Back in June Courtney and I went to the ShareASale Cocktail reception at the Internet Retailer conference that was in Boston (Thanks to Carolyn Tang!). While there, we met many people with good advice for our blog and internet businesses. Many of the people we spoke with there had actually already been to Belize and had not only internet retailer tips to offer us, but also Belize tips to offer us. A girl named Madeleine had been to Belize and recommend us to check out a palapa bar in Ambergris Caye. While she did not mention which one, I have gone ahead and researched a few of the palapa style bars in Belize.

To get started, a palapa is an open-sided dwelling with a thatched roof made of dried palm leaves. Victoria House has a palapa bar. But the best searched palapa bar I could find is a bar just North (1 1/2 miles North of the bridge) of San Pedro called Palapa Bar and Grill. I would assume this is what Madeleine was referring to. This palapa is cool because it is located right on the water and allows for the cool carribean breeze to brush across your face ad you enjoy an ice cold cocktail. The bar is stocked well with both American liquors as well as the local brews and serves food specializing in BBQ, Slow Smoked, Pork Sandwich or Fresh Caught Fish Tacos.

You can also try to Palapa Plunge: a jump off the railings off the side of the palapa into the Caribbean waters below. (This is something I want to try!)

Since it was recommended to visit a palapa bar and it looks cool, I hope Courtney and I can add this to our list of places to visit while in Belize.

I was talking with my good friend Mark the other day. We were discussing scuba diving and snorkeling and the merits of each. I love diving but I must admit, it’s a lot of work!

All the gear that is necessary to dive must be loaded up, carried to and from the dive site, put on and taken off. Tanks weigh a ton, weights weigh a lot, add a wetsuit and you’ve got more weight and more gear to carry. Diving requires at least a Buoyancy Control Device (BCD), a regulator setup, weights, fins, and mask. Often, many more components are necessary including booties, a wetsuit, a snorkel and a computer. Compare this to snorkeling which requires a mask, and snorkel at the least; a mask, snorkel, fins and booties at most!

Imagine your next trip to Belize requiring only a small webbed bag with a couple of items instead of your massive dive bag! That would sure make packing that much easier. Lets also not forget about the easy cleanup! A snorkel the day before your flight home is no problem – neither for your body or your gear. BCs take a while to dry and must be thoroughly rinsed after saltwater dives.

So yes, snorkeling is awesome, right? Well, I’ve left out the key advantages of diving, haven’t I. There is no way one can possibly enjoy the true sites of the ocean from the surface. Coral is rarely within a foot or two of the surface and even at five or six feet down it’s not as good of a view, is it? Diving presents you with a truly intimate encounter with the ocean’s offerings. Tiny fish encounters just don’t happen without the safe proximity to the protective coral habitats. I don’t know many people who can hold their breath for three or four minutes at depth.

I’ve explored wrecks like the Dunderberg in Lake Huron at 140 ft. That’s an experience I’ll never forget, and it is just one of many I couldn’t have without diving. I’ve never been more frustrated then when my lungs failed me while swimming with Tangs in Barbados. Staying down at just 15 feet with them was only possible for only a few precious seconds before I had to surface. My pictures weren’t as good either.

What Mark and I concluded during our talk is that diving is a necessity to truly enjoy life below the surface. But for environments 20 feet and shallower, snorkeling is pretty great. Diving might get you right up close to the action, but the convenience of grabbing just a couple of items and hopping in the water makes it pretty compelling. I want to do lots of snorkeling and a little bit of all day diving in Belize next month. I think that is about the perfect combination of watery exploration for a few days of vacation.

Montezuma’s revenge, also known as traveler’s diarrhea, is a common plague among travelers especially in Central America. My dad called me up tonight to give me a warning on this. He wanted to give me fair warning because he does not want our trip to be ruined by this. I have thought about this before but not to a huge extent.

Traveler’s diarrhea is defined as three or more unformed stools in 24 hours passed by a traveler, commonly accompanied by abdominal cramps, nausea, and bloating. It does not imply a specific organism, but enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli is the most common. Water and foods in Belize can pass this onto us. Or, as my dad explained, the country is so poor that sewers are not closed off and it runs into the water and oceans causing you to contract it. While the locals have built up immunity to it, Courtney, fellow travelers and I have not yet.

As wikipedia says: “TD usually is a self-limited disorder and often resolves without specific treatment; however, oral rehydration therapy is often beneficial to replace lost fluids and electrolytes. Clear, disinfected water or other liquids are routinely recommended for adults. Water that is purified is best, along with oral rehydration salts to replenish lost electrolytes. Carbonated water (soda), which has been left out so that the carbonation fizz is gone, is useful if nothing else is available. Travelers who develop three or more loose stools in a 24-hour period — especially if associated with nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, fever, or blood in stools — should be treated by a doctor and may benefit from antimicrobial therapy.”

Three years ago I house sat for some friends while they went to Cancun. Within a day and a half of being in Cancun, three of the four travelers contract horrible stomach cramps, diarrhea and dehydration. Two of them were bed ridden for the remainder of the trip in Cancun. The two who were bedridden also traveled home on the plane in that condition and spent another two days back home in bed in terrible pain. So yes, I have witnessed it and it is something to be very aware of. Pepto Bismal probably will not cure this. There are antibiotics and such that can help with that, but I’m not about to visit my doctor again for another preventative for Belize. I am tired of seeing the doctor. But am I being naive in thinking this won’t be a possibility to ruining our trip?

Our planning and research that we have done prior to today has left us little to worry about nearing 2 weeks until lift-off. Which is exactly how I wanted it to be. Worry and stress free from the moment we arrive in Belize to the moment we step foot off the plane back in Boston, MA.

• The few things left we need to plan:Transportation: After writing to Table Rock Jungle Lodge, “How far is the Closest bus stop from Table Rock Jungle Lodge (and which one is it?). What are available methods to get from the Bus to Table Rock? Taxi, etc?” They replied with, “The bus from Belize City brings you directly into San Ignacio (about a four hour ride for around seven dollars US). We are located five miles from San Ignacio and offer a transfer for up to four people for $35 US. From San Ignacio bus stop, you can pick up a taxi to Table Rock for about $20 to $25 US. The taxi service is located at the bus stop.” A FOUR hour ride to Table Rock? It takes an hour and a half via car. And then a $20-$25 taxi ride? That right there is $68 between Courtney and I from Table Rock Jungle Lodge to Belize city. That does not even include getting to/from Xunantunich and the ATM tour. And four hours each way in the bus? That’s an added 5 hours of unnecessary travel. You can’t put a price on the time that you have to enjoy Belize, and not doing so on a hot crowded bus. With that said: Buses are ruled out officially now.

• The problem with the car rental is that you can’t take certain cheap cars off paved roads. Courtney and I are asking around and may consider a Suzuki at Belize Car Rental. It’s not much more money than the Galant we wanted to get at Crystal Auto Rental, however, Belize Car Rental only has one location, and that is at the international airport. This means that when we fly in from Ambergris Caye into the Municipal airport we will need to backtrack to the International Airport to get the car, however, we can drop it off at the International airport the day we are leaving back to the states and won’t need to take a cab then, so that is nice.Travel Insurance. We have looked into our health coverage and both Courtney and I are covered outside of the United States. We won’t need that option on the insurance. Also, there is an option for the car rental insurance. We’re pretty sure Courtney’s does not carry over outside of the United States and I also am not old enough to rent a car (25 years old is the typical age) so we need to add that on. Most car rental places allow you to add on insurance at the time of rental, or you can opt to get it through your travel insurance company. We need to investigate which option is cheaper/best quality. Apparently, car accidents are the number one cause of death in Belize. Most people on the roads drive erratically and no one abides to the speed signs as police do not enforce it.

• Catamaran. See Courtney’s Post.

• We were charged a fee for everything we booked in Belize (around $20 per hotel booking) due to the change in currencies. We got charged this fee by the credit card companies, not by the actual hotels. To avoid that fee on the ATM tour we will be reserving a spot and calling the day before to book the tour for good. We will be paying for cash at the time of tour rather than reserving by credit card and paying an additional fee. We need to remember to call MayaWalk tours on September 17th. We can remember that.

• Courtney’s diving trips.

And then we should be all set!

We are desperately trying to get in touch with someone who runs a catamaran and snorkeling tour around Ambergris Caye. So far we’ve contacted three different outfits. It’s been a couple of weeks and we haven’t heard from two of them. The third was just contacted recently in response to some advice we received in our comments thread. But what are we going to do if these guys don’t contact us?

We’d like to book this tour and have piece of mind knowing we’ve lined something up for Sunday before we get there. It would be awfully inconvenient to try to scramble the night we arrive for an activity the next day. Most probably don’t have this problem as they spend the first day orienting themselves and absorbing the locale. But we’d like to maximize our fun and our trip.

So we’ll continue to pursue these different vendors and hope that someone replies to our pleas!