Day One - Belize City

We made it! Flight was a little late but we're here! YAY!


Lincoln and I didn't get to sit together. Our trips weren't booked on the same itinerary because of my Business trip to Boston. As we were boarding the plane we realized we were no longer assigned seats next to each other.  No biggie, we were going to spend the next 14 days 24/7 together.

We made reservations to stay at the Radisson in Belize City for the first two nights. We did this for two reasons. First, the airport is a about a 35 minute drive from Belize City. We didn't want to be at the mercy of a random Taxi Driver, so choosing a hotel would get us a shuttle ($13.50 US PP)from the Airport. Our second reason was that we wanted to go to a Mayan Ruin and go on a Cave Tubing/Jungle ATV excursion outside of Belize City and figured it would be easier to that using a hotel in Belize City as "home base".

I had emailed the Radisson to request the shuttle pick us up, as their website was very clear that you had to pre-arrange the pick up. I never received a reply. I figured we would land and have to negotiate with a Taxi driver. We were pleasantly surprised when we saw Israel from the Radisson holding a sign at the curb!

The Radisson Fort George Hotel & Marina is right on the Caribbean Sea. We are in an ocean front room on the 6th (Top) floor of the "Club Tower". We wandered around the hotel and checked out the pool with a bar attached and the restaurants.

Because we always like to eat "LOCAL", we asked one of the gals that worked in the hotel where they would eat for lunch and they suggested "Nerie's", she said it was close but that we should take a taxi. Probably because its so hot! The taxi ride was less than a mile and cost BZE$10 or USD$5.

 I got out as Lincoln paid the driver. We walked in the restaurant which as empty. It was after the "normal" lunch hour. We sat at a table and looked at the menu which was written on a chalk board.

 While everyone speaks English here, some are a bit harder to understand than others. The server was a tad hard to understand. She said something about fresh fruit...Cantaloupe, Lime and Watermelon. I chose Watermelon and Lincoln said Cantaloupe. We then asked for Soda's to drink. Here they have non-American Coke & Fanta...meaning it contains Cane Sugar, NOT High Fructose Corn syrup. She smiled and a moment later came back with two large glasses of fruit juice...pure fruit juice, fresh from fruit. What a concept. It was FANTASTIC!

 I chose the Crab Soup & Lincoln had the Lobster Stew. A few moments later she returned with our food. WOW, great flavors! For dessert I had Bread Pudding and Linc had Cassava Pie...both not our favorites. We asked for a Lime juice (so we could use it as mix in Margaritas in our room) to go, she gave it to us in a large soup container that you'd get at a Chinese restaurant in the US. All this at a cost of only BZE$34 or USD$17.

We decided to walk back since there wasn't a Taxi in sight. It was SO hot...we probably only walked for about 10 minutes though it seemed like MUCH longer.

When we got back to the hotel we rested/cooled off in the room for awhile. Then changed into our swimsuits and went to the pool.

The water in the unheated pool was as warm as bath water. We stayed in for a bit and when we got out I was the coolest I had been all day. Happy Hour was in full swing at the pool side Tiki bar so we grabbed a bar stool and placed our order. Gilbert the bartender was very nice and made a killer Pina Colada with some great Belizean Rum. When we tipped him using some of the $2 bills we brought, his eyes lit up and he said "I REALLY appreciate these!". That was really cool. My neighbor, who works at a Credit Union, always takes the unique $2 with her to Vegas...to use as tips. She said the people LOVE them and she and her husband are treated extra special because of them.


Its been a fun first day here in Belize. We have a wild day of Cave Tubing and ATV Jungle riding scheduled for tomorrow. The forecast is a High of 87 and a Low of 80....who knows what the humidity will be...but its usually more than 80%! Woo hoo!