First full day in Belize! We had an early breakfast of eggs, fried jack (light fried dough), beans and fresh fruit. It was another excellent meal. I was going horseback riding for the morning so we headed further out of town. We drove on a dirt road for 45 minutes to get to the farm. When I say "dirt road", that really can't convey the ruts, holes, rocks and valleys we drove over. We were exhausted by the time we reached our destination.

Fortunately, there was another way out which only included 20 minutes on the dirt road and then back to a main road. Roger dropped me off to go visit Cahal Pech - a small but very old Mayan site - and I went on a ride out to a small waterfall. The ride was beautiful and super informative. Giovanni, the guide, seemed to know every leaf, tree or bush that had any sort of medicinal value or caused some sort of trouble. We had some great gallops and got back to the farm in time for a beer while I waited for Roger to pick me up. ]
The owner of the farm had some ideas of what we could do in the afternoon and they were all in the area of the farm so we decided to join them for lunch and head out afterward. Roger loved the chicken they served for lunch. We had some great conversation and Giovanni shared additional stories from the Mayan book Papel Vuh. I really might need to get a copy of that book.

We headed out after lunch to find a big waterfall called Big Rock Falls. We actually found it very easily (amazing!) after driving another 20-30 minutes down the horrible dirt road. It was in the Mountain Pine Ridge forest. We parked and hiked a short distance through a field and found ourselves on a path that led almost straight down! The climb down was pretty nerve-wracking - I was absolutely certain I was going to lose my footing and end up with broken bones. At the bottom, we got to the river and climbed across huge rocks (reminded me of the Kancamagus Highway!) to get to the pool. Roger was a bit nervous about getting into the water - it was greenish and the rocks were super slippery - but I talked him right into it. We got in and swam up to the pool at the bottom of the waterfall. We didn't jump into the higher pool because the current was really strong but it was still stunning just to be that close!
We swam back and as we were drying off another couple showed up and shortly after that, the couple we chatted with at dinner last night! They all swam and as the first couple returned and were drying off, we discovered they were from none other than PORTSMOUTH, NH!!! How weird is that??? So, there we were, an hour down a ridiculous dirt road, down a crazy hiking trail, swimming in a waterfall pool with people from NH and MA! The world is extremely small.We left and climbed back up the crazy path (which was definitely less scary on the way up but a much better workout for the legs!).

From there, we headed to ... well... for a little while, we headed the wrong way. We figured it out pretty quickly and got going the right way. A half hour back up the dirt road and we made it to Green Hills Butterfly Farm in time for the last tour. We spent about a half hour in the butterfly house and could have spent a lot more. It's just such a calming experience to be in the middle of these beautiful butterflies as they land on you or around you. Unfortunately we didn't have much time so we had to hit the road. After about another half hour of driving we made it back to a main road and shortly thereafter, back to our lodge. Whew!

Although we were offered dinner at the hotel, we decided to just go into town to Hannah's again. Another great meal there and I discovered fresh lime-ade with vodka might have to be my new summer drink! We wandered around town a bit and ended up in a tour shop (open late) and booked one of our upcoming adventures for a few days from now. Once that was done, we headed back to relax on our porch before turning in for an early night.