Hello folks,
I recently went on a honeymoon trip to Belize with my lovely husband, Jonathan. I wanted to post some bits and pieces of the trip from my travel journal and our photographs. The following post is the 1st in a series and documents our first few days of the trip. I hope you enjoy it!
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After two, five-hour flights we arrived in Belize City. Jonathan was confused as to why we were descending, as he didn’t see a city or airport of any kind. But soon a janky little building and a tiny landing strip came into view, and I knew we had arrived.
The sky and water changed colors continuously throughout the day. It was so magical.
Our trip advisors (Jonathan’s Belizean coworker and the internet) told us to take a cab directly from the airport out of Belize City, due to high crime rates. Driving to the water taxi, I could see why. The poverty, garbage, flea-ridden and bloody dogs were none too appealing.
The “water taxi” more closely resembled a slave ship than the luxurious name entails. Luckily I had taken a high dose of motion-sickness pills and we had a ziplock baggie just in case.
The mixture of heat, body odor, and food smells were more than I could handle. At this point, Jonathan and I were both extremely concerned that we had chosen the wrong honeymoon destination.
Just as we contemplated turning back, Caye Caulker appeared on the horizon. This quaint little island off the coast of Belize is teeming with white sand beaches, brightly colored beachfront properties, and hammocks swaying in the breeze.
Finally, we arrived! We celebrated our arrival by having a local beer on the sandy beach.
Jonathan and I fist-bumped.
The first night we dined at Joe’s Habeneros, a romantic restaurant with Belizean food catered to our American tastes. Delicious.
Much to our delight, the hotel room overlooked the pool, which overlooked the ocean. It turns out, you can buy happiness, and it is found at the Island Magic Hotel’s honeymoon suite.
View from our balcony for the first portion of the trip.
After an 11-hour nap, we awoke with renewed excitement. It’s our honeymoon!!! We drank coffee (fresh OJ for him) and enjoyed fresh fruit (bacon for him) while people-watching. Fun fact: our tablemate did the dirty in the ocean the previous night with a traveling stranger. Gooooooooooooood morning!
I can’t explain how relaxing and lovely our breakfast was. I could have stayed there all day.
We then grabbed our books, our suits, and plenty of SPF 70 and hit the beach. It was glorious. We leaped off the dock into the ocean and then swam a few laps in the saltwater pool. Why do you need both? Why not?
This looks like a naked photoshopped adventure on the open sea. I promise…it is!
Lunch was some fantastic garlic butter fish with rice and beans at Rainbow Grill & Bar. Then we decided to stroll around the main drag (you can get around the whole island in 20 minutes by foot) and found some incredible homemade ice cream. If that wasn’t enough, a woman wheeled a cart of homemade cakes right by us. She called herself “The Cake Lady” and she had a whole heard of people and dogs asking for cakes. Naturally, we had to have a slice of pineapple cake smothered in caramel. Vacation is the best.
Betta no litta
If all that wasn’t enough, we had grilled lobster for dinner. Rose’s restaurant had a limited menu. Pick what sea critter you want out front, then they’ll grill it up and take care of the rest. The sidewalk “menu” was the best free advertising I’ve ever seen. The smell alone would draw people in from blocks away.
Rose’s “menu”
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Married folks, did you have a honeymoon? Where’d you go?
Non-married folks, if you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
-Mads
La Petite Pancake 
Your photos are great, Mads. That water! That seafood! That permanent smile on your face! 🙂 Sounds like you had a rough start but a great trip. Feel free to share more photos so I can escape the January Blues with you. For our honeymoon, The Complete Package and I went to Cancun. Remember, this was 30 years ago. You wouldn’t even recognize it. Back then, there were only 4-5 hotels, no one on the island spoke English, and you could walk the beach for hours without seeing more than 3-4 other couples. It was FABULOUS! I can never go back. Seeing it as the tourist trap it is today (with American restaurants) would just kill me. Oh, and we borrowed my in-laws camera for the trip, failed to load all 8 rolls of film properly, and ended up with zero pictures from the trip except for one snapped by a restaurant photographer & 3 postcards I failed to mail. Oh, well.
Wow. I can’t even imagine Cancun without gobs of tourists. It sounds incredible.
How awful your pictures disappeared!
I wish we could go on a honeymoon each year!
Manny and I went to Rio de Janero. Manny was working in the international division of Honeywell and had to go for work so we just extended our stay. It was absolutely gorgeous.Just like Jeanne, our honeymoon was many “moons” ago – 34 years ago. (We waited a year before we went on our honeymoon.) We had a brief stay in Sao Paulo, an amazingly huge city, since Manny had to work. Saw some amazing things — Sao Paulo was, and may still be, the plastic surgery capital of the world, so saw some interesting “women”, use your imagination who nightlife occured outside our hotel — and had wonderful time meeting the families of the people Manny worked with. Then off to Rio where we stayed at Hotel California right on Copacabana Beach. The water was amazing the hills surrounding Rio so green and lush. Large plazas with great sidewalk cafes. And the most incredibly gorgeous people you have ever seen. I mean so gorgeous that you had to put cucumbers on your eyes at night to give them a rest. We “rented” a driver for a day and saw the sights, from Sugarloaf to the huge Christ statue to the Emperor’s Forest to Ipanema Beach and much more. Of course, like your trip to your the island, we also saw the outskirts of the flavellas, which were extremely poor and so dangerous then and much worse today. We went to a Samba show – didn’t know you move so many parts of your body at once. Amazing. Drank Caipirinhas which will knock you on your rear very quickly. Saw a religious lady with a huge snake walking the street – whoa. At night, the Brasilianos set out candles and flowers for the ocean gods on the beach – such an absolutely beautiful view from our window. Lost the top of my bikini in the rough surf and was surrounded by small beautiful children who were staring in absolute amazement that anything could be that white. It was a trip of a lifetime (your mom and my trip with you and Jonathan out to CA ranks right up there as well) and was a incredible way for Manny and I to start our married life together.
“…small beautiful children were staring in absolute amazement that anything could be that white” That is HYSTERICAL! Your honeymoon sounds like it was amazing. Congrats on 35 years together. What an accomplishment!
hahaha I’m pretty sure the children of Belize were equally frightened of my pale legs. I often compare them to the blinding light of the sun. I’ve never been to Rio de Janero, but I’m adding it to my list of travel destinations to research.