(thank you, thank you, I’ll be here all week)
I’ve been so busy lately that I almost forgot to sort through my honeymoon photos from February! Geeze, and it’s May now? How embarrassing! Anyway….
Before I go any further, I have a HUGE shout to make to: Laurie and Peter, my mom, Aunt Peggy & Uncle Lee, Uncle Tom and Aunt Jan, Michelle & Christian, and Graaaaaannnny! They all chipped in and covered our flight to Belize for our honeymoon! And Peter owns the hotel we stayed at, and we got HOOKED UP… BIG TIME. Thank you all so much. This post is for you!
Belize is an incredible place for a honeymoon, and I highly recommend it! We did some amazing stuff, and I am not even covering everything we did in this post. We’d be here all day…
So anyway, sit back, grab your Red Vines and a Venti Soy Chai Latte and enjoy a few pics I grabbed from our trip.
Belize actually means “Blue” in Belizian. And I can see why – nothing but blue skies and water everywhere you look! A beautiful place, we were on the Island of San Pedro.
OK, I made up that bit about “Belize” meaning blue. But you believed me, didn’t you? Just go with it. Laurie my cousin, set us up on a Croc hunting trip. These trips aren’t really mainstream tourist attractions, so we felt really lucky! Basically, we went out on a tiny motor boat in the middle of the night with three crock hunters through the swampland. Shining flashlights, we could find crocs because their eyes would reflect red dots. In photography terms, we call this “redeye”. And once we saw red dots, these crazy guys would get so pumped, they’d just leap out of the boat into the swamp, leaving us all alone inside. But we had beer, so it was fine.
The lead guy got so excited that he jumped in the swamp and forgot to leave his smokes in the boat. He reached out and shouted at me: GRAB THESE!!!! And I grabbed the cigarettes from him and felt pretty cool, like I just totally helped hunt a croc. Feeling the intensity of it all, I almost felt like smoking one of those cigarettes.
Anyway, we saw some big 6-footers, but were only able to catch this pup. Pretty cool. We all got to hold it!
My cousin Laurie’s man Peter owns Pedro’s Hotel which has a reputation for great pizza, incredible service and a curt brit who walks around not afraid to wear funny shirts that have the F-word on them, barking orders to someone on the phone. But it’s all part of the character and charm of this place and ultimately, he takes incredible care of his guests. I like Peter because he doesn’t ask you if you would mind doing this or that. He tells you what you are going to do. And people don’t argue. Like when he “asked”, “Mark, you will be making lasagna for my restaurant on Friday”. OK!
And right there is the San Pedro Animal Hospital, which is my cousin Laurie’s business! Very proud of all of my cousins, and Laurie is NO exception.
Here’s an interesting fact about our family: I have 4 cousins: two guys, two girls and then there’s me and my sisters. Everyone is doctors. Except for me and my sisters. What does that say about my mom? I could have been a doctor, MOM! You didn’t push me hard enough! Oh well. I actually love photography. So it works.
Dr. Laurie Droke! DVM
Our honeymoon suite! Pedro’s did not fail us! Check out the kissing blue swans and the rose petals that spell, “Love Always”… Is it a bad oman that the breeze blew the petals in the word “always”?
And a bottle of wine that I drank all by myself. We didn’t realize my wife would be pregnant on this trip. Oh well. Bottoms up!
Opposite of our suite is a hostel where college kids can stay for like .50 cents per night or something crazy.
These are real clouds from Belize.
Jagermeister is the drink of choice in the restaurant. They have a bell that when rung, sends shots of jager to everyone in the bar. I drank a good bit of this stuff while eating pizza! I actually got to cook for the entire restaurant. Here, check this out (but don’t forget to come back)
Belikin is the only kind of beer you can get in Belize. So I hope you like it. It’s a nice tasty beer. Reminds me of Rolling Rock.
Guess what this dogs name is: Jager. That’s right! And he had a few too many that night.
My cousin runs one of the only vet clinics in this third world island. She’s checking blood samples to see if this cat has cancer.
This is the cat.
This is the blood. I took this through Laurie’s microscope.
My pregnant wife! I learned something about her on this trip: She swims like a fish! We snorkeled through Shark Ray Alley which believe it or not is heavily populated with sharks and rays. Well I was out there just flippin around, enjoying the colorful fish and trying to avoid getting bit by sharks when suddenly I saw this crazy lady dive way down into the deep part like some sort of mermaid and then I realized, “hey that’s my woman!”. I was very impressed.
A carving in the side of a coconut tree. Also known as a palm tree.
This is a bottle cap in the sand.
I love seagulls
I think I might be able to convince LK, my wife, to let me buy a parrot some day. This one was not a pet. It was just hanging out in town.
If you ever see this in your window at night, don’t call 911. It’s just me being an artist.
If you love dogs like me, Belize is a great place. I didn’t mean for that to sound like I consider myself a dog. More like, “I love dogs”, so if you are like me… Anyway… They are everywhere. Living the good life.
Who wants to shoot some hoops?
Fish Drive.
Belize is a 3rd World Country. Poverty stricken, but the people wear huge smiles. It’s pretty remarkable and we could learn a lot from them.
I think this dog wants to come live with me.
LK and I waited for a boat full of rastafarians for our trip to the Jungle. Looked like a storm was a-brewin.
What are you looking at here? I’ll give you a hint: Bats! Can you see them?
Jungly plants
We took a boat out to this village where the people live with no running water or electricity. This is their life! They carve wooden trinkets and sell them to the tourists.
More dogs..
“Diversity I believe is an old, old, wooden ship”
Take me to the sugar factory.
I also love birds.
Another croc.
Some of the locals looking for supper.
Tarantula
Ancient Mayan Ruins
Bus driver.
Laurie and Peter’s House. Lucky.
Anyway, this gives you a taste of what we experienced. I want to go back. Thanks again to my family for their generosity. It was a truly special trip!!!!
