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Belize 2025
  • Andrea Eberly
  • Michael Metzger
  • Andrea Eberly
  • Michael Metzger

Belize 2025

San Ignacio and Caye Caulker Read more
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  • Trip start
    February 7, 2025
  • Belize 2025
    Breakfast at El Fogon.Coffee and treats at New French Bakery1Shave ice!Shave ice tongue1We bought thirty eggs at the market.

    San Ignacio Market

    February 8, 2025 in Belize ⋅ ☁️ 81 °F

    We went to the market to get vegetables and breakfast. We also bought a basket made in a traditional way from the jippi jappa palm. The light color is made when the fibers are boiled.

  • Belize 2025
    Artist rendition of Cahal Pech
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    Cahal Pech Museum

    February 8, 2025 in Belize ⋅ ☀️ 82 °F

    The museum before you head into the ruins of the city where you can see some artifacts excavated from the site.

  • Belize 2025
    2Annika on a thrown.3Ian in the West Ball Court1Plaza A1Look who's almost at the top!No boys allowed.Only boys allowedKids playing with stones.1

    Cahal Pech

    February 8, 2025 in Belize ⋅ ☀️ 81 °F

    We explored the ruins of Cahal Pech. It is right inside San Ignacio. They estimate 10 to 20 thousand people lived there. It was abandoned around 900 AD like all the classical Maya cities of this area (Belize, Guatemala, N Honduras). The jungle took it back and now trees grow from the plazas and temples and ball courts.Read more

  • Belize 2025
    The little yellow balls are butterfly eggs!Ian wanted to get loose so he could play in the rocksFinally Annika got one to sit in her hands!And it actually didn't get off until it was time to head over to the caterpillar room!Caterpillars!

    Green Hills Butterfly Ranch part 1

    February 9, 2025 in Belize ⋅ ⛅ 82 °F

    We drove up to the butterfly ranch to see where they raise butterflies for tropical butterfly houses around the world. The butterflies live in the habitat and there are cuttings of their host plants where they lay their eggs. The caterpillars hatch out and then are collected and brought to the caterpillar room where they are raised until they become a chrysalis.Read more

  • Belize 2025
    Leaf cutter ant home.It was a bit windy and soursop fell to the ground.1

    Butterfly Ranch Part 2

    February 9, 2025 in Belize ⋅ ☁️ 82 °F

    We got to see the caterpillar room and then we took a short hike around the property where we discovered a leaf cutter ant nest. And we saw some toucans!

  • Belize 2025
    Waiting for the tour
    The area near the cave was stunningIan meets the fish. (Some looked like tetras!)Annika wanted to check the fish out tooIan loved pointing out leaf cutter ants!Annika and Papa explored before the tour to see where the ants were goingFound where the ants with the leaf-pieces were coming from!1Inside the caveOn the way back out.We lived!Oh yeah. That was the old bridge.2And we drove across a river. 😬2

    Barton Creek

    February 9, 2025 in Belize ⋅ ⛅ 84 °F

    On our way back from the butterfly Ranch, we saw a sign to Barton Creek, where there is a We decided to go down the road. The first road seemed in poor condition from rain and clay and so we decided to turn around. A few miles down the main road there was another road to Barton Creek so we decided to try that one. A couple of miles down the road there was a fork and it said one way involved river crossing and the other way was the “dry road” so we went that way. It turns out that way lead me to the scariest road I had ever driven down in my life. It was basically super skinny all rocks and extremely steep. Anyway, we made it hooray! There was a restaurant, but it was closed. However there was a young man sitting there and he asked if we would like to go on a tour and we said yes. When we said we came from the dry road his eyes bugged out. Apparently the website tells you to take the river crossing way. But we’d just decided to head there in a lark. As luck would have it, we would be the last group of people who could go into the cave in a canoe to see some Mayan artifacts that day.Read more

  • Belize 2025

    Rio On Pools

    February 10, 2025 in Belize ⋅ ☀️ 79 °F

    So we got up early to go to another Maya ruin just outside of San Ignacio called Xunantunich. Of course we get there and find out the hand crank ferry is broken. So we head back to town and regroup at New French Bakery. We decide to drive into the Mountain Pine Ridge reserve to the Rio On Pools for some swimming. It poured rain most of the drive but stopped when we arrived. So we hiked a short distance from the road to the pools and four of us went swimming. One of us did not. Can anyone guess who didn’t swim? 😛Read more

  • Belize 2025
    Trying a cacao bean

    Ajaw cacao experience

    February 11, 2025 in Belize ⋅ ☀️ 77 °F

    Today we went to a small plot of land where the folks from Ajaw are experimenting with growing cacao. Not really the right climate (too hot and too cold in these parts) and also the soil is a little too much limestone. We got to see some cacao plants and learn that avocado trees are not their friends (steal nutrients) but bananas are because the midges that pollinate live in between the layers of leaves. Also coconut can increase the pH to undo some of the effects of limestone.
    Then we got to see how the Maya prepared cacao (beans fermented and then ground and mixed with hot water and all spice and hot pepper). The grinding was done on the mano and metate.    Read more

  • Belize 2025
    111222612

    Green Iguana Project

    February 11, 2025 in Belize ⋅ ☀️ 81 °F

    There is a hotel that hosts a conservation project where they breed green iguanas. The temperature of the eggs dictates the sex the iguanas will develop into. Females lay eggs and males can breed with lots of females, which is why they favor making lots of females.Read more

  • Belize 2025
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    CATS

    February 11, 2025 in Belize ⋅ ☀️ 81 °F

    The daughter of our hosts runs the only cat shelter in Belize. We visited and got in a lot of cuddles. Our cabin overlooked the shelter.

  • Belize 2025
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    Ice cream and Night on the porch

    February 11, 2025 in Belize ⋅ 🌙 72 °F

    Sitting on the porch was really nice, after a walk out to get some ice cream. We didn’t have air conditioning so the breeze on the porch was really relaxing. That and enjoying a Belizean beer (Belikin) Michael picked up at the B2.Read more

  • Belize 2025
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    223Annika grinding corn on a thousand year old grinder

    Cooking Class in San Antonio

    February 12, 2025 in Belize ⋅ ☀️ 82 °F

    San Antonio is a village of about 3000 people, mostly Yucatec Maya. There is a women’s coop that hosts cooking classes.
    Our menu was a sweet potato pudding, tortilla soup, and chicken tamales. We cooked in reverse order from when we’d eat. The sweet potato pudding involved grating a lot of sweet potato and making coconut milk from scratch. The Mennonites in the area invented a coconut tool for carving out the coconut meat. There is a big population of Mennonites nearby in a place called Spanish Lookout. Then we made the soup and finally prepared banana leaves and cornmeal mush for the tamales. We all built tamales by wrapping them in the banana leaves.Read more

  • Belize 2025
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    Oxmul coffee

    February 12, 2025 in Belize ⋅ ☀️ 84 °F

    Michael and I visited a Maya farm where they grow some coffee. They adapted technology from a roasted corn drink they traditionally make. They live off the grid and grow about 75% of all the food they eat.Read more

  • Belize 2025

    Random Fruit from the market

    February 12, 2025 in Belize ⋅ 🌙 75 °F

    We bought random fruit and tried it. One thing we got was a breadfruit. It’s terrible raw. You’re supposed to eat it like a potato. We later found some bread fruit crisps and they were excellent.

  • Belize 2025

    Goodbye Nature’s Nest

    February 13, 2025 in Belize ⋅ ☀️ 84 °F

    We had a nice stay in San Ignacio. Now we’re off to the raptor center and another Maya ruin before heading to the Zoo.

  • Belize 2025
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    Raptors!

    February 13, 2025 in Belize ⋅ ☀️ 86 °F

    The morning we checked out we headed to the raptor center. The road was like chocolate ganache so they had to meet us at the top with some 4x4s to get us to the center. They rehab injured raptors and the ones they can’t go back to to the wild became ambassador animals. We met a critically endangered red bellied falcon ( similar to a peregrine), a roadside hawk, a kite and a barn owl.Read more

  • Belize 2025
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    Next stop: The Tropical Education Cente

    February 13, 2025 in Belize ⋅ ☀️ 86 °F

    We stayed here for three nights so we’d be close to the zoo for our day tour and night tour. We stayed in a big or wooden house built over a pond where a small crocodile lived. This place provided breakfast and dinner each night. Something different each day. Kids loved the food.Read more

    Trip end
    February 21, 2025
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