Yes, it's been a week since I got back from Belize and I just needed another international adventure involving the letters I, B, and Z.
Anyway. BELIZE!!!
I left Maui on Tuesday and flew straight to Belize via LAX and ATL, picking up Danny in LA on the way.
(Several months ago when my beautiful bride Anna emailed me to ask if I wanted to bring a +1 to the wedding, I was like "uhhhh.... of course yes!" It is rare to be invited to shoot a destination wedding in Belize, it is even rarer for your client to invite you to invite a guest!!!!)
Anyway. After a full day of traveling we FINALLY arrived at Belize City (or Belize Sh*tty, as they call it). And it is. SHITTY.
Just look at this airport.
From Belize City we hopped on a tiny 15-minute flight to Ambergris Caye.
LOVES a semi-private plane!
The waters over Belize were beautiful and blue. But it looked a little polluted...or maybe those are reefs...
Ambergris Caye is filled with "resorts" along the coast...and little shantyshacks everywhere else...
This is the little airport we flew into.....
On our drive to our hotel we saw some beautiful...uh.....fences and power lines...
And some local poors and their children...
It's not the most developed or luxurious of resort towns...
And then we crossed over a bridge to get to our resort area...
This popo-stand makes me feel real safe...
We finally arrived at our resort, the Grand Caribe...it was epic compared to everything else we saw on our way up there. But the past month has kind of turned me into a super snob. I've been three other places with the same gorgeous blue water (Barbados, Maui, and now Ibiza) with much nicer accommodations and amenities.
We took a little walk along the deserted beach. (The whole island seemed kind of deserted, we later learned that it's hurricane season so most people stay away...)
Loved this rando house floating in the ocean...
And we got lunch at Palapa, a place we would visit several more times over the course of the week.
It's a little hut on the ocean featuring lots of things, the most important of which, NO MOSQUITOS!!!
I will sell this house today!!!
Then for dinner we walked up the beach to the only other restaurant near our hotel... Aji.
The place, like everywhere else we saw in town, was oddly deserted...
On Day 2 (Thursday) we went scuba diving!!!
I haven't dived since I was like 13 years old so I needed a refresher course.
Our "refresher course" consisted of us paying $160 each and watching a dvd.
It was such a scam. We watched the DVD and then they threw us in the ocean. Thank god we had actually both dived before because if we hadn't we would have died.
I did the first dive and felt a little sick so I strolled the town while Danny did dive 2.
We came across the Chicken Drop, where we would be later spending our evening literally cheering for chickens to poop...
There's a lot of weird stuff here...
And a banana stand!
Oooh! Lionfish! Yum! NOT.
As night fell we headed over to Wahoos for the Chicken Drop. It's a huge event attended by every single tourist on the island.
And it is literally a shit show.
We stand around for hours screaming at chickens to hopefully poop on the number we have purchased. If they do poop on your number you win $50. Woo.
Of course our new friend Shawn won the first chicken drop...he was very excited.
We spent 4 hours at this hellhole. Fun, I suppose, to do once in your life. But never again!
On Day 3 (Friday) we dove with sharks!!!
We stopped in an area called Shark Ray Alley where sharks and rays have learned to play with humans.
And turtles!!!
They were throwing fish guts and stuff in the water to attract the sharks. And these sharks have learned that boat propellers usually mean food is coming so they start trailing our boats when we enter the area and it is crrraaaayyyyy.
And then there is a feeding frenzy!
So of course we jumped right in! (We were assured it was safe and they don't like feasting on humans as long as we don't touch them.)
And then something INSANE happened. Our guide grabbed a shark and put it in a headlock so that we could touch it!!!!!
These sting rays were SO huge.
The shark's skin had the coolest texture, it felt like sandpaper. The stingrays were slimy and gross.
After the shark adventure we jumped back on our adventure boat with our ragtag little crew and headed back to the hotel.
Ambergris Caye is real small and everyone gets around by golf cart... pretty cool.
Back at the resort we had a wedding rehearsal for my lovely couple.
Pretty!
Then we had late night drinks and snacks at Palapa...their nachos are pretty good, except they leave the chicken skin on the chicken that they put on the nachos which is SUPER weird.
Finally...WEDDING DAY! Saturday! The whole reason I was in Belize to begin with.
It was a beautiful day on the beach.
The ceremony was awesome and touching and tear-filled.
I cannot believe they had like 100 people come all the way down to Belize. People really really love Nate and Anna.
As do I. They were SO great.
When you spend 4 straight days with the same people in a foreign country, you make a lot of new friends! I met some fellow giants...
And made friends also with all of Anna's gays! Love these boys!
In a total twist of coincidence-ness, I was chatting with Shawn (in blue) about my epic travels of late, and he asked "How did you score the wedding in Barbados?" and I was like, "My incredible jeweler friend Zameer!" And his jaw dropped and he was like, "NO FUCKING WAY. I'm wearing a Zameer ring!" And sure enough, he was! Shawn had just gotten engaged a week or two prior and his fiance Steven had gotten a custom ZK ring designed for him (all of Zameer's piece are custom made and one-of-a-kind, incorporating all kinds of engravings and special touches the are meaningful to the relationship they represent.) Such a small world!
Hoping I get invited to shoot their wedding in Kauai next year!
Yayyy!!!
On early Sunday morning we flew home. And it RAIN RAIN RAINED. We left just in time to miss a pseudo-hurricane.
All in all it was a really fun adventure and I met some awesome people and did some awesome things I'm so glad I went...but I'm not sure I would go again. There are plenty of places with beautiful blue water with nicer beaches and prettier hotels and better food...just wait until you see Ibiza!
