Belize 2012: 2 - Ambergris Caye

Thursday, March 15, 2012

We were up at 7 AM for a swim near the hotel, and to check out the Lizard as Marilynn lost her prescription sun glasses last night. I did some work on the internet before a golf cart taxi took us to the water taxi dock. Marilynn had returned to the Lizard in the hopes that someone found her glasses, but no luck - another victim of the demon rum.

The water taxi was a good sized, fast boat seating quite a few people. The ride to Ambergris Caye was comfortable - a nice change from yesterday! San Pedro is a good sized town, with paved streets, cars and trucks plus a good number of golf carts. A taxi driver gave us a running commentary on the area as we travelled the 5 blocks to the hotel.

We arrived at the San Pedro Holiday Hotel to find the lobby and deck torn apart and renovation work in progress. It is an old wood hotel, but our second floor room has stairs right onto the beach, and a shared balcony overlooking the ocean. There was a dive shop on a pier right in front, so we booked snorkelling trips for the next two days, and then walked around town before stopping for lunch at a good restaurant. The airport is quite near the hotel, and I inquired about ultra-lite aircraft tours I'd been told about, but they were no longer in business.

In the afternoon we swam in front of the hotel, and I did some work on emails. To get connected it was necessary to stand in the middle of the dusty construction zone - the wifi didn't reach the room.

We heard music and lots of commotion down the beach, so took a walk down to find a disco set up in front of a hotel with crowds of people. We were lucky to get a table on their balcony, where we had a delicious meal to the sounds of loud Latin music. Raffle tickets were sold with numbers on them. On the beach was a pen with numbered squares inside. Someone was chosen from the audience to hold a live chicken, wave it around a bit, blow on its bum, and drop it into the pen. The holder of the number it pooped on was the winner of $100. Definitely not something we have seen before!

Friday, March 16, 2012

After a lazy start to the day, and a catch up on emails in the midst of the construction zone, we walked down the beach to a recommended breakfast place. The beach is used as the pedestrian walkway, and most hotels, bars, restaurants, and other business front onto the beach. Front Street, one of three main thoroughfares (the others are Middle Street and Back Street), has the back side of beachfront establishments.

The meal was good, eaten on a table on the sand in front of some people with a pet Coatamundi - the second of these racoon like animals we have seen as pets. They are common in Costa Rica, but not as pets. There was also a small parrot in the same colours as one we had, and I soon made friend with him. He was not in a cage, just wandering around.

This place was one of several that beat the problem of sand being tracked in by having floors of sand. Instead of sweeping or vacuuming they just rake the floor each night.

The assortment of colours, styles, and states of repair of buildings along the beach gives the place a real funky, fun atmosphere. On the water side there are various ferry docks, bars, restaurants, and dive shops located on piers. Marilynn was delighted with the shopping along Front Street, which offered an interesting selection of clothing and other items.

We headed out on our booked snorkel trip at 2 PM. The first site had average visibility and a strong current that gave us a real workout. We saw a couple of large schools of fish and some sting rays among the more normal fish population, however the schools of humans snorkelling through and into anything in their way provided the largest population in the area - and our guide said this was not a crowded day!

The second stop was another shark/ray alley where they were feeding the nurse sharks and rays. There was only one shark, and half a dozen rays, although one of the rays was the largest I have seen. The day was cloudy, which didn't help visibility. On both dives Marilynn and I were first back into the boat. It was disappointing. The cost was $US 45 each for the two dives in 2 ½ hours, where on Caye Caulker we had paid $US 25 each for three dives over three hours in much more interesting and less crowded dive sites. I told them we'd cancel the dive tomorrow if it was cloudy again.

Communication other than internet has been difficult. We count on Skype, but with the government internet service blocking all Skype calls that is out. Neither of the hotels we stayed in have a phone in the room, my international calling card doesn't work here and there were two important calls I needed to make to the US. To do that it was necessary to walk up the street to an Internet Cafe that offered phone service at a dollar a minute.

We had a good dinner at a bit more upscale place in front of a resort a short walk down the beach, then walked the length of Front Street stopping at the odd pub. The town square was set up for a political rally according to some young people standing there. They hoped it would be rained out because they found them really boring. The town clock in the square has video screens on the four sides showing the sights of the area. We walked back down the beach doing more bar hopping, but sleep didn't come easily due to the high volume of Reggie music from a bar on a pier in front until after 3 AM. The DJ was advertised as the Chinese Assassin.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Another lazy morning, something we never have at home and are enjoying thoroughly. I got some emails done before breakfast, and then checked with the dive shop about the afternoon trip, as there was bright sunshine and blue skies. It was cancelled, as we were the only two interested in going to a more distant site called.Mexico Rock. I offered to pay the cost for 4 people, but they had no boat or guide available. The woman phoned a number of other operators on our behalf and finally located one that would come and pick us up at 2 PM. It seems the competing outfits work well together, as the place we were in took the payment for the trip and loaned me a weight belt to save us going some distance to the other operator.

We had a great guide named Andy and a boat to ourselves. He took us for a tour close to the coast pointing out the hotels, resorts, and sights along the north coast. Mexico Rocks is a snorkel site quite near the Mexican Border. The dive was great - there was only one other person in the whole area, and when we entered the water we were surrounded by tropical fish and 3 manta rays. The area has large mounds of coral with sand passages between then at a depth of up to 20 feet. Visibility was amazing.

Our next dive was called Tres Cocos, where we swam among amazing coral formations. It was like swimming in someone's giant aquarium with crystal clear water. The area is noted for sea turtles - we came across three of them, as well as an assortment of sting rays and many other brightly coloured fish. Andy was a great guide, leading us through all the most interesting areas on both dives. He received a well earned tip at the end of the best dive day of the trip.

Back on our "home" pier I stepped on my prescription sun glasses. The good news was the lens popped out intact; the bad news was that I crushed one side of the frame. I borrowed pliers from one of the construction guys at the hotel to try to straighten them, but succeeded only in breaking the frame. A local girl who was in the lobby suggested I take it to a jeweller located some distance away, as he may be able to repair it. I took off at a gallop - it was nearly 5 PM on a Saturday night.

The jeweller was a jovial, round Guatemalan who had lived in San Pedro for some years and even ran for mayor once. He said he could fix the glasses like new, but that he had two wedding bands he had to finish making that night. He said to leave the glasses and call him at 8 PM to see how he was making out - he would work late to do them.

We had a couple of drinks at a local bar, then walked to a bar & restaurant with an enormously high rancho ceiling for a superb dinner in front of the beach. Marilynn felt cold in the ocean breeze, so we moved inside to perch on a bar stool where we had an interesting conversation with the entertainer. One of the staff phoned the jeweller at 8 and was told another 45 minutes would be required, so a couple of more drinks went down.

When we arrived at the jeweller's shop the couple to be married were sitting there - their wedding rings still had not been completed. The young groom-to-be very kindly told the jeweller to go ahead and fix my glasses first, so the jeweller said he'd need an hour. One thing about San Pedro - there is always a bar nearby, so we walked half a block to Hemmingway's where we had an interesting conversation with the owner and other patrons.

On our return to the jeweller's shop the glasses looked like new, but it took him another 20 minutes to get the adjustment exactly right to his satisfaction so they would sit perfectly level and comfortably on my nose. Finally he was happy with his work. We paid for job, gave a small donation to the young couple who had waited so patiently throughout the entire process and headed back to the hotel. I think the glasses are better than when I received them new!