UnBelizable {round two} The one where I swam with sharks

How about an impromptu trip to Central America to rile up your week?
We've been there before and it was so good, we went back. The owners of the private Island had a last minute cancellation and contacted the Coach to see if we wanted it at a discounted rate.
We had 2 days to decide on a trip out of the country just 9 days away.
We've been trying to live in the moment and do as much as we can these days, so it was a YES.

A mere 2-hour flight from Miami to Belize City, then a 40-minute helicopter ride to the island itself.
Feeling a bit like James Bond minus the martini and Hallie Berry on the helicopter ride over the Belize barrier reef.

The water is like nothing else I've ever seen, and I've seen some water.

 The island itself is only 1/2 an acre. This pelican pretty much lived in these two trees an ate like a pelican king day and night on little fish.

Our friends T.W and Melissa joined us this time and I think they had a great time. The staff pretty much had to evict them on the day of our departure. :)

We stayed for four nights and let's talk about relaxation. All of our meals were prepared for us. The beds were made. The laundry was done. There were massages. There was chilling. There was paddleboarding around the island. The boys went fishing for a few hours and caught around 100 fish. I read an entire book. There was Jenga, checkers, and corn-hole.

Cocktails in the pool.

Coach. AKA, the Jenga King

 One day we were taken on a boat ride about 6 miles away to a national park. I didn't even know you could have a national park IN THE OCEAN. Blew my mind.
Anyhoo....as soon as we anchored the boat and prepared to snorkel this huge Hawks Bill turtle came up and greeted us. He hung out for quite a while and then circled back later on. Apparently, he was looking for a scoobie snack.

If you know me at all, you know I'm a nervous ninny when it comes to swimming in the ocean. 

Did you know there are lots of fish in there? They freak me out. I honestly get freaked out in the pool if my suit ties hit my back or leg, just know a fish is going to eat me. 

But, I sucked up my fears and donned the snorkel gear. The water was just too darn crystal clear. The coral and colorful fish that I saw were well worth overcoming my fears. Just breathtaking.

Then, I saw my first of (many) nurse sharks. 

Have you ever seen a nurse shark while swimming? I only knew it was the nurse kind because of the little white hat with the red cross on it.  

Even though I was told they only NIBBLE you, I thought my snorkeling time had been well spent PRIOR to getting a nibble from a nurse. So, after my 20 minutes in the water, I doggie paddled all the way back to the boat. 

Once in the boat, the turtle came back to see if we'd changed our mind on giving him a snack. Ummm NO. 

As did 3 nurse sharks who hung out near/under our boat for quite a while. They were not huge, maybe 4-5 feet each. That's 4-5 feet more than I'm comfortable with. 

But, I was glad that I did this. I'm a big girl, give me a big girl gold star!!

When we were back home in the reality that no one was going to prepare us a gourmet meal and I actually HAD to walk to my washing machine to clean the clothes, we were both a bit pouty about it . 

So sad. But so happy to have had the time to make some more fabulous memories and not to have been eating by a shark. It was an UnBelizable experience.