Day 5: We were all sunscreened and bugsprayed (there is an smorgusboard of mosquitoes, doctor flies and sand flies enjoying March in Belize) and eating breakfast in the lodge, when one of the girls came to our table and said our guide was ready. I looked at TJ and TJ looked at me, both of us baffled. Then she explained that when I had asked if we could arrange something for tomorrow (today at this point) she had asked her manager and he said sure so she signed us up for a hiking trip to the Jaguar Reserve. “Oh you didn’t double check at the front desk last night? You can pay half price to cancel”. Twenty minutes later we were in route to the jungle. The drive was beautiful, through grassy savannahs and then swamps along the Sittee River before entering the Reserve. Max made the 3 km (1.8 miles) to the Falls no problem, Ted had to have a shoulder ride lots of the way. The jungle walk was really pretty and smelled divine, like ripe earth. We saw lots of cool plant life: mahogany trees, teak trees, rubber trees vines and palms, but we didn’t spot any jaguars or monkeys! The river water was cool and refreshing, and Max even caught a couple of tadpoles. Our guide, Tino, is the father of 9, grandfather of 35 and great-grandfather of 3, so we felt totally safe letting him play with Gus while the rest of us swam. With a movie bribe for later in the day, Ted was able to walk all the way back, albeit slowly. We stopped on our return to check out a crashed plane in the jungle. Sort of reminded me of Romancing the Stone, but all the goods were long gone. En route, Tino told us it looked like rain up ahead, but the closer we got, the more apparent it became that the dark grey wasn’t rain clouds, but smoke. The beautiful savannah we had seen on the way to the jungle was up on flames. Big flames. By the time we arrived at Jaguar Reef Lodge the fire department was there siphoning water from the pool to dowse the thatched palm roofs of the resort. Excitement. Now, we’re back enjoying some Central American coffee and Legos Movie. … The night ended with a scrumptious dinner up the beach at Beaches and Dreams, after a lizard spotting on the way there. A couple of ex-pats from Alaska (yes, they’d met Sarah and troop back in the day at their former restaurant) moved south six years ago and set up shop here. The greens were fresh from the rooftop garden and the fish was fresh from the sea. We had barracuda bites to start- I’m pretty sure they were the same ones we saw snorkeling. The boys played in hammocks before their pizza arrived and played checkers after it was gone. Honestly, the most amazing thing about this trip is seeing the kids play. I could drink up the five of us being together for another week, easy. On our flashlight lit walk back up the beach we stopped for beers with Matt, Twee and Fisher. The boys really enjoy each other, and us grown-ups get along pretty well too. Maybe they’ll invite us to Salt Lake for some skiing this winter!