July 8, 2025 • 27 mins
Ever wondered what it's like to grind your own chocolate on a centuries-old Mayan stone or snorkel alongside harmless sharks off a private Caribbean island? Join us as we dive into our adventures with Captain Jak's excursions in Placencia, Belize!
We take you behind the scenes of this remarkable tour company headquartered at Sirenian Bay Resort, sharing the touching story of how the original Captain Jack's legacy lives on through his friend who purchased the business after Jack's passing. From there, we journey through lush jungles to experience a traditional chocolate farm where we learned about cacao cultivation, tasted the surprisingly delicious fruit surrounding cacao beans, and participated in the ancient art of chocolate-making using techniques passed down through generations.
Our adventures continue at a hidden three-tiered waterfall system that felt plucked straight from a movie set. Picture this: crystal-clear pools perfect for cliff jumping, tiny fish providing natural "spa treatments" by nibbling dead skin cells from your feet, and refreshing swims surrounded by pristine jungle. As if that wasn't enough, we recount our unforgettable catamaran journey to Moho Key, a private island where we snorkeled through vibrant coral reefs, encountered docile nurse sharks and stingrays, and enjoyed fresh-grilled meals on a picture-perfect beach.
What makes Captain Jak's truly special is their commitment to personalized experiences – whether you're seeking adventure, romance, or cultural immersion, they craft bespoke excursions tailored to your desires. We also share insider tips about visiting Belize during May's shoulder season, when you can enjoy summer weather without the winter crowds.
Subscribe now to hear more about our Belizean adventures, including our upcoming episode featuring the remarkable Sirenian Bay Resort where we stayed throughout our journey!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Alexa and I'm Rory, and together we are the
Romies.
We are made to each other.
Right, we are a touring musicalduo.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
And our music has taken us to all kinds of places
all around the world and keepsus always on the go.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
So we hope you enjoy our stories and adventures while
running around working to keepall your plates spinning.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
And we hope, to facilitate your busy lifestyle
and feed your inner travel bug.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Today we will be discussing our adventures in
Plasencia, belize.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Adventure Loving this adventure with you.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Oh nice, that sounds like a song.
Maybe you wrote I sure did, yes, an alexa james song it went a
while like out of tune for asecond.
But yeah, but you can find theactual recording somewhere.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
I don't know that you can oh one day we'll do it live
again, though okay, well, youcan look online.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
What's it called?
Speaker 2 (01:03):
adventure with Adventure.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
With you.
So look for Alexa James.
Adventure With you on all yourlocal music hotspots online.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
That's right.
Speaking of adventure, Rory.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Let's dive into Captain Jack's.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
I like how you did that Dive, Because on our
adventure we had opportunitiesto dive.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
And there are so A number of opportunities to dive
and there are so many A numberof opportunities to dive.
With Captain Jacks.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
As we mentioned, we are diving in to our excursions
and experiences that we had inPlacentia, belize, this month,
and so last week we talked aboutgetting to Belize, the culture,
the currency, all of that stuff, and so we talked about how we
(01:52):
stayed in Serenian Bay, atSerenian Bay Resort and Villas.
Super great.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Captain Jack's is headquartered at Serenian Bay.
They have locations all overthe peninsula, but they're
headquartered right there atSer're staying there and we did
all of our excursions with them.
It was just amazing and soconvenient.
Now Captain Jack started yearsago.
Super cool story behind thereTaking fishing trips out, and
they eventually spread to doingother things, expanded to doing
(02:19):
other things and when Brian,who's the owner of Serenian Bay,
which you're going to meet nextweek.
Yep.
When he moved to Belize he metCaptain Jack and they became
good friends.
And then Captain Jack passeddue to cancer, and when he did,
his good friend Brian bought thebusiness from his wife.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yes, and so now Captain Jack's Keeping on the
whole spirit of what's going on,captain.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Jack's lives on, and they have expanded expanded even
to more things that we'll talkabout today, and we did one of
those more things that is brandnew.
As a matter of fact, it hasn'tyet been what's the word.
The curtain hasn't risen on ityet, right?
Speaker 2 (02:57):
But let's get to that in a minute.
Yeah, in a minute We'll openthe curtain.
I'm just seeding the excitement.
Yes, yes, it's very exciting.
So now it used to be fishing,right, like Rory said.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
But now they have over 50 excursions that they can
offer.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
So I'm going to share just a couple of them.
They have diving and so you cando Pompey and Kai, Okay, but
Key sorry.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Well, and when she says diving, she means like
scuba and free diving, not likediving off a diving board.
Though I'm sure they havecliffs, you can dive off of as
well.
Right, I think people probablyunderstood the context.
These are diving trips.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Well, not because we talked about diving in earlier,
but now we're going to talkabout the keys, rory, and a key
is spelled C-A-Y-E and it's likea mini island.
But it's like not an island,but it's an island, but it's a
key, is it a?
Speaker 1 (03:44):
group of islands.
No, I guess it is an island.
No, it's just its own littleisland.
See, it shows what I know.
But they call them keys.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
I read the definition of it, but I'm not explaining
it well, but anyway.
So a key is basically an island, but it's not an island because
it's a key C-A-Y-E, likeC-A-Y-E, c-a-y-e, but it's
pronounced key.
So they go to the Silk Key, theLaughing Bird Key, so they have
like different keys that theygo to, but they also go to the
Great Blue.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Hole.
All right, everyone take theopportunity to look at your
screens on YouTube now orwherever you're watching this.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
If you're watching on YouTube, you can see the Blue
Hole and you see the Blue Holethat is amazing.
I didn't know about that untilthe end of our thing, so we have
to go to that.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Again, me being way cooler than you.
I knew about it, but still.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
I know because you are cooler than me.
They also have scuba, so theyhave all kinds of scuba and they
have the courses.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
So you can get certified.
You can become certified, yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
And Serenian Bay has a pool that they work on.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Specifically to train you in.
You can do your lessons for you.
Very cool.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
So you can do it all there and then go off on all
your adventures from thereSnorkeling at different keys.
They also have fishing, which?
We said earlier yeah, from dayone, right, Okay.
Then there's land tours, and soI didn't know about this one
either, or would have likejumped at it, but they have a
spice tour Like visit.
I didn't know about this oneeither.
I would have like jumped at it,but they have a spice tour like
(05:07):
visit a farm.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
We heard about that.
It was cool, though we did notget to do it.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
I wanted to go, but you can do the monkey river and
manatee watch.
They have cave tubing.
They have a Jaguar reserve inBelize and they can take you
there.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
And so that's super cool.
Yeah, we were told of peopleswimming with the manatees and
two people that we met there andbecame friends with they had
swam, swam, swimed, swam swimswim, swim.
I don't know.
They swam with the manatees andhow cool is that.
So when you're on that riverwith the monkeys, that monkey
river tour.
You can swim with the manateestoo.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
The sea cows, as they call them.
They have a sunset, lagoon,sail and stuff like that.
So there's like a bunch ofstuff, right?
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Yeah, okay, bunch of stuff, 50 plus excursions, all
right Now.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
We did not.
We were only there a short time.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
We did not be there for 50.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
We couldn't do all 50 .
But we did do a few.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
So we're going to tell you about those.
One of them was the chocolatefarm and waterfall tour.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Yeah, that was cool, okay, y'all.
So I'm all about chocolate.
It's one of the food.
I am a certified holisticnutritionist and so I think that
there is a food group that ischocolate food group.
Saying that that's a food group, okay, okay.
So we got to go to thechocolate making process, like
the Mayan inspired chocolatemaking that takes place at their
(06:29):
cacao farm.
Yes, so we started out in thefarm.
So let's back up just realquick.
We got a van tour.
Captain Jack's just picked usup at our resort.
They knew where we were staying.
It was all coordinated for us.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
We just show up.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Walked out the road, there they were takes us there
and we meet people who they hadpicked up from their other where
they were staying and we alldrove and went to.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
We started out at the farm and our guide was so
awesome the farmer that spokeyeah, he was a little guy, he
was super cute I loved him andbrilliant nutritionist oh, oh
man, this guy was like ascientist.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
He was spouting off all of these benefits of
chocolate Like there's aGhislaine of them, but he's like
and it must be the goodchocolate, it must be organic.
And 50% or more, no 60% or more,60% or more, that's right, and
so it's got to be dark chocolate, the organic kind, and it's got
to be good and clean, and thenit's going to give you all of
these health benefits.
(07:26):
And so I love that he dove intothat, because it just makes it
like, hey, this is a practicalthing and this is where you can
get it right here at our farm,going to the, to what they call
a cacao farm, I was expecting,like in my head, rows of trees
like we see in an orchard.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
It's nothing like that.
These, these cacao trees arenative to the country, right,
they grew up wild in places andso there's kind of like bunches.
Yeah, they're just what wouldyou call it like a grove?
A grove yeah, thank you, that'swhat I was searching for.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
A grove of these cacao trees yeah, it's really
cool we didn't walk through thisginormous farm no we, we kind
of pulled up there in the forestright there uh where, and so it
wasn't a big walk around.
It was a nice coveredexperience and his presentation
was awesome.
He took he took a few of thefruits from the trees showed us
(08:20):
the different fruits from.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
They're beautiful the colors are ridiculous the
different stages of the cacaobeans he took some out that were
harvested, some that were ripe,and then he takes a machete and
he cut one open for us.
And when he opens it it'sstrange.
The cacao chocolate is madefrom the seeds and so when you
cut it open, there's all thismeat to the fruit that you don't
(08:43):
eat, but inside the seeds arecontained in these mushy meat
stuff.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Mushy meat stuff white things and you look at it,
you're like it looks kind ofgross.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
And so he's like all right, I want you guys to do
something.
So he took, took one, uh, hetook them off, several of them
and passed it around and we eachand he said, I want you to put
them in your mouth and don't eatit.
Just, you know, suck on it.
It was like uh sucking a mangoyeah, but or yeah, it tasted
like mango.
Uh, cross between a mango andthose super sour candies but
(09:14):
like sweet version of it.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Yeah, I mean, it was that all mixed.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
That's what I'm saying.
It was that all mixed together.
It was so good.
Everyone asked him to passaround again, so we all right
yeah, I'll did another one.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
You didn't know, but y'all actually love the part
around the cacao bean yeah, it'sjust, you don't ever get to
have it, unless you go on thisfarm tour and we didn't.
We didn't eat the seeds, wespit them back out right and the
reason that we don't eat themin daily life.
The mushy meat part yeah becausethat is what god uses when they
ferment the beans, when they'remaking chocolate, uh-.
(09:44):
When they ferment the beans,when they're making chocolate,
uh-huh, they ferment the beans,and so this mushy stuff is what
ferments around the beans.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
It provides the sugar to ferment them.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
And makes the beans delicious.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
So all that's used in the process and I didn't even
know.
They fermented the Cacao beans?
Yeah, they're not beans,they're seeds, whatever.
Yeah, I didn't know they didthat before they made chocolate,
but they have to do that for anumber of weeks, yeah, before
they're even ready to use.
Because he gave us some thatwere just fresh and they were
mushy and didn't taste like youknow whatever.
It was.
Just it was really interesting.
(10:17):
We learned a lot it was very,very fun very cool and then,
okay, so after we're at the farmand we kind of get that history
and like, here is the processof chocolate making from the
farm perspective after thefarmer joe well, former jose, I
don't remember his name, butafter he gave us the
(10:37):
presentation of all thechocolate and stuff, we got back
in the van and drove to thefront end of the farm or another
part of the farm that we'dpassed.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Like the factory part and it's their chocolate making
facility.
So that's where it goes fromfarm to the factory, yep, and so
we got a demonstration on howthey grind the beans and how you
can make cocoa and all that.
And so they.
Actually, their recipe was theground cacao bean and sugar,
(11:06):
actual sugar, and then-.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Cocoa butter, which all the cocoa butter is, when
you grind the cacao seeds, beans, whatever you want to call them
.
When you grind those, theycreate-.
The oils release.
Yeah, the oil released is cocoabutter, so they use that and
all they do is add sugar andthen you have the chocolate.
It was so bizarre he had this,or it was so bizarre bizarre
because I hadn't seen it before,right, and who knows these
(11:31):
things?
They had an old mortar andpestle.
It was huge.
It was I don't know a couple offeet long, about a foot wide,
maybe a little wider, and it'sfrom the Mayan days, long ago,
hundreds of years old, and a bigstone.
It was all volcanic and he usedit to grind them and then, as
he told us about it, he said hey, you guys have the opportunity.
(11:51):
They put, they put the beans onthere and we got to grind them.
Right, that was cool and whatwe ground and made.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Then we got to taste yes, he added sugar to it.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Stages of 100 percent and then he asked us what do
you want we?
Speaker 2 (12:03):
said 80 percent, so he put sugar in it.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
We all tasted.
It was in liquid form at thetime because it hadn't dried and
hardened and are cooled andhardened whatever.
So he gave it to us and wetasted.
It was fantastic now.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
You loved the sugar.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
You were all about the sugar there's sugar, they
also grow their own sugar.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
It's cane sugar, and it is so raw you could almost
taste cinnamon in it absolutelyamazing, so good I mean it's
processed to the point that, inthe sense that, like it's, that
they juice the cane and dry it.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Yeah, I mean it was, but that's about it.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Like it's not really fantastic, oh, my goodness white
refined, processed sugar sonope, that was really fun, and
so we were able to purchase thechocolate and what was really
great is the tour guide not thechocolate we made.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
We didn't purchase that.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
They had a bunch of already made downstairs.
In their factory.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Yeah, they had a little store.
They had a little store, yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
And so Rory's like we can't buy chocolate skin.
I was like, Rory, they'retaking us on a chocolate tour.
I'm sure they thought of it andso they had, and there was a
little cooler in the back of thevan.
And so I was just like, ofcourse.
I mean because of coursethey're going to take care of
that.
So you can buy the chocolate.
Kathy Jacks thought of all that.
What we did is we took thechocolate and we just kept it in
(13:12):
our fridge and our room thewhole time and kind of like
tried to if your fridge has likea freezer section and then you
can take the like freezerchocolate and that way as you're
going home and traveling homeif it's in your luggage, it
should still be Should, asyou're going home and traveling
home.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
If it's in your luggage, it should still be okay
.
Yeah, ish, we travel with a lotof chocolate.
Ours did great, so yeah, oursdid good.
Ours did great.
So that was a really coolexcursion to the cacao farm, but
that wasn't the end of ourexcursion day.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
That was just the first little part.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
It was a two-part excursion, and the second part
of the excursion was going toexperience something waterfalls.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Y'all heard us sing this a couple episodes back.
Really bad yeah, waterfally'all.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
We did a waterfall, and it ain't just no regular
waterfall no, you drive off themain road, which is the middle
of nowhere to begin with.
Come on, you drive off the mainroad onto a dirt road and you
make some turns and this andthat.
Oh, on the way after we turnedoff the main road, we were going
through an old orange orchard.
Now, this is really sad.
Baileys used to be covered inorange orchards and a disease
(14:18):
has killed almost every singleone of their trees, I mean
literally almost every singleone of them, and so it's only a
few years for they're all goingto be gone.
But as we drove down the road,our driver stopped and got us
some fresh oranges, because it'sa variety in belize that I'd
never seen before.
They're ripe and they're noteven orange, fully orange and he
cut it, we, we, he, we got towhere we were going and he cut
it open and we ate it.
(14:39):
It was really good.
Not only that, but he hadwatermelon for us, watermelon.
We weren't expecting that.
We get out of the van.
Yeah, before we walked over tothe waterfall.
Or a little walk to thewaterfall, not really a hike,
just it's a nice little walkhike thing.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
It's a hike.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
But it's not long.
And he had the watermelon wasso good, so good, so we had
watermelon and orange before wetook the walk to the waterfall.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Yes, and you're making me think I'm going to
just jump ahead because we'regoing to talk about food in a
future episode.
But we did get watermelon saladand that was good because it
was like, not there on thisexcursion, but on this trip we
had a watermelon salad with likebasil and cheese.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
But that's another episode, so we're going to
continue with the waterfall.
Now Just chasing rabbits.
Yeah, we're chasing waterfalls,right.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Let's chase waterfalls.
Yep, it was so gorgeous andthere were like three of them.
There were like three differentlevels of waterfalls, and so we
kept walking up and then in thelast one, the last one, big
waterfall we did cliff jumping,because y'all, if you listen to
our episodes from MurraySpaceside, you know that we
learned how to do cliff jumpingfrom that excursion, so we felt
(15:49):
more empowered space side yes,so we got that cliff jumping
training and so I.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
She climbed up high and jumped.
I did not, because that's notmy thing.
I climbed about two feet andjumped, and you know so and I.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
It was so fun.
I did it a second time.
And when I did it the secondtime I jumped over rory.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
She did yeah, and I think we got video of it.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Yeah, we got video of both.
Both of the watch that this was.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
This was like a movie set, because you get there and
the first of all, the river isrunning, there's a waterfall
coming down and it falls intothis big well, like a movie size
pool.
It's not too big, it's not toosmall, and there was only what?
Five other people there at thetime, maybe fewer, maybe less,
maybe three people, and you'vegot this place all to yourself
(16:37):
because it's in the middle ofnowhere, right?
Speaker 2 (16:39):
And because of when we went.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Yeah, yeah, because of the season we went in, it was
their down season.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
The summer is their slow season.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Right y'all how awesome we meant to cover this
in the previous episode.
When do you go to belize?
Speaker 2 (16:51):
yeah, so we went in may and that was a great time
because you still have all thegreat summer weather, but it's
shoulder season.
They just started enteringtheir slow season.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
They told me, yeah, may, may, going until october or
something, is their slow seasonbecause they really get their
business from the snowbirds whocome down during the wintertime.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
So, man, fantastic summer vacations from may, I
guess, through october orsomething like that well, you
want to go in may becausestarting in june starts their
rainy season and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Oh, okay, okay well, we can definitely recommend.
May Mother, may I go to Belize.
That's good In May.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
And do waterfalls.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
And do waterfalls.
Okay.
So there's this pool.
It's about 20 feet deep so youcan actually dive into it and
it's cool, but not cold, cold,not like Finland, cold, right, I
even got used to it real quick.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
It was really great, and you know what else you did
in the water and got used to itreal quick.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
It was really great.
You know what else you did inthe water?
Yeah, so we got there and therewas a little kid sitting on a
big rock sitting on a big rockand he had his feet in the water
and somebody said, oh look,he's letting the fish you know
nibble at his feet and I waslike huh.
And they said something andwhatever that made me think of
when you go to spas and theyhave these fish, that chew the
dead skin off your hands andtoes and stuff.
And I looked down there andthat's exactly what he was doing
(18:10):
.
So they have these little fishthat you don't have to pay for
this spot treatment.
They eat the little dead skincells, flesh things off your
fingers and feet.
They don't actually eat theflesh, I suppose, as we might
think of it, right.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
But they're a little small, like minnow sized, and
that was totally cool.
So I sat there and I put myhands and my feet in the water
and they nibbled at them.
It was kind of ticklish, but Ithought it was really cool.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
And we went swimming in that water pool Swimming.
We dove in and just enjoyed theview and the cool weather and
just like so nice yeah, supernice man.
And all of the setting of thewaterfall is just naturally.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Yeah, you're in the jungle.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
As you walk the three levels to the waterfalls,
you're surrounded by these coolrock formations.
And it's just kind of like anice little hidden away place.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
At the very beginning they got large covered uh patio
thing set up with a they dohave a restaurant restaurant bar
in there where they can serve,uh, refreshments and stuff.
So that's, I mean, that's reallycool.
It is a spot that you can go to.
It's set up for people to go toit.
Matter of fact, there was evena building on the way walking to
the waterfalls and I said whatis that?
I went up, looked in thewindows and I was like this is
(19:26):
that looks really cool inside.
What is it?
And they said well, theoriginal guy who built this
place or bought it, wanted tomake that a honeymoon bungalow
for people.
He died, I think, and so thefamily's just hasn't done
anything with it and it's justsitting there rotting, which is
really sad.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
But anyway, really cool Potential to be a cool
lodging.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Potential yes.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Take that on, all right, so we did, so, okay, so
that was one excursion that wedid, yep, with Captain Jax,
another one we did.
We did a very cool catamaranday trip, oh yeah, To a private
island.
So again they picked us up atour resort and transported us to
(20:06):
the river, where we got on thecatamaran yeah, which was not
far no, and so we got to go to aprivate island, which was moho
key moho key because you knowit's a key which, as she said,
is an island.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
We got on, I think we got on the catamaran.
They took us.
They took us on a little vanride to the harbor.
We got on the catamaran.
They took us on a little vanride to the harbor.
We got on the catamaran there.
But when we came back home,they took us right there to
Surinian Bay in the river andlet us off and we just walked
back to our villa.
It was really awesome.
So the ride, the drive, theride on the catamaran was what?
Maybe an hour and a half,something like that, to the
(20:43):
island, yeah, so that somethinglike that to the island, yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
So it that was really nice because you just got, like
you know, the whole saying openocean, yeah, but the saying of
it's not the destination it'sthe journey and just being on a
boat and having a boat rideitself is nice, and so it was a
really nice length of time tofeel like you're enjoying a boat
ride yeah, and it was reallynice going somewhere, really
nice length the boat.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
It was a huge catamaran, four cabins, four
heads, which are the toilets,and also a huge main room, a
huge salon, uh, upstairs, well,downstairs, yeah, with a full
kitchen couches.
It's all air-conditioned insideit's all air conditioning yeah,
outside in the back, a huge deck, in the front a huge deck, and
we spent all our time on thedecks, uh, on the way, mostly in
(21:28):
the front, uh, so we could seewhere we're going.
But that was really great hugeflying bridge for the captain
and all these kind of thingsbeautiful.
It was like a, like a movie,and so about an hour and a half
out to the island and theyanchor just off the island.
What maybe, maybe 100 yards,something like this and between
you and the island are thesecoral reefs and different things
(21:50):
.
And so they give you the optionNow they've got all the
snorkeling gear and stuff andthey give you the option you can
either snorkel your way to theisland or get in a dinghy and
they'll give you a ride.
So, obviously, you know, we allchose to snorkel our way to the
island, most of us anyway.
It was awesome.
So we snorkeled to the island.
We've got this day out there.
We're thinking, well, what arewe going to do?
(22:10):
You know what all's going on.
They're snorkeling.
We walked around the entireisland.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
It only took like 20 minutes.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
I mean it's not that big of an island yeah, because
yeah, or we walked around thekey, should I say we snorkeled
and when we got there theybrought a bunch of.
They were unloading the dinghyand they had all kinds of food.
There's a huge grill, likebrick grill, built into the
built on the island Right andthey cooked us.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
There are bathrooms and grills already on the island
that are working andfunctioning.
It's not air conditioned?
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Yep, it's not air conditioned, but you're in the
shade of all these palms andtrees.
They cooked for us on theisland.
They cooked chicken and hadsides.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
They had beans and rice.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Beans and rice, and condiments and all this.
The food was awesome.
The chicken, oh my goodness, sogood.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Oh, and they had fruit there waiting for us and I
ate, like all the pineapple.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
It was so good they had a big fruit thing for us.
I mean really done very, verywell and really fun.
We were walking along the beachand I saw a shark fin and I
thought, oh my goodness, sharksswimming all around their feet
right there in the water.
They were only up to theirknees or thighs, or so I was
(23:22):
like, are these people blind?
They're standing there withthese sharks swimming around and
they told us they were whatsharks, not sand sharks.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
No, I don't know, but they weren't scared of them.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Mother sharks, I think something like that.
Anyway, you know, because theydon't have teeth or something
like that, you know the sharksthat you put in aquariums and
they have the little suckers andthey go around and clean the
aquarium.
These are sharks like that andthey don't.
They don't attack, they don'tbite so that's why people
weren't scared yeah they're justswimming around all around
their legs and these areprobably like five, four or five
(23:53):
feet sharks and they weren't,yeah, stingrays.
So when you're snorkeling outthere, you're seeing all these
colorful fish and stingrays andsharks that you don't have to be
afraid of.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
It was really cool so you could snorkel, you could
swim.
They had floaties for us, likejust inner tubes, I guess, is
what you would call it.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
And so a lot of us just float in the tube and talk
to each other in the water.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
It was just really nice and then, you can either
swim back to the boat or theywill.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Again.
They're like you can snorkelyour way back or if you're tired
.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Raft back to the catamaran Yep.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
You can get on the dinghy and they'll take you back
in the dinghy.
So I think everyone chose thedinghy except me.
So I was snorkeling out towardsthe boat and everybody's at the
boat waiting for me, at leastthat's what it felt like.
So, anyway, I finally got thereand we took a half and that was
(24:48):
really great.
Our bellies were full.
We'd spent the full day at theisland, or a number of hours
anyway, and so on the way back,everyone was so chill.
Oh, that's the other thingcaptain jacks did.
They brought all the drinks andeverything back and, like we
said, they took us straight upthe river, docked right there at
serenium bay and we just walkedback to our bella super super
great trip.
Yeah, highly recommended.
And now I think, startingNovember, we got a preview of
the tour, but I think, startingin November, you can actually
(25:11):
take that tour.
November of 2025, that touropens up to the public.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Yep, so book your tour now, for then.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Get that going and that is the main island that
they'll take you to, or the key,so the Moho key.
The experience we had is verysimilar to the experience you
would have, but then they alsocan provide private tours.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
They can do private and bespoke personalized tours.
If you tell them what you wantto do, they will set it up for
you and make it happen.
Yes, it's.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Serenian Bay.
That's what they want to do andCaptain.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Jack's can try to help accommodate what you're
wanting to private weddings or,if you want to, if you want to
propose to your wife, if to yourwife, if you want to propose to
your girlfriend, then they'llset up these really like crazy,
inventive, creative things.
They'll do whatever they can tomake it happen for you.
So serenian bay is really goodabout that.
Talk, talk to Toby.
So those were the excursions wewere able to have while we were
(26:09):
staying there in Placentia atSerenian Bay, but there are so
many more that you can do.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
So you can visit our show notes.
We'll put links to CaptainJack's in there and as well as
Serenian Bay, because again,they're glad to help you get
what you need out of yourexperience and your trip to
Placentia.
Now, speaking of Serenian Bay,we're going to dive more into
Serenian Bay next episode.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Next episode.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
So you don't even have to leave the resort there
to have fun and so we're goingto dive into our stay there,
starting with its origin storyand some of the immersive
experiences.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
It's like you said, it's Oregon story.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
It's origin story.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
It's origin story, it's origin story that's right,
yes, I love origin stories.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Yep, because you're a history buff.
It's super fun.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Super man.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Well, we are looking forward to seeing you in the
next episode.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Yep, see you then.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
We hope we've inspired you this episode, so
join us next time.
Please subscribe to rate andshare our podcast with your
friends or you know whoever.
And please like and follow uson Instagram, youtube and
(27:31):
Facebook.
We're also on X and on allsocial platforms.
We are at TheRomies.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
That's T-H-E-R-O-A-M-I-E-S, and our
main hub is our website atwwwtheromiescom.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
That's right, that's D-H-E-R-O-A-M-I-E-Scom.
We'll be there until next time.
Yeah, thanks for listening.
Bye.
Hi, I'm Alexa and I'm Rory, and together we are the
Romies.
We are made to each other.
Right, we are a touring musicalduo.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
And our music has taken us to all kinds of places
all around the world and keepsus always on the go.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
So we hope you enjoy our stories and adventures while
running around working to keepall your plates spinning.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
And we hope, to facilitate your busy lifestyle
and feed your inner travel bug.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Today we will be discussing our adventures in
Plasencia, belize.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Adventure Loving this adventure with you.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Oh nice, that sounds like a song.
Maybe you wrote I sure did, yes, an alexa james song it went a
while like out of tune for asecond.
But yeah, but you can find theactual recording somewhere.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
I don't know that you can oh one day we'll do it live
again, though okay, well, youcan look online.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
What's it called?
Speaker 2 (01:03):
adventure with Adventure.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
With you.
So look for Alexa James.
Adventure With you on all yourlocal music hotspots online.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
That's right.
Speaking of adventure, Rory.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Let's dive into Captain Jack's.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
I like how you did that Dive, Because on our
adventure we had opportunitiesto dive.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
And there are so A number of opportunities to dive
and there are so many A numberof opportunities to dive.
With Captain Jacks.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
As we mentioned, we are diving in to our excursions
and experiences that we had inPlacentia, belize, this month,
and so last week we talked aboutgetting to Belize, the culture,
the currency, all of that stuff, and so we talked about how we
(01:52):
stayed in Serenian Bay, atSerenian Bay Resort and Villas.
Super great.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Captain Jack's is headquartered at Serenian Bay.
They have locations all overthe peninsula, but they're
headquartered right there atSer're staying there and we did
all of our excursions with them.
It was just amazing and soconvenient.
Now Captain Jack started yearsago.
Super cool story behind thereTaking fishing trips out, and
they eventually spread to doingother things, expanded to doing
(02:19):
other things and when Brian,who's the owner of Serenian Bay,
which you're going to meet nextweek.
Yep.
When he moved to Belize he metCaptain Jack and they became
good friends.
And then Captain Jack passeddue to cancer, and when he did,
his good friend Brian bought thebusiness from his wife.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yes, and so now Captain Jack's Keeping on the
whole spirit of what's going on,captain.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Jack's lives on, and they have expanded expanded even
to more things that we'll talkabout today, and we did one of
those more things that is brandnew.
As a matter of fact, it hasn'tyet been what's the word.
The curtain hasn't risen on ityet, right?
Speaker 2 (02:57):
But let's get to that in a minute.
Yeah, in a minute We'll openthe curtain.
I'm just seeding the excitement.
Yes, yes, it's very exciting.
So now it used to be fishing,right, like Rory said.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
But now they have over 50 excursions that they can
offer.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
So I'm going to share just a couple of them.
They have diving and so you cando Pompey and Kai, Okay, but
Key sorry.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Well, and when she says diving, she means like
scuba and free diving, not likediving off a diving board.
Though I'm sure they havecliffs, you can dive off of as
well.
Right, I think people probablyunderstood the context.
These are diving trips.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Well, not because we talked about diving in earlier,
but now we're going to talkabout the keys, rory, and a key
is spelled C-A-Y-E and it's likea mini island.
But it's like not an island,but it's an island, but it's a
key, is it a?
Speaker 1 (03:44):
group of islands.
No, I guess it is an island.
No, it's just its own littleisland.
See, it shows what I know.
But they call them keys.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
I read the definition of it, but I'm not explaining
it well, but anyway.
So a key is basically an island, but it's not an island because
it's a key C-A-Y-E, likeC-A-Y-E, c-a-y-e, but it's
pronounced key.
So they go to the Silk Key, theLaughing Bird Key, so they have
like different keys that theygo to, but they also go to the
Great Blue.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Hole.
All right, everyone take theopportunity to look at your
screens on YouTube now orwherever you're watching this.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
If you're watching on YouTube, you can see the Blue
Hole and you see the Blue Holethat is amazing.
I didn't know about that untilthe end of our thing, so we have
to go to that.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Again, me being way cooler than you.
I knew about it, but still.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
I know because you are cooler than me.
They also have scuba, so theyhave all kinds of scuba and they
have the courses.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
So you can get certified.
You can become certified, yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
And Serenian Bay has a pool that they work on.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Specifically to train you in.
You can do your lessons for you.
Very cool.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
So you can do it all there and then go off on all
your adventures from thereSnorkeling at different keys.
They also have fishing, which?
We said earlier yeah, from dayone, right, Okay.
Then there's land tours, and soI didn't know about this one
either, or would have likejumped at it, but they have a
spice tour Like visit.
I didn't know about this oneeither.
I would have like jumped at it,but they have a spice tour like
(05:07):
visit a farm.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
We heard about that.
It was cool, though we did notget to do it.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
I wanted to go, but you can do the monkey river and
manatee watch.
They have cave tubing.
They have a Jaguar reserve inBelize and they can take you
there.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
And so that's super cool.
Yeah, we were told of peopleswimming with the manatees and
two people that we met there andbecame friends with they had
swam, swam, swimed, swam swimswim, swim.
I don't know.
They swam with the manatees andhow cool is that.
So when you're on that riverwith the monkeys, that monkey
river tour.
You can swim with the manateestoo.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
The sea cows, as they call them.
They have a sunset, lagoon,sail and stuff like that.
So there's like a bunch ofstuff, right?
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Yeah, okay, bunch of stuff, 50 plus excursions, all
right Now.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
We did not.
We were only there a short time.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
We did not be there for 50.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
We couldn't do all 50 .
But we did do a few.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
So we're going to tell you about those.
One of them was the chocolatefarm and waterfall tour.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Yeah, that was cool, okay, y'all.
So I'm all about chocolate.
It's one of the food.
I am a certified holisticnutritionist and so I think that
there is a food group that ischocolate food group.
Saying that that's a food group, okay, okay.
So we got to go to thechocolate making process, like
the Mayan inspired chocolatemaking that takes place at their
(06:29):
cacao farm.
Yes, so we started out in thefarm.
So let's back up just realquick.
We got a van tour.
Captain Jack's just picked usup at our resort.
They knew where we were staying.
It was all coordinated for us.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
We just show up.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Walked out the road, there they were takes us there
and we meet people who they hadpicked up from their other where
they were staying and we alldrove and went to.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
We started out at the farm and our guide was so
awesome the farmer that spokeyeah, he was a little guy, he
was super cute I loved him andbrilliant nutritionist oh, oh
man, this guy was like ascientist.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
He was spouting off all of these benefits of
chocolate Like there's aGhislaine of them, but he's like
and it must be the goodchocolate, it must be organic.
And 50% or more, no 60% or more,60% or more, that's right, and
so it's got to be dark chocolate, the organic kind, and it's got
to be good and clean, and thenit's going to give you all of
these health benefits.
(07:26):
And so I love that he dove intothat, because it just makes it
like, hey, this is a practicalthing and this is where you can
get it right here at our farm,going to the, to what they call
a cacao farm, I was expecting,like in my head, rows of trees
like we see in an orchard.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
It's nothing like that.
These, these cacao trees arenative to the country, right,
they grew up wild in places andso there's kind of like bunches.
Yeah, they're just what wouldyou call it like a grove?
A grove yeah, thank you, that'swhat I was searching for.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
A grove of these cacao trees yeah, it's really
cool we didn't walk through thisginormous farm no we, we kind
of pulled up there in the forestright there uh where, and so it
wasn't a big walk around.
It was a nice coveredexperience and his presentation
was awesome.
He took he took a few of thefruits from the trees showed us
(08:20):
the different fruits from.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
They're beautiful the colors are ridiculous the
different stages of the cacaobeans he took some out that were
harvested, some that were ripe,and then he takes a machete and
he cut one open for us.
And when he opens it it'sstrange.
The cacao chocolate is madefrom the seeds and so when you
cut it open, there's all thismeat to the fruit that you don't
(08:43):
eat, but inside the seeds arecontained in these mushy meat
stuff.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Mushy meat stuff white things and you look at it,
you're like it looks kind ofgross.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
And so he's like all right, I want you guys to do
something.
So he took, took one, uh, hetook them off, several of them
and passed it around and we eachand he said, I want you to put
them in your mouth and don't eatit.
Just, you know, suck on it.
It was like uh sucking a mangoyeah, but or yeah, it tasted
like mango.
Uh, cross between a mango andthose super sour candies but
(09:14):
like sweet version of it.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Yeah, I mean, it was that all mixed.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
That's what I'm saying.
It was that all mixed together.
It was so good.
Everyone asked him to passaround again, so we all right
yeah, I'll did another one.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
You didn't know, but y'all actually love the part
around the cacao bean yeah, it'sjust, you don't ever get to
have it, unless you go on thisfarm tour and we didn't.
We didn't eat the seeds, wespit them back out right and the
reason that we don't eat themin daily life.
The mushy meat part yeah becausethat is what god uses when they
ferment the beans, when they'remaking chocolate, uh-.
(09:44):
When they ferment the beans,when they're making chocolate,
uh-huh, they ferment the beans,and so this mushy stuff is what
ferments around the beans.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
It provides the sugar to ferment them.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
And makes the beans delicious.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
So all that's used in the process and I didn't even
know.
They fermented the Cacao beans?
Yeah, they're not beans,they're seeds, whatever.
Yeah, I didn't know they didthat before they made chocolate,
but they have to do that for anumber of weeks, yeah, before
they're even ready to use.
Because he gave us some thatwere just fresh and they were
mushy and didn't taste like youknow whatever.
It was.
Just it was really interesting.
(10:17):
We learned a lot it was very,very fun very cool and then,
okay, so after we're at the farmand we kind of get that history
and like, here is the processof chocolate making from the
farm perspective after thefarmer joe well, former jose, I
don't remember his name, butafter he gave us the
(10:37):
presentation of all thechocolate and stuff, we got back
in the van and drove to thefront end of the farm or another
part of the farm that we'dpassed.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Like the factory part and it's their chocolate making
facility.
So that's where it goes fromfarm to the factory, yep, and so
we got a demonstration on howthey grind the beans and how you
can make cocoa and all that.
And so they.
Actually, their recipe was theground cacao bean and sugar,
(11:06):
actual sugar, and then-.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Cocoa butter, which all the cocoa butter is, when
you grind the cacao seeds, beans, whatever you want to call them
.
When you grind those, theycreate-.
The oils release.
Yeah, the oil released is cocoabutter, so they use that and
all they do is add sugar andthen you have the chocolate.
It was so bizarre he had this,or it was so bizarre bizarre
because I hadn't seen it before,right, and who knows these
(11:31):
things?
They had an old mortar andpestle.
It was huge.
It was I don't know a couple offeet long, about a foot wide,
maybe a little wider, and it'sfrom the Mayan days, long ago,
hundreds of years old, and a bigstone.
It was all volcanic and he usedit to grind them and then, as
he told us about it, he said hey, you guys have the opportunity.
(11:51):
They put, they put the beans onthere and we got to grind them.
Right, that was cool and whatwe ground and made.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Then we got to taste yes, he added sugar to it.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Stages of 100 percent and then he asked us what do
you want we?
Speaker 2 (12:03):
said 80 percent, so he put sugar in it.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
We all tasted.
It was in liquid form at thetime because it hadn't dried and
hardened and are cooled andhardened whatever.
So he gave it to us and wetasted.
It was fantastic now.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
You loved the sugar.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
You were all about the sugar there's sugar, they
also grow their own sugar.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
It's cane sugar, and it is so raw you could almost
taste cinnamon in it absolutelyamazing, so good I mean it's
processed to the point that, inthe sense that, like it's, that
they juice the cane and dry it.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Yeah, I mean it was, but that's about it.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Like it's not really fantastic, oh, my goodness white
refined, processed sugar sonope, that was really fun, and
so we were able to purchase thechocolate and what was really
great is the tour guide not thechocolate we made.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
We didn't purchase that.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
They had a bunch of already made downstairs.
In their factory.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Yeah, they had a little store.
They had a little store, yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
And so Rory's like we can't buy chocolate skin.
I was like, Rory, they'retaking us on a chocolate tour.
I'm sure they thought of it andso they had, and there was a
little cooler in the back of thevan.
And so I was just like, ofcourse.
I mean because of coursethey're going to take care of
that.
So you can buy the chocolate.
Kathy Jacks thought of all that.
What we did is we took thechocolate and we just kept it in
(13:12):
our fridge and our room thewhole time and kind of like
tried to if your fridge has likea freezer section and then you
can take the like freezerchocolate and that way as you're
going home and traveling homeif it's in your luggage, it
should still be Should, asyou're going home and traveling
home.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
If it's in your luggage, it should still be okay
.
Yeah, ish, we travel with a lotof chocolate.
Ours did great, so yeah, oursdid good.
Ours did great.
So that was a really coolexcursion to the cacao farm, but
that wasn't the end of ourexcursion day.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
That was just the first little part.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
It was a two-part excursion, and the second part
of the excursion was going toexperience something waterfalls.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Y'all heard us sing this a couple episodes back.
Really bad yeah, waterfally'all.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
We did a waterfall, and it ain't just no regular
waterfall no, you drive off themain road, which is the middle
of nowhere to begin with.
Come on, you drive off the mainroad onto a dirt road and you
make some turns and this andthat.
Oh, on the way after we turnedoff the main road, we were going
through an old orange orchard.
Now, this is really sad.
Baileys used to be covered inorange orchards and a disease
(14:18):
has killed almost every singleone of their trees, I mean
literally almost every singleone of them, and so it's only a
few years for they're all goingto be gone.
But as we drove down the road,our driver stopped and got us
some fresh oranges, because it'sa variety in belize that I'd
never seen before.
They're ripe and they're noteven orange, fully orange and he
cut it, we, we, he, we got towhere we were going and he cut
it open and we ate it.
(14:39):
It was really good.
Not only that, but he hadwatermelon for us, watermelon.
We weren't expecting that.
We get out of the van.
Yeah, before we walked over tothe waterfall.
Or a little walk to thewaterfall, not really a hike,
just it's a nice little walkhike thing.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
It's a hike.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
But it's not long.
And he had the watermelon wasso good, so good, so we had
watermelon and orange before wetook the walk to the waterfall.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Yes, and you're making me think I'm going to
just jump ahead because we'regoing to talk about food in a
future episode.
But we did get watermelon saladand that was good because it
was like, not there on thisexcursion, but on this trip we
had a watermelon salad with likebasil and cheese.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
But that's another episode, so we're going to
continue with the waterfall.
Now Just chasing rabbits.
Yeah, we're chasing waterfalls,right.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Let's chase waterfalls.
Yep, it was so gorgeous andthere were like three of them.
There were like three differentlevels of waterfalls, and so we
kept walking up and then in thelast one, the last one, big
waterfall we did cliff jumping,because y'all, if you listen to
our episodes from MurraySpaceside, you know that we
learned how to do cliff jumpingfrom that excursion, so we felt
(15:49):
more empowered space side yes,so we got that cliff jumping
training and so I.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
She climbed up high and jumped.
I did not, because that's notmy thing.
I climbed about two feet andjumped, and you know so and I.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
It was so fun.
I did it a second time.
And when I did it the secondtime I jumped over rory.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
She did yeah, and I think we got video of it.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Yeah, we got video of both.
Both of the watch that this was.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
This was like a movie set, because you get there and
the first of all, the river isrunning, there's a waterfall
coming down and it falls intothis big well, like a movie size
pool.
It's not too big, it's not toosmall, and there was only what?
Five other people there at thetime, maybe fewer, maybe less,
maybe three people, and you'vegot this place all to yourself
(16:37):
because it's in the middle ofnowhere, right?
Speaker 2 (16:39):
And because of when we went.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Yeah, yeah, because of the season we went in, it was
their down season.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
The summer is their slow season.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Right y'all how awesome we meant to cover this
in the previous episode.
When do you go to belize?
Speaker 2 (16:51):
yeah, so we went in may and that was a great time
because you still have all thegreat summer weather, but it's
shoulder season.
They just started enteringtheir slow season.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
They told me, yeah, may, may, going until october or
something, is their slow seasonbecause they really get their
business from the snowbirds whocome down during the wintertime.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
So, man, fantastic summer vacations from may, I
guess, through october orsomething like that well, you
want to go in may becausestarting in june starts their
rainy season and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Oh, okay, okay well, we can definitely recommend.
May Mother, may I go to Belize.
That's good In May.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
And do waterfalls.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
And do waterfalls.
Okay.
So there's this pool.
It's about 20 feet deep so youcan actually dive into it and
it's cool, but not cold, cold,not like Finland, cold, right, I
even got used to it real quick.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
It was really great, and you know what else you did
in the water and got used to itreal quick.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
It was really great.
You know what else you did inthe water?
Yeah, so we got there and therewas a little kid sitting on a
big rock sitting on a big rockand he had his feet in the water
and somebody said, oh look,he's letting the fish you know
nibble at his feet and I waslike huh.
And they said something andwhatever that made me think of
when you go to spas and theyhave these fish, that chew the
dead skin off your hands andtoes and stuff.
And I looked down there andthat's exactly what he was doing
(18:10):
.
So they have these little fishthat you don't have to pay for
this spot treatment.
They eat the little dead skincells, flesh things off your
fingers and feet.
They don't actually eat theflesh, I suppose, as we might
think of it, right.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
But they're a little small, like minnow sized, and
that was totally cool.
So I sat there and I put myhands and my feet in the water
and they nibbled at them.
It was kind of ticklish, but Ithought it was really cool.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
And we went swimming in that water pool Swimming.
We dove in and just enjoyed theview and the cool weather and
just like so nice yeah, supernice man.
And all of the setting of thewaterfall is just naturally.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Yeah, you're in the jungle.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
As you walk the three levels to the waterfalls,
you're surrounded by these coolrock formations.
And it's just kind of like anice little hidden away place.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
At the very beginning they got large covered uh patio
thing set up with a they dohave a restaurant restaurant bar
in there where they can serve,uh, refreshments and stuff.
So that's, I mean, that's reallycool.
It is a spot that you can go to.
It's set up for people to go toit.
Matter of fact, there was evena building on the way walking to
the waterfalls and I said whatis that?
I went up, looked in thewindows and I was like this is
(19:26):
that looks really cool inside.
What is it?
And they said well, theoriginal guy who built this
place or bought it, wanted tomake that a honeymoon bungalow
for people.
He died, I think, and so thefamily's just hasn't done
anything with it and it's justsitting there rotting, which is
really sad.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
But anyway, really cool Potential to be a cool
lodging.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Potential yes.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Take that on, all right, so we did, so, okay, so
that was one excursion that wedid, yep, with Captain Jax,
another one we did.
We did a very cool catamaranday trip, oh yeah, To a private
island.
So again they picked us up atour resort and transported us to
(20:06):
the river, where we got on thecatamaran yeah, which was not
far no, and so we got to go to aprivate island, which was moho
key moho key because you knowit's a key which, as she said,
is an island.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
We got on, I think we got on the catamaran.
They took us.
They took us on a little vanride to the harbor.
We got on the catamaran.
They took us on a little vanride to the harbor.
We got on the catamaran there.
But when we came back home,they took us right there to
Surinian Bay in the river andlet us off and we just walked
back to our villa.
It was really awesome.
So the ride, the drive, theride on the catamaran was what?
Maybe an hour and a half,something like that, to the
(20:43):
island, yeah, so that somethinglike that to the island, yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
So it that was really nice because you just got, like
you know, the whole saying openocean, yeah, but the saying of
it's not the destination it'sthe journey and just being on a
boat and having a boat rideitself is nice, and so it was a
really nice length of time tofeel like you're enjoying a boat
ride yeah, and it was reallynice going somewhere, really
nice length the boat.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
It was a huge catamaran, four cabins, four
heads, which are the toilets,and also a huge main room, a
huge salon, uh, upstairs, well,downstairs, yeah, with a full
kitchen couches.
It's all air-conditioned insideit's all air conditioning yeah,
outside in the back, a huge deck, in the front a huge deck, and
we spent all our time on thedecks, uh, on the way, mostly in
(21:28):
the front, uh, so we could seewhere we're going.
But that was really great hugeflying bridge for the captain
and all these kind of thingsbeautiful.
It was like a, like a movie,and so about an hour and a half
out to the island and theyanchor just off the island.
What maybe, maybe 100 yards,something like this and between
you and the island are thesecoral reefs and different things
(21:50):
.
And so they give you the optionNow they've got all the
snorkeling gear and stuff andthey give you the option you can
either snorkel your way to theisland or get in a dinghy and
they'll give you a ride.
So, obviously, you know, we allchose to snorkel our way to the
island, most of us anyway.
It was awesome.
So we snorkeled to the island.
We've got this day out there.
We're thinking, well, what arewe going to do?
(22:10):
You know what all's going on.
They're snorkeling.
We walked around the entireisland.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
It only took like 20 minutes.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
I mean it's not that big of an island yeah, because
yeah, or we walked around thekey, should I say we snorkeled
and when we got there theybrought a bunch of.
They were unloading the dinghyand they had all kinds of food.
There's a huge grill, likebrick grill, built into the
built on the island Right andthey cooked us.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
There are bathrooms and grills already on the island
that are working andfunctioning.
It's not air conditioned?
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Yep, it's not air conditioned, but you're in the
shade of all these palms andtrees.
They cooked for us on theisland.
They cooked chicken and hadsides.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
They had beans and rice.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Beans and rice, and condiments and all this.
The food was awesome.
The chicken, oh my goodness, sogood.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Oh, and they had fruit there waiting for us and I
ate, like all the pineapple.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
It was so good they had a big fruit thing for us.
I mean really done very, verywell and really fun.
We were walking along the beachand I saw a shark fin and I
thought, oh my goodness, sharksswimming all around their feet
right there in the water.
They were only up to theirknees or thighs, or so I was
(23:22):
like, are these people blind?
They're standing there withthese sharks swimming around and
they told us they were whatsharks, not sand sharks.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
No, I don't know, but they weren't scared of them.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Mother sharks, I think something like that.
Anyway, you know, because theydon't have teeth or something
like that, you know the sharksthat you put in aquariums and
they have the little suckers andthey go around and clean the
aquarium.
These are sharks like that andthey don't.
They don't attack, they don'tbite so that's why people
weren't scared yeah they're justswimming around all around
their legs and these areprobably like five, four or five
(23:53):
feet sharks and they weren't,yeah, stingrays.
So when you're snorkeling outthere, you're seeing all these
colorful fish and stingrays andsharks that you don't have to be
afraid of.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
It was really cool so you could snorkel, you could
swim.
They had floaties for us, likejust inner tubes, I guess, is
what you would call it.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
And so a lot of us just float in the tube and talk
to each other in the water.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
It was just really nice and then, you can either
swim back to the boat or theywill.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Again.
They're like you can snorkelyour way back or if you're tired
.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Raft back to the catamaran Yep.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
You can get on the dinghy and they'll take you back
in the dinghy.
So I think everyone chose thedinghy except me.
So I was snorkeling out towardsthe boat and everybody's at the
boat waiting for me, at leastthat's what it felt like.
So, anyway, I finally got thereand we took a half and that was
(24:48):
really great.
Our bellies were full.
We'd spent the full day at theisland, or a number of hours
anyway, and so on the way back,everyone was so chill.
Oh, that's the other thingcaptain jacks did.
They brought all the drinks andeverything back and, like we
said, they took us straight upthe river, docked right there at
serenium bay and we just walkedback to our bella super super
great trip.
Yeah, highly recommended.
And now I think, startingNovember, we got a preview of
the tour, but I think, startingin November, you can actually
(25:11):
take that tour.
November of 2025, that touropens up to the public.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Yep, so book your tour now, for then.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Get that going and that is the main island that
they'll take you to, or the key,so the Moho key.
The experience we had is verysimilar to the experience you
would have, but then they alsocan provide private tours.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
They can do private and bespoke personalized tours.
If you tell them what you wantto do, they will set it up for
you and make it happen.
Yes, it's.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Serenian Bay.
That's what they want to do andCaptain.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Jack's can try to help accommodate what you're
wanting to private weddings or,if you want to, if you want to
propose to your wife, if to yourwife, if you want to propose to
your girlfriend, then they'llset up these really like crazy,
inventive, creative things.
They'll do whatever they can tomake it happen for you.
So serenian bay is really goodabout that.
Talk, talk to Toby.
So those were the excursions wewere able to have while we were
(26:09):
staying there in Placentia atSerenian Bay, but there are so
many more that you can do.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
So you can visit our show notes.
We'll put links to CaptainJack's in there and as well as
Serenian Bay, because again,they're glad to help you get
what you need out of yourexperience and your trip to
Placentia.
Now, speaking of Serenian Bay,we're going to dive more into
Serenian Bay next episode.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Next episode.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
So you don't even have to leave the resort there
to have fun and so we're goingto dive into our stay there,
starting with its origin storyand some of the immersive
experiences.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
It's like you said, it's Oregon story.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
It's origin story.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
It's origin story, it's origin story that's right,
yes, I love origin stories.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Yep, because you're a history buff.
It's super fun.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Super man.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Well, we are looking forward to seeing you in the
next episode.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Yep, see you then.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
We hope we've inspired you this episode, so
join us next time.
Please subscribe to rate andshare our podcast with your
friends or you know whoever.
And please like and follow uson Instagram, youtube and
(27:31):
Facebook.
We're also on X and on allsocial platforms.
We are at TheRomies.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
That's T-H-E-R-O-A-M-I-E-S, and our
main hub is our website atwwwtheromiescom.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
That's right, that's D-H-E-R-O-A-M-I-E-Scom.
We'll be there until next time.
Yeah, thanks for listening.
Bye.
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