New place, new language, new people . . . new experience! I guess what surprised me the most when we first arrived to Belize was its diversity & all the chinese food joints!! After having spent several weeks in Mexico, it was nice to be able to see faces different from my own! Here, you have your Afro-belizeans, Mayans, Mestizos, Taiwanese, Indians, and even a large Menonite community . . . a melting pot!

In Belize, the big towns are small and the small towns are even smaller! It's still on its way towards development, so don't be surprised if you can't find a McD's, 'cause you won't!!!!

Corozal's a quaint little town with not many attractions, but LOTS of friendly people for sure! Everyone greeted us with a "Welcome to Belize!", which was very nice to hear.  We even met one of the nicest ladies, by the name of Yvonne! She was so kind enough to host us in her house and even made us a good old-fashioned Belizean meal, rice & beans, with shrimp! Gotta stress rice & beans first because every time we asked what was the country's specialty, that's the answer we got . . . Rice and Beans!!

From Corozal, we got a chance to take off to Ambergris Caye, to get a look at the world's 2nd largest barrier reef.  The island itself was decent, cute little place, very peaceful, lots of laid-back people, and plenty of golf carts, which are used to get around.  And although we were expecting a more up-beat sort of place, we still enjoyed our stay here, especially because of all the water activities available to visitors.

Our visit here was filled with brand-new experiences for me, in particular. I even got a chance to have my first snorkeling experience! Believe it or not, in Hol Chan, we had the opportunity to swim with sharks, sting rays, tuna, and a bunch of other pretty fish.

Our fun-filled day even ended with a bit more excitement . . . had my first experience on a small plane, which we had to take to get back to Corozal! A bit scary but we got back safely!!

Belize, un nouveau pays, un nouveau langage - l'anglais, des gens mixés dans tous les sens, des villes differentes, tres pauvres, mais authentiques.  Premier jour a Corozal, on a trouvé une maison d´hote, apres avoir passé la journée dans les voitures et camions et traverser la frontiere.

Le lendemain, direction Ambergris Caye - San Pedro, une petite ile entourée de la 2eme plus grande barriere de corail au monde . . . l'endroit ou il faut plonger!  Mais malheureusement, j'ai été vite refroidi car il fallait avoir la license de plonger et bien sur, j'avais juste mon masque pour plonger!! Tant pis pour moi!

On a quand meme trouvé une solution: masque, tuba, et palmes. Pas plus mal. Pour Juanny et moi, nager a Hol Chan avec les requins, les raies, la muraine jaune (elle me faisait peur!!), des poissons des toutes les couleurs, des massifs de corails tres impressionants, beaucoup de choses! Magique pour moi et inoubliable pour Juanita!

Le retour sur la terre de Corozal a été plus rapide que prevu, n'ayant que le choix de prendre un petit coucou, car les bateux ne traversent plus apres 16h.  Sorti du mini aeroport, une dame en voiture s'arrete, et nous demande, "je vous amene" en anglais bien sur! Pas besoin de dire la suite, le soir meme on été chez elle en train de manger un bon repas chaud, je precise chaud, car en general on mange un repas par jour, froid, du thon avec du pain. C'est mieux pour les finances!!