Belize Part 1

For years I have said I would take a tropical vacation in February. It's my least favorite month because it's so dark and cold. But every year I spend all my money and PTO on Christmas. But this year I somehow made it happen. I was off to Belize!

Of course, being February, nothing could go completely right. February decided to remind me why I hate it so much. On the day we were supposed to leave for Belize we got hit with about 20 inches of snow. 20! Obviously we did not leave as scheduled.

We knew the storm was coming. But the problem with travel is 1) You can't rebook for free until your airports are put under certain weather advisories 2) Everyone else is also trying to rebook 3) Rebooking agents seem to have no real knowledge of the weather.

We tried everything to get out on time. Our connecting flight was to Miami, so we just had to get there by Thursday morning. But it just wasn't going to happen. Every possible flight pattern was taking us through another snowy city. Oh, you want to send us from Baltimore to Atlanta to Miami? When Atlanta is under 2 inches of ice? Probably not wise to rebook us on another flight that's going to be cancelled within the hour.

So getting out early was not happening.

Now to try to get out 1 day late. 7 hours of travel quickly turned into 29 hours of travel. So if we had left Friday (not even a guaranteed flight, depending on how fast their cleared the 20+inches of snow) we would not have arrived in Belize until Saturday afternoon. We were scheduled to arrive noon on Thursday. Skipping that much of the trip was just not gonna fly.

Luckily I managed to get a wonderful customer service rep. And you know I don't give out such a compliment without it being warranted. See, we were staying 3 days in the jungle and 3 at the beach. So rebooking was a little tricky. What we ended up doing was leaving the beach hotel booking as it was and just left from Baltimore that day. Then moved the jungle to the #2 spot and changed our return date. It sounded like a good plan to me, but it did take a lot of effort. But Maria came to the rescue. And after about 5 hours on the phone we were rebooked!

So the snow came on Thursday and I worked from home and tried not to be too sad I wasn't in the tropics. Then I fought barely cleared roads and went into the office. Tried not to be sad about working when I should have been at the Mayan ruins. Saturday we embraced the snow and went tubing. Then on Sunday it was finally time to leave!!

When we got to Belize City we had to take a really small airplane to the island (Ambergris Caye). This was one part of the trip I was not looking forward to. But the other option was a 2 hour boat ride. I am still not a fan of the little plane, but after the future boat rides, I was glad we went with the plane. So after a 15 minute flight to San Pedro we had a 15 minute boat ride to the resort. It was sunny and warm and wonderful.

We stayed at X'Tan Ha Waterfront Resort. I highly recommend it if you want to get away. It's far from town, so if you're wanting to spend more time with the locals stay in San Pedro Town, not up the coast. Our room was beautiful (even though we still don't understand putting flowers on the toilet) and soon we were relaxing with pina colodas.