arriving at Ambergris Caye
July 9, 2008
Belize the mainland from the air
Three airplane rides and one boat ride later, we arrived at our resort in San Pedro in Belize or more commonly known as Ambergris Caye. We arrived at Ambergris Caye on Wednesday the 9th at about 4pm (5pm CST.) To get to the Island of San Pedro we took a small airplane from Belize City, which was about a 20 minute ride and arrived at this super tiny airport with a super short runway good thing the airplane did not need a long airstrip or else we would have been swimming. The other option to get to the island is to take a ferry which is a 90 minute ride, way to long of a ride for us.
on tropic air, on our way to the island
Now as soon as we got off the airplane and got our luggage the luggage attendant went and called our resort for them to come pick us up in the meantime he offered to watch our luggage and he sent us across the street to a bar (my kind of place!) We each got a belikin, which is the beer of Belize kind of like corona is to Mexico. Before we could even finish it our taxi had arrived to take us to where the boat would meet us. Good thing in Belize you can walk around with your bottle of beer in the streets and so we were able to take our beer with us! The most common form of transportation here is the golf cart or bicycles. However our taxi was a minivan and really all the minivans we saw were all taxis. Anyways, we got to the dock and got on to a speed boat to take us the four miles to our resort Belizean Shores.
the water from the air
After arriving in our room and getting situated the first thing we did was go to the dock to book our first dive for the next day then decided to head back into the town for some grub! We took the Island ferry back into town, walked around the town, there are only three major streets so, we pretty much walked around the whole thing in just under an hour. We made it to the grocery store bought some food and beer to keep in our room, and then found a place to eat. While in town we booked a trip to the Lamanai ruins (which was cheaper than booking thru our resort, I’ll tell the story on this later!) After dinner we headed back to our resort on the Island ferry, now some ferry’s have a cover so if it rains you don’t get so soaked! Ours on this particular night did have a cover, but wouldn’t you know it was packed full so we sat in the uncovered portion and yes it rained and yes we got soaked! I love paradise! This night was the only night that we had to endure a tropical rain shower though so it was all good; the rest of our week here there were only scattered showers that lasted just a few minutes at a time.
Belize the mainland from the air
on tropic air, on our way to the
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the water from the air
town of San Pedro
San Pedro airport
dock where boat picked us up to
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on our way to paradise!
arriving at Belizean Shores.
the dock in front of the resort.
pool bar
hot tub
the town.
the street signs, were so cute!
soaking wet after ferry ride!
loving paradise even if it's a b
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Great for divers!
The first thing to be said, about Belizean Shores is that each unit is privately owned. So, the decor varies from unit to unit. Some owners go all out in the decor and some are pretty plain. They all look the same from the outside though each building is composed of four small condos with a balcony. We ended up in a plainly decorated unit, but we were ok with that. It was still nice, and we had an amazing view of the ocean as well we were right next to the pool. Although the units are privately owned there is still a company in charge of running the units just like any other hotel so, we did not lack in any services.
For starters they offer complimentary transportation from the San Pedro air port to the resort on your arrival and departure. This includes the minivan taxi and boat ride (our only cost here was the tip.) Now while you are there they don't offer transportation to and from town, but they have golf carts for rent there or you can take the water ferry.
Like I said, the decor of each unit varies ours had a couch and chair, a small TV, a four chair dining table, a full size bed, and of course we had a kitchenette complete with a frig, stove with oven, and a microwave. For our purposes the room was extremely practical and we had maid services daily. Our room had a dressor, mirror, and 2 night stands, phone, and alarm clock. The bathroom had a stand up shower, and a door to our room as well as the rest of the living area. Oh and AC, too! Our AC shut down once during our stay there, but once we called the office it was fixed within five minutes. It was just a minor thing something about the breaker box, but I appreciated the promptness (since Belize is like 80% humidity!)
In each room there is a booklet complete with restaurant listings, things to do, after hour numbers for the office, channel listing, menu, and any other information you could possibly need while there! This booklet was all we needed for any questions we had while there.
The pool has a swim up bar and you are given a complimentary drink upon arrival, the rum punch, which I must say Tanya the bartender made very well! The staff there makes it an effort to remember you by name, I have always thought that to be cool! Makes the stay more welcoming. They have a hot tub as well, and beautiful fountains within the pool. You could order food to the pool, and even though the pool bar closed at 6pm(which was kinda of early!) One day we ordered food to the pool at 6pm and Tanya stayed there until it arrived and we were finished so, excellent service on her part! Which reminds me anytime you charged food to your room they automatically added a 10% gratuity to the ticket we always tipped Tanya extra though!
You could book all excursions thru the resort, we booked all our dives thru them because we found that dives were not really cheaper in town. So, in order to book our dives we just had to walk to the dock which made it very convenient.
The place also had a restaurant which we only used once, other than our snacks by the pool. The food was ok, but what made the place cool was the view it was called the upper deck and it was located above the office on the third story. You could get a nice view of the ocean and surrounding jungle from there.
So, the only problem we found with this place was that it had a small sugar ant problem mainly in the bathroom. The little things sprung up about every other day, but Maria our maid sprayed daily to keep them out. We usually only saw them early in the morning and not thruout the day. We never had a problem with them getting into our food that we kept in the room. To us it was not really a problem at least it was not roaches!
We will definetly pick this place again if ever in Belize!
our building, our unit was the b
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dinning table
living room
bedroom, the closet was decent s
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the kitchen
our ocean view
right next to the pool, too!
salt water pool
the swim up bar at the pool.
one of the many fountain pools.
best beer in the caribbean!
DO NOT! I repeat DO NOT go to Belize and leave without trying this beer! The regular Belikin is the one to drink.
Belikin is brewed by the Belize brewing company and they have been in business since 1960. They make four beers The premium lager, Lighthouse Lager, regular, and the stout. Out of the four we had the regular and the stout. The stout is a lot like guinness, great taste but very heavy. The label is simple it has a mayan temple on it the regular beer has a green cap, the stout a blue cap, and the lagers come in a green bottle.
The regular is the absolute best! It was very smooth and had a great taste. I give this beer a 10 out of 10 rating. This is what we drank most of the time there we use to buy them at the grocery store for $3blz or $1.50US. However we were told that you could buy them by the case for cheaper on the street right off the trucks. Unfortunately we never did see the truck! Oh well, it’s not like the other price was outrageous. Bars and restaurants do sell it for a little more though our resort sold them for $5blz, so it was definitely worth buying them from the grocery store for us!
a good little find!
On our first night here in Belize we decided to eat dinner at the Blue Moon. We did not make a bad choice this place had great food! They served everything from “Americanized food” like burgers, to Mexican food, to authentic Belizean dishes. Of course my husband chose a burger (believe it or not he now eats a wider variety of food then when I first met him!) I chose to have the chilmole not only was it an authentic Belizean dish, but it also just so happen to be the special of the day PERFECT! The chilmole was a soup that included chicken, rice, veggies, hard boiled eggs, and some Belizean spices a kind of strange mix of ingredients none the less amazing! The food here was not only great, the service was amazing. By the time we made our way to this place at almost closing time they had run out of beer so the owner sent the waiter to go buy some for us! Really how many restaurants do that? Especially when they are in the last hour before closing? The owner also talked to us almost the entire time and gave us some very practical tidbits to make our stay more enjoyable while in Belize. The nice views are also an added bonus, this place is located right in front of the water ferry station in front of the beach so you can’t miss the place. Definitely a well worth it stop if ever in Belize.
Jarod's burger
chilmole
