Our surf and turf Belizean vacation-Part 1-The Jungle "Turf"

Hal and I have been to many places (Hal more than me), but none have been as amazing as Belize.

The culture, the animals, the climate, the cuisine, the people-everything combined to make this our most memorable trip yet.

I wanted to go somewhere tropical and exotic for my 30th birthday, and we were originally considering Tahiti.

When I started looking at airfare, hotels, activities, etc. I got scared by the price quotes I was finding-upwards of $6,000!!!

We went back to the drawing board.

Where could we go that would have pristine coral reefs for snorkeling, tropical weather, new animals to find, and easy accessibility from Denver? Costa Rica came up, but of course Hal has been there...

We grabbed a map and found Belize.

I always consult Lonely Planet guidebooks whenever possible because they are one of the only guidebook companies that actually sends their authors to visit the places they are writing about.

That's how I came to find the Howler Monkey Resort.

We booked three nights with Ed and Mel Turton at their resort, and bought their Weekend Adventure guided package.

Our wonderful hosts, Mel and Ed!

Ed and Mel and their family own the resort and they take care of everything. They pick you up from the airport and take you back to their secluded jungle paradise. 

We stayed in their Howler Monkey Cabin which had 2 double beds, air-conditioning, and plenty of hot water.

The best part was the back porch, complete with hammock and views of the Belize River.

Hal spent every afternoon here...

On our first day there, we had no agenda or tours planned so we walked about a half mile up the road to the Community Baboon Sanctuary, which is a must-see.

Our local guide found the howler monkeys (called 'baboon' in the local Creole dialect) for us and coaxed them to come down closer so we could hand feed them leaves-these are wild monkeys, mind you, the guides have just built up a rapport with them. Which was made more evident by the fact that when Hal and I went back the next evening on our own, we couldn't find a single monkey, let alone feed one!

Just hangin' around...

Our first howler monkey sighting!

These leaves are better than the ones on the trees!

I love monkeys!

This little guy surprised me and knocked my glasses off onto my neck to get to the leaf!

The next day we rented Ed's canoe and he drove us up the Belize River so that we could float back. "Float" was a relative term, because we actually had to paddle most of the way downstream because it was so windy that day-seems we bring the wind wherever we go...

Jungle river drifting

That afternoon (after a hammock nap for Hal, of course!), Ed took us to a smaller Mayan ruin, called Altun Ha. We had the place to ourselves, which was nice.

Hal, the ancient Mayan warrior!

On our last full day in the jungle, we played tourists. Ed and Mel drove us to go cave tubing, and their son Jusef joined us in the water. We arrived after the huge influx of tourists from the cruise ship, which was my fault because on the way there, I spotted a jabiru. This is apparently a rare treat, so we took time to get out of the car and take pictures, and thankfully Mel had a nice camera with her so that we could actually get good photos.

The jabiru stork stands up to five feet tall and is the largest flying bird in the Western Hemisphere and one of the rarest in Central America. Photo courtesy of Mel Turton.

This amazing wildlife spotting led to a less-than-stellar cave tubing environment-there were so many people that it felt like a ride at Disney Land! But it was still fun to do, and beautiful.

Jusef, Me, Ed, and Hal

Coming out of the cave... 

Floating down the river... 

More lazy river floating...

Hal pretending to be a river guide

After you finish cave tubing, you are carted off straight to zip lining (they have a whole tourist trap setup there), which Hal reluctantly did, mostly because we'd already paid for it. The most fun was listening to each tourist scream as they stepped off the platforms! One lady actually slowed herself down so much that they had to reach a pole out to her to get her to the end of the zipline!

Hal-pro zipliner

After our fun-filled morning, we stopped to refuel for lunch and then headed on to the Belize Zoo.

Having lunch with our hosts!

The Belize Zoo is touted as "the best little zoo in the world" and it most certainly lives up to its name. The best part about this zoo is they only have local Belizean animals that have been orphaned or rescued, so they never take any animals out of the jungle for their displays. The enclosures for each animal were clean and spacious, and we spent over three hours there!

The keel billed toucan-National bird of Belize

Then it was home to our little cabin in the jungle, and one last mouth-watering dinner, cooked fresh by the Turtons. Our favorite dish while we were in Belize happens to be the staple Belizean dish-stew chicken with rice and beans. Here's the recipe we plan on trying at home, but I'm sure it won't be as good as it was in Belize...

On our last morning, Ed was kind enough to drive us to Belize City, where we took the water taxi over to Ambergris Caye, Belize's largest island. And that's where Part 2 comes in...!

I can't believe we were only in the jungle for three nights! We saw SO many animals, it was a dream come true for me! Spoiler alert-the next blog will have photos of sharks and beautiful sunny beaches!
If you live in Colorado right now, you may become extremely envious when you read Part 2...!

Goodbye mainland Belize...