Photo of what I think is called a "box crab"
Photo of one of the many iguanas on the resort grounds
We had the suite on the top floor of this building
Not having had much sleep on our redeye flight, we slept in fairly late in the morning, though we did make the 10 a.m. free continental breakfast that came with the resort orientation. After the presentation we discussed what tours we might want to do and then signed up for the Lamanai Mayan ruins tour (which includes a nature-based river trip and village stop (6:45am-5:30pm, on the mainland), and a Manatee viewing, snorkeling (two stops), and Caye Caulker visit (we will do this tomorrow, on Monday, 8:15am-5pm). Caye Caulker is a smaller island and town south of Ambergris Caye.
Before coming here several people mentioned going from Belize to the more famous Mayan ruins of Tikal in Guatemala. That is apparently more easily done if you are staying on the mainland. From here you need to either do an overnight land trip or fly, which costs about US$400/person. So we settled for a more local Mayan trip instead.
We also agreed to do the timeshare sales pitch on Friday morning, which reduced our Lamanai tour cost by $200. I hate doing those things, but these two tours was well around $900 for the four of us, so the discount looked good. We then went to the Dive Shop where I signed up for a two-tank dive (US$75) on Wednesday morning.
We then went to the small resort store and got two kayak paddles, life vests, and fins. This was all free to use, and we had brought our own mask and snorkel. Chynna, Skylan and I kayaked around the piers and out just beyond the sea grass the lines most of the shores on Ambergris Caye. Chynna and I also snorkeled some around the pier. Mable relaxed on a hammock between two short palm trees.
I tried out my new underwater camera case for my Canon SD800 compact camera and got some great photos and video. I love it! – though I kept checking to make sure that no water was seeping through the seal. The sun pretty much wiped me out, so we went back to each a late lunch and get ready for a free resort kayak and snorkel dive at 3pm.
Skylan decided that he was too tired to do the afternoon excursion, so it was just Chynna and me. There were four others and our guide, Kirk (the resorts activity coordinator). He took us the Mexico Rocks reef., where about eight small boats were scattered about with snorkelers Kirk said that this was the second most popular snorkel site, after the Hol Chan marine reserve – and it was right in front of or resort.
We tied our kayaks to a pole sticking out of the water and followed Kirk who pointed out animals of interest. This was a very nice snorkel trip, especially since it was free. There was lots of coral and an incredible diversity of fish. I took several videos and soon found that my memory card was full. I deleted a couple of videos and then stuck to taking photos (much smaller in size). After about 45 minutes of diving, we returned to our kayaks and made or way back to shore.
We went to the hotel restaurant for dinner. They had a special of breaded freshly caught Reef Grouper, and it was excellent – so soft and tasty. It was not real cheap however (US$16.50 – for fresh fish I guess that is not too bad), and we will mostly be eating in our bungalow for most dinners this week.
We, especially Chynna and I, got a lot of sun today. And we will get even more tomorrow. We also saw several iguanas today – mostly younger ones, though there was one large (2 feet long) older iguana sunning itself in front of our neighboring bungalow.
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