Back to Belize..and the perfect holiday!

We finished up in Costa Rica with a day in San Jose where it rained. A lot like the rest of our Costa Rica trip! We decided against walking around the city and being all cultured and instead spent the day in a shopping mall eating Burger King and popcorn at the cinema. We didn´t even spend a night in the city, well not in a hostel anyway, we slept at the airport! The reason we slept at the airport was we had a very early plane to catch..to Belize!! YES!! We were so excited. For so many reasons! The main reason was that we were meeting my parents in Belize City airport! The second reason was returning to our beloved Belize where we spent so many months 3 years ago having so much fun with Trekforce. The third reason was 'where' we were spending the next 8 days (probably the reason we were quite satisfied to spend a night on an airport floor).

The plane journey to Belize was maybe the most exciting plane trip of my life...we´d had very little sleep the night before but I was so excited I couldn´t sleep at all on the 2 hour journey. We arrived at about 10am, my parents were due in from Miami at 11am so I had just enough time to get my bag, change my clothes and look slightly more presentable (just so I didn´t look like I had slept on a floor the night before!). So we waited for our bags to come off the conveyor belt. No sign yet. We waited a bit more. Chris´ bag came off. Great! We waited a bit longer...and then they closed the belt and told us that was it, no more bags came off the plane. WHAT???!!! I felt sick. I couldn´t believe it, for the last 6 months I had feared this moment the most..my life is in that bag-everything! Where was my bag? It was one of the most horrible moments, and I was so upset as I had been looking forward to this morning since we left the UK-seeing my parents after 6 months! I should be happy, instead I was devastated. We spoke to the woman in charge and she assured me my bag was probably on its way to Houston on the plane we just got off ... or it was in El Salvador, where we changed flights at 6am that morning. I felt a bit better and gave her my details. Chris did his best to cheer me up and we went out to the viewing deck to watch my parents plane come in. It landed about an hour late and we watched them get off the plane..it was so good to see them and I was happy again!!

There was a big excited re union as they emerged from baggage control and then a mad dash to catch the next flight we were all getting on!! This plane was a little bit smaller than the previous aircraft's we had just arrived on. Much smaller in fact. We were getting on a tiny little plane of about 10 seats to take us to Placencia, in the south of Belize. The flight was about 25 minutes and had 2 stop off's on the way..like a flying taxi! It was great to see Belize from up above, we flew over Belize City, Dangriga and Hopkins- where I was based for my teaching phase in Trekforce. It was so much fun being in such a small plane too..you can feel every little bit of wind, taking off and landing was great!

We landed in Placencia and were met by a driver from our resort, Roberts Grove. We were given bottles of mineral water as he carried our bags to our car. Chris and I were NOT used to this...it was fantastic! And we were certainly not used to what was to come! We arrived at Roberts Grove and had our first glimpse of absolute luxury! It was AMAZING. Roberts Grove has it´s own beautiful white sand beach, three beachfront freshwater swimming pools, tennis courts, a gym, rooftop jacuzzi´s, sailboats, wind surfers, kayaks you can use, 2 beachfront restaurants and a bar. It was paradise! We couldn´t believe this is where we were staying for the next 8 days!! Now the original plan for when my parents were coming out to see us was Chris and I staying in a hostel in Placencia and my parents staying in a lovely resort not far off. However I received an email from my Mum in May telling us that she had booked a two bedroom suite and that we were staying there too!! So we had been pretty excited about this for months!! We knew we´d not be staying anywhere even remotely this lovely our whole trip away, now we don´t stay in awful places but this was just another level! Our suite was so lovely, it was air conditioned (one of our favourite things about it..we always just have budget fans in our hostel rooms!) there was a kitchen, a living area, 2 ensuite bathrooms, satelite television and a balcony with hammocks and chairs overlooking the swimming pool below and the sea behind. Perfect! This was going to be a good holiday.

Now you may be thinking as I say this is a holiday..are you not on a 8 month holiday Liz??! Well technically yes I am...however, travelling is hard work..you have to get buses, you have to pack your bag all the time, you have to...um...Ok I´ll stop there, I can´t think of anything else that´s hard..but we don´t stay places like Roberts Grove ever and eat the best food every night, and have air con..so I´m calling this a holiday!!


We had an absolutely amazing time with my parents, we sat by the pool relaxing, we took the little sailboat out with my Dad, we played tennis, we used the gym, we sat in the jacuzzi and watched the sunset, we ate some spectacular meals at the restaurant-including an all you can eat BBQ in which Chris managed to devour 5 lobster tails, 2 fillets of snapper, about 20 large shrimp, some pasta and a couple of chicken wings!!

We took a trip out to Hopkins to visit my host family when I lived there and to see if the school we painted was still there!! Luckily it was..and my family were so happy to see me..my ´mother´said she´d been waiting on the porch for a week to see me arrive! I had a good welcome! It was so lovely to be there and to show my parents where I lived.

We also visited Cockscomb Jaguar Reserve and had a walk through the jungle- a very funny trip! We took a snorkelling trip out to one of the beautiful Cayes in the barrier reef and spotted huge lobsters, a few nurse sharks, so many colourful fish, barracuda and an eel! It was my Mum´s birthday during their trip so Chris and I cycled into Placencia and had a cake made for her, we had a great day with brunch of toast (and the Marmite brought over from England-AMAZING!), cream cheese, bacon, scrambled eggs and tomatoes. The chocolate birthday cake was pretty special too!

And in case you were wondering I did get my bag back..after 2 days of a small (!?) amount of stressing, maybe a few tears and a lot of phone calls to the airport from my Mum and Chris we found it it had flown to Houston that day! The airport sent it straight to Roberts grove on the next plane to Placencia from Belize City so we didn´t even have to go and pick it up! I was so happy!!

In addition to all this excitement 3 of my friends from work- Simo, Elise and Greg were in Belize having arranged to all meet up months ago. Chris and I cycled into Placencia to see them and there was another very excitable reunion!! It was fab to see them and we immediately tried to make plans to stay together for as long as possible..even if it meant changing plans!! I thought we should definitely all make use of the wonderful Roberts Grove so the 3 of them came to spend the day the next day, we went for a sail (all 5 of us on the sail boat was a bit hairy!), used the pool and of course the bar. In fact they loved it so much that we all decided to stay on one more night after my parents had left..we had the whole suite for the 5 of us-it was great fun!!

The last day with my parents was so sad, there was an emotional goodbye at the little Placencia airport, we´d all had such a good time it was sad for it to end! Chris and I honestly cant thank them enough for everything- it was the best holiday I´ve ever had in the most wonderful place with the best company!!