This is currently the sixth and final installment of my annual trip series: Year 6! I’ve spent this week in Belize with my brother Jake on our sixth annual trip. In 2016, we started the tradition of traveling to a new country together once a year. Each year since we’ve upheld the tradition. To recap, here’s where we’ve been so far: Year 1 (2016): The Pacific Northwest (Portland, Seattle, Vancouver) Year 2 (2017): Cuba Year 3 (2018): The Balkans — Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro (and London!) Year 4 (2019): Luxembourg (and Paris!) Year 5 (2020): Africa (South Africa, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania) Year 6 (2021): Belize Here’s what happened on our trip to Belize this past week. Our Itinerary December 4 Flew from Phoenix to Belize City via Houston Headed to San Ignacio from the airport Checked into Yellow Belly Hostel, where we had a private room Got dinner at Lola’s, which was a festive spot within walking distance December 5 Ate breakfast at Pop’s Went to Mayan Ruins at Cahal Pech and Xunantunich Cahal Pech was incredibly peaceful, quiet, and close to our hostel Xuantunich was larger and more impressive, with perfect weather On the way, we met an American girl and her Belizean boyfriend in the taxi. She was living in Belize while working remotely Ate dinner at Guava Limp, including highlights of shrimp fettuccine, focaccia sandwich, and flourless chocolate cake December 6 Transited to Caye Caulker with William from Belize Shuttle Took the 60-minute ferry ride and went straight to Jan’s hotel Learned of the flight cancellation for our Great Blue Hole tour on Wednesday morning Ended up adjusting this trip and went Tuesday morning instead, which was great Instead of going to San Pedro for the flight, we left from the airstrip on Caye Caulker Went to the Lazy Lizard on the Split for drinks and snacks Ate dinner at Steve’s, where Kelsey got the last fresh lobster December 7 Took a 1-hour scenic flight with Tsunami over the Great Blue Hole Got acai bowls before snorkeling with Tsunami in the afternoon Snorkeled on a fabulous, inexpensive, high-quality tour with three stops Stop 1: Guided snorkel where we got to see a shark in the distance and an eel in action, as well as snap our fingers to see the creature react, essentially a SCUBA diving experience Stop 2: “Shark and ray alley” to see nurse sharks and rays in abundance and swim with them Stop 3: A basic reef that we both thought would be the entire experience As bonus experiences, we drove through the Split and saw tarpon fish and seahorses Ate at Maggie’s for dinner — whole fresh lobsters once again for a great price! December 8 Traveled to San Pedro on the ferry Went to the Belize Chocolate Company, where we got incredible peanut butter truffles for a snack Checked into the Alaia Hotel, an absolutely gorgeous resort, which will be seeing us again! Took care of COVID-19 tests for our return travel Enjoyed the rooftop pool and dinner at the hotel for the evening December 9 Ate an amazing sit-down continental breakfast and relaxed by the pool in the morning Had a long day of travel with a 1.5-hour ferry ride, 30-minute trip to the airport, 30-minute delayed flight to Dallas, slightly delayed flight to Phoenix…all followed by an Uber trip home Jake got Kelsey upgraded on the flight from Belize City to Dallas, which was a big treat! Memorable Moments Year 6 was a simple trip compared to others that we’ve taken together. It didn’t have the inexperience of Year 1, the stress of Year 2, the physical challenges of Year 4, or the hustle and bustle of Years 3 and 5. However, it was just a nice trip. Point blank, when I think of Year 6, it’ll be a place I want to return to. I left Belize thinking that it would be a place I’d want to go for vacation and take my future children. Jake left saying that he was going to buy a vacation house (all the better for me and my future family to use!). At the beginning of the trip, I told Jake, “This is a trip that I want to get a lot of sleep on.” And so, we did. We saw Mayan ruins, we enjoyed the beach, we went snorkeling, we saw the Great Blue Hole, and we slept a lot. It was the ideal trip to throw us back into the fold of our annual adventures after 18 months of no international travel due to COVID-19. A Year 6 Anecdote: Snorkeling with Sharks Upon reflection, I often think my favorite elements of our annual trips are those that surprise me. It’s not necessarily what we’ve been hyping up or researching the most. For example, during year 5, I didn’t realize that the dolphin tour was going to be incredible. It was just something I booked last minute as a birthday surprise for Jake, and it ended up one of the highlights (if not the highlight) of our trip. Similarly, we had no real plans to snorkel during our time in Belize. We knew that snorkeling would be available, and we had talked about maybe taking time to do it, but we hadn’t outlined it in the itinerary. Mayan ruins? Yes. Great Blue Hole? Yes. Snorkeling? No.
