***** means 5 Star

 We left Dangriga with ample time to make our launch out to San Pedro. San Pedro is a small tourist island off the coast of Belize City. San Pedro is known for being expensive, but it also has the best nightlife in Belize. Normally, Justin and I wouldn't find ourselves within 1000 km (sorry America, but it's the metric system everywhere else in the world), but this time we had good reason: we were going to visit my parents at the ***** Phoenix Resort. Upon arrival we were greeted with a refreshing cold drink, a penthouse-like hotel room overlooking the hotel pool and Caribbean ocean, fluffy cloud-like beds, and, most importantly, my loving parents.

Justin and I spent just under a week (Monday - Friday) with my parents on San Pedro Island and the surrounding area. Every lunch and dinner we went out for fantastic food, and every day we went on some sort of adventure planned through various agencies. On our first day, we went snorkeling and swam with sharks, sting rays, barracuda, and turtles.  Our guide was excellent. He would clap his hand a certain way to get our attention underwater, and then he would audibly announce interesting information about the sea life above water, but so we could still hear. He even had us each hold and touch a friendly 12-foot nurse shark and pet a tame sting ray on our head! It was a magical first day.

Yep... house in the middle of the ocean

Little Cabin on our private island

Our second day in paradise was as good as the first. We went on a fishing excursion with Oliver and Brian. While I didn't catch anything on this excursion, I did SPEAR something! That's right; when we didn't get our fill of fish for the day. Oliver took us snorkeling for lunch. He used a long metal spear with a rubber band sling to spike a few snapper and redfish. Spearfishing is thrilling not only because of the hunt, but also the danger behind doing it. Any time you go to retrieve a spear, a Moray Eel could possibly strike out and bite your thumb off! Also, after you have a catch, the blood trail from the fish can attract sharks. Oliver even told us a story about a tourist that volunteered to hold his "catch" bag. He ended up having to fend off a Hammerhead shark from taking a nice chunk of flesh out of this woman. "She was about walking' on water when dat shark came 'round!" he laughed.

We enjoyed a delicious fish meal on a remote residential caye (island) near our fishing spot. It belonged to a father-son family close to Oliver. The island had two quaint beach houses, adorned with front porch on the bottom and an attic bedroom that overlooked the sea. The whole scene was something off of a postcard. I'll never forget it.

View from Little Cabin

Our third day involved a small airplane ride to the mainland for a long ride out to Mayan ruins and cave tubing. While this day was certainly fun, the "car-won't-start" situation, long hours spent traveling and the strange-natured tour guide we had made for somewhat of a drawn-out adventure. Even so, the Xunantunich ruins were quite interesting, the howler monkeys sounds were crazy, and the Cave tubing (just like it sounds) was quite relaxing and unique. 

Xunantunich

As mentioned before, the rest of our time was spent looking at the shops, eating at fantastic restaurants, and checking out the local area. From having drinks at a "swim-up" bar on Caye Caulker (neighboring island community) to getting painted during the Mardi Gras celebrations in town (we were even told not to wear nice clothes all day that Tuesday, for risk of ruining them!), it was the stay of a lifetime. My favorite "nightlife" occasion happened with the Chicken Drop. While the chicken never shat on our boxed numbers, the mere entertainment of watching a bunch of drunk gringos yelling idiotically at a scared-shitless (literally) chicken.

Before long, our weeklong dream in paradise came to a close. My parents departed for the airport as Justin and I headed back to Dangriga for one more night at Terrance's house before hitting the long trek back home to Cobán.