Belize: Day 1 -- Flying the Caravan

Here after follows the tales of my scuba diving trip to Belize...

My morning started off ridiculously early.  I'm not a morning person at all, so the fact I needed to be at the airport by about 4:30 at the latest was too much for me.  I did somehow manage to get myself up and to the airport on time though.

By 6:05 we were in the air and on our way to Atlanta for part one of our travel adventure.  After landing in Atlanta we didn't have any time to waste.  By the time we arrived at our gate, our place to Belize was boarding.  On the way to Belize I watched The Devil Wears Prada (which I had never seen before, but had recently finished reading...the book has a more satisfying ending) and watched the first 45 minutes of Baywatch, before we landed.

The airport in Belize City is tiny.  6 gates and you taxi on the runway.  We landed, pulled a u-turn, and went back up the runway until we could turn off to the airport.  We ended up spending a much longer time at the airport than we had expected due to weather.  The airport at San Pedro (our final destination) does not have instrument landing, so they had to wait for the weather to clear before they started allowing flights to continue.  Because I was starving I grabbed some food.  I grabbed a johnny cake, which as far as I could tell was just cheese and chicken.  It was good and filled me up enough.

Our fearless leaders, Tyler and Tim

Sitting in the front of the Caravan!

Eventually the skies cleared and flights started heading out.  Our group was large enough that we took up a couple flights because the airline, Maya Island Air, was flying Cessna Grand Caravans.  As they started boarding people for my flight, one of the airline employees asked if I "wanted to be the co-pilot". Umm...duh.  Yes, I want to sit up front!!!  So I was taken around to the side and climbed up a small ladder to the front seat.  It was awesome sitting up there, looking at the gauges and looking out the front window as we took off and landed.

We got checked into our hotel and wander San Pedro for a bit.  We had supper at this absolutely delicious restaurant called the Hungry Grouper.  I had Jerk Chicken with Coconut Rice and a garden salad.  Absolutely delicious.

Diving starts tomorrow!  I'm ready for some sharks and turtles!

For most of the flight we flew at 165 knots and 1520 ft.