Enjoy The Journey : San Pedro

It seems like just the other day we arrived in Belize and now we are winding down from our last weekend in the country. Each weekend we spend in Belize is getting better and better, and this weekend was no disappointment. It was filled with laughter, memories, and lots of new friends!

This weekend took us to another island off the coast of Belize, San Pedro. Larger and more developed that Caye Caulker, San Pedro is a popular stop for those traveling through the country.

Waiting for the taxi to bring us to San Pedro

When we got on the water taxi, we were seated across from 4 people who ended up being our traveling buddies all throughout the weekend. Let me give you a quick rundown of everyone. Emily is a structural engineer from Chicago traveling through Belize and Guatemala in search for great places to go hiking. Mikey is a real-estate agent from Colorado coming down for the weekend to support some buddies who were preforming at the Dive Bar on San Pedro. Bethany and Byron are siblings, both pilots (Bethany flies helicopters in the San Fransisco Bay area and Byron flies commercial planes for United) looking for a good scuba spot. After chatting for the entire hour and a half water taxi ride, we found out Bethany and Byron were staying at the same hostel that we were at and Emily was right down the road. We also got the invite from Mikey to see the live band on Saturday night. We had not even arrived to the island and our whole trip seemed like it was going to be jammed packed with activities.

We arrived at our Hostel for the upcoming 2 nights and were quite surprised at how nice it was! I had never stayed at a hostel before and was quite apprehensive about sharing a room with 10 other people. The hostel had 3 different rooms, each with 4-5 bunkbeds that had curtains for privacy and lockers in the base of the bed to lock up your stuff. The bathrooms were down the hall and 10x nicer than the ones at Wagner. If anyone needs a cheap place to stay for a night or two in the San Pedro area, I highly recommend the Sandbar Hostel.

Check out our room!

After settling in, we met back up with Emily, Bethany, and Byron to check out all the Happy Hour deals. We ended up at an awesome bar right on the water that had inner tubes attached to the deck that you were able to grab drinks to bring into the ocean. While we skipped going in the tubes Friday night, we did hang out and get drinks and food. Fish tacos, nachos, and rum punch is always a good combination. We spent a couple of hours at the bar getting to know our new friends. I learned so much about planes and the world of aviation. Pilots can only work 10 days out of the month at max, leaving a lot of time for travel. As a result, Bethany and Byron have been to so many different places around the world. Emily too has traveled extensively. Everyone gave us a lot of advice on the best places to travel to... and they may have inspired me to go out and backpack through Central and South America sometime after graduation.

We decided to go back on Saturday night to try out the tubes, they were so fun!

So many stories and laughs with everyone!

After sitting at the bar for awhile, another person from the hostel, Leigh, came over to say hello. Leigh is an older woman who had been in Belize for about a month looking for work through volunteer companies. Since she has spent so much time on the island she has had the opportunity to try all the local street food and she wanted to show us one of her favorites: a street taco stop.

We walked over to "central park," a large stone patio in the center of town where street venders line up each night to sell local bites. Leigh brought us to a taco stand right in the center of all the vendors. Karilyn and I got 2 chicken tacos and I wish we had 2 more, it was some of the best food I have had this entire trip! The lady selling the tacos has owned this stand for a few years, Every night she works alongside her husband, and occasionally her younger son, to make beef and chicken tacos. The food was so amazing we went back again Saturday night.

"The Taste of Life" taco stand

Making the tacos

The best tacos I have ever had!

Friday night was filled with laughs and stories as we got to know our new friends. Saturday morning came a little too quickly, but Karilyn and I had big plans for the day. We had scheduled a full day snorkeling cruise. While we had gone snorkeling last weekend, this is was more of a relaxing cruise and much less physically demanding than the last trip. The day consisted of 2 snorkeling stops, a stop in waist deep water to swim and play volleyball, and a full open bar.

Island Dream Tours aka YOLO Cruises

On the boat, we were joined by a large group of people from Iowa. We discovered that each year the group takes a trip together to some type of tropical location. They were a group of drug reps, doctors, nurses, and teachers and even though everyone was my parents age or older, this group of people knew how to have a good time, party hard, and throw down the drinks. There was no way I could even try keeping up with them during the day.

The snorkeling was the same as the trip before but we still took lots of photos!

Hello from under the sea!

We got to pet a shark. His skin felt like sandpaper.

The guide clapped his hands and the sting rays swam right into them. It was so cute!

Selfies with the fish is still difficult, even on your second snorkeling trip

After our 2 snorkeling stops and some lunch, we headed out to the sea and got to swim and float in the water. It was so peaceful and relaxing to sit in the sun without a thing to stress about.

Best of both worlds: the ocean and the sun!

Hangout out on the deck to dry off

We relaxed for quite a bit amount of time, but eventually it was time to leave and we began our cruise back to the dock. Little did I know that this would be the best part of the day. The Iowa people asked for the music to be turned up and we spent the drive back dancing on the boat.

They were so fun!

And they may have challenged us "young ones" to a couple tequila shots

The whole staff was so helpful and friendly, making sure we had a wonderful day.

We ended the cruise and met back up with all of our friends the night before to head to the concert at the Dive Bar. We crossed the small bridge over to the north side of the island (we were staying further south) to go see The Gasoline Lollipops, an original country/folk/rock band from Colorado. I was not sure what to expect with a band selling that genre of music, but they put on a great show! We spent a couple of hours singing and dancing to the music and hanging out on the beach. This spur of the moment concert was the perfect way to end an incredible day.

The Gasoline Lollipops

The alarm this morning seemed fake and I didn't want to come to terms that this would be our last free day before we leave Belize this upcoming Saturday. I feel so lucky to have had all of these opportunities to travel around the country for the past three weeks. It's bittersweet that this is the beginning of our last week. I have loved every moment thus far, but I'll be honest and admit that I'm ready to get home and be in my own bed again. But before we go home, we have to conquer Guatemala first!

What a great final weekend. Here are some more photos to enjoy: