Our Honeymoon - Part 13

Guess what we did on our last full day in Belize? As you can see from our extra awesome outfits, yep. That's right. SCUBA!! We upgraded our packaged snorkel tour to an intro dive. We've been dying to learn how. Especially Hal, who could spend all day every day in an underwater aquarium.

We took a speed boat to Laughingbird Caye, the southern most island in the central lagoon of the Belize Barrier Reef. It's one of the world's greatest scuba destinations.

This is Bertrand, our scuba instructor. And this is where my heart stops. He quickly flips through flash cards about breathing and what happens if you don't. Then we immediately strap on our gear and practice hand signals and other basics in shallow water. But I don't retain a thing he said on land! I fail the mask clearing numerous times. So Bertrand says screw it. Let's just dive. Sometimes you have to learn by doing. As soon as I went under, it was easy breezy. Kind of. Once you get the hang of breathing solely through your mouth with a strange apparatus.

We were down for 45 minutes on our first dive! We saw schools of fish and critters in conch shells and a barracuda. After lunch, we went down again. Via boat back flip! (That took some convincing). This time, reaching 70 feet when we're only supposed to go 40. We saw a lobster and a humongous ray.

Sadly, we have no underwater photos of the brilliant things we saw on the bottom of the sea. Just our memories. But we surfaced with ear to ear grins. We're officially hooked and would love to get certified. Do any of you scuba?

Once we got back to Turtle Inn, we took advantage of the complimentary massages for honeymooners. We've decided that here on out, all future trips will be honeymoons. Shhh, no one needs to know.

We hit up the oceanfront bar for pre-dinner drinks and toasted to our final evening with mini Sofia champagne.

"What should we toast to?" I asked.
He raised his can.
"To you. The best thing about me."

See why I keep him around?  :)

After a farewell breakfast with friends, we packed our bags and left for the airport. But in order for us to get there, we had to fly a tiny plane from a tiny airport. Just us and the pilot. Hal even got to sit up front! This was an adventure in itself. It was the perfect way to end a trip of a lifetime.

In the middle of the flight, we hit a stormy patch of weather. Raindrops hit the windshield and I braced myself during the turbulence. I immediately thought of JFK Jr., John Denver, Aliyah, and the long list of celebrities who died in small plane crashes. Great, this is how my life will end. On the last day of my honeymoon. But Hal gave me a reassuring hand squeeze and our pilot expertly guided us out of the dark clouds, bringing us down with the smoothest of landings.

From the little plane, we boarded the big plane. And 3 hours, a layover, and another 5 hours later, we were home.


Our Honeymoon - Part 1
Our Honeymoon - Part 2
Our Honeymoon - Part 3
Our Honeymoon - Part 4
Our Honeymoon - Part 5
Our Honeymoon - Part 6
Our Honeymoon - Part 7
Our Honeymoon - Part 8
Our Honeymoon - Part 9
Our Honeymoon - Part 10
Our Honeymoon - Part 11
Our Honeymoon - Part 12
Our Honeymoon - Part 13