UnBelizeable family vacation Day 1: Beginning of Advanced Scuba Cert (121616)

Woke up to birds and kids screaming. Not a good day for starting a vacation. :) Go to the beach down by Ramon's Village which was a nice area but the beach was not great as not much space, no real shade, and more of an after thought (lets put a home here, but they still need some beach access). Spend some time there before picking up stakes and heading north near the Sandbar hostel to check out that beach which was a little bit better. Jeff and I head back to get ready for our first day of dives and stop back on the back road at Hot Panadas to get some empanadas for lunch (tasty handmade, right in front of us, from a friendly guy known by his friends as Kenny G).

First beach to get in the water. Looks more like this house's back yard than a beach but whatever, into the water we go.

Ramone's cabanas on the beach.

Family that plays in the water together, stays together.

Ramone's beach entrance.

Look at that cool guy chilling on the beach.

Some beach bars out on the peers.

Jeff found himself a pup friend.

Family chilling in the sand.

View out into the water from the pier.

2nd beach location right in front of the hostel we will stay at later in the trip.

Not a bad view.

Get to the dive shop and they have a ton of dive sights right off the coast of Ambergris.

Sean took Tao parasailing while I was out starting the days of scuba.

Boat lifting them up. Reef providing a natural barrier from the waves out in the distance.

The water looks crystal clear.

Parasail parachute

Looking towards the coast.

View from above during parasailing. Beautiful island.

While he was making them we sat there and talked to him about the area, his personal life, and just getting to know the guy - cool kid. After we eat, we walk back to the place so we can collect our things and I can head to the dive place for my training. Spend some time walking between their 2 buildings (about 5 min walk between the 2) as it was not specified which one to go to. Eventually hook up with them and start the advanced open water cert class. Really chill guys running the place. After a video, we get our gear, and head out on the first dive. Get in the water, start descending, and once i get over the salt water taste, I look down and there are a few nurse sharks just swimming around. Amazing - I know why people enjoy this hobby so much. We start swimming around (me and my instructor) and the shark just follows us. I am looking around at the beautiful corals and the fluorescent and stunning fish - all while keeping an eye on the shark mind you :) (for the record it was a nurse shark and I wasnt worried but was weird that it just kept following us). we get to a clearing of the coral and the sharks starts rolling around in the sand like a dog in grass would do. Figured he was either scratching or playing. Either way was interesting to see a shark behave similarly to a dog. We keep swimming around and see a few other creatures (sea urchins here have incredibly long spikes and are white/gray). We then go up, boat picks us up, and we head back to the dock to get tanks and some fruit and have our surface interval. While on the surface, we go over orienteering and then get back on the boat to get this dive done before it gets dark. We go down, again with the sharks just swimming around, and find a open area to start the navigation. Once we get that done to satisfaction, my instructor shows me some things he was talking about on land (about how coral grows in certain ways and how sand ripples exist in similar ways) before swimming around. This time we see a few Eels (one gets really close to jeff's go pro) and more of the beautiful fish (some were this vibrant blue with a black stripe along the top back, another was a deep purple maybe with blue fluorescent spots along the back and a gold diamond near the tail, among others) and some stunning (pink?) corals. Swim by a couple schools of fish then get with instructor and start to ascend. Get on the boat and people are freezing. Go back in and get off the boat (the group took care of all the gear which was really nice of them). Walk back to the house to shower and then family gets ready and we head out to dinner. Go to Elvi's and it was really delicious (I had the coconut curry with fish which was awesome and tried the ceviche (solid but have had better - not too citrusy which I expect of ceviche), the mac and cheese (for kids mac it was good), and coconut pie (warm kinda crumbly pie with ice cream - enjoyable and different). Service was great (waiter was doing everything he could to appease the 2 terror monsters that are my nephews). We then walk around town to check on the grocery stores to get fresh fruit (they were closed) but get some water and other items then head back to the place to call it a night.

Checking out Elvi's for dinner tonight. 

Leaving the restaurant and we get a reminder that it is christmas time.