Category Archives: Belize

Belize Part III – Onlieenabelize

The trade winds really kicked up over the weekend. Saturday morning it churned the water inside the reef – there were whitecaps where we had calm sea before! We went down to the resort restaurant for breakfast. We both ordered the Belizean breakfast – scrambled eggs with tomato bits and bacon, black bean puree and fry jacks. Fry jacks are fried bread dough that comes out very light with a hollow interior. It’s tasty – I tore it in half and stuffed the hollow core with bean puree and eggs.

Belizean breakfast

After breakfast, Donna and I took an early morning walk up the beach past several homes and boat docks. The beach is considered public land, so homeowners cannot bar access although a few of them piled seaweed and vegetation along their property lines to discourage visitors.

Donna at the Costa Blu pool
Another view of the pool

We came back onto the Costa Blu property and walked past the pool. We encountered a few iguanas and lizards sunning themselves. One large iguana lived under the building next door to us and we saw him every day in the garden by the stairs.

Iguana next door to us
This long-legged lizard was fast
Another lizard

Fishing and snorkeling weren’t happening in the windy conditions – Tuff-E-Nuff cancelled all boating activities. We reserved a trip for Monday – a combination snorkeling and fishing excursion and hoped the wind would die down by then. While talking to Hatcher at Tuff-E-Nuff, he recommended a cafe in town called Brianna’s. He said it was a small place and not much to look at, but the food was great and the prices low – not many tourists go there but a lot of the locals do.

We took the golf cart and headed into town. When I rented the cart, the guy at the agency showed me the anti-theft device and told me it was very important to always use it. I made it a habit and saw everyone else with a golf cart did the same. The anti-theft device was crude but effective.

Everyone uses the same anti-theft set-up

We found Brianna’s and ordered lunch – Donna and I ordered the chicken soup special. The soup had potatoes, cabbage, rice, corn, a little pasta and a lot of chicken meat. It was delicious and very filling. Lunch for two with a soft drink was $14US.

I should mention hitchhikers in Ambergris Caye. We gave rides in town to a couple of guys – they weren’t hitchhiking with their thumbs out – they just called out “how about a ride” as we slowly drove by. When we were at Secret Beach, a young mother with a boy about 7 years old and an infant needed a ride. The boy asked us for a lift to town – otherwise they would have to make a five-mile walk. We drove them back to town.

On the way back from lunch at Brianna’s, we made a couple of stops. The first stop was a place on the side of the road called The Truck Stop. It was a cluster of buildings with a bar, ice cream parlor, pizza place and other food vendors. At The Truck Stop, I learned that craft beer had arrived in Belize. A brewery in Placencia on the mainland, south of Belize City was brewing it.

Craft beer in Belize!

Donna tried the golden ale while I had an IPA. It was okay, but nothing too special. The beer you can count on in Belize is Belekin. Belekin beer is sold everywhere – from grocery stores to road side stands and every bar in the country. When we were in Turkey, there was beer there that was ubiquitous called Efes. In Jamaica, it’s Red Stripe and here it’s Belikin.

Belekin beer
Onlieenabelize

The Belikin slogan says “onlieenabelize.” This is a good example of the Belizean Creole language – words run together and are spoken quickly with the emphasis on certain syllables making it hard for a non-native to follow.

Belikin also makes a dark beer they call stout – but stylistically, it’s more of a bock beer. It’s lager, not stout ale and it’s 6.5% ABV. The slogan for the stout is “go deh strong.” Hatcher told me that Belizean Creole doesn’t use suffixes like “ing” or “er” as in walking or stronger. The prefix deh replaces it. So walking become deh-walk. Also, when they say “you,” it’s always singular. If you want to address a group you don’t say “all of you” – it’s unu. No wonder I can’t understand them.

We made another stop at Rojo’s Beach Bar and Grill. The road into Rojo’s was a little tight.

This is why golf carts are the best way to travel

Donna tried a ginger caipirinha there and said it was great. We’ll have to try making it some time – a caipirinha is a Cuban cocktail made with rum, muddled limes and sugar.

Donna conversing with a scarlet macaw at Rojo”s

Back at Costa Blu, I claimed my regular perch at the poolside bar. There was one corner of the bar that was sheltered from the wind and I always sat there so I could puff a cigar with a nightcap. The staff at Costa Blu are all super-friendly and quickly caught on to my habits. It was like they saved that seat for me and always broke out a clean ash tray when I arrived.

The wind continued unabated throughout the night and into Sunday. We headed back to Secret Beach on Sunday – it’s on the leeward side of the island and wasn’t nearly as windy.

Monday morning we had some light rain for an hour or so, but I was happy to see the wind had calmed. We were on the dock at 8:30am and Rafael took us and another couple in the boat to the main Tuff-E-Nuff dive shop at the Wyndham. From there we got on a catamaran with a crew of three plus 10 other people and went to Mexico Rocks. Mexico Rocks is another marine reserve almost directly in front of Costa Blu – we were nearly back to where we started.

A fishing guide took four people at a time on a boat through a channel past the reef to fish. A guy in the first group caught a huge barracuda – they said it was 30 pounds. While the first group fished, the rest of us snorkeled. At Hol Chan, we snorkeled in a relatively tight group with six people per guide. This was to prevent people from getting lost or joining up with the wrong group. At Mexico Rocks, we were pretty much by ourselves so once the guide was reasonably certain no one was likely to drown, we were able to snorkel on our own.

Donna and I went with another couple on the second fishing run. We went outside the reef where the ocean bottom suddenly drops off to a depth of 70 feet or more. There was an old shipwreck on the reef – just the skeletal remains of a ship – the keel and a few ribs and a partial mast. I don’t know the story behind it – the guide thought it had been there for at least 15 years. Maybe a victim of Hurricane Mitch?

After a short while, I had a fish on! It gave a tough fight but I landed it. It was an ocean triggerfish. These are good fish to eat. Triggerfish feed mostly on crustaceans. They have powerful jaws and teeth that can crack crabs and mollusks.

Ocean triggerfish

Our boat captain – captain Bob – prepared food in the small galley of the catamaran. They fileted the barracuda and Bob took the fishing boat with another crew member to the beach to grill the fish. They came back and served it in a seasoned broth with sliced potatoes and flour tortillas. It was excellent! They also provided unlimited beer and rum punch.

The sun rises early in Belize. This time of year near the spring equinox and and again in the fall are when they have the longest daylight hours at this latitude. As usual, we were up early on Tuesday and Donna snapped a photo after sunrise.

Sunrise at Costa Blu

We had breakfast at the restaurant, then packed our bags. It was time to head back home. I checked us out and we managed to stay within budget – I was wondering how we did on room charges but never really kept track.

We stopped by the cart rental place and a girl from the agency rode with us to the water taxi so she could take the golf cart back.

Water taxi

The taxi was on schedule and took us back to Belize City with a stop at Caye Caulker. One of the deckhands on the water taxi called ahead and arranged for a taxi cab to take us to the airport.

Our flight home took us from Belize City to Dallas/Fort Worth where we caught a flight back to San Diego. The flights were uneventful but we were exhausted by the time we took an Uber ride back to Mission Bay RV Resort. Vacation over and back to the RV lifestyle in sunny San Diego!

Belize City airport

Belize Part II – Not-So-Secret Beach

In part one, I neglected to mention one detail of our golf cart ride up the road to the Costa Blu resort. After three miles or so heading north, the road becomes a very hard packed dirt/gravel surface. We were cruising along when Donna suddenly yelled, “Snake!” I hit the brakes and discovered the golf cart brakes are on the rear axle only – we skidded to a stop about a foot short of a large, dark snake in the road. It was six or seven feet long and thick bodied. I got a good look at it before it slithered off the road into the scrub. We didn’t think much else about it and I didn’t identify it as we stayed off the Internet while we were on vacation.

I asked a few locals about it and they all seemed surprised to hear we had seen a snake in the road. One bartender insisted it had to be a boa constrictor, but I knew it wasn’t. The color and markings weren’t boa. Last night, I did some research. There’s no doubt in my or Donna’s mind – we both had a good look at the snake – it was a fer-de-lance. A fer-de-lance is a viper found in Central America and is responsible for more than half of the deaths attributed to venomous snake bites. Yikes! That was the only snake we saw on the trip.

We sat at the poolside bar on the first night and met a few people. One of the locals we met was named Justin. He was prospecting for couples to sign up for a tour of the Wyndam condos and to sit through a no-obligation fractional ownership presentation. He offered a free breakfast at Coco Beach Resort and a selection of gifts. Donna and I talked it over and thought “Why not?” We didn’t have a plan for the morning and the tour might be a good way to learn more about the area and local economic situation. For a couple of hours of our time, we would get a nice breakfast and also a free snorkeling trip worth $110. We signed up.

Poolside bar at Costa Blu

So on Thursday morning, we drove the golf cart down to the Wyndam. We had arranged to meet Justin across the street by the lagoon. I parked by the lagoon between two shacks – we later found out these were occupied residences. The area by the lagoon seemed a bit trashy – many areas of Ambergris Caye have litter problems. About forty feet away from us, we saw three large crocodiles. These were American crocodiles that live in the salt water lagoon. We saw a total of seven crocodiles on land and in the water. Most of them were 10 to 12 feet long. These crocodiles commonly grow to 17 feet and specimens as large have 21 feet have been reported.

Crocodiles sunning themselves
Going for a swim
It looks like a log floating in the water

Justin showed up in a golf cart with another couple he’d signed up for the tour. We went to Coco Beach and were introduced to Fernando. Fernando had breakfast with us – it was a nice full breakfast – then he took us on a tour of the Wyndam Venezia del Caribe Resort and Spa. Donna and I knew we weren’t signing up for anything, but the tour was educational. Fernando was from Mexico and he spent several years in Cancun selling time-shares. He had a lot of facts and figures about tourism in Belize and things to do.

The Venezia del Caribe is under construction. The scaffolding on the outside of the five-story structure was a little scary. It was made from locally sourced wood and I don’t think it would meet OSHA approval.

Scary scaffolds

Fernando was a nice guy and we made it clear we weren’t about to sign on the dotted line for anything. He thanked us for our time and excused himself. Then they sent in the closer. This guy started spewing figures that made my head spin and wanted us to understand we were about to miss the opportunity of a lifetime. I shut him down – I didn’t appreciate his hard-sell approach at all. We walked away with a voucher for a snorkeling trip to Hol Chan Marine Reserve set for Friday.

After the tour, we drove into San Pedro – we were halfway there already. I was looking for the Havana Cigar shop – I wanted to check the prices on Cuban cigars there. We stopped and asked a guy standing by the road where it was – he started to give us directions, then he just hopped on the back of the cart and said he would show us the way. He directed me to two shops then we dropped him off near where we found him and parked the cart. He worked at a beach bar/cafe called Gill-E’s Pour House. Later we stopped there for lunch and it was good with a great view of the sea.

Typical San Pedro dock and view
More docks in San Pedro
This dive dock features (R to L) flags from Belize, USA, Mexico, Germany and Canada

The eastern shoreline of Ambergris Caye is just that – shoreline. Although there are sandy beach areas, mostly it’s not the type of beach where you can walk out into the water. The shore is built up with sea walls to stop flooding and erosion. The trade winds blow from the east-northeast and can push the sea water over the beaches – thus the sea walls found here.

In the afternoon, I went to the Tuff-E-Nuff dive shop on the dock at Costa Blu. We made our arrangements to go snorkeling and met the guy that runs the place, Hatcher. Hatcher was born and raised here, but he spent 13 years in the U.S. He returned to Belize a little over a year ago. His American English was accent-free and he had a wealth of knowledge about Belize and Ambergris Caye. He told us about a place we should try for lunch on the west side called Aurora’s.

Friday morning we were picked up at the Costa Blu dock for a boat ride down to the main Tuff-E-Nuff shop near the Wyndham. Rafael piloted the boat and dropped us off.

Rafael taxied us to the dive shop
Shoreline from the boat

At the dive shop, we were joined by three other couples and a family of four making a total of 12 of us taking the Hol Chan – Shark/Ray Alley snorkeling tour. We had two guides – Sherri and the boat captain called Candy Man.

Our guide/boat captain Candy Man in the red trunks
Our boat for the snorkeling trip

We cruised out near the reef to a National Preserve area called Hol Chan. Hol Chan is a Mayan phrase referring to the natural channel through the reef there. This area is protected and nothing can be removed from the ocean here – that includes fish. We checked in with the park ranger at a floating cabana and were issued wrist bands. There’s a $10 fee for park access that was included in each person’s ticket.

Park ranger’s cabana

You cannot anchor in the preserve – it would damage the corals there. Instead, there were a number of buoy balls secured to underwater concrete blocks that we tied up to. Several tour boats were in the area, but all of the guides were cooperative and stayed out of each other’s way.

I started snorkeling when I was five years old. My family lived in Guam then and snorkeling the coral reefs was what we did on most weekends. So I really feel like I’m in my element with a mask and fins in the ocean. Donna is a strong swimmer and we’ve snorkeled together many times in Hawaii, so there were no issues.

The marine life was incredible at Hol Chan. We found a large moray eel – the largest I’ve ever seen. I also found two large Atlantic barracuda. Schools of colorful reef fish were everywhere. We saw a large spotted eagle ray – it appeared to be flying majestically under water.

Donna approaching the boat

Later we moved to Shark/Ray Alley. After we got in the water, the guides started feeding the nurse sharks and sting rays. They went crazy thrashing about the boat. The nurse shark skin is very rough – I touched one under water and it felt like 40 grit sand paper.

Friday afternoon we headed over to the west side of the island to Secret Beach. Secret Beach is a white sand area with a gently sloping sandy bottom making a nice, shallow area to enjoy the water. Hatcher told us about it and recommended eating at Aurora’s. Aurora is the one that brought tourism to Secret Beach five years ago. She set up a food truck – a trailer actually and started serving lunch and drinks. Before then, Secret Beach was a place only the locals went to and it involved hiking several miles of trail to get there. Today there’s a road and several bars and cafes there. At Pirates Bar, they call it Not-So-Secret beach.

We had barbecued fish with seasoned veggies and coconut rice at Aurora’s and it was excellent. They feature several picnic type tables with palm leaf covers or umbrellas on the sandy beach and a few that are in two feet of water off the beach!

Aurora’s tables in the sand and water

After lunch at Aurora’s, we walked a few hundred feet away to Pirates for a cold one.

View from Pirates bar – there are bars on both docks also along with massage tables.

Not-So-Secret Beach

At Pirates, they served pina coladas in whole pineapples. They cut the top off the pineapple, hollow it out then re-fasten the top with toothpicks. Because we happened to be sitting at the bar watching as those drinks were made, Donna was the beneficiary of some excess pina colada which she said was the best she’d ever had.

Pina colada pineapples

We were back at Costa Blu by 5pm. We had the conch specials for dinner at the poolside bar – I had conch fritters and Donna had the conch soup. It was tasty.

Conch fritters

Conch is a sea mollusk – basically it’s a sea snail with a large spiral shell. The meat is a Caribbean delicacy and lucky for us, it was in season. We headed back to our suite around 8pm and were worn out by the day’s activities and time in the sun. We soon learned that most of the guests at Costa Blu were done-in by 9pm. No wonder they close the bar early.

To be continued…

Belize Part One – Getting There

It’s Thursday morning and Donna and I are still recovering from our trip to Belize. We arrived back in San Diego close to midnight Tuesday. I’ll tell the story of our trip from the start – it may take three or four posts to get through it.

In hindsight, I wish I would’ve spent the money to get a more direct route to Belize. Instead, I went for a cheap fare which had us flying a red-eye to Miami where we had a long layover before we flew into Belize City. Belize is located on the eastern coast of Central America and is bordered by Mexico to the northwest, Guatemala to the west and south and the Caribbean Sea to the east.

My generation probably remembers Belize as British Honduras. It was colonized and claimed by the British in the mid-1800s and didn’t gain independence until 1981.

The mainland is about 180 miles long and 68 miles wide. The population of the country is less than 400,000. The official language is English, but the native language spoken by most of the local population is Belizean Creole – an interesting dialect. Other languages include Spanish, Mayan dialects and Garifuni – a language spoken by people of African origin that came from the lesser Antilles. The economy is fairly stable and the Belize dollar trades at 2 to 1 for the American dollar. It’s a good idea to inquire if the price stated is US$ or Belize. One US dollar is two Belize.

The coast of Belize is protected by a barrier reef 178 miles long – it’s the second largest barrier reef in the world – Australia’s Great Barrier reef is the largest. The reef runs north/south and is closest to the shore to the north – about 1,000 yards out at the nearest point and up to 25 miles off the coast to the south. Where we stayed, the reef was anywhere from 3/4 mile to four miles offshore. The reef is made up of coral and the water inside the reef was only four to 20 feet deep in our area. The water depth over the reef itself is mere inches. There are several natural channels along the reef allowing vessels to reach the open sea. The swells from the ocean break over the reef and the water inside the reef is calm with no surf. Along the reef are several small islands – the larger populated islands are called cayes (keys).

Our destination was the largest island – Ambergris Caye. Disembarking from the plane at Belize City – the largest city in the country with nearly 100,000 residents – was a culture shock. The airport was definitely old school – stair cases were wheeled out to the flight line and we walked along tarmac to the terminal. After clearing customs and passport control, we stopped at the duty-free store. Belize is the only country I’ve visited that sells duty-free to international arrivals – usually it’s only available to those departing on international flights. I picked up a bottle of El Dorado – a premium dark rum made in Guyana.

We found a taxi outside and drove across town to the port. The ride was bit hair-raising. We drove in an old Ford Crown Victoria with blown out shock absorbers and a driver that didn’t mind making daring overtaking maneuvers on narrow streets. As in most third-world countries, there was no sense of zoning in the city – industrial buildings sat next to shacks and modern houses or offices were sprinkled here and there. At the harbor, I purchased round-trip boat taxi tickets to San Pedro – the main town in Ambergris Caye with a population of about 10,000.

The boat taxi carried around 60 passengers or so and cruised smartly along. We made a stop at Caye Caulker after about 60 minutes where several passengers disembarked and a few came aboard. The next stop at San Pedro was another 30 minutes away. The water taxis run a tight schedule and everything was on time.

View from the front of the water taxi at Caye Caulker
Caye Caulker shoreline

The sea water inside the reef is very clear. In areas where the bottom is sandy, the water has a turquoise appearance. Rocky bottoms or areas with sea weed are darker.

If I thought Belize City was a culture shock, San Pedro was mind blowing. I had reserved a gasoline-powered four-seat golf cart for the duration of our stay. The guy from the rental agency texted me a phone number and said I should have the attendant at the boat taxi office call them and they would deliver the cart. This didn’t happen. The attendant said, “No phone calls, sorry.”

A taxi cab driver said he would take us to the rental agency for five dollars US. It seemed like the simplest answer, so we were off. The streets of San Pedro are narrow and bumpy. They are filled with golf carts, cars, trucks, bicycles and pedestrians. We got to the rental agency and it was empty! The taxi driver called the office and found out they had moved and were a few blocks away at a grocery store they owned. San Pedro has three main drags – I don’t know the official road names – the locals call the north/south road on the east side Front Street. It’s one-way to the north. The next main north/south thoroughfare is Middle Street and it’s one-way south. The last north/south route is Back Street and is two-way. I was completely confused by the time we picked up the cart.

Middle Street in San Pedro

Luckily I had studied a map for the route to our resort – Costa Blu was about 6.5 miles north of town. To get out of town you have to cross a canal – there’s a toll of $2.50BZ each way. We were told that no so long ago the only way across was a rope-drawn ferry. After about half an hour of driving on a narrow road mostly paved with concrete and frequent speed bumps, we found the resort.

Check-in was efficient and the staff was very friendly. The grounds were immaculate and the buildings well-maintained. Our room was an upstairs suite with a living room and kitchenette and a separate bedroom and bathroom with a large shower.

Viewed from the beach, our suite was in building 1 on the left . We had the upstairs room on the right side of the building

There are 10 buildings on the site in addition to the main reception/restaurant building and most of them are divided into four suites. There are a total of 38 suites here at Costa Blu. We had a private balcony overlooking the grounds and the sea.

Donna on the balcony
View from the balcony

Our bedroom had an extra-large, comfortable king-size bed.

Costa Blu bedroom

I was whipped from the travel, time zone changes and lack of regular meals over the previous 20 hours or so. I was in paradise, but I was grumpy.

Iguanas and lizards are regulars onsite

Donna went down to the bar and brought me a burger. After eating and resting for bit, I was feeling much better. We went down to the bar for our introduction to island life. I was surprised to learn the bar usually closed at 9pm. Later, this made sense to me. To be continued!