Belize, Part IV (Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve)

Blancaneaux Lodge is in a pretty remote area of the Maya Mountains, so during the day my wife and I took the opportunity to explore the area - which happens to be a massive forest reserve (Belize's oldest, in fact) known as Mountain Pine Ridge. We had quite a few adventures, so I thought for my final Belize post I'd share some photos from our activities. Thanks for taking the time to check out my honeymoon posts (Part I, Part II, Part III)! It was certainly the vacation of a lifetime. Belize, I love you. Until next time...

Caracol is the largest Mayan archeological site in Belize. It was fascinating to wander around the historic area.

Aside from telling us quite a bit about the history of Caracol, our tour guide also introduced us to regional trees and flora. These, known to the locals as "monkey balls," ooze a liquid that is sticky like glue. Our tour guide told us that he used it as glue for school projects when he was growing up.

Wandering Jew plant

I climbed to the top of the ruins, which is the highest point in all of Belize.

That's Guatemala!

Overlooking Belize from the top of Caracol.

Our next adventure was zip lining through the jungle. Here's my wife handling it like a pro. It was a lot of fun.

After zip lining we hoped in an inflatable tube and floated through a beautiful cave. This is the entrance of the cave. 

On our second to last night, the wonderful Melissa Pugh of Jet Set World Travel set up a dinner for us at Ka'ana, a stunning resort just outside the lovely town of San Ignacio. Little did we know that it would be the most special dinner ever! They made us feel like celebrities. Much thanks to Ka'ana and their wonderful staff.

On our final day in Belize, we took a nice walk to the Blancaneaux stables to take a horse ride to Big Rock Falls.

This is Magnum. He was my horse for the ride and he was quite the character. He would stop and eat various plants along the way and then, while still chewing, go into a full-on gallop to catch up with my wife's horse.

Part of the gorgeous trail through the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve.

After a steep hike down the mountain, we made it to beautiful Big Rock Falls, where we swam and had a picnic. A perfect ending to a perfect honeymoon.

In the clouds above Belize.

We caught a gorgeous sunset from the plane.

And made it safely back to sweet home Chicago.