Day 5 - Cave and Jungle Hike

Today was a treking day once again! Today's trek was to St. Herman's Cave for some splunking with our trusted tour guide Pedro and another couple - Carey and George from NY/NJ. Up till this point, the only caving I had done has been walking along a path that occasionally gets slippery - this was way different! We had to climb straight vertical for several sections - making us both wish that we had frequented the Rock Gym more often! The crazy thing was that all the rocks were covered in mud and therefore very slippery. We had to really think about every step we took to ensure that we wouldn't slip - some times the drop from slipping was 50-100 down! Pedro noted that if we fell, he'd come get us tomorrow. :) We saw Mayan pottery and ashes in the caves - apparently the Mayans didn't live in the caves, but they came in the caves to perform rituals and make sacrifices. We didn't see any human or animal remains, but apparently other caves show up to 18 human skeletons of people that were sacrificed! As we exited the cave, Pedro showed us the "water vine" which can save your life if your lost in the Jungle - you can cut it for fresh, filtered water. The vine is about 3 inches thick and very strong. We sat on one that looped down and swung!! It was a ton of fun! After the cave, we had a delicious lunch (the food here is amazing!) and then went swimming in the Blue Hole swimming area - a sink hole that was filled with water after a large storm some time ago.

One thing I'm amazed at is the personal care that people take for their parks - all the signs are hand painted and everything is very well kept for such a underpopulated Country. Basically - Belize is the size of Massachusetts with a population of San Antonio - 1/3 of whom live in Belize City. The towns outside of that city are very low tech and laid back. Also - there are TONS of restaurants here! In an area that maybe has 20 people, there will be 2-3 restaurants - most people eat out at night rather than cook themselves...which is just so odd to me...

Here are some pics from today...

Wedding pics from Jacki and Paul

Hey everyone! As we're sitting here in the bar at the Hamanasi Resort, I thought I'd share the photos that Paul and Jacki uploaded...because I can't for the LIFE of me figure out how to move them over to my album.
Paul's: http://picasaweb.google.com/pgilbert31/KristinSWedding#
Jacki's: http://picasaweb.google.com/jackilynn18

Enjoy!

Kristin & Ed

Day 3 & 4 - Mayflower Hike and Total Relaxation

Monday was our first excursion - the Mayflower Waterfall HIke - rated a "3++" on a scale from 1-3 - and they weren't kidding!!! There were portions where a rope was required to continue on the trail! But Ed didn't need the rope cause he was part monkey apparently and is accustomed to hiking on all fours - as everyone was aware as he was yelling "stay down!" to me while I was relying on the rope! The trek was a hike/botany excursion to the point where we relished the pauses in the hiking because it was so strenuous. Along the way we discovered what a Coco tree looks like, learned about the tourist tree (a tree that turns red when the sun hits it), and watched leaf ants work their hearts out for a leaf. At the top of the hill sat a fresh water pool, this pool was soooooo cold that it was refreshing. This pool was well worth the hike to get there. We all jumped in (except Wendy and Richard) and everyone gave a scream as they hit the water! Of course jumping in the whole way is the only way to do it! Once everyone jumped in, all the insect repellant came off and everyone got completely eaten up by the flies and mosquitos! (except Wendy and Richard) We saw some awesome waterfall views on the way down and a view of the jungle all the way to the Carribean Sea! The trek down was just like the trek up, hard on the knees and tiring. After the hike, our tour guide found a scorpion and shared it with everyone (after removing the stinger!).

Ed and I enjoyed the post hike nap that was well deserved. That night we joined everyone for happy hour and had dinner with Virginia, Liz, Dana and Mike - we all had a ton of fun and laughed at storied over dinner for at least 2 hours! Liz and Virginia are both from Boston and Dana and Mike are from Harlem, NYC. We headed in early at about 10pm and fell asleep to reading.

Tuesday began just like any other day here...totally relaxed. We got up way too early for a vacation (7am), but we decided to make the most of it. We went down for another wonderful breakfast and met two new faces, Osbert and Birilla. Everyone is so nice that it's unbelievable that we are in another country. You would never get this kind of gratitude in the states. Needless to say the remainder of the day was spent reading up at the treehouse, down by the sea, and at our table at lunch. We have never done so much reading before this trip on one day. Now mind you, the whole day wasn't spent lounging around reading. I believe that we can officially say that we have mastered "hammock reading" and are now ready to hang one somewhere in the house. We did have a massage scheduled for today that wasn't going to be missed. As you can see by the photos, the massage was a success for Ed. So totally relaxed that I could have gotten anything out of him (like a lobster dinner).

Honeymoon!!! Day 1&2

Hello from Belize!!!  We made it here to Belize yesterday afternoon after a very calm and relaxing flight.  We were picked up by a driver for the Hamanasi resort.  We met another resort couple, Wendy and Richard, at the airport and rode with them over to the resort - a 2 hour- 90 mph drive in an old-school style van on a mix of asphalt and dirt roads through a bunch of single lane bridges and small "refugee villages"!  Wow!  

We did get to see a lot of Belize, although there is not a whole lot to see - most of it looks like the middle of the FL Everglades!  Every now and then we'd see a little snack shop or "Belizean Hair Salon" but most all businesses have the appearance of a little shack and most business owners live in their shop.  

When we arrived at the resort - we were treated amazingly!  Everyone wanted to know our names - and suprisingly - they all remembered them the next morning at breakfast!  Our treehouse was adorable and was totally secluded!  There are windows throughout - so it's a good thing we don't have any neighbors!  There's even an outdoor bath tub!!!  

Below are a few pictures from yesterday nd today and there will be even more from tomorrow on our "Rigorous Waterfal Hike!!!"

Anaheim Peppers!

ok - I know this post isn't nearly as exciting as Ed and I getting married, BUT it's still exciting.  When we got back from all our wedding festivities, we had peppers and flowering squash!!  No squash fruit yet, but it's coming!  Here are some pics of our veggies!

Wedding!!!

The wedding was this past weekend and it was AWESOME!!! Everything thing was perfect (even Christina running a 5K 15 minutes before hand!) and it really was everything we hoped it could be! It was great to see all our family and friends and relax with everyone at the cabins. The wedding really combined some of our favorite things - seeing family and friends, hanging out by the fire, being near the water, having awesome food and GETTING MARRIED!!!

It was really awesome and I especially want to thank Christina, Paul, Brett and Jackie for their hard work in helping up to pull this all off the past 6-8 months. And also a HUGE THANK YOU to Tiffanie for being my "project manager" of the whole event - she really made sure everything happened and everyone was doing what they needed. THANKS!

I'll post a few pics here, but I don't have any from the wedding - only ones from Friday before the wedding - where we put on our "fake" wedding clothes and jumped in the river along with the rehearsal and fire afterwards...I'm waiting for other people to upload their wedding pics. When the photographer posts his pics - I'll definitely put up a new blog!

Shower! and Wedding and Honeymoon! How Exciting!

So - T-minus 5 days till Ed and I tie the knot! My mother and Christina threw me a wonderful wine and cheese bridal shower on Sunday which was just awesome! I got to spend some time with great friends and even got some awesome gifts! (Debbie - I think the frosting was "Number 1"!) So - now I'm all showered up and I'm ready to head down to the cabins on Wedesday! I can't wait to see all my friends and family and catch up with everyone. It is such an honor to have all these people make a special trip just to join us on our wedding!

ALSO - I just want everyone to know how EXCITED Ed and I are to go to Belize!!!! In honor of our upcoming trip, I'm posting the Belize "weather sticker" here: