z28pwr
Guest
Belize Trip Report
We've been diving to Cozumel on five diferent ocassions and done around 20 dives there, but we've never been to Belize, and when we saw a deal on travelocity we couldn't pass it up.
We departed Houston Texas on 09/19/09 towards Belize City flying via TACA airlines, which was a two hour and fifteen minute flight with lunch and free drinks via an Embraer 190 airplane. We arrived in Goldston Belize international airport and proceeded to take our jumper plane via Tropic Air to take us to Ambergris Caye island. The plane ride from Belize City to Ambergris Caye was only 15 minutes at a low altitude of 3000 feet via a Cessna, we arrived in the city of San Pedro in Ambergris Caye where a taxi was waiting to take us to a water taxi which would take us to our Hotel. We stayed at the Belizean Shores, which is a small 150 condominium resort right on the Caribbean That night we had dinner at the hotel which was good but expensive at $30 dollars a plate. The next day we purchased a week pass for the water taxi for $35 US that allowed us unlimited trips for the week (well worth the money) and headed into town. We tried to book our diving with Chuck & Robbie's but they were closed for the slow season (the end of September is a slow season in San Pedro and some merchants close the last 2 weeks of Sept.) so we ended up going with Amigos Del Mar. We hadn't done any "real" dives in a while so we were a bit nervous and one of our friends couldn't get his certification in time therefore we decided to dive the Hol Chan park while he snorkeled it.
On Monday Juan from Amigos del mar met us at our dock at 8:00 AM and took us to Amigos Del Mar where we got ready to do our Hol Chan dive, once on the boat he gave us our dive profile and we proceeded to enter the water while Edgar from Amigos del mar guided our snorkeling buddy. This was a nice shallow dive with lots of wildlife, we saw turtles, eels, arrow crabs, tangs, rays, groupers and lots of other animals. Water temperature was 80F, dive time was 40 minutes and max depth was 26', once we completed our dive we proceeded to Shark & Sting Ray alley where we snorkeled with the sharks and rays and got a chance to pet the sharks and stingrays, after that we headed into town for some food and left our gear with Amigos who rinsed and stored our gear for us. Monday was Belize's independence day so we hung out and watched the locals party it up.
On Tuesday we took a kayak across our hotel to the barrier reef and snorkeled all along the barrier reef which was amazing. The reef is very shallow with some areas at less than a foot deep therefore we did not snorkel over the reef but rather alongside to avoid damaging the coral.
On Wednesday Edgar from Amigos Del Mar picked us up at our dock for another day of diving, we met up with our dive-master Juan at Amigos Del Mar and got a chance to strap in my pony bottle, we then proceeded to Victoria reef where he gave us our dive profile. This was an excellent dive with good visibility, very little current and the best part about it is that it was just the three of us and the dive-master (snorkel buddy stayed in the boat). Dive profile was: Water temp 81F, bottom time 43 minutes, max depth 75'. I was very impressed with my bottom time since I'm normally an air hog but on this dive I did great and could have easily gone longer but our friends air integrated Suunto dive computer went crazy therefore the dive-master called the dive. Once on the boat the dive-master took us back to Amigos Del Mar for our surface interval (5 minute ride) and checked on our friends computer while we grabbed a snack. I took a peak at her computer and it was showing that she had gone 423' deep and was in error mode. After an hour surface interval we headed out to our next dive and since our friends dive computer wasn't working the Dive Master let her borrow an air and depth gauge from the shop for our last dive. I don't recall the place of the dive, but it was a great dive. The Dive Master took a baited PVC pipe and out of nowhere sharks and groupers were coming out with close to 20 sharks following him. I kept my distance from the sharks, but got a good bump on my hip from one of the sharks that was trying to eat my safety sausage, it made for a good laugh back on the boat, but wasn't so funny when it happened. Dive profile was: Water temp 81F, bottom time 49 minutes, max depth 64'. Once we finished diving we went into town and had a bite at "Caliente", which was good and reasonably priced.
On Thursday we took the water taxi into Belize City and did the Zoo, Zip Line and cave tubing. The Zoo is made up of rescue animals and has animals that we don't have in the states, the Zip Line and the Cave tubing were allot of fun, but make sure you bathe yourself in mosquito repellent since the mosquito's are vicious during the rainy season. Belize City was rough looking and I would not feel safe staying there, but the tour operator picked us up from the water taxi, took us to our destination and brought us back to the water taxi, therefore we didn't have any problems. The boat ride back was bad since the boat was packed and the seas were rough making it a bumpy ride back home. We had an excellent time in Belize and would recommend it to anyone. I would definitely stay in Ambergris Caye and not in Belize City though.
Places We ate and our rating:
Belizean Shores Hotel -- Food was good but expensive.
Portofino -- Food was great but expensive.
Bluewater Grill -- Food was great but a little expensive.
Sunset Grill -- Food was excellent and was moderately priced
Caliente -- Food was good and reasonably priced.
Waruguma's -- The seafood burrito's (grouper, lobster & shrimp) were great and economical at $17 us per burrito that easily feeds two people.
Manelly's Ice Cream -- Ice cream was great and reasonably priced.
Price rating is based on a similair item in San Antonio, if you live in New York you may think it's all cheap.
We've been diving to Cozumel on five diferent ocassions and done around 20 dives there, but we've never been to Belize, and when we saw a deal on travelocity we couldn't pass it up.
We departed Houston Texas on 09/19/09 towards Belize City flying via TACA airlines, which was a two hour and fifteen minute flight with lunch and free drinks via an Embraer 190 airplane. We arrived in Goldston Belize international airport and proceeded to take our jumper plane via Tropic Air to take us to Ambergris Caye island. The plane ride from Belize City to Ambergris Caye was only 15 minutes at a low altitude of 3000 feet via a Cessna, we arrived in the city of San Pedro in Ambergris Caye where a taxi was waiting to take us to a water taxi which would take us to our Hotel. We stayed at the Belizean Shores, which is a small 150 condominium resort right on the Caribbean That night we had dinner at the hotel which was good but expensive at $30 dollars a plate. The next day we purchased a week pass for the water taxi for $35 US that allowed us unlimited trips for the week (well worth the money) and headed into town. We tried to book our diving with Chuck & Robbie's but they were closed for the slow season (the end of September is a slow season in San Pedro and some merchants close the last 2 weeks of Sept.) so we ended up going with Amigos Del Mar. We hadn't done any "real" dives in a while so we were a bit nervous and one of our friends couldn't get his certification in time therefore we decided to dive the Hol Chan park while he snorkeled it.
On Monday Juan from Amigos del mar met us at our dock at 8:00 AM and took us to Amigos Del Mar where we got ready to do our Hol Chan dive, once on the boat he gave us our dive profile and we proceeded to enter the water while Edgar from Amigos del mar guided our snorkeling buddy. This was a nice shallow dive with lots of wildlife, we saw turtles, eels, arrow crabs, tangs, rays, groupers and lots of other animals. Water temperature was 80F, dive time was 40 minutes and max depth was 26', once we completed our dive we proceeded to Shark & Sting Ray alley where we snorkeled with the sharks and rays and got a chance to pet the sharks and stingrays, after that we headed into town for some food and left our gear with Amigos who rinsed and stored our gear for us. Monday was Belize's independence day so we hung out and watched the locals party it up.
On Tuesday we took a kayak across our hotel to the barrier reef and snorkeled all along the barrier reef which was amazing. The reef is very shallow with some areas at less than a foot deep therefore we did not snorkel over the reef but rather alongside to avoid damaging the coral.
On Wednesday Edgar from Amigos Del Mar picked us up at our dock for another day of diving, we met up with our dive-master Juan at Amigos Del Mar and got a chance to strap in my pony bottle, we then proceeded to Victoria reef where he gave us our dive profile. This was an excellent dive with good visibility, very little current and the best part about it is that it was just the three of us and the dive-master (snorkel buddy stayed in the boat). Dive profile was: Water temp 81F, bottom time 43 minutes, max depth 75'. I was very impressed with my bottom time since I'm normally an air hog but on this dive I did great and could have easily gone longer but our friends air integrated Suunto dive computer went crazy therefore the dive-master called the dive. Once on the boat the dive-master took us back to Amigos Del Mar for our surface interval (5 minute ride) and checked on our friends computer while we grabbed a snack. I took a peak at her computer and it was showing that she had gone 423' deep and was in error mode. After an hour surface interval we headed out to our next dive and since our friends dive computer wasn't working the Dive Master let her borrow an air and depth gauge from the shop for our last dive. I don't recall the place of the dive, but it was a great dive. The Dive Master took a baited PVC pipe and out of nowhere sharks and groupers were coming out with close to 20 sharks following him. I kept my distance from the sharks, but got a good bump on my hip from one of the sharks that was trying to eat my safety sausage, it made for a good laugh back on the boat, but wasn't so funny when it happened. Dive profile was: Water temp 81F, bottom time 49 minutes, max depth 64'. Once we finished diving we went into town and had a bite at "Caliente", which was good and reasonably priced.
On Thursday we took the water taxi into Belize City and did the Zoo, Zip Line and cave tubing. The Zoo is made up of rescue animals and has animals that we don't have in the states, the Zip Line and the Cave tubing were allot of fun, but make sure you bathe yourself in mosquito repellent since the mosquito's are vicious during the rainy season. Belize City was rough looking and I would not feel safe staying there, but the tour operator picked us up from the water taxi, took us to our destination and brought us back to the water taxi, therefore we didn't have any problems. The boat ride back was bad since the boat was packed and the seas were rough making it a bumpy ride back home. We had an excellent time in Belize and would recommend it to anyone. I would definitely stay in Ambergris Caye and not in Belize City though.
Places We ate and our rating:
Belizean Shores Hotel -- Food was good but expensive.
Portofino -- Food was great but expensive.
Bluewater Grill -- Food was great but a little expensive.
Sunset Grill -- Food was excellent and was moderately priced
Caliente -- Food was good and reasonably priced.
Waruguma's -- The seafood burrito's (grouper, lobster & shrimp) were great and economical at $17 us per burrito that easily feeds two people.
Manelly's Ice Cream -- Ice cream was great and reasonably priced.
Price rating is based on a similair item in San Antonio, if you live in New York you may think it's all cheap.
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