Belize
After saying goodbye to a drenched Mexico, we were happy to be greeted by some sunshine in Belize. Our first and only destination in Belize was a very small island called Caye Caulker which is famous for diving and doing nothing, both activities sounded worth a look.
Transport from mexico was on a water taxi for 2 hours, via another nearby island called caye ambergris for the immigration and customs stop. Easily the nicest, easiest and unrobust (I'm making up words now) immigration process we have ever encountered which made for a nice change when compared to the ol USA.
The pit stop took longer than anticipated though, so we arrived after dark and were forced into sleeping with a local cockroach colony on our first night, which was also operating as a cheap hotel. Luckily we escaped for a nice meal at a local restaurant with some new friends, and even though all of the people in our group ordered different dishes of the menu, creole lobster was the only food served up. Before we had a chance to dispute the error, the big smile of the old Belizian chef cast a dazed look over us as she said "so everyone is 'aving lobster tonight. Aaariight then". Who were we to argue.
Day 2 through to day 4 was all guns blazing, starting with checking into a new hotel and starting our open water dive course. We had to catch up to a group that had already started the course, and without commencing any theory, we were in the water doing skill exercises straight away. We knocked the course over in 3 days (usually takes 4), which included 5 dives and a fair bit of theory, videos and final exam. The conditions were a bit messy and not great visibility, but we managed to see a small reef shark, turtle, eels, lobster, crabs, and all sorts of other fish and coral to depths of 18m.
Since we were so pumped from finishing the course, we decided to do another 3 dives on a day trip to the Big Blue Hole (famous dive site) and a few other reefs. This included a 40m dive at the Blue Hole which is normally only done by more experienced divers, but they seemed happy enough to take our money and throw us in. The enormous stalactites were amazing, and swimming between them while looking into the deep blue sink hole was definitely worth the 2hr dodgem derby boat ride we had made to get there. Oh, and there were also a few 3-3.5 metre sharks hanging around which kept things interesting. Our new Irish friend got the wobbles (technical term is nitrogen narcosis) on the dive which can happen when you go deeper than 30m, so he doesn't remember much of it and had to be assisted by the dive master, but finished the dive safely. The other two outer reef dives were also good, particularly at the site called 'the aquarium', which lived up to it's name. Right near that site we landed on an uninhibited island which was home to a nesting colony of booby's. If you are interested in booby's, they are discussed in further detail below.
Other than diving, we only had one day to participate in the 'doin nothin' part of Belize culture which was as expected. Other highlights were fresh seafood everyday and some good runs from one end of the island and back. We also gave the local nightclubs with a good nudge on our last night which is still a bit blurry so I wont be able to recall the details here. (Comment by Edwina, I remember the night and for those that know Chad it was a typical Chad night which included his typical standard Chad things... Including pixie dancing and other unmentionables!)

Finally, I feel it pertinent to share some advice from locals that was offered to me at various occasion during walks down the main street. Aussie males, listen up:

Situation 1: Chad and Edwina walking down the main street, Chad a few meters ahead (as usual), Edwina strolling behind.
Local rasta: hey man, why you walking so fast wit ya gurl behind ya.
Chad: we need to be somewhere and we are running late
Local: You be careful now, one day you'll turn around and dat gurl will be gone. Make sure she walk in front so you can keep an eye on her and she dont run away.
Chad: noted.

Situation 2: Chad and edwina walking down the street, Chad notices a young guy and girl talking. In mid conversation, the guy swoops down his right hand to, very slowly, sweep some food off the girls necolitage (boobys). He did this a few times to make sure it was all gone.
Chad: (laughs - and repeats story to edwina)
Young guy: Ah, you saw that ay man. That's manners, you'll learn em one day.
Chad: (laughs again and repeats action on Edwina)
Young guy: now your learning, a true gentleman.

Chad