You really can’t ask for a better, more detailed, more personal trip review than this. Maggie and Matt clearly LOVED their honeymoon in Belize đ
Our honeymoon was, in one word: amazing. We miss being in Belize every single day and we can’t wait to go back! I apologize for taking so very long to get this to you–to be honest, every time I start to write it, I get sad because we aren’t in Belize…
When we arrived in Belize on the 6th, a driver from Chaa Creek was outside the airport, waiting to pick us up. We discovered while on the plane, though, that the couple sitting behind us was also going to Chaa Creek! That was really nice, as we hit it off with them nicely, so sharing the van with them for the two hour drive to Chaa Creek was a fun experience. Our first stop, after not even three minutes driving, was at a local market so the guys could get some beers for the drive (apparently it’s totally OK for passengers to drink while the car is in motion! Very cool.) They brought back the local Belizean beer called “Belikin”, which we happily drank on our way to Chaa Creek. Just driving through the country was interesting… such beautiful terrain the whole way through.
Upon arriving at Chaa Creek, we were greeted by the super friendly staff at the reception desk, with cool peppermint neck towels and sorel juice laid out for us. Sorel juice is made from a local pink flower that looks just like the hibiscus flower and it is delicious and refreshing! The peppermint towels were a wonderful relief from the humidity (although we were honestly never uncomfortable due to the weather–it was the perfect time to visit, rain showers from time to time, but still gorgeous, even then). We were led to our *BEAUTIFUL* room–complete with a thatched roof, beautiful stone floors, tall ceilings, beautiful decor and honeymoon flowers and towel decorations everywhere! We had TWO showers, one that was a completely private outdoor shower, and one indoor shower that was big enough to host a party in. It was heavenly. The bed was luxurious and all the decor was beautiful and handmade. I hate to describe it right now because it’s making me really want to go back! Our room also came with two hammocks that we would hang up on the front deck outside our room to read in whenever we had down time. It was perfection. Our first dinner was a delicious lobster tail (mine) and a perfectly cooked steak (Matt’s)–both with Belizean flavor and fresh, local side dishes. The food was perfection, each and every day. We were about ready to move in. After relaxing all afternoon and evening, we scheduled a couples massage at the spa (overlooking the jungle!) for the following morning, which was absolutely glorious, relaxing and heavenly all at once.
After lunch, we took off for our first excursion, which was ziplining through the jungle at a place called Calico Jack’s. Our driver and tour guide was named Hugh, and he was so, so informative and friendly that the drive there ended up being just as wonderful as any other part of the trip! We loved Hugh! Ziplining through the rainforest was unbelievable… at first I was terrified (Matt went first and loved it) but after my first line, I was in love. It’s exhilarating, exciting and absolutely beautiful. The two guides who took us ziplining were very informative & friendly, and as we walked through the jungle from line to line, they would stop and show us such interesting things in the rainforest, ways to survive or interesting creatures (the ‘give and take’ tree was so cool!–if you touch the sharp needles on the bark, it poisons you, but cut the tree open and you’ll find the antidote in its sap!)
The next morning, Hugh’s brother, Daren, took us on a tour of Xunantunich, a Mayan site about an hour away from Chaa Creek. It was a fascinating and very humbling experience. The history of the Mayans is so, so rich in Belize. Daren was more than willing to take pictures of us there–and the pictures he took turned out wonderfully! He eventually told us that photography is a big hobby of his and that he’d won a competition to have a photograph he took of a local bird be on the cover of Belize’s telephone book (we later got to SEE the photo/telephone book in real life at the next place we stayed! It was really awesome). That afternoon, Daren drove us to the second half of our day, which was canoeing through a dark and beautiful cave. There were bats flying waaay above us in the cave, which added to the spooky and ethereal feeling. Towards the end, when we were closer to the exit of the cave, Daren had us switch off our headlamps so we could experience what total blindness felt like–such a bizarre feeling… and then he guided us out of the rest of the cave in TOTAL darkness. It was such an amazing experience that we’ll never forget.
The following day, we went to another Mayan village, called Cahal Pech, and Hugh was our tour guide again (to our excitement!). This one was just as fascinating as the previous day’s excursion to Xunantunich. We had originally planned to go to the huge, Indiana Jones-style cave excursion called ATM, but the rain in the afternoon had caused the risk of flash flooding, which isn’t worth the risk, for sure! The staff definitely felt bad that we had to change our plans, and they went above and beyond to make sure our day was still fun and well-planned. After we went to Cahal Pech, Hugh drove us into the Mennonite area of Belize, which was really interesting. It basically looked like Pennsylvania had been plopped down in the middle of the rainforest! We stopped at an ice cream shoppe that served homemade Mennonite ice cream and it was delicious (we’d recommend the coconut ice cream!). Hugh was so informative and excited to show us Belize that the feeling was infectious… we had such a great time with all of our guides, Hugh, Daren & Selwyn in particular.
On our last day at Chaa Creek, we went for a horseback ride in the rainforest and finally heard some howler monkeys! It was unreal! They sound terrifying but they’re tiny monkeys who are only interested in making a big racket to scare away other howler monkey families (very territorial). We’d heard from so many other travelers that the howler monkeys would wake us up every morning before the sun was even up, but it never happened (apparently because it wasn’t mango season–so avoiding being woken up that early was just another reason why we’re happy we went in October!). Our guide, Selwyn, worked really hard to get us as close to the monkeys as possible so we could take videos and lots of pictures. We ended our horseback ride with views overlooking miles and miles of rainforest–it was breathtaking–and the perfect ending to our time at Chaa Creek (even though we would’ve preferred it to never end).
This is such a short summary of all the amazing things we did in Chaa Creek–the waterfall infinity pool on site was beautiful and so much fun (I mostly summarized all the adventures we had, but we had lots of relaxing downtime by the pool and reading in our hammocks–glorious!), the food was delicious (the morning fryjacks are our favorite–we’re still missing those!–we even saved the dinner menus they slipped under our doors each night so we can remember how good the food was!), the property and our room was utter perfection and the staff was wonderful–so friendly, happy, kind & personable. Hugh even came by the local airport we were flying out of to get to the next leg of our trip after we’d left Chaa Creek (on his day OFF!) to give us a DVD he had told us about from which he learned so much about the Mayan ruins he guided us through. We were so blown away by that. Shenny, Hugh, Daren, Saul, Rose were some of the most amazing people we met through Chaa Creek! All the dining staff, too, were truly a pleasure to be around. All of the locals we met outside of Chaa Creek were wonderful as well–happy, friendly and so welcoming. We unfortunately can’t remember everyone’s names from Chaa Creek, but everyone was equally friendly and always happy to help us everywhere we went. We truly felt we made friends there. We can’t WAIT to go back!!
The small ten passenger plane that took us from the mainland of Belize to San Pedro on Ambergris Caye was really fun and provided beautiful views the entire ride. We arrived at the local airport on San Pedro and were quickly picked up in a roomy golfcart by a Ramon’s Village employee who was extremely friendly and enthusiastic. After relaxing in our room for a while and exploring the beach/walking along the beach, we decided to grab dinner at Caroline’s Cookin’, a local restaurant that was about a 3 minute walk from our room. I’d read reviews on Yelp that all informed me that Caroline’s was the place to go. Boy were they right! It was absolutely delicious. We had made reservations earlier in the day (which we came to find out were totally unnecessary as it was the slow season) and when we came back for dinner, Caroline cooked our meal herself and chatted us up throughout dinner. Matt ordered the jerk conch (conch was in season so we had a LOT of it and it was all delicious!) and I ordered the curried shrimp… we both had a few rum punches (one of which Caroline gave us for free) and it was all heavenly. We were the only customers (reflection of the season not the service & food!) so we got lots of attention.
Almost every day that we were in San Pedro, we relaxed in thatch-covered hammocks on the beach, reading our books and refilling our drinks whenever a staff member came by. It was the most heavenly paradise. That was our absolute favorite part about staying on the beach–just relaxing together in our hammocks! Even when it rained one day, we stayed where we were, because we were completely sheltered and it was still warm. It was wonderful. Although we’d thought about going out on a snorkeling trip, we were having such a wonderful time relaxing together on the beach each day that we never wanted to move a muscle! (Plus, snorkeling trips there can get expensive and we weren’t interested in spending extra money–something to do next time!)
The only day we really explored away from Ramon’s was our last day–we wanted to get some souvenirs for our family, so we walked around some of the touristy shops and bought gifts that were cheaper than the gifts offered in Ramon’s gift shop. We also found a fantastic chocolate shop that made really delicious treats–we had chocolate confections for dessert one night and also bought a few bars to bring back as gifts. Another excellent restaurant we went to was Elvi’s Kitchen. The food was absolutely delicious, the staff was friendly and accommodating, and the floors were made of sand! It was a really fun experience. Elvi’s Kitchen was a lot farther of a walk from Ramon’s Village than we’d realized, so by the time we left dinner it was very dark and I was really grateful to have my tall, muscled and imposing husband by my side. San Pedro is most definitely more developed in all areas than Chaa Creek and the surrounding town of San Ignacio, and it was never clearer than when we were out at night. We were just about the only people not traveling by golf cart (we were on foot) so I’m sure if we’d been in a golf cart I’d have felt safer, but we couldn’t justify renting it for just one dinner–it’s really not necessary during the day at all (unless you want to explore the undeveloped regions of the Caye).
On our second to last night there, we decided to order a pizza to be delivered to our room! We missed pizza (even though the Belizean food was delicious) and it made for a fun night in together. On our last night, we had dinner at the restaurant at Ramon’s Village. Although it wasn’t the best meal we had, it was still really good. The breakfasts we had at Ramon’s Village were all delicious, too, and they all came with fryjacks! Being out on the hammocks on the beach during lunch was awesome–we ordered right from a waiter and ate while sitting in our hammocks! Since we’ve gotten back home, our first purchase as a married couple was a two-person hammock! We miss those relaxing days!!
We never wanted our honeymoon to end, it was so amazing. You’ve made us life-long Belize travelers… we can’t wait to get back as soon as we can! THANK YOU SO MUCH, Ann!!!
– Maggie and Matt
