August 3, 2021

Maybe it’s my fondness for the 1980s, but I woke up in the middle of the night with the lyrics of Madonna’s “La Isla Bonita” in my head. Apparently, last night I really did dream of San Pedro. Wonder what that means? #YourSpanishLullaby

August 4, 2021

In response to my earlier post, I had to figure out the source of that song popping into my head. My investigation has brought me here. (sound up)

The origin story behind this trip to Belize is that my college friend, Jason Turley, lives here for part of the year selling real estate. So, when our schedules finally meshed for me to visit, I jumped at the opportunity.

The main airport you fly into from the United States is in Belize City, but to get here a few islands over in Ambergris Caye, you take a 15-minute flight on a small hopper plane. However, it was this shortest flight that provided the most amazing views coming in!

The first interesting thing about Belize is that they don’t observe Daylight Savings Time, which means right now, I’m technically on mountain time. That’s the same time zone Murphy is in out in Colorado. That also means sunset is about 6:30pm around here and sun rise is in the 5:00am neighborhood.

Just your average, run of the mill Wednesday lunch eating lobster nachos and snapper at picnic tables partially submerged in crystal clear shallow water off the beach with fish swimming at our feet. No biggie.

August 5, 2021

Golf carts are the primary mode of transportation around here. You see a few cars, motorcycles, and 4-wheelers every so often, but it’s mainly all about golf carts. The irony is that the entire island where Ambergris Caye is located has no golf courses.

Those are sharks. Nurse sharks. They’re ranked fourth on the list of documented shark bites on humans. But that didn’t stop Jason Turley and I to jump in with them during a boat trip a couple of miles off the coast of Belize. For the record, I got back on the boat with ten fingers and ten toes.

Sunset cruises never disappoint.

Have you ever captured a lobster and had it for dinner later that evening? Well, technically, I haven’t either even after today’s outing where Jason Turley and our two guides speared about a dozen but, like the typical rookie, I got shut out. Those suckers are fast!

Anyway, it’s a thing around here for local restaurants to cook up what you caught that day (props to TOAST San Pedro, BZ), so I can definitely say that I literally brought nothing to the table. At least we had live music next to the beach to console me and my inadequate lobster hunting skills.

Even though no Belizean TV station had the rights to the Olympic broadcasts, we still managed to watch April Ross and Alix Clineman win the gold in women’s beach volleyball on my phone!

August 6, 2021

The streets of San Pedro are lined with tons of food stands and shops. For breakfast one day, I went to Neri’s Tacos where they serve bite-sized tacos from handmade tortillas with chicken and beef. The sweet Lissette’s sauce that’s only available here made them even better! About a dozen of them plus a large bottle of water cost less than $4 American.

I just got back home to Kansas City, but I wanted to make sure to publicly thank Jason Turley for a great few days in Belize.

We played together on Cornell College’s men’s club volleyball team where I would set his attacks, but this time, he provided the assists with all the great excursions we ended up doing. If you’re ever in Ambergris Caye, especially if you’re looking for some real estate, give Jason a call!

Lastly, to put a bow on the trip, I started this whole story with “La Isla Bonita” by Madonna. The funny thing is many have interpreted that San Pedro, Belize is the one referred to in the song, but she mentioned in a Rolling Stone interview at the time that she didn’t know where San Pedro was and that the lyric may have actually originated from a California street sign she once saw.