Where's Andrew

SAN PEDRO, AMBERGRIS CAYE, BELIZE MARCH 21 -25

Caught the morning bus to Chetumal from Tulum. I buy a ferry ticket for the San Pedro ferry at a booth in the bus station and catch a taxi to the ferry terminal. Of course I have somehow lost my ticket somewhere in between and after much discussion, I convince the ticket agent to call their staff at the bus station to confirm that I bought a ticket. Luckly the guy I bought the ticket from remembers me. I don't think he's had any other large middle age Canadians travelling solo buying tickets that day. The ferry does not leave until 3:00PM. Just before boarding all passenger bags are arranged in a row then our carry on bags are arranged in a parallel row and then all the passengers line up by the carry on bags. The Mexican military pull up in a jeep, 3 soldiers and a dog jump out and head over to where we are with our bags while a 4th soldier keeps us covered from a large machine gun mounted on the back of the jeep. The dog starts sniffing through our bags, carry on and each person. Luckily no one had any drugs that day so after a 10 minute search all the bags are loaded into the boat and we get in and we are off. The weather is nice and clear but windy and our scheduled 90 minute ferry becomes a very rough 3 hour ride. We are all locked inside th ferry and there is no accesible decks. The windows are cut very high so you cannot see anything other than the sky outside. We litterally pound our way into the waves for 2.5 hours when we finally are in the lee of the island. The boat was full with about 30 passengers, luckily no one suffered from sea sickness. So now I'm officially in Central America.

I head to the Belize Hutz Hotel just south of San Pedro. It's only $37US a night and has a nice little bar, restaraunt and pool. The rooms are sparse but large and clean with AC. I soon start meeting people around the pool and bar and they are all Canadians from Vancouver. The owner James and his business partner Greg are both from Vanouver and are there to visit their hotel that just opened in January. There is also family and friends of the owner there as well.

San Pedro is awesome with a laid back Caribbean feel. The island of Ambergris Caye is 40km long and only 1 km wide at the widest point. Sand Pedro is near the south end and is long and skinny (only 3 streets wide). It is an island of few cars but many golf carts. The beach around the island is constantly shifting because of the effects of tides and hurricanes. In general, the beach extends only 4 or 5 from the high tide mark so this is not a great place to simply hang out on the beach. There is sea grass all around the island and this is where urchins and other sea life lurk so you have to be careful where you step when swimming. The entire east coast of the island is protected by an outer reef that stretches the full length of the island and down past the cayes to the south. It is the abundant sea life around these reefs that make San Pedro a destination with incredible snorkelling, diving and fishing.

There are no mega resorts on the island and no building is over 3 stories high. Hotels tend to be small 1 to 30 rooms. Downtown San Pedro has a vibrant core full of small restaraunts, bars and clubs many of them right on the beach. There is a great assortment of live music most nights to choose from and everything starts late down here, locals go for dinner no earlier than 8:00PM, bars start to get busier around 9:30 and the clubs are empty until 11:00PM or later. 

The highlight of my 5 days here was the snorkelling. I went on a tour to Shark-Ray Alley & Hol Chan Marine Reserve. These dive location are about a km apart and are in a protected Marine Park. You can only visit them with an acredited tour company and a $5US park fee is part of the $35US snorkelling cost. A tour boat picked Greg, Jeff and I up at a dock near the Belize Hutz. Greg and Jeff were some of the Vancouverites staying at my hotel. There was 13 of us on the tour, most of them were German and a couple of sister from Seattle and Couer d'Alene. A 10 minute boat ride later and we are ready for the plunge into Shark-Ray Alley. As we are putting on our gear, we can't help but notice the dark dark shapes swimming around our boat just under the surface of the water. This area is in about 10 feet of water with a sand and grass bottom. The local fishermen used to come to this spot to clean their daily catch before coming in the San Pedro. Now, the sound of an approaching boat is like a dinner bell to the resident Nurse Sharks and Stingrays. The tour operators have continued to offer fish scraps to keep the sharks and rays active. We jump in the water and have a dozen Nurse Sharks circling our boat and the tour boat anchored next to us. There are also numerous Stingrays, at least 20 or so moving between the boats and a few reef fish. It was an exiting start to the snorkelling. After about 30 minutes, we get back in the boat and zip down to Hol Chan. This spot is the only cut in the reef for quite a few miles north and south, the cut is about 70 yards wide and just over 20 feet deep. Within minutes of getting into the water, we come across a Green Sea Turtle feeding off the sea grass. Suddenly I see a large shape coming towards me and it's 2 Dolphins and they go zooming by heading for the gap in the reef soon followed by 2 more. I find out later that seeing dolphins while snorkelling is very rare, the guides see them often when in the boat but only once or twice every 100 trips while snorkelling. As we swim toward the reef cut, we see may types of large Groupers, Parrot Fish and other reef fish, sometimes they are sitting in the current in the hundreds often behind a large chunk of corral or near the mouth of a cave. Our guide puts a conch shell in front of a small cave and a very annoyed forest green coloured Moray Eel comes charging out to defend his home. We see more Nurse Sharks and Stingrays and then a large Eagle Ray comes down the center of the reef cut. Next thing you know 45 mintues has gone by and we are back at the boat and all I can think is that I need an underwater camera.

The next day I decide to go buy that camera. I head to town and ask some of the locals if they can tell me who sells cameras. I want a digital underwater camera so I can use it during this entire trip. A local guy named Paul starts touring me up an down the streets of San Pedro in quest of a camera. We find many disposable underwater cameras but no digital ones. Finally after about 2 hours, we find one in the local cellular store. It is an Agfa camera and after some negotiating I buy it for $290US. I'm sure it would be well under 1/2 that price in Vancouver. I want to pay Paul something for all his help but he won't accept cash, finally he aggrees to let me buy him lunch. Everyone in San Pedro is very friendlly and nice especially Paul (although I soon find there is one exception but more on that later). The next day I go on another snorkelling tour. I'm excited about getting some photos of all the various see life. I get in the water and immediately notice something does not look right on the digital display on the camera and I notice bubbles are coming out of the camera. Within 10 seconds the camera is dead and I can see water inside the digital screen. Well, needless to say I did not get any pictures. The snorkelling was once again great with all the same types of fish minus the dolphins but with the addition of a Baracuda. After I get in, I go back to the store with the camera, the box, all accessories and the receipt and I am told that they do not do any refunds. The store clerk had mentioned this to me when I bought it but since I was leaving town in 2 days, I did think it would be a problem. No matter what I said, this guy would not refund me any portion of the purchase and I finally left when he started dialing the police.

The other highlight was the hospitality shown to me at the Belize Hutz. One night the owner James had arranged for a local chef he was considering to hire to run the restaurant to cook a meal to see how good his food was. James then asked me if I wanted to join him and Greg and a couple of others as they would have more food than they could eat. We ended up having the most amzing meal of shrimp, steak, soup, veggies, mash potatoes and a banana desert.

After 5 great days I was off the catch a 7:00AM ferry to Belize City and then a bus to Placencia in southern Belize, then to San Ignacio in the western jungle and then into Guatemala. More on that in my next post.