UnBelizeable

I waited WAY too long to make this blog update. Sorry about that.

Let me tell you about our recent trip to Belize.
Belize, for those who do not know, is a small country just South of Mexico, and just East of Guatemala. It has an ancient history in the Mayan culture and parts of it were once major ports for the Mayan civilization.

When we first got to Belize, we flew into Belize City and stayed one night on the mainland. After that, we took a boat to the resort island of Ambergris Caye. Everything was very laid back on the island. There were cars, but most people drove golf carts around. In fact, one of the first people we met on a golf cart was a guy from Michigan.

He owned a restaurant on the island called Sunset Grill. As we were trying to make the long walk from out hotel to the "downtown" area, he offered to give us a ride into town on his golf cart. Being the trusting folks we are, we accepted. As he took us into town, he gave us a tour and told us a little about the history of the town and how he had found himself living here after so long in the US. The tour ended, of course, at his restaurant. We had lunch here, mostly as a courtesy to him, but also because it was lunch time. One of the neat things about the restaurant is the location. It was right on the water. Not only that, but the place had a group of Tarpon that basically hung out around the restaurant and waited to get fed. BY HAND!

Molly and I both tried it out.
But the owner was much more comfortable feeding and grabbing the fish right out the water. Very cool!
The next day we took a LONG boat ride back to the mainland, and up a river to the Mayan ruins at Lamanai. This place was on the river, and was a major trading port for the Mayans to trade jade and other goods. It consisted of a bunch of temples (Jaguar Temple, Mask Temple, High Temple) and also a ball court, courtyard and other ruins. The cool thing is that most of the site had not even been excavated yet. There were still lots of ruins which were covered by trees and earth. So in 20 years, we could go back and get to see, basically, a whole new set of ruins.

The next day it was back out on the boat to go snorkeling. I can't do scuba diving, so snorkeling is our only option to explore the sea. We saw lots of fish, some nurse sharks and even a sea turtle. My 1st time seeing a sea turtle! (Thanks to Cap'n Ron over at Reef Adventures for setting up our excursions)

All in all we had a great time. We love traveling to new countries and experiencing new cultures. We picked up a great Habanero Hot Sauce that we've been putting on everything called Marie Sharps. For under $1200 (2 round-trip flights, hotel & excursions) in total, the trip was easily one of the cheapest we have been on, and was well worth the money.

Here are some other photos from our trip:

My 1st Belikin Beer (The Beer of Belize!)

Molly enjoying a fruity island beverage.

The Jaguar Temple at the Lamanai Ruins.

Me on the steps of the Jaguar Temple.

The steps up/down the High Temple.

Molly and I at the top of the High Temple.

A ball court at the ruins. (Sometimes they would kill the winners as a sacrifice to the Gods. Other times, they would kill the losers. Not my kind of game).

Molly outside our hotel (Banana Beach Resort in San Pedro)

Just Us.

Widget

Real American Hero

It's too rare these days that we see our real hero's rewarded for their service and valor. Too often we find ourselves so preoccupied with pop culture and reality television to notice the amazing sacrifices that are being made for our right to freedom and liberty. I know I have made this mistake numerous times. Chron.com has a wonderful story today about a marine who made a great sacrifice for his country, and who was rewarded for protecting our freedom.

Gates hands Marine keys to new house

“We're really low-key people, so this is kind of crazy,” said the 29-year-old Texas A&M graduate. She turned to her husband and fellow Aggie, Marine Corps Capt. Daniel Moran, with a stunned grin of her face. “This is, like, ridiculous.”

The couple — and the crowd lining the streets of their Cypress neighborhood — were awaiting the arrival of U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who came to the Houston area Monday to present Capt. Moran with the keys to his new home.

The four-bedroom brick house was custom built for Moran by Helping A Hero, a nonprofit that has constructed 14 homes for local disabled veterans since 2006.

Moran, 28, medically retired from the Marine Corps last month after being seriously injured during his second tour of duty in Iraq three years ago. Monday's event marked the fourth time he'd met Gates, who was president of A&M when Moran and his wife were students there.

As Gates recounted, he first shook hands with Moran when he handed the young man his diploma upon graduation from A&M. The second time, Gates was visiting injured service members at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, where Moran was a patient.

“He asked me to personalize a graduation-day photo of us,” Gates recalled. “I was honored but, after meeting Daniel, I came away thinking I should be the one seeking an autograph.”

The third time was at half time of a Texas A&M football game in 2007, when the secretary of defense presented Moran with a Navy Commendation Medal with Valor in front of 80,000 screaming fans.

On Oct. 9, 2006, Moran suffered a concussion from the explosion of a homemade bomb in Ramadi, Iraq. Despite his injury, Moran urged doctors to let him return to his platoon. Less than two weeks later, another improvised explosive device killed three of his Marines and wounded Moran, who sustained third-degree burns over 50 percent of his body. The blast also seared the inside of his lungs.

Moran's new home has special air filters to protect his vulnerable immune system.

I urge everyone to go to the Helping a Hero website at the link below, and if it is within your means, make a donation to this wonderful organization today.

HelpingaHero.org

Watch out Rick Moranis!

Today comes with an interesting scientific discovery in the Philippines. Scientists have discovered a species of giant rat-eating plants!

Giant rat-eating nepenthes plant named after David Attenborough


From the article:

Nepenthes attenboroughii, a previously unknown variety of pitcher plant discovered on a remote mountain in the Philippines, is so big that small rodents could be trapped inside and slowly dissolved by flesh-eating enzymes.

It is thought that only a few hundred of the plants exist, growing only on one mountain on the island of Palawan. The species was discovered by a team of scientists who had heard reports from missionaries who got lost in the dense jungle.

It's straight out of Rick Moranis' worst movie nightmare!

Still, it's kinda cool that scientists are still going around, discovering new species of plants and animals that we previously did not know existed. The world is truly a wondrous place, and while Space is obviously more sexy, there is still much that we do not know about our own planet. I am very interested to see what our scientists discover next.

What a curious little fellow

After weeks and weeks of Healthcare debate, it's time for another funny story.

This one is from our folks North of the border in Canada.

Take a look at this nutter who invaded a couple's holiday snap.

It was supposed to be an isolated beauty spot in the Canadian lakes - but a stranger still managed to creep into the shot.

The cheeky squirrel jumped into Melissa Brandts and her husband's picture when they had set the timer on their camera.

Mrs Brandts explained: 'We had our camera set up on some rocks and were getting ready when this curious little ground squirrel appeared, became intrigued with the sound of the focusing camera and popped right into our shot.

Of the photo in Lake Minnewanka in Banff National Park she added: 'It was a once in a lifetime moment – we were laughing about this little guy for days!'

That story put a smile on my face :)