Come vacation time, I’m always excited to plan a trip. It's like throw a dart on a map and that is where we'll go! This year we decide on Belize. Exotic enough and out of the mainstream Central America. Not quite the tourist destination like Cancun or Punta Cana or Costa Rica. But promising enough to deliver on beaches and jungle adventures. We flew from Las Vegas to Houston, Houston to Belize. Not sure if I wanted to stay on the mainland of Belize (Belize City) or stay on the island. We opted for Ambergris Caye, the largest of its Caye's which turned out to be the best decision. From what I could tell, Belize City was not all that impressive and the beaches didn’t look that great. And hey, if there is an island nearby why not opt for island life? Visions of Castaway.
We took a small plane from Belize International Airport. It's amazing what they call International these days. Set up a couple of counters and two customs officials and two island airlines and that's international. The whole customs thing takes about 15 minutes to go through and once on the other side while waiting for your island hopper visit Ray's makeshift bar. A table with a couple of bottles of beer and boxes of candy bars and one friendly mutt. Oh yeah drinks, 4 dollars Belize. So if you are wondering how much time to give yourself when you land in Belize to catch your puddle jumper, I’d say about one hour tops. We bought round trip tickets on Maya Airlines to Ambergris Caye, opting to fly rather than take a taxi from the airport to Belize City and then catch a hour and half ride to the island via water taxi. Believe me you’ll have plenty of chances to ride the water taxis.
Once at the cave tubing starting point, Jason said we should go in the water to cool off. Believe me, it's quite a trek through the jungle which is hot and mosquito infested. Make sure you spray plenty of 100% Deet and bring the bottle. The mosquitoes are ferocious! Cooling off in the pool of water was glorious and refreshing. Here they tie all the tubes together while the three guides actually swim and steer the tubes in the water through the caves. It was amazing and I was incredulous that they could actually do this job day in and day out. It was hard work guiding the tubes all the while giving their tour lecture. Next we walked to the zip lining site where the guides hooked us up to the zip lining gear. One thing about the whole tour, they were very thorough and careful with the entire tour concentrating safety. The zip lining consisted of 7 platforms that increased in height and duration. All together I believe they said it was about 600 ft of zip line. They are building 2 more platforms which will cross over the river where we cave tubed. Having never done zip lining, one word AWESOME!! I would do it over and over again! That was so much fun! Again, spray yourself down with insect repellent!Afterward the tour gave us a lunch of chicken and beans and rice and drove us back down to the dock to catch our water taxi back. Total experience, amazing!
A word about the ATV's, we didn't do them, but it looked like you get really muddy, dirty, and sweaty. Then again you have the river to cool off in.
Back on Ambergris, don't miss the Chicken drop on Thursdays, where the chicken or rooster may or may not shit on your winning number. Jackpot $100.00. One dollar buy in.
One of my favorite places for breakfast, Caroline's. Get the Mayan Breakfast, scrambled eggs with spicy sauce, beans and fry jacks, an island staple of fried dough. Fried dough, I knew I liked this island.
Next it was snorkeling at Hol Chan and Shark Ray Alley. About a mile off the island where the boats drop you off near the barrier reef. While I wanted to see the barrier reef, I would have been happy just to stay at the boat drop off area. It was shallow enough to feel safe and there were plenty of fish there. Swimming to the barrier reef is definitely not for the faint of heart or weak swimmer, even if they give you life vest and take care to carefully guide you through the channel. My 15 year old got a panic attack half way there as the ocean gets really deep as you watch the scuba divers below and one realizes holy shit, this is deep! Next it was a short ride to shark ray alley, where the boat guides throw chum over the boat to attract manta rays and pilot sharks and turtles. That location is shallow enough where you can swim comfortably and enjoy the wonders of the ocean.
While we stayed on Ambergris for 10 days, my recommendation is that 5 days is plenty. Then one should stay on Caye Caulker, a smaller island about a half hour from Ambergris and more lay back or as we were told, this is what Ambergris was like before all the tourist. On Caye Caulker you can get a villager to cook you lobster right on the beach for $10.00 Belize (5 US). The island has an inlet where one can swim and see lots of fish, starfish and shells. A great snorkeling area for the beginner. About 3 days on the island is plenty.
What to take? Plenty of bathing suits, rubber flip flops, snorkels and snorkel vest (order those from Amazon for around 34.00 for two), umbrella and lots of Deet and sunscreen. Remember it's tropical so you want to take stuff that will dry quickly as once it rains nothing dries. Buying the island souvenirs, Guatemala textiles, homemade necklaces and bracelets, haggle, something I'm not good at. Necklace 50.00? Sure, NOT! Make sure you buy tamales from the tamale man on the beach, so good for $2.00! And drink plenty of Belikin beer! Cheap!
Would I go back, probably not. There are too many other islands, other beaches and other oceans to see. Oh one more thing, don't expect beautiful sunsets, as most of the resorts face east on the island, much to my chagrin, I expect island sunsets, but it's all about which way you are facing, duh!
A word about the ATV's, we didn't do them, but it looked like you get really muddy, dirty, and sweaty. Then again you have the river to cool off in.
One of my favorite places for breakfast, Caroline's. Get the Mayan Breakfast, scrambled eggs with spicy sauce, beans and fry jacks, an island staple of fried dough. Fried dough, I knew I liked this island.
Next it was snorkeling at Hol Chan and Shark Ray Alley. About a mile off the island where the boats drop you off near the barrier reef. While I wanted to see the barrier reef, I would have been happy just to stay at the boat drop off area. It was shallow enough to feel safe and there were plenty of fish there. Swimming to the barrier reef is definitely not for the faint of heart or weak swimmer, even if they give you life vest and take care to carefully guide you through the channel. My 15 year old got a panic attack half way there as the ocean gets really deep as you watch the scuba divers below and one realizes holy shit, this is deep! Next it was a short ride to shark ray alley, where the boat guides throw chum over the boat to attract manta rays and pilot sharks and turtles. That location is shallow enough where you can swim comfortably and enjoy the wonders of the ocean.While we stayed on Ambergris for 10 days, my recommendation is that 5 days is plenty. Then one should stay on Caye Caulker, a smaller island about a half hour from Ambergris and more lay back or as we were told, this is what Ambergris was like before all the tourist. On Caye Caulker you can get a villager to cook you lobster right on the beach for $10.00 Belize (5 US). The island has an inlet where one can swim and see lots of fish, starfish and shells. A great snorkeling area for the beginner. About 3 days on the island is plenty.
What to take? Plenty of bathing suits, rubber flip flops, snorkels and snorkel vest (order those from Amazon for around 34.00 for two), umbrella and lots of Deet and sunscreen. Remember it's tropical so you want to take stuff that will dry quickly as once it rains nothing dries. Buying the island souvenirs, Guatemala textiles, homemade necklaces and bracelets, haggle, something I'm not good at. Necklace 50.00? Sure, NOT! Make sure you buy tamales from the tamale man on the beach, so good for $2.00! And drink plenty of Belikin beer! Cheap!
Would I go back, probably not. There are too many other islands, other beaches and other oceans to see. Oh one more thing, don't expect beautiful sunsets, as most of the resorts face east on the island, much to my chagrin, I expect island sunsets, but it's all about which way you are facing, duh!
