We arrived in Belize Today!!

We left Church at 6 am

We left Charlotte right on time after a nice breakfast

We arrived in Belize, got thru customs and were greeted By Heath, Amanda and their friend Paul

Left to Right: Charles, Pat, Rick, Laura, Heath, Paul Caroline,Lou, Amanda, Nannette, Hank

Beth, a friend of Heath and Amanda's picked us up and her boys Joshia and Ben helped!! They are new to Belize, they came from Virginia 5 months ago with their Dad and 2 older sisters as missionaries.They have 4 dogs 2 old, 2 new they told me:) 

We arrived at the beautiful "Hotel Mopan"  the bougainvillea and hibiscus are amazing!!

We had some local food for lunch, grilled chicken wraps and talked about our week

The patio outside our rooms

 My roomies, Caroline and Laura

We had some free time so we went down to the central street here in Belize City called "Albert Street" to look around and get a feel for the city. 

This is called "Tourist Village" it is across the bay from where we are.  It is where the cruise ships pull in and the tourists can but things.  Everything is very expensive. We are going to see if we have time one day to walk over there and check it out.

This is the marina area at "Swing Bridge".  It links to two sides of Belize City, the south and north sides. Just like in most cites, the south side is not safe.

We had a wonderful dinner at a restaurant called "Bird Isle" with a thatched roof on a deck over the water.  It is raining really hard, but the temperature is great. 

We are excited about our week, getting to know Heath and Amanda,Paul and all others that cross our path. 

My first impression of Belize is that it feels like you are still in the USA at times.  All the products in the stores are from the US or China.  They speak English, the big difference is the currency, 2 Belize dollars for every American Dollar. Sounds good right? well think again, a box of Cheerios cost us $10.00 Belize dollars! It will be fascinating to get to know this culture.