Belize 2014 | Better late than never...

As I mentioned in my last post, for me, 2014 was chock full of weddings. Photographing weddings, attending weddings, I was even in a couple weddings... it was crazy and awesome. Besides those weddings, I did have a chance to take a break and go on vacation, I just haven't had a chance to edit the pictures or post them!

My family and I, for as long as I can remember, have gone on a yearly vacation. I've been lucky enough to travel all over the world with them and experience many places a lot of people don't get a chance to see. Last June we went to Belize! Belize was absolutely incredible and it was such a different vacation experience then we've had in the past. The country itself is relatively underdeveloped. We rented a car at the airport in Belize City and had to drive about three hours to where we were staying in Placencia. The directions, given to us by the owner of the house we rented, were written in landmarks, not street names. There is basically only one highway throughout Belize and maybe a couple of streets that come off of it. We had to keep our eyes peeled for a power line tower in order to know we had to turn right. Then once we managed that, we had to turn left just after the jaguar sanctuary. Yes, there is a community of jaguars kept at a sanctuary. Crazy right?! There were open fields, rows of banana trees, citrus groves and tiny communities with small huts.

We happened to be in Placencia during Lobster Fest, which is basically a giant block party in the town full of music, beer and of course, lobster. The house we rented had it's own pool and access to a our own private beach. Because of the time of year we were in Belize, there weren't many other tourists around and some businesses weren't open at all. It was a very quiet and isolated vacation. One day we took a boat trip to Monkey River, where we had a tour guide point out native birds, reptiles and other animals. We saw howler monkeys, very large iguanas, terrifying spiders and even manatees! Another day, we had a guide to drive us to the Toledo district, in central Belize, where we learned about the making of Mayan chocolate straight from the cocoa bean. Once our bellies were full of our handmade chocolate and traditional Mayan hot chocolate, we ventured through some Mayan ruins.

It was such an incredible trip, one I will remember for a long time. There are also so many things we didn't get the chance to do, that I would love to go back some day. If you're interested in buying property there, there are so many pieces of land for sale! We found a listing for an island that was already equipped with a bar for just $850,000 (I don't recall if that's in Belizean currency, but if so then it's only $425,000 USD), who's in?!

Some citrus groves on our drive from Belize City to Placencia.

Our private beach!

Termini vacation staple, Pina Coladas.

He's not naked, I promise.

On the way to Monkey River.

Much of Monkey River Town was destroyed by Hurricane Iris in 2001, and now only houses about 200 residents. It's a fishing town that's mostly surrounded by water, and the easiest way to access it is by boat. We had a tour guide take us through the river and rainforest showing us much of the wildlife in the area.

There are many destroyed properties up and down the sides of Monkey River.

Can you spot the iguana? We saw a bunch of these guys... this one is HUGE!

Those are birds nests hanging from the tree.

We saw a troupe of black howler monkeys. It was very tough to get photographs of them, but here is my most successful picture. There were about 7 or 8 of them, even a baby!

On the right is a hummingbird nest with baby hummingbirds about the size of pinheads!

This was our tour guide, complete with machete to help us walk through the rainforest. His son tagged along on the trip, he's learning how to spot and identify the animals and birds so he can someday take over the business.

Halfway through the tour, we stopped at his house and his wife made us a delicious traditional Belizean meal. Creole chicken, beans and coconut rice. They make the rice with coconut water, and call it coconut rice just for the tourists because it has a sweet taste. For Belizeans, it's the way rice is made every day.

On our boat ride back to Placencia, we saw a mama manatee teaching it's baby how to come up for air! It was so cool, can you see it's nose sticking out?

The beach in our "backyard".

The house we rented in CocoPlum. And the next few pictures are taken throughout the town of Placencia.

Traditional Mayan hot chocolate. If you like your coffee black, like me, then you'd love this super bitter hot chocolate. It's tradition to add in chili powder, which makes it spicy, or sugar if that's not your thing.

Before modern machinery, which this Mayan chocolate farm still doesn't have much of, the cocoa beans had to be peeled and sifted by hand. It was a tedious task.

Those slabs are basically a giant mortar and pestle and have been handed down through generations.

We all took turns grinding the beans into chocolate, added 30% sugar to make a 70% dark chocolate. It was absolutely delicious.

Traditional Mayan instruments passed down through generations.

Another homemade traditional Belizean meal, all made from locally grown fruits, veggies and chickens.

Avocado tree just growing on the side of the road. I would LOVE to have one for myself.

This is a Mayan Ball Game court. It was similar to soccer in the sense that you couldn't touch the ball with your hands. On either side of those walls, there would have been hoops and the goal was to get the ball into the hoop. The ball was about 20 inches in diameter and was made of solid rubber. Since the hoops were so high up, it was an extremely difficult game to play.

The ruins of a Mayan palace. It is known that this was a palace, or a home of someone of importance because of the base and stairs leading to the structure, that's now fallen apart.

In the distance, you can see Guatemala.