Snorkeling at Caye Caulker - Belize

The previous post on the Belize trip is here..

On our second day, we got a wake up knock on our door (there is no phone in the rooms). The kids also realized that the Wifi works on and off with one bar in the room and gave up on it.  The cell coverage was also on and off. 

They asked the Spa manager for the Wifi and she said "The wifi works only near the pool area. This is supposed to be detox kids. Enjoy the nature!".. you should have seen the look on their faces! It was priceless. It also gave me a chance to launch into a monologue of "in those days we were born without wifi and we used to blah blah blah..". It was my version of my dads speech "in those days I had to carry 5 kg of wheat on my head for 10 kms to get it ground into flour when I was only 5 years old!" 

After gobbling up the breakfast and having more fresh coconut water, we were ready to go Snorkeling. We drove for about 20 minutes to a small village called Bomba, where apparently close to 80 people live. The Belieze Boutique resort spa is near a village called Maskall where close to a 1000 people live. 

The driver was nodding acknowledgements to everyone on the drive there. Everyone knew everyone on this road and that was something interesting. 

We took a boat from Bomba through the mangrove forests, which are protected by the Belize government. There were lot of birds which we normally don't see on the forests. There were crocodiles in the water that reminded me of Goa and Florida.. the two other places where we have seen similar flora and fauna.

After a long ride, we finally got to the island of Caye Caulker where Hurricane Hattie had split the island into two. Literally you can see the split. Then we stopped for a restroom/changing break and were off to the reef and channel to snorkel. 

This is my second snorkeling attempt. I did not do very well many years ago in Hawaii. This time, it was much better, but I stayed close to the boat. The kids went into open water a good distance with the other folks on our party and our guide. They got to see Baracuda and many different types of ray in the deep water..

Everytime I drifted more than 10 feet from the boat, would head closer, grab the ladder, wait for a few minutes and get out again. The reef was amazing in the channel! 

The sharks came to us! Probably because other tourists were feeding them..

Got to see large ray's, sharks, fishes of different colors.. it was a great experience. Then the boat moved to the shallow water in the reef and we actually got to swim with the sharks! 

Once we were done with the reef, the boat went back to the island and we had close to three hours on the island. We ate a really good vegetarian lunch at the Rainbow restaurant and walked the island's one main road, while drinking more coconut water.

Then we found a spot on the beach to put our towels and rest.

We took turns walking, first the kids, then us and before we realized it was time to head back to the boat. 

The return boat ride was breathtaking as the sun went down.

The birds were going back to their nests and we saw some Roseatte spoonbills and green herons as well as a lot of eagles, turkey vultures and falcons.

Missed my big lens for a few minutes. After the Europe trip, I started leaving the 70-200mm lens at home, as it is heavy and lugging it around makes my shoulder hurt. Just enjoyed taking in the sights instead for the first time and was okay with it.

Here are two slideshows of pictures..

We made it back through Bomba to the Resort by 6PM. At Bomba the families make wood carvings out of Teak and Mahogany and sell it to tourists.. we were more distracted by the puppy that was playing with everyone at the shops.. his name was fluffy. He made me forget the mosquitos that were going for us at the dock.

It was a day well spent.. 

The next day we were going to get another early wake up knock for another adventure!

A bucket list item to check - Belize

This is the first of a series of posts on our trip to Belize to round up 2018. . . 

It all started with me getting a mail from some guided tours and such, addressed to the previous owners of our house "or current resident". Most of the time San throws those out in the garbage on her way into the house. This time by some miracle it made it to the table. There were many places on that list and one of those was Belize. I did not know much about Belize. There were two places that were touted as must see. 

1. The Sacred cave or Cave of the Stone Sepulcher also called ATM (Actun Tunichil Muknal)

2. The Great blue hole which is a UNESCO world heritage site

Belize has been a bucket list item for at least three years now. This year we had a shutdown between Christmas and New Years and San made the plans. The Great Blue hole was a helicopter ride off Belize City and it was ~1000$ per person. So the original plan was for me to see the hole while the family relaxed. That would have still been too hectic, so I cancelled that. Would rather go with the family. 

ATM was on the plan for sure. I did not give the family details and they did not go to the Wiki pages or read other peoples account of their trips or they would have never agreed to come. Good thing they just took my word for it that it is "just a short hike to see a crystallized skeleton". 

There were other things to see in Belize as well and we had to balance out the fact that the kids wanted a "relaxing vacation". Their idea of a vacation is to sit in bed and read books, or sleep, and they definitely don't want to wake up "early". Early is relative... so we stuck some kind of compromise.

We got to stay in the Belize Boutique resort and Spa. How San found this place I have no idea, but it was worth what we paid for it. It was amazing! In the middle of forest land, a small group of accomodations, maybe 30-40 people at any time staying there, food that is freshly made for every meal from stuff grown right there, a guy who puts ladders up coconut trees and cuts up cocunuts for you to drink, it was pampering.. 

My friend has a Wellness place close to Chennai that we visited last year. This was very similar.

It was close to most of the sites or activities we wanted to do. They had guides for everything except ATM (those guides are locals at the ATM site but the Resort made the arrangements for us ahead of time). 

We had a great experience where we did things for four days, then had a day "off" to make the kids happy and flew back. There were massages on the day "off" at the Spa, which was an interesting exprience in itself.

Just watching the reefs and the shallow green waters as we landed, set the expectation high for Belize!

One thing that hit us after we got to the resort was that everything had a hibiscus on it..

The welcome drinks had it, the table in the room, the pillows, the slippers, even the restoom and toilet were decorated with a single hibiscus leaf and a flower. It was the Spa's theme or something.. 

We were all encouraged to eat hibiscus and were told that it improves memory. Given we have lots of hibiscus in our house but we never ate one, San was the only one brave enough to eat the flower petals. She declared them tasty and started eating one a day. Not sure if her memory has improved yet.. The kids and me were content to admire the flowers and watching her like young experimenters in a biology lab looking at a petri dish.

The place was amazing. An air conditioned stucco hut with a tatched roof (covered by a corrugated tin sheets). We did not use the air conditioning, except as air circulation. It was pleasant outside. There was non stop noise from animals, birds, frogs and lizards, but we slept peacefully. 

Every little thing was well decorated, with things you would not think of as decorations.. door latches, thumb tacks etc.. 

The dining area was also very nicely set!

Then there was the stone and wood artwork that were all around the place..

did I mention coconut trees already? 

There was this spiritual meditation chalet made of colored bottles and it did make some amazing light effects during sunrise and sunset, but I did not use that room. Just sitting outside our little Villa was calming enough with the gentle breeze!

We stayed at the Opium Villa.. there was no Opium involved.. They have interesting names for the various huts. Fertility suite, Honeymoon hotel, Viper, Mayan Loft etc.. Most of them were isolated single storied structures with the exception of two double level buildings.. It was mostly couples staying there.. there were three families at most times and we met some fun folks over the week which was an added plus! It was like an extended family!

It was just beautiful. Have stayed in lots of places over the years, but the Opium Villa is one to remember! There was a giant Chess set in a cute setting right outside our hut. The kids did not offer to play chess with me.. I sat there for a few seconds to admire the setting.. 

There were pretty birds outside our hut working on their own honeymoons.

Sometimes a video does justice to things pictures don't.. so here is one!

It did rain on and off the day we landed. So we just relaxed, walked around the place, got adjusted to the time difference a little.. and went to bed early.. They were going to knock on our door at 6:30 in the morning. We pre-ordered breakfast (they make everything fresh starting at 6.. so we had to preorder) and we were going to leave at 8AM sharp for our first activity on Day 2...

We did realize one thing on day 1. There were plenty of things that bit us. The Spa gave a special spray made of natural stuff that was to repel the insects, but the smell of it shut down my nose and lungs instantly. So I did not spray that on.. it was going to prove a costly mistake over the coming days.. The kids used DEET.. which also suprisingly shuts me down.. Maybe I am an insect myself?!  was what I was thinking..

In any case, use the Deet if you go there, or the organic herbal spray. Don't be like me! 

Will continue the blog posts over the next few days...

What's comin' will come, an' we'll meet it when it does...

This is the last post on the Europe trip. The previous post on the series is here..

The last day (day 13) of the Europe trip was spent on two things. Most of the day was an Evans and Evans trip to Hogwarts.. let's just call it that. It was actually the Warner Brothers studios shooting location for all the Harry Potter movies over 10 years that is now a Studio tour. 

As usual we had to go from Kings cross station to Victoria, then board the bus which took us to the studio in a little over an hour and we were handed tickets and told that we had a little over 4 hours to come back to the bus. We will be back in Victoria Station area at 5:15-5:30 PM. 

We also had tickets for the London Eye that evening. We wanted to see the views of London as the sun set so I could get some pictures with the daylight and some with the buildings lighting up.

First it was almost our last day and this would be almost the last time leaving the Kings Cross station. The kids were eyeing Lola's hand crafted cup cakes two days straight.. so today was their day! 

Then we were off.. 

Full disclosure. I had not read a single Harry Potter book to date. Have only watched the movies as they came out in theaters. Missed the Order of the Phoenix in theaters and caught bits and pieces of it at a later date in someones house but that was it. Was and still am a big fan of the whole series of movies. Who can resist magic?

Don't think there is a picture of me and San being happier in this trip! 

We had four hours to spend at the place and we walked through every room, exhibit and hallway and when we came out of the place it was exactly 4 hours. This included a 20 minute break to have lunch before going into the studio. 

The kids were given little Hogwart's passports and they had to find the 7 secret Horcruxes in the place.. so they were busy searching for those in the various rooms.. 

Then there was the butterbeer, which can give kids a brain freeze, has unknown health effects on muggles and gives dads wallets a cold.. 

The whole experience was amazing.. our 4 hours is condensed into the video below.. 

The skies were brilliant and my hopes for great pictures from the London eye were already high..

We reached the Victoria station, walked towards the London Eye and realized that the entire area was a circus. Apparently there was a large protest for DJT's visit to London and the wife and kids had heard about it through social media and our tour guide from the previous day's trip.

The whole place was crawling with people who had signs in their hands. 

It had become hot and a little on the "about to rain" side and I removed my jacket to avoid going into one of those dangerous "avalanche sweats" as I call it. Was also proudly wearing my 60 day Challenge Bikram Yoga San Jose T-shirt to announce to the folks on the street that I was American. 

Given the generic anti-American sentiment on the streets that day, was thinking if I should buy one of those London T-shirts.. then we realized no one cared.. The London protesters were an interesting bunch.

We got some great views of the city from the London Eye after we saw a 4D show at the basement that was part of the ticket.

A video of the London Eye experience ..

Got two pano shots from the London eye..

One from either side as our little carriage made it up and down over 40 minutes.

Slide shows of pictures from Hogwart's and the London Eye 

When we came out it was about to rain, the streets were extremely crowded with protesters and we wanted to find dinner.

San's classmate had recommended a Chat place which had 8 branches in London and was very popular, but based on the 1 hour 20 minute wait time (there were 100+ folks standing in line knowing the wait time) we decided to take his second recommendation. A place called Shapur's in Strand area.

We went to Shapur's and had a nice dinner.. 

We walked to the train station from there past the Royal Opera house which was beautiful..

Then it started raining and we realized (were actually told by someone) that this is the "typical" London weather and we were really fortunate to miss it over our three day trip. 

Apparently that is what London looks on an average day.. "like Seattle" is what we all said at the same time and walked down the steps to the train station.

The next morning we were going to take one last train ride on the Europe trip to Gatwick airport and it was going to be back in the US.. 

We thoroughly enjoyed this 14 day trip. It took a lot of planning from San and the kids and San pretty much arranged every little thing. I was happy to be on package tours so I could also play tourist and enjoy the sights with the lens or my eyes.  

It was also a blessing to be able to meet San's Sister and her family during this trip, not to mention two of her classmates and one of our family friends.

We would definitely recommend the tours we took and the Air B&B's we used in various locations. 

I also loved writing about this trip.. even though it has taken two full months to finish writing about a two week trip.

This blog is my pensieve! 

London in a day..

We were almost at the last leg of the Europe tour. We had visited Lords, gone to South Wimbledon to meet friends, put on a sad face and made it back to Kings Cross after England lost the semi final of the world cup.

Day 12 was going to be interesting.. Would the people of London bounce back or would it be a day of mourning? We were booked on an all day tour with Evans and Evans to catch the best sights of London. It was a 7AM to 5:30 PM tour...

We were up bright and early and made it to the train station. We had to go to Victoria terminal to catch the bus tour. The kids raced ahead to do the ticket entries (we would just do the credit card sliding at the end) and they had checked out local London maps and they really enjoyed figuring out the London Underground. 

The previous post on this series is here..

We made it to the bus stop where all Evans tours left and found breakfast there. Then we were off with a bus full of folks and a very chatty tour guide. She was nice and made sure she crammed an all day tour with all the jokes in her script. It was almost like she was auditioning for a late night talk show job with us. 

We sat at the back of the bus with a Canadian mom and her two daughters who were the same age as Jr. and the Little one. This was good for us as we took family pictures for each other throughout the tour. 

The first stop was the cathedral. It was very cold and we did not want to hang out. It was also early in the morning. So we spent little time there and went to our next stop, the Palace to see the change of guard.

After so much hype for this by the tour guide, we were almost there when a Palace employee who recognized our guide gave her some information in private. She turned to us and apologized. Apparently the guards will not be there that morning as last minute security changes had been made. DJT was visiting London and it was a surprise. We were all upset and there were lot of jokes from the group. We made it to the Palace, took pictures, then walked back along a park. 

There was still one hope. There was a horse guard change that we could catch if we all walked fast enough. Walk we did and were not disappointed! 

Then it was time to board the bus again and go to the St. Pauls cathedral. We went through it but I really wanted to go to the whispering dome. During an earlier visit to London 20 years ago, I had been up to the whispering dome and it was interesting.. Still remember trying out the whisper thing with my friends who kept experimenting multiple times till the whisper came back with the exact message sent out. (note to self, should find out what Weeshie is up to these days!)

We were however told that there was a narrow staircase and we had only 20 minutes to go back so there would be no climbing up. I tried to tell the lady that the same thing had happened at the Eiffel tower and we did make it up and down by running, but she would not let us go. She said there was no time. We all had to go down to the crypts! So off we went to the floor below the church to see all the famous people in their resting place and the history behind it. The kids enjoyed that part of the tour.

This was followed by a quick lunch outside where there were long lines in every restaurant thanks to the local business folks standing in line. We were all to gather outside in a courtyard after finding lunch. The courtyard had a big screen TV playing tennis matches and there were seats for people to just come sit and enjoy during lunch. The whole place had a relaxed atmosphere and the coulds made sure some of the heat was not felt. 

We enjoyed waiting there for 20 minutes for everyone to gather and went to our next stop. The Tower of London. On the way we were passing Trafalgar square, Picadilly circus, etc. etc. and got a lot of interesting tidbits from our guide. 

The tower of London was interesting and hindsight being 20/20 we should have just gone and seen it on our own. A lot of folks in our group split as soon as we entered the tower. ONly later we found out why. It was the last official stop and after that we got tickets for a Thames river cruise that would take us to where we wanted. We walked with the group and found that the tour was dragging.

Then we also took our cruise tickets, stood in line to go see the "crown jewels" which were mostly taken from India, all the while shaking our heads in disbelief on how the winner always gets to rewrite history.  There was no photographs allowed in the crown jewels museum. The security guards actually went after folks who took pictures and made them delete it off their phones. That automatically challenged a bunch of tourists in front of us to go take cell phone pics when no one was watching.. we found the whole thing to be very amusing..we went up to one more tower where two kids were said to have been killed in the succession wars and walked towards the cruise stop.

Here are some slide shows from the day..

The weather was perfect, contrary to what we keep hearing about "London weather being drab" and we thoroughly enjoyed the ride along the Thames.

Got some nice pano shots from the slow moving boat..

When we finally got off, we had to go to the closest underground station to meet San's college classmate for dinner. He lived 40 mintues from London but worked in the Charing Cross area. It was going to be one more exercise to find the right station and get there.

We ended up in the wrong station! We took another train and finally found him. It was another busy area with a lot of restaurants close to the Opera house. It also started raining heavily by the time we reached there, but it was pleasant. Picked a mexican place to eat dinner. The food was very yummy and we said our byes and walked back for one last subway ride for the day. 

It was a very good day as all day tours went. Would definitely recommend Evans and Evans for this tour. To quote my grandma "alangaama kulungaama kootindu ponan" .. it was a no stress tour with the right pace and right breaks.

A video of Day 12 is here..

Day 12 was great. We walked a lot but some how were not tired. We were smiling throughout the day, enjoying the sights, having a good day. I learned that it takes the family almost a dozen days to hit true vacation mode and to let go of little things and be okay.

The last day of the tour was Day 13 and was to be THE highlight of the London leg.. Hogwarts!

The home of cricket

After saying bye to Paris (the ladies were emotional, I was happy to move on.. except for the Louvre I was not going to come back for anything.. well maybe the Laduree macaroons and that was it), we got up reluctantly on Day 11 to drag our suitcases along Parisian pavements for 30+ minutes to go to the Gare Du Nord station. 

There was a long line to clear immigration at a train station so we could board the Eurostar to London. We made it two mintues before the train took off. It was a pleasant ride and given we were hungry, we ate some of the desi snacks that had been in our bags all along for breakfast. 

The previous post on this series is here...

The train stopped at Kings Cross station, one place we wanted to visit. We didnt realize we will be visiting that station that many times as our hotel was right across from the station. 

We were told that the earliest we get our room is 2PM. That was a challenge because we were booked on a tour of the Lords cricket ground from 2-3:30PM not to mention plans after that. 

So we left our luggage next to the front desk and tried to find something to eat. It so happens that in England, the most common restaurant is Indian food. A word of warning.. the Indian food joints serve a version of Indian food that is not exactly Indian. Some restaurants serve you food that is frozen in pre-independent India times.. things that bring back vague memories of when your great grandma used to cook at family functions when you were 4-5 years old. Others make you question "what exactly is the Indian part here other than the color of the food and the Paneer in it?". Then again, there are some that hit the right notes and make you eat way more than you normally would..

Our first search (stepping down from hotel entrance) showed 3 Indian places just looking across. We found none of them opened before Noon. So we wandered around for some time, got the kids food at a 5 guys burger joint and went to a Tandoori place for the adults. Then it was time to hit the Lords ground.

I have more family portraits with smiling faces at this one location than any other place in the entire trip. Must have been the perfect English weather which happens so rarely..

Also please note that usually I am allowed to post one family portrait per post based on censor restrictions.. but in this post there are 4. If you note carefully, my hair actually is going through what the grass surface goes through during the first 4 days of a Test match at Lords..in just under 90 minutes... 

This was a much anticipated event for me on the trip. The kids were also looking forward to it, given all the IPL watching in recent times and the test cricket they catch glimpses of on weekend mornings with me.

They don't play but they know the game. San was also excited to see Lords although she wanted to see a game there. Unfortunately the game with India was just a few days away and we were leaving Europe that morning. The tour was actually great. The guide was great, giving us a fun fact filled description with enough jokes to keep us laughing throughout. 

Two slide shows of what we saw..

I did not know that the Lords board for hundreds does not have the names of Sachin or Lara but has Agarkar in it...also did not know that Stuart Broad is the only guy who has hit a 100 at Lords, taken 5 wickets in an innings and 10 wickets in a match at Lords. Always had mixed feelings about Broad because he didnt walk once after he knowingly hit a ball and was caught, but he is a damn good all rounder. Let's just say I did find some new respect for him after this tour. 

We walked the entire perimeter of the ground and went into the press box as well as the players rooms, and the pavillions. It was an experience that will be cherished for a long time.

Panos of Lords ground..

After this we got back to the Kings cross area and put our luggage in our room. It was actually as small as the room in Paris with only one bed. We had to change rooms in the morning or later that night. The next stop was south Wimbledon to meet San's childhood friend. 

We took the train again and visited her friend. We all had a great time at her friends place and after dinner we all sat down to watch the second semi final of the World cup. We had booked tickets for this trip almost 8 months in advance and if you had told me then that we would actually end up in Paris on the night of the France semifinal and in London the night of the England semifinal, I would not have bet on it. 

England lost the game and given the English history of reacting to loses in big matches, our friends told us to put up a sad face and stay quiet on the underground. It was a long ride from South Wimbledon to Kings Cross and there were a lot of drunk folks on the train, but they were trying to sing songs that still supported the English after the loss. 

Our family looked as though we just came from a funeral, maybe we over did the sadness part.. but all said and done we made it back to the hotel. Folks were all red eyed and crying as we watched a contrast to the previous night.. 

Day 11 was done. . it was a tale of two cities.. in a much different context!