Day 1 - The Rahns return to The Land of Make Belize

We returned to the site of our honeymoon!

Day 1 started with a 5:00 wake-up for me - my body said 7:00 and the sun rises here at about 5:15ish so daylight was starting. We all headed to the resort restaurant for breakfast to start our day full of relaxing and no planned events...the day just sort of evolved in whatever presented itself.

breakfast - no crowds, and very few people

the wall of positivity inside Red Ginger - the restaurant

 After breakfast we climbed another flight up from our 3rd floor room and we were on the roof. Very cool views of our location right in the middle of town. It was great to get a perspective of where we actually were in relation to the rest of San Pedro.

Front street looking south

A cemetery right next door..well hidden unless you look down on it

selfie on the roof

roof view looking down the beach

 After breakfast the girls and I took advantage of the free Yoga class that was offered. No photographs to document that, but trust me...we were there.  The instructor was an American woman that visited San Pedro 19 years ago in her early 20's, fell in love with the area and returned about 11 years ago to live here permanently. She brought her young Belizean son to the class with her today. After our hour yoga class, we headed back to the room to change and find Don to begin our adventures for the day.

We saw the first of what would be many different lizards during our adventures today

We had decided to take advantage of free paddleboarding and kayaks from The Phoenix. We would pick them up at a dock about a 5 minute walk down the beach... so away we went.

the side exit onto Front St.

 We found the dock at San Pedro Watersports and our adventure began. A double kayak for Don and Katie and a single for Carleigh. It was a very windy day so the water was very choppy - they could have paddled out to the reef and didn't even make it past the dock...just sort of paddled around in the open water around the beach area.

Carleigh then decided to try paddleboarding - she did pretty well, even though the guy told her it wasn't really a good idea because it was a lot harder than kayaking. I'm proud of her determination! She didn't get very far, and she didn't fall that much either.

After our water adventure, we decided to walk a bit further down the beach because we discovered Ramon's Village was fairly close. We found it...the site of our honeymoon 19 years ago!! Apparently there was a fire a few years ago and they had to rebuild, so our honeymoon cabana had been replaced by a much fancier cabana. The charm of the resort was exactly the same and we made the decision to return for dinner tonight.

The bar at Ramon's where we watched the World Cup Girls Soccer in 1999 has been replaced with a coffee/smoothie bar - Katie loved that! The guys working there claimed that their coffee was better than Starbucks and they should be called "Ramonbucks." Katie actually agreed!

After visiting Ramon's, we headed to lunch at Caliente. This place came highly recommended by The Phoenix and also from TripAdvisor. It didn't disappoint,

After lunch, it was time for some relaxing pool time! So happy to just sit with the view, a frozen drink and do nothing!

Around 4:00 the resort offered a free Chocolate Tasting class sponsored by the Belize Chocolate Company. A store/company that makes all of their own chocolate here in Belize. It was very cool - they showed us the complete process from Cocoa bean picked from the trees to the chocolate that they sell in their store here in San Pedro.

demonstrating how they grind the chocolate beans and mix it with sugar and powdered milk to make milk chocolate.

Katie's turn

 Now for the nightly happy hour with my legal 18 year old - tonight was white wine. We decided to do a different drink each night we are here.

After happy hour - we headed back to Ramon's for dinner.

Our first stop was at the Belizean Breezes Soap Company. We met the owners - a couple that relocated to San Pedro from Michigan 5 years ago after the husband retired. He collects his pension here and his wife turned her Michigan hobby of making scented soaps into a thriving business with 2 different locations here in San Pedro. They came to visit 11 years ago during winter and decided to move here for good 5 years ago. So many stories like that here - lots of Americans that have moved here permanently after visiting.

We made it to Ramon's for dinner - such a fun night...lots of familiar sights including the pool area and the restaurant.

our waiter at the end of dinner

beautiful night with an almost full moon

Our day is ending as we are back in the room relaxing and thinking about our adventure tomorrow. We are heading to Lamania. A full day that includes a plane trip to the mainland - landing in the middle of a sugar cane field, a short van ride to a river, a 45 minute boat ride up the jungle river to the Mayan ruins. We'll explore the pyramid and ruins, have an authentic Belizean lunch and then reverse the process to return to the resort.

Stay tuned for Day 2 - Our Lamanai Adventure in the land of make Belize!