Final Day in San Pedro, Belize

Photo of our golf cart

Photo of the toll bridge that connects San Pedro to the northern parts of Ambergris Caye

Photo of a "Super Store" in the southern residential area of San Pedro

[All photos on this blog are taken by Alan A. Lew and are released with a Creative Common Copyright: non-commerical use only, attribution required, share alike required]

Friday was our last full day on Ambergris Caye, Belize. The weather had improved some, but not a lot. The winds were milder, but the sky was mostly overcast. The scuba and dive trips were still going out, but it sounded like some tours were still being canceled -- or participants give the change to cancel, if they wished. I overheard people talking about this while I was using the wireless internet connection in the lobby. That is pretty much all I did in the morning.

The one other thing that I did in the morning, other than packing, was to take a walk on the one road that runs the length of the northern part of the island. Resort staff had mentioned how bad the road was, especially in this rainy season, on several occasions. I followed a road from the resort that I thought would take me to the main road, but it turned out that it was the main road. And as soon as I got into the thick vegetation behind the resort the road got really bad: bumpy, soft sand, and littered. It actually got a bit better beyond that as it followed the telephone poles.

On the next property over there was a lone tractor clearing the land. Two houses had been built on the back side of the long, narrow lot, which fronted a lagoon. It looked like more houses (two story, could be multiple units) were going to be built on the front side of the property that borders the Caribbean Sea. Another timeshare?

I followed the road back to the Costa Maya Reef Resort and through the other side, passed the employee housing, to where a new two-story single familiy house was under constructions. A French speaking family passed me on bicycles. This road is supposed to be paved at some point in the coming year. That could have a significant impact on how people get from San Pedro to this part of the island --- and could lead to even more development of the north.

After lunch we got our bags together and checked out in time to catch the 1pm resort boat to San Pedro. At San Pedro I went to Polos where I rented a golf cart for 3 hours. IT took a little getting used to as it wanted to go in directions that were different from where I though I was pointing it with the steering wheel! We loaded our bags on it and drove through town to Ramon's Village where we checked into to our cottage at Steve and Becky's Cute Little Hotel just in time for a toreential downpour.

It took about an hour before we were checked in and the rain let up enough to not soak us while we were driving around. We spend the next two hours exploring the suburbs and residential areas. Resorts are scattered along the road to the south, though little is on the west side of the island that faces internal, island lagoons. Closer to town are the residential areas where an incredibly wide variety of architecture is found on unpaved sand roads.

Recreational fishing boats are located on the back (west) side of San Pedro, and more dense residential is found up to the bridge that connects San Pedro to the northern parts of the island. The sand roads were quite bad due to the rains, and we almost got stuck in wet sand at a corner that was under construction. To avoid that on the return from the bridge area we drove on the beach, which is one of the smoother roads in town. We did not cross the small bridge due to the B$50 (US$5) toll.

Despite the occasional rains, it was really great fun to drive around San Pedro and see more than just the commercial area.

After returning the golf cart we walked through San Pedro and ended up having dinner at Warumunga's (sp?) -- a tiny 2 table hole in the wall that has gotten some good reviews. We wanted the lobster burrito, but they did not have any lobster, so we had the shrimp burrito, instead. We also had fajitas and papupas (sp?) -- I am not sure on the spelling, but these are massa (corn meal) stuffed inside with beans, pork and cheese, and fried like a pancake. They had set up a special cooker on the street in the evening and were hand making them on the spot, so we took a couple.

It rained hard overnight and we were told by the hotel that we should arrive at the tiny San Pedro airport an hour early because weather conditions were expected to be bad. Ramon's Village provided transportation for us as it was raining that morning when we got there a little before 7am. We were booked on the 8am flight, but they put us on the 7am one instead, as there were plenty of seats. That was good as we were one of the first to check into our Houston flight and avoided the long line that formed at 8am.

The trip back was uneventful, except that it hade started snowing pretty good as we reached Flagstaff on Sunday morning. By mid-day on Monday we had received over a foot of snow in our yard. Quite a difference from Ambergris Caye!

I think this beach towel is actually quite right...