BELIZE - Part 2 Ambergris Caye

Day 5 – Traveling con’t…

Leaving Lamanai was as interesting as getting there, only this time, instead of boat, we were flying out. The travel agent had warned me that if we didn’t like small planes, we should take the boat back out, but I assured her that small palnes were fine. I didn’t realize how small she meant.

We were told that in order to fly to Ambergris, Tom, me and all our luggage could weigh no more than 500 lbs. And the luggage had to be collapsable in order to squish into the airplane hold.
Well, as you can see from the photo, the plane WAS tiny and we managed to fit our 2 duffle bags in the hold, but the bag with our snorkel gear had to be squeezed into the seat next to me along with all the carry-on bags which encroached over onto my lap. It was a tight fit all around and we just made it under the limit! But the funniest thing about this whole weight issue was the pilot. He must have weighed over 300 lbs and had to sidle into his cockpit. I was thinking if they just sent a skinnier pilot we could have packed more. As it was, I was a little nervous that we might not make the height to clear the trees!

But we took off fine and we were told by someone who had flown before to ask the pilot to circle the Mayan ruins, so we did and we did. Here is the High Temple from the air.

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The scenery below us as we flew over Belize was so interesting. We had been told that Belize has the least population of every country in the world – and flying over, one can see why. It looks as if there is only one road that runs north/south and one road that runs east/west and then there are a couple of tiny off shoots that seem to go nowhere or get lost in the jungle canopy. But it is jungle, more jungle and even more jungle. Well, there is the savanna that floods during the rainy season which runs along the river we cruised up. But we didn’t see that from the plane. We just saw plush green canopy. The going from land to sea, the color change was amazing. So many tiny islands that come and go depending on the force of the hurricanes…

Flying into Ambergris Caye was a hoot. The water is azure green with dark patches of turtle grass obscuring the blueness. San Pedro, the major city of Ambergris is a mish-mash of color from the air. The airport itself is tiny, bordering on non-existent. More like a hut and a runway than anything else.

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Ambergris Caye was named that by the early whalers. Ambergris means basically whale blubber… how charming. To see more photos of San Pedro click flickr

We stayed at Mata Rocks, a hotel about 2 miles from the center of town and you can walk the entire thing by the beach. Our room is the upper right balcony.
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So once unpacked, we strolled out to town and found a lovely restaurant on the beach that had a special local bbq cooking. The beer here is good, and fairly cheap $1.75 for 7 ounces of light beer. We found we can drink quite a lot.

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Day 6 – Snorkeling
Today we signed up for snorkeling and went by boat out to the reef, about ½ mile off shore. The snorkeling was good – but really nothing compared to Hawaii or Bahamas (we’re such snorkeling snobs). They brought us to a part of the reef “Shark Ray Alley” where the mantas and spotted eagle rays hang out and also the nurse sharks. We were able to get close to the rays and chase the sharks (which is very different from the sharks chasing us!!!) Again, we saw some interesting fish and coral. But not a lot of fish were around. So it was a bit disappointing.

So a word about the local rum – good. They offer free rum punch on all the p.m. expeditions that we have done and it goes down really easy with pineapple juice. And I’ve already mentioned the beer. It’s called Belican and is made locally. There is actually a monopoly on the beer and no other companies can make beer in Belize. Belican makes a light beer, regular, premium and stout. All are actually very good. Goes down real smooth after our 2 mile walk to town. The walk takes us about 40-50 minutes depending if we are striding out to lunch/dinner or waddling back… Last night I felt really naughty downing 3 beers at dinner, but then realized that I was drinking light beer – and the bottles were only 7 ounces. That means I had 21 ounces which although I thought was a lot, turns out to be only one English pint! So silly.

Day 6 – Catamaran Sailing

We went on an all day excursion, snorkeling and site-seeing around Caye Caulker. We were on a 36 foot catamaran (doubled hulled sailboat) and stopped at “Hol Chan” first to snorkel then “Shark Ray Alley” I had been really disappointed at Hol Chan the day before because there weren’t that many fish – but as Tom says, another day, another menu. Today there were lots of fish and we had a much better snorkel master. He told us about the various fish which our first one didn’t. Then at Shark Ray Alley, the snorkel master actually caught a ray and let us “pet” it. Talk about marinated portabella mushrooms. It was so squishy and gelatinous. There were more nurse sharks at the second snorkel spot and they came right up to the boat uninvited! It was fun and very exciting.

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Then we sailed over to Caye Caulker, which is an interesting island that was literally chopped in half by a hurricane in 1982. There is a wide 20 foot channel that is 25 feet deep that just divides the island. So wild. This place is the sleepiest vacation spot. There are only 2 sand roads, no cars, only golf carts since the island is only maybe 3 miles long (I should check my figures) and less than ½ mile wide. It appears a lot of stoners and hippie throw backs live there and from the looks of it, there is very little to do but dive, snorkel, sunbathe and sleep. We spent 2 hours there and pretty much saw the whole place, but did have a nice lobster lunch. – oh yes, lots of lobster – I even had lobster cerviche which I absolutely adore. I’ve had conch cerviche in the Bahamas, but lobster just is decadent!!!

When we were in Hawaii a few years ago, we learned that the natives from Tahiti or Fiji or any of the other long distance travelers, could sight the islands of Hawaii because they just looked for the accumulation of cumulous clouds. Apparently cumulous clouds can only form over large bodies of land. Well, when we were out on the boat looking toward the mainland, we saw this accumulation of cumulous clouds right at the edge of the land. There were no other clouds in the sky, just at the border of the mainland. And we thought about the Hawaiian tale, and just wanted to share the theory with you.

So we sailed back home in a leisurely manner, being plied with glass after glass of rum punch and more pantie-rippers. So when we got home after 5 we swam in the pool a little then dressed and walked the 2 miles back to town for dinner. A local restaurant was having a traditional Mayan food buffet, so we tried a little of everything and enjoyed it all. Hence, the slow waddling back. I ashamed to say we were in bed and asleep shortly after
9, since we had so much sun and swimming during the day.

Day 7 – Snorkeling Mexico Rocks

This morning we were up by 7 because we were signed up for another snorkel trip to “Mexico Rocks”. Our boat captain was wonderful. He said “OK kids, your playground is from there to that buoy over there about ½ mile away. Go and Play”!!! Instead of being herded like sheep around a snorkel site, bumping into other excursioning people, we had the whole ocean to ourselves with no time restrictions apart from having to be back in an hour. So we snorkeled the most amazing coral imaginable. The fish were great and the surrounding were perfect. I saw squid feeding, a ray that I chased down, and a gazillion different types of fish. It was an excellent site.

Then we boated over to some unpronounceable site, up against the barrier reef. Here it was very shallow, and there was a wreck that attracted lots of fish. Again, no other boats came so we had the whole reef to ourselves. This site was very different from Mexico Rocks because of the shallowness and we saw more interesting coral and more fish. The best was the elk-horn coral (at left) that housed a metropolis of various fish.
Really fun. To see more snorkeling photos, click here

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Anyway, We walked our 4 mile to town and back for lunch, and we are about to walk back again. So not only are we snorkeling all day, but also averaging 4-8 miles a day, sand walking which is much tougher. Here is the main street of San Pedro.
Tomorrow we are off on an excursion to “Altun Ha”, a Mayan temple on the mainland. We’ll boat over to the mainland and take a bus back into the jungle so it should be fun.

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Day 8 – Altun Ha Temples
Today is a full day trip to Altun Ha Mayan temples and although it was really interesting, we had been so spoiled at Lamanai that this outing seemed small and controlled. First we were only given one hour there and we were herded around like cattle, told where to go and what to see. We did climb to the top of the tallest temple there – a mere 16 meters (compared to the 33 meters at Lamanai) so the view was good but not as dramatic.

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One of the best parts of the trip was the boat ride. We zoomed thru the most amazing aqua water for over and hour at top speeds. You know how I love speed on water – I couldn’t have been happier! Then we snaked thru incredible mangrove down this tiny North River, until we got to a very tiny village of Bomba (called so because they bombed the road over and over again because it was being used as an airstrip for drug smuggling). So the town is named for the bombed up road. We had to travel down this road for about an hour to Altun Ha, bumping and weaving our way. It was bordering on ridiculous… Here is the village of Bomba on right.

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We had lunch at some resort and spa in the middle of the jungle – a Dutch woman created this place 20 years ago and it is luxury in the midst of squalor…
On the way back we had the ubiquitous rum punches which made our boat ride home even more hazy and a lot shorter it seemed.
So we are back now.
Oh, a bit about our last night’s dinner. We had seen in our walk to town that a local Greek (?) restaurant was having a lamb roast – like the whole lamb on an open spit- so we decided to dine there. Well, it turned out to be very casual dining, like plastic dishes on your lap, and it seemed as if the whole ex-pat community turned out to eat there. Every one knew each other and we felt like such outsiders, except that we were accepted into the fold and chatted with everyone and over all had a wonderful evening. I kept having flash backs to my Algerian days and all the meshouis we had on the beach with a whole spitted lamb that we would tear chunks off of and eat. The beer and wine flowed copiously there too! It was absolutely surreal.
Another surreal part of our trip staying at Mata Rocks has been what I call our “infinity balcony”. You know how in infinity pools there is no horizon line? Well, our balcony is ocean front and high enough that when you look out, it looks as if you are on the deck of a ship and the water is just right there. We have spent many a morning’s breakfast staring out at nothing but blue. And since it is directly east facing, Tom had taken some amazing shots of sunrise, which means, yes, he has been getting up pre-dawn to catch the sun. But since we’ve been in bed so early every night, dawn is still a good night’s sleep for us! So our infinity balcony has been heaven.

Day 9 – Leaving Belize

The last day of our vacation and we wake up to rain. It rained the first 2 days and now the last day, so we know it is time to go home. The rain here is warm, but saturating. We decided to do a bit of shopping for those last tourist trinkets before we leave for the plane, but instead of walking the 2 miles, we take a taxi instead. the first time we took a taxi! We still managed to get absolutely soddened through, but hey-ho, it’s the tropics…
Our luggage managed to get drenched as well and I feared what I would fin once home.
The flight to Belize City airport was short, but at least the plane was slightly bigger – holding 12 people instead of just 4. And the layover at belize airport was incredibly tedious since there is nothing to do. The only food was a hot dog stand and the only beverage was Belikan. (That part I didn’t mind!) Our flight was delayed so we barely made the connection in Atlanta. And of course our luggage didn’t make the connection so we had to wait a day to finally get it back.

It has been a very industrious trip and we both feel like since we’ve packed so much in each day, that we’ve been away a lot longer. I can’t say we’ll come home rested, nor very tan, but we will come home with the most amazing memories and a gazillion photos…

Here is my favorite shot of the trip. It’s a crocodile in the mangrove on our way to Altun Ha. Tom managed to catch its reflection in the water. Awesome!