This is probably how most tourists think of Belize, and there's no doubt the beaches are beautiful.

Lots of friendly kids and friendly dogs around too. 

Tourists who aren't here for the beaches are often here for the diving. Us too! We did four scuba dives, and all were good. Belize, where all the diving is above average!

And of course there's the opportunity for fruity alcoholic drinks on pleasant verandas, or, as Juliet discovered, for a massage and manicure.

In addition to the water activities, there's stuff inland too...such as caving.

This trip was surprisingly technical, lots of climbing, squeezing through narrow passages, etc. No lights except the ones on your heads (or your camera flash).

These caves were used for Mayan ceremonies hundreds of years ago, as these pot remnants attest. Some people don't know that Mayans are still around: the civilization that built the temples collapsed hundreds of years ago, but the people are still here, still speaking their Mayan languages. Several of our guides were Mayan.

Here's an interesting way to transport a canoe. Oncoming traffic handled it with aplomb. There are lots of potholes so cars are used to weaving all over the roads anyway.

This (non-Mayan) guide took us on a great tour of Monkey River.

We split our Monkey River time between the boat and a walk in the forest.

You've gotta be careful where you put your hands. Lots of trees have some kind of protection.

See? 

We looked for jaguars. We did see lots of fresh scrapes and tracks, but this is the closest we got to a jaguar. (This is at Cockscomb Jaguar Refuge).

Of course we did lots of birding and looked for wildlife. We saw tons and tons of birds, but fewer mammals than we expected...but (as we will show in a subsequent post) we had some great looks at howler monkeys. We also saw kinkajous at night, which was pretty great.