Belize: Arrival Day, August 22, 2010
The morning after our wedding began on the rooftop of The Redmont Hotel where John and I spent our wedding night dancing away with friends. We decided to turn in at about 2:00 AM. Just enough time to get 2 and a half hours of sleep before heading out to the airport. 4:30 AM came in the blink of an eye and we were in the cab. We got through security quickly enough and had breakfast at the diner. We both got biscuits. I had sausage, egg, and cheese, while Johnny had bacon and cheese. Mine was pretty good, but John's was scorching hot and the bacon was terrible. He only ate half. Feeling just a little better, we boarded the plane to Atlanta. Once in Atlanta, nothing too exciting happened. Johnny bought a toothbrush and toothpaste to use in the bathroom as he had not brushed them that morning before leaving (What the hell? You're married to a dental hygienist for god's sake!) We made it to the terminal just in time for boarding. 2 and a half hours later, we arrived in Belize City, Belize. We exit the plane out on the tarmac and walk inside to immigration, baggage claim, and customs. The whole routine was easy. We head to the ATM to take out some money and here is where we hit a snag. The ATM won't accept our cards. Now, we had called ahead of time and were told that we could use our check cards in the ATMs in Belize as long they were Visa. We were freaking out. In a foreign country with no money. A very kind woman from the gift shop suggested that the bank had cut off our cards since we had not informed them that were traveling out of country. Security reasons and all. So, she let us borrow her phone to call Regions, knowing there was going to be a charge on her phone, but they were closed since it was Sunday. Ugh! Running on two hours of sleep and a small biscuit, we are not thinking properly, so we just decided to board our next flight to San Pedro and see what happens from there. We check through security before heading to the 6th of 6 terminals at the Belize City airport. At 12:15 central time, we are walked back out on to the tarmac with just the two of us boarding a 9 seater, single engine, prop plane. A 15 minute flight gave us the most amazing of views. The bluest waters I have ever seen. We land at the San Pedro airport and are greeted with a complimentary taxi cab to the dock where we take a ten minute boat ride to the Coco Beach Resort dock. There, we were greeted with cold towels given to us by Pedro. He walked us to our suite past the relaxingly, beautiful pool. We informed him of our situation and he said that we could just spend the day around the resort and charge to our room. Thank goodness for that as we were starving by this point. Upon entering the room, we were blown away by the elegant interior. We unpacked our bags and took a shower to wash the stench of travel off our bodies. An hour later, we headed to the the neighboring sister resort's restaurant, The Upper Deck, where Julio served us. We starting off with drinks. Johnny ordered a Belikin stout, a Belizean beer, and I ordered a strawberry margarita. Both were very tasty. As for food, I ordered the Blelikin beer battered fish and John ordered the shrimp burger based off Julio's suggestion. As we waited for the food, we watching a tennis match on the court below the bar. I don't know if it was because we were starving or because the food really was that awesome, but both dishes were delicious. Both came with a side of fries and coleslaw. Yum-o. After dinner, we had intended on heading to the pool, but with our bellies full, we took a two hour nap. We woke up at about 6:30PM, or at least we think it was 6:30 as were very confused on the time. The sun had already set, which was even more confusing as we are used to the sun not setting until 8:00 PM. We took a stroll down the beach where we passed another resort called Captain Morgan's which we had originally planned to stay, but had read horrible reviews about. They had a reggae band which we would have loved to have gone to see, but alas, no cash. We headed back to the resort and took a stop at the bar. There, we met two couples from Virginia who were vacationing together. They told us they had made plans to take a snorkeling trip Tuesday and invited us to come along. At this point, we were hungry again and decided to order from The Upper Deck, since we could charge it to our room. We decided to split the Santa Fe Shrimp with chorizo sausage and green pepper and Seafood Kebobs with shrimp, scallops, onions, and peppers with a side of beans and rice and mixed vegetables. The kebobs were pretty good, but the Santa Fe Shrimp was amazing. After dinner, we continued to drink at the bar. The Virginia couples were replaced by a couple from San Francisco and a Bama fan from Mobile, Alabama. Good conversation ensued with everything from football, to San Francisco bands. I think we made some good friends that night. Last Call was called at 8:30 PM, so Johnny and I ordered a bottle of wine for the two of us to take up to the room. This sounds like the end of the night, right? Wrong. About an hour after returning to our room, the wind began to pick up and knocked the power out off the whole island. We were both freaking out as the palm trees stretched closer and closer to the windows of our room. I decided this was a good time to hit the hay. As soon as I was falling into a slumber, the power kicks back on. Relieved, we turn out the lights, and head back to bed, thus ending our first day in Ambergris Caye, Belize.