Rain greeted us as we disembarked the plane and made a run for the airport. Immigration, baggage claim, and customs were about what you’d expect. But as we left the airport we ran into a lady holding a sign with my name on it! What a welcome to Belize! She was a local travel agent of sorts who is helping me with a few transportation issues within the country, but she was also a wealth of information about many things. We picked up our rental car and after a complimentary upgrade, we we were off. Luckily they provide a GPS for us in the car! Although Belize doesn’t have a great many roads, the ones they do,have are not all well marked. The drive was interesting, we saw tapir crossing signs and pedestrian bridges (which were glorified speed bumps with a flat top- why pedestrians can’t use the regular street, I don’t know). We stopped at a local restaurant for a late lunch and then drove on to Ian Anderson’s Caves Branch Jungle Lodge resort. Wow! I don’t guess I knew his kind of beauty existed. Tucked into the foothills of the Maya Mountain, it looks more like it actually sprung from the ground. Lush vegetation in the tropical jungle wit Palm trees taking the lead in the mountains along with myriad flowers, video vines,birds etc etc. I took so many pictures but I find they don’t do it justice. We walked through the botanical gardens and along the river in awe. Our treehouse situated on the side of a mountain with only screens for 1 of the walls to give amazing views of the river and mountains with the feel of being outside while nestled into a bungalow worthy of a 5 star resort. Dinner the first night (New Years eve) was family style gourmet buffets. 4 courses over 2 hours with a live band on the open air deck followed by a New Year’s Eve party. Adventure guides made their rounds in the dining room and compelled guests to sign up for an expedition the next day (food, entertainment, and adventures were all included). We quickly chose cave tubing and decided to retire before the part ended since our day started early when we headed out to the airport. We slept in our screened split level can’t with the sound of rain drumming on our tin roof. The humidity was incredible ( thanks to the rai ) and made even our towels and sheets a little moist. But it was strangely a cool (70degree) humidity with a fan circulating the cabin air, and seemed to only add to the fun of a tropic location. We feel into bed exhausted but barely able to contain the excitement for what waited for us in the days ahead. I think this is going to be more than I could have imagined…