Bhanu and I have the same birthday and it has become a tradition for us to celebrate our birthdays in a new country every year. Last year we celebrated it in Jamaica, the year before that, in New Zealand and this year we celebrated our birthdays in Belize.

This year called for a special celebration because it was Bhanu’s milestone 30th birthday. From staying at a jungle resort to living it up in a beach cabana, from climbing up the ancient Mayan ruins to walking around town trying out local dishes, from cooking Creole food to making our own chocolate and from flying over the ‘great blue hole’ to snorkeling among sharks and rays, we did it all. Also keeping with the tradition, we learned a little bit about the local Mayan culture by spending a day with a Maya family and learning how the ancient Mayans went about their day to day life.

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Places to Visit in Belize

Caracol Mayan Ruins

Belize is most prominently known for the ancient Mayan civilization and various ruins that still exist all over the country. The largest and most remote among all these sites is Caracol. This ancient Mayan city lies deep in the jungles of southwest Belize, just miles off the border of Guatemala. To get to Caracol we drove for 3 hours on an unpaved road that has more bumps than a flat surface. It felt like a “never-ending roller coaster ride” but the site was totally worth the bumpy ride.

It is not recommended to travel on your own in these parts of the country – poor road conditions and security concerns –  so we booked our tour with a terrific touring company called Explore Inland Tours and they made this a memorable day trip for us.

Great Blue Hole

Another must-see attraction in Belize is the “Great Blue Hole”. There are multiple ways to see the hole – take a 3-hour boat ride in choppy water (only recommended for divers) or fly over the blue hole. We decided to go with the easier option as we have had an unpleasant experience with boat rides in the ocean in New Zealand. You actually get to see the “hole” while flying which kind of gets lost if you take a boat ride.

There are dozens of companies that offer charter flights over the blue hole but we went with Belize Concierge, as they are the only company that had no minimum passenger requirement.

Snorkeling in Hol Chan Marine Reserve and Shark/Ray Alley

We have wanted to do snorkeling for a long time and we finally did it in Belize. There are many popular spots suitable for snorkeling and Hol Chan Marine Reserve and Shark Ray Alley are at the top. We booked our tour with Tuff E Nuff tours and both of our guides ensured everyone on the boat was safe while also enjoying the tour. It was my first time snorkeling and I was a bit tentative at first but the guides made sure I was comfortable with the gear and stayed with me until I was confident enough to swim on my own.

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Indulge In The Local Belizean Culture

We are always interested in learning and doing something that’s unique to the place we are visiting. Belize offers a lot of opportunities to do so. Belize has been influenced by a variety of cultures starting with the Ancient Mayan Civilization to the most recent British rule. It is also fortunate to have people coming in from neighboring countries and influencing the lifestyle of Belizeans. The dominant influences come from the Mayans and Creoles and these have become a part of the day-to-day life of Belizeans.

Living Maya Experience

It was surreal to spend some time with an actual Mayan family. They grow all the crops in a local farm behind their house. Literally, everything they need in their day-to-day life from food, shelter, musical instruments, pots and even soap comes from those crops. We especially enjoyed grinding the soaked corn by hand and making fresh tortillas. While most Mayans moved away from their cities in search of employment and better life, there are a few families that are working hard to preserve their culture and Living Maya Experience is a program started by one such family with support from the Belizean Government.

Creole(Kriol) Cooking Class

What better way to experience something that represents a place than learning to cook and eat local cuisine. We took a private cooking class in Placencia with Ms. Radiance and learned to make the Belizean Kriol Cuisine – Stewed chicken with Adobo, Coconut Rice, Beans and Fried Plantains.

 

Ixcacao Chocolate Farm

Ixcacao is the only Mayan owned chocolate farm and company. They use the same stone tools and techniques that the Ancient Mayans used when they first discovered and made chocolate thousands of years ago. We toured the chocolate farm and learned chocolate making from its cultivation to packaging. We ground our own chocolate beans to make 100% pure chocolate. This tour also involved chocolate tasting where we sampled all the different flavors of chocolates that are produced at Ixcacao. It was one of the best days of our tour 🙂

Savor Belize Food Tour

In the midst of all the touristy chaos of San Pedro where everyone tries to make the tourists feel at home, the local Savor Belize Food Tour holds it’s ground to introduce the places that offer local Belizean cuisine – such places that tourists would just walk past without realizing that they offer delicious dishes that they might not find anywhere else. Felipe is the founder and main guide and being born and raised in San Pedro is really passionate about local food and culture. He was nice enough to inform the restaurants that we are celebrating our birthdays and they brought out special desserts for us. It was a really special experience. We liked all the places on the food tour so much that we went back to a few of them again during our stay.

Elvi’s Kitchen

We started off with a bang at Elvi’s with Mayan fish and coconut cream pie (birthday dessert). They also offered us fresh sugarcane juice spiked with rum.

We loved the food so much that we went back on Friday evening for their Mayan Buffet with all the Mayan and Central American delicacies like Chicken Tamale, Rice & Beans, Chicken with Mole, Shrimp and Fish Tacos.

Lily’s Treasure Chest

This beachfront restaurant offers fresh seafood and vegetarian ceviche and drinks among other things. We sampled shrimp and fish ceviche which the locals consider as the best on the island.

 

Fruit Popsicles at Las Paletas

Homemade fruit popsicles are all you need to freshen up after walking around on warm and humid evenings in San Pedro.

 

Brianna’s food place

Brianna’s food place is the most authentic Belizean place on the island. They serve proper Belizean dishes like Fry Jacks, Salbutes, Panades, and Garnaches. The food here is so delicious that we went back again for dinner. The Fry jacks are Belizean cousin of North-Indian “Bhature” and they taste scrummy with Stew Chicken.

 

Rum, Coffee and Cigar House

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Where we stayed

During our 8 day tour, we moved around exploring different regions of Belize and stayed at three amazing places. Each of them had its own distinct quirks and offered something unique that made us feel like they belong to different countries altogether.

Mystic River Resort

Our first stop in Belize was in the western town called San Ignacio. Mystic River Resort is a boutique resort on the bank of Macal River and our suite gave us a nice view of the river and surrounding forest. We woke up to the chirping of birds and flowing river and spent evenings in our private splash pool overlooking the river. The resort itself is well maintained with gardens, yoga deck, and spa and this was exactly what we needed to kick start our vacation.

 

 Maya Beach Hotel and Bistro

After spending a couple of days in San Ignacio, we drove down to the south-eastern town of Placencia. We got a wonderful birthday surprise as we got upgraded to a cabana right on the beach. Waking up to the waves and taking a walk on the beach whenever you please can spoil a person and I would have loved to stay there forever.

The hotel is accompanied by a bistro which is rated among the top places in the town. It serves more outsiders than the people staying there and the popularity is well deserved.

Sunbreeze Suites

Our last leg of the trip was in San Pedro, a town in Ambergris Caye which is a hot-spot for foreign tourists. We stayed at Sunbreeze Suites in an oceanfront suite. It was a fully furnished one bedroom suite and it was perfect for relaxing after tiring days exploring the town and swimming in the ocean.

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Transportation in Belize

Belize is a scarcely populated country with towns dispersed in various corners of the country with hundreds of miles of farmland in between. The roads require more than an upgrade – only four major highways are paved – and public buses run infrequently. So if you want to travel anywhere North, West or South of Belize City, the best option is to rent a car – preferably a 4×4 SUV –  as soon as you land at the Belize International Airport and begin your journey.

Crystal Auto Rental

Crystal Auto Rental is the biggest and best car rental company in Belize. They have the most reasonable rates compared to the major car rental companies and we loved their service and the car was in top shape. They also provided us with a phone to call for roadside assistance in case of a breakdown which apparently is quite a common occurrence in Belize. This was an added bonus as we didn’t need to hunt down a local shop to buy a sim card. The rental rules are pretty much the same as in the US except if you rent a smaller car, you are not allowed to drive on unpaved roads – that’s about 95% of all the roads.

Renting a car also helped us in exploring more inland areas that are almost impossible to reach with public buses and taxis. We wouldn’t have been able to visit the Ixcacao farm, Maya Experience, and many other places if we didn’t have a car.

Island Hopping Flights

If you are going to San Pedro or Caye Caulker, the fastest and most convenient way is to take an island-hopping flight with Maya air or Tropic Air.  These are small 12 seater planes that can get you to your destination in 15 minutes. We preferred this option as opposed to the 3-hour water taxi to save time as well as avoid risk of sea-sickness.

Other Options

If you are not interested in visiting multiple towns in Belize then there are a lot of taxi services and public as well as private buses from Belize City to all over Belize. Most resorts also offer shuttles for their guests. You can take water taxi or ocean breeze boat ride to San Pedro from Belize City instead of flying on island-hopper if you have the time and are interested in spending a few hours on a boat.

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Things We Learned

• Driving in Belize is same as in the US except for one small difference. While making a left turn, you first need to pull over to the right and let the traffic pass you before making a turn. This really wasn’t an issue for us because there weren’t many a times you need to make a turn as most of the driving happens on the major highways and they have roundabouts to make turns and also there are so few vehicles in Belize that we didn’t see any cars for miles behind us at times.
• There are only 3 traffic lights in the entire country and 2 of them are broken.
• US currency is accepted everywhere in Belize and the exchange rate is fixed (2BZD = 1USD) so no need to convert any money.
• English is an official language in Belize so it’s very easy to communicate, which makes it very attractive for tourists from the US.

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What We’d Like to Do Next Time

• Xunantunich Mayan ruins
• Tubing in ATM caves
• Scuba diving
• Orange Walk Town in Northern Belize
• Beach Barbeque at Caye Caulker