next stop.. BELIZE

Belize is a place that I think everyone should see at least once....and then there is really no need to go back. I must admit that there are parts of Belize that I do love - like the islands off of the coast - that have nothing to do with the mainland. Mainland Belize is not a place I prefer to be. It is very 3rd world-esque, sad, dirty, and laden with crime. If you visit Belize you should be sure to have something scheduled to do! 

This was my 5th trip to Belize and for this trip, we visited Altun Ha.

 When your cruise ship goes to Belize, you have to take a tender (a smaller boat) from the ship to the dock. This is because it's too shallow for a ship to get close to the land....so here we are, boarding our tender!

 My Dad & Ronda - so happy to be going back! They planned to hang with us all day!

The following are just some pics that we took once we got on land!

 This was the motto at one of the local schools - I thought it was AWESOME!

 Do you see the Rooster??

 This is the National Soccer stadium for Belize- it is scheduled to be done by January 2014.

These children are at school. We learned that the color of your uniform determines where you will attend school - we told N that if he didn't shape up that we'd send him down to Belize to wear pink and maroon!

  Welcome to Altun Ha - one of the ruin sites in Belize. This site is the home of the largest Jade Head carving ever discovered. It weighed in at 9lbs and was one solid piece of Jade!

 I made it up 10 steps of one of the pyramids before I froze solid. I tried - I really did - but I just couldn't tame my fear of falling and dying a horrible contorted death of broken bones and cuts! Tim rescued me while the kids ran to the top!

 Here is Tim and our kids at the top - cousin Darrell is in there too! They are all so brave - my heroes!

 Do you see the faces looking at you?

 N on the sacrificial alter at the top of one of the pyramids.

N doing his best "my people, let me talk to you" impression! I did make it up here because there were stairs with a railing and walls - but when I got to the top....ugh...I was sure we were all going to plummet to our deaths and that would be it - we would die in Belize! I decided, while on top of that pyramid, that I would have been one of those naysayers in Christopher Columbus's time that said that the world was flat and that he was going to die! You see, in my mind, this was a sheer drop - no slope, no stairs, just a drop in to oblivion. It really was terrible. You may laugh - go ahead - Tim did - but I had to be held and almost carried down because I couldn't even put one foot in front of the other to move. It was terrible!

This pic was taken from the bottom of that pyramid - looking up!

On our way back to the port area, we saw this.

Finally, the WET LIZARD! This is my very favorite thing about Belize! I love this place...coconut shrimp, coconut rice, fried bananas and traditional beans - seriously one of my favorite meals ever! I took the kids and we all shared a plate and read the writing on the walls and danced to the music - it was AWESOME!

N rocking M's sunglasses as we ride the tender back to our ship! It was a fun day! After we got home we talked about our trip and the consensus was that we feel RICH! We are very blessed to have been born in America, to have the things we have, to know the things we know. I'm so grateful to have been able to share these experiences with our children and to see their eyes open up to the variety of things that are in this world as well as to the blessings that they have been given!