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Olivia's Belize Adventure

My journey started a little early since I live in Lubbock, Texas. We had to leave on Thursday to catch a flight that night headed to Dallas. That next morning, when we got to the airport we met up and I got to meet so many girls from all over Texas. I made some new friends and we immediately clicked. As soon as we landed in Belize, we headed straight for the bus and on this bus we met our tour guide. Our tour guide told us we were heading straight to our first hotel, which is called Birds Eye-View. At this hotel, they spotted over 350 different species of birds. We checked into our room, got everything settled and headed downstairs for dinner, as we got downstairs, they had made a full buffet with everything homemade. When I tell you this dinner was the best dinner I have ever had in my life. It was so good that everyone went back for seconds.

After dinner, everyone got to explore the grounds a little bit me and a couple other girls got open a few coconuts that had fallen out of a tree. That next day we got on a bus and headed to Lamanai. Lamanai is a Mayan ruin Deep in the jungle. To get to Lamanai you must take a boat ride through the jungle for an hour. And this was not a straight shot boat ride. It was a turn left curve here, turn right, straight back-and-forth movement. When we arrived at Lamanai , we had a bathroom break and headed straight to the old Sugar Mill. From there we hiked all the way up the mountains to the ruins, where we then climbed the third tallest ruin. After that, we hiked back down, and they had made us lunch they told us we were going to have iguana (it was chicken 🥲). This lunch was just as good as dinner the night before. We got to visit some gift shops that are at the ruins. As we were shopping, it started pouring rain and me and a few other girls went out and danced in the rain. We had the funniest time we could’ve imagined. After that, we did the hour-long boat ride back. We got back on the bus and headed to the hotel.

That night we packed our stuff, got ready that next morning, loaded our things, went to breakfast, and then headed to our next location. That day, we were going zip lining and cave tubing. The first thing we had on our itinerary was zip lining. Zip lining was absolutely amazing because we were in the middle of the jungle and there was nothing much around except for the lines. The last line ended up going over a river. After that, we had a bathroom break and headed straight to the bus to go cave tubing. We then loaded up all the gear for cave tubing and carried it up a mountain. It was maybe a 30–45-minute walk to where we needed to be when we got there, we loaded all our gear on, connected the tubes and got in. The caves were spectacular, beautiful and amazing clear water. Once we were done with tubing, we then went to go eat lunch that was provided by the zip lining owner’s family. This lunch was just as good as we could’ve imagined, they even gave us cake for dessert. From there we left went to the hotel and slept.

The next day we visited a Catholic school. While we were there, I met the sweetest little girl named Ashlyn. She was six and had the biggest smile on her face. While they were there, they did the Cupid Shuffle for us and then we got to play. We played tag, soccer, and so much more. We only had an hour but had the best time.

After that, we headed to another Mayan ruin called Xunantunich. Xunantunich has the highest Mayan ruins. We then walked around with a tour guide who explained the meanings before leading us all the way up the ruin. We then took photos and headed back down. It was extremely scary and exciting climbing the ruin up and down. We then went to the hotel and rested for a couple hours before dinner. After dinner we had a guided night bight through the jungle. It was amazing to see all the animals that live there. I was then suddenly attacked by a flying beetle which one of the guides then took off of me. That was oddly funny but scary because I didn’t know what it was.

After the hike we headed to the hotel. We had our bus driver Herbie play Taylor Swift on the way home and had a dance party with glow sticks. That was probably one of the funniest things we did on this trip because it was unplanned and pure in the moment.

The next day we packed up our things on the bus had breakfast and headed to Belize city. In Belize city, we went to the dock and got onto a water taxi. The water taxi was an hour and 45 minutes. Once we landed in San Pedro, we waited for our luggage, then loaded up into several different taxis and headed to our hotel. When we got to that hotel, we checked in then explored the grounds before dinner. Girls went to the pool for a swim. After dinner, we went on a walk on the beach. The next day we went snorkeling, the reef was so beautiful with all the fish. We even got to see an extremely large stingray. After that, we headed back to the hotel for lunch. They let us have a free day for the rest of the day since we had gone swimming all morning. That night after dinner we had karaoke.

The next morning, we packed our things, loaded them into the vans and headed to the dock. We got on the water taxi and then headed to Belize City. When we got to Belize City, it was pouring rain. We loaded the bus and headed to the airport. From there we said our goodbyes to our bus driver and our tour guide. We then headed back to Dallas, Texas. Once we landed in Texas we went through customs, security, and were exiting to meet our parents. My mom went on the trip with me, so I just said bye to all my new friends as they left. There were some girls from Amarillo who were going to the other airport as well, that stayed, and had dinner with us.

This trip was honestly one of the greatest experiences I have ever had. I would like to thank Girl Scouts of Texas Oklahoma Plains for providing me with this once in a lifetime opportunity, my amazing tour guide who took care of us the whole time and had the greatest personality. To Herbie, (our Belize Dad) who protected us from random strangers approaching us. I would also like to thank all of the people who bought Girl Scout cookies in order to get me there. It wouldn’t have been possible to do any of this without all of y’all!

August 14, 2024