, and went to the Jaguar Sanctuary to do some more bird watching. Zia was really hoping to see a Toucan but with no luck on any of our outings. In the Jaguar sanctuary I got eaten alive by mosquitos, later counting over 150 bites on one leg. By the end of the hike both of my legs had begun to swell up and it was painful to stand or walk. I took some Benedryl and laid in bed shivering in the heat from some weird reaction. The next day my legs and feet were still swollen but we were scheduled to take a boat to Glovers Atoll Island that was scheduled to leave on Sun. and return on Sat. I wasn't feeling any worse so we caught a ride to where the boat was to depart from. We had done reviews on trip advisor, and not all good, saying that the owners would get drunk at night and harass the customers and even accounts of visitors not being able to leave the island on the scheduled day and missing connecting flights. If you read the terrible reviews on trip advisor you would think we were crazy for even going. We were both understandably hesitant but boarded the boat nevertheless. Off we went some 35miles out in the Carribean Ocean headed to a 9 ac. island. The boat arrived on the island 2 hours or so later and we were given a quick tour of the island after paying the marine preserve and fishing lisence fees. During the tour we were shown the trails around the island lined with conch shells, how to open coconuts, where the self composing latrine was, and our cabana over the ocean. We then carried our bags to the cabana and got settled in. The cabana over the water was a thatched roof which I found later leaked a little when it rained, had 3 doors that opened over the water with the main door leading to a dock to the island, several windows that could be held open with a stick, and no electricity (kerosene lamps provided). It was quite large with one king bed and 2 bunk beds, a kitchen table with a propane stove, pots, pans and utensils, wooden floor boards, and coconut tree walls. We were there towards the end of the hurricane season, so there were a few windy/ rainy nights where the airy walls hardly provided much protection luckily it was warmer air than what I have been used to. Although we had the option of having meals provided we thought it would be cheaper to cook ourselves. We brought several food items from the states (lots of mac and cheese), spagetti, camping food, and oatmeal. Since there was no running water we brought a 5 gallon jug of water from the mainland and ended up buying another one midway through the week. We spent the 6 days there snorkling, fishing, kayaking to a nearby island, and lounging around. The last 2 days there the wind blew pretty hard with occasional rain which we spent couped up in the cabana, wondering if the horror stories about getting off the island would come true. The day the boat was scheduled to leave the sea looked rough but we were told the boat would leave anyway. We packed up our stuff and thankfully hopped on the boat for a rough rainy ride back to Hopkins. We were both sad to be leaving but thankful we weren't deserted. The snorkleing was amazing with lots of unknown fish and coral seen, the fly fishing so-so with only 2 Bar jacks caught, and one bonefish hooked. Zia ended up paying for a fishing trip for me where the fishing was better, catching 3 Barricuda and a 25 pound Waho which we cooked for dinner one night. On the delayed plane ride to Belize Zia met the folks sitting in front of us and told them we were on our honeymoon. As it turned out, they were the owners of a resort in Hopkins and offered us 1 free nights stay there. So when the boat docked we caught a ride to the resort and got a room. They were still closed for the season and doing several renovations, so we decided to go birding for the last time in hunt for the elusive toucan. We walked for 4 miles or so until almost dark with no sightings. We got a ride back into town ate some dinner then caught a ride with the restraunt owners' parents back to the resort who lived next door. The next day we caught a ride to Dangringa in the back of a pickup with the resort owners who were also heading back to Canada. We flew back to Belize City and stayed the night. We had a few hours the next day and had arranged for a cab driver to pick us up and take us to the Belize Zoo in a last ditch effort to see a toucan then to the airport. We saw lots of interseting indigenous animals but found out that the toucan they had, had passed away. We then headed to the airport for our long trip, with a 20 hour layover in LA, back to Grants Pass. We made it home with no unexpected delays. We had a great time all in all and depite not seeing any toucans, we did manage to see, not including our trip to the zoo, almost 70 species of birds not seen before, lizards, iguanas, crocodiles, manatee, tarantula, and heard howler monkeys. The Toucans will just have to wait. Zia took a lot of amazing photos in the hundreds mostly of wildlife, birds, and plants, but here are a few that show some of our trip.
snorkeling with the fish
coral reef
My first Wahoooooo!!!!!! The battle I lost to the mosquitos
Our neighbors
Zia relaxing in front of our cabana
Our front porch
Day at the resort
Posing for the camera
Me and parrot at the Belize Zoo
View from our cabana towards the island fish hunting
View from the island towards our cabana
My first Bar jack
Last day in Hopkins
Comments
Just returned from a very wet Patrol-O-Ree.