Bound for Belize

February - March 2022 (throwback!)

Back in February 2022 Tatum had just finished a long travel nurse stint in Missoula and Corbin was deep in the trenches of starting his new business. We happily packed our bags for a two and a half week Belize getaway. Planning and looking forward to the trip had gotten Tatum through more than one night shift at the hospital. We decided to break the trip into 3 parts: The Islands, The Sailing Trip, & The Jungle.

Part 1: The Islands

San Pedro, a town on the southern end of Ambergris Caye, is a bustling town filled with vacationers zipping around on golf carts and is surrounded by a coast line peppered with long docks with bars sitting over the water. Our first night in town we headed to the nearest dock bar for dinner and live music and giggled while the band serenaded us with ‘Snake Farm’; far from a classic but a Teegarden Family favorite.

While in San Pedro, we spent our time scuba diving (and getting pretty sea sick), exploring the beach front near our airbnb, and trying the local food. For breakfast, we enjoyed ‘Fry Jacks’ which are savory dough pastries filled with eggs, beans, and sausage. You top a Fry Jack off with a little of the local Marie Sharp's hot sauce and your day is off to a great start.

One afternoon, we decided to rent a golf cart and head out to ‘Secret Beach’... which we promptly learned is Belize's worst kept secret. The bustling bar had picnic tables sitting in the clear blue Caribbean water. We stripped down to our swimsuits, snagged a table, and swam while sipping on tropical drinks and eating fresh ceviche. Our trip was off to an amazing start!

Next, we visited the sleepy (and slightly hippy) island of Caye Caulker. The small island is extremely walkable and it only took about 10 minutes to walk from one side of the island to the other. We enjoyed strolling the streets while sampling the local street food… jerk chicken! Highlights from our time on the island included swimming in ‘The Split’, eating lobster at Willy’s backyard restaurant, petting stingrays during sunset, and diving!

Our dives off the coast of Caye Caulker turned out to be some of the best dives we’ve had to date. We descended into what is best described as slot canyons of bright coral. During the first dive a barracuda checked us out intently, a few reef sharks swam by (Tatum's first shark encounter), and we even saw a moray eel hunting outside of the coral. BUT… the highlight came during our safety stop. A family of four dolphins came swimming by!! We excitedly jumped back in the water for our second dive with hopes that the dolphins had stuck around… and sure enough they had! We spent the next 15 minutes pinching ourselves as the dolphins danced in the water around us. This was the first time either of us had dove with dolphins and it was definitely a bucket list experience!

Part 2: The Sailing Trip

For this portion of the trip, we set out on a 3 day 2 night sailing/camping trip from Caye Caulker to the southern part of mainland Belize. What a cool way to get from point A to point B! We packed our stuff onto the white sailboat, lathered on the sunscreen, and headed out to sea. As the boat split the glassy blue water we kicked our feet up and watched as dolphins started swimming beside us…we thought to ourselves “this is going to be awesome!”

During the day we sat on the roof of the boat, chatting with fellow travelers, and watched the Caribbean Sea pass us by. We stopped often to snorkel and saw countless eagle rays, barracuda, colorful fish and even nurse sharks hiding in the reef. At one point Tatum screamed “SHARK!!” to the group not realizing how easily this could incite panic… Corbin quickly yelled “just a nurse shark!” to calm the group and we both started laughing.

The first night we camped in a tent on a pristine white sand beach on an uninhabited island… where we ate a good meal, fished with our guides with only string and bait, and watched a spectacular sunset. Life is good.

Day two was much of the same… reading on the upper deck, eating fresh ceviche, snorkeling, fishing off the docks, and camping in a tent on a new island (this location wasn’t nearly as isolated or pristine as the first night, and a little sketchy if we’re being honest, but we got some sleep nonetheless). Corbin even got to try spear-fishing and he reports that it’s A LOT harder than the guides make it look.

The grand finale to our sailing trip was an afternoon spent on a spectacular sand bar drinking rum punch and laughing with our new friends. Our three days on the ocean flew by… with fresh tan lines (let's be honest, more like sunburns) we said goodbye to the Caribbean and headed inland.

Part 3: The Jungle

After a delicious local meal and good night's sleep in the town of San Ignacio, we woke up early to the sound of cheering. What was the occasion? The start of the “The Belikin La Ruta Maya Belize River Challenge”... a 175 mile river canoe race from the jungle town of San Ignacio to coastal Belize city. We quickly got dressed and ran down to the river to catch the start of the race… locals cheered as roughly 70 canoe teams paddled frantically through town. We felt lucky to get a glimpse of the unique tradition. We spent the rest of the morning sipping coffee and walking around the food market. Corbin lost a round of ‘what are the odds’ and to Tatum’s amusement was forced to eat a habanero pepper on the spot.

We spent the next 4 days at Table Rock Jungle Lodge where we enjoyed the sights and sounds of the jungle. One afternoon while laying by the pool we heard a roaring sound coming from the river… we went to investigate and caught glimpses of howler monkeys sitting in the treetops. The sounds made us feel like we were in a scene from Jurassic Park and that dinosaurs would pop out any minute. We filled our days by inner tubing the river (we were assured there were no large snakes), hiking the jungle paths, lounging by the pool, canoeing up the river, and even getting a couples massage. The lodge staff were outstanding and made our experience even more memorable… whether it was getting updates from the waiter about how his favorite team was doing in the canoe race or the bartender giving us a hard time for being on such a tight budget that we brought our own booze to the resort… the staff kept us smiling.

One day we decided to leave the lodge and explore The Actun Tunichil Muknal Cave, also known as The ATM Cave. This cave has a rich history and is where Mayan people completed rituals and sacrifices hundreds of years ago. We hiked about a mile through the jungle and river before reaching the entrance of the cave. Armed with hardhats and headlamps we started making our way into the depths of the mountain… wading through the river and rocking climbing until we finally reached our first Mayan artifact. Clay pots and human remains lay scattered throughout the “ritual room.” The most interesting part was the perfectly preserved human skeleton. The skeleton was bound by its hands and feet, and is believed to have been a slave that was sacrificed in hopes for a better crop. We scrambled down rocky walls and floated the river on our way out of the cave. This tour had it all… nature, history, and adventure… plus a freaking HUMAN SKELETON!!

Talk about one hell of a trip! With all three parts of our Belize trip complete, we flew back to the states and started a new type of adventure…

With Love,

Boots Abroad

Corbin’s

Highs: The Diving, The blue water, howler monkeys, ATM Cave

Lows: The second island of the sailing trip, being stressed about work

Tatum’s

Highs: Secret beach, diving w/ dolphins, sailing days, jungle lodge

Lows: 2nd nights tent site, seasickness

Bloopers…

The Frigatebird: While on our sailing trip we met a couple from Boise, ID who had planned ahead and packed a travel fishing rod. After a long day of sailing we were all hanging out on the dock, enjoying a few beers, and fishing. They let Tatum cast a few times and of course she had the biggest catch of the entire trip by far… a Frigatebird (a large black sea bird)! Tatum wants to make it clear that she did NOT intentionally catch the bird, it was a freak accident she swears! After reeling it in, the guides were able to untangle the bird from the line and it survived…well, at least it flew away.