fishguy
Registered
My wife and I just got back from a fabulous two week vacation on Ambergris Caye. This was our first trip there and it will definitely not be our last. In fact, the wheels are in motion for a trip this time next year. We were sad to see the time disappear so quickly so we will be extending the stay to a third week (fingers crossed).
Getting there, especially on points, from the west coast of Canada is a bit of milk run but in the end it's worth it. There isn't much to say about UA/CO as it was pretty much par for the course. The staff at Tropic Air, on the other hand, were great. The flights were full from Belize City to San Pedro but they put us out on an earlier flight and managed to get everyone's bags on the same flight. Who knew a small aircraft like that could carry that much baggage.
We had booked at Paradise Villas after quite a bit of research. Our decision was based on a number of factors and we were not disappointed. As it has been stated many times before, the units are individually owned and we rented through Nellie's Property Management. We knew that some units would be nicer than others. Ours was in the others category, but it served well for our partial stay. We were moved to a different unit for the final few days (we knew ahead of time) which was much more desirable. A word of advice...the two bedroom units do not have outdoor space which we sorely missed with our first unit. The second was an upper one bedroom in a much better location within the complex.
The complex itself is great and the location was everything that we could ask for except a better beach. Not a big deal. We used the pool a great deal and many times we would go sun ourselves on the pier where we could interact with the local kids. It's nice to see kids playing and not being locked inside glued to a tv playing video games. But I digress.
The complex is located easy walking (crawling if necessary) distance from everything. There are grocery stores, shopping and restaurants very nearby. Having cooking facilities in our unit was great and it certainly reduced our food costs. We ate breakfast and lunch in our unit every day except one. For dinner, we tried to mix it up and eat at a variety of restaurants as well as eating at the food vendors located at the central square. The cost and quality of the latter tended to be a great draw for us. The lobster burritos were fantastic. The more we went, the bigger they got.
There wasn't a single place that we ate where we did not have a great meal. A few of the restaurants we ate at were Elvi's, Waraguma, and the Reef. There were also the little hidden gems that those with much more time in San Pedro under their belt would suggest. We didn't hit them all so we have something to look forward to the next time down.
As for the diving. Based on a lot of recommendations on here, we started out at Island Divers. We tried them out and the vibe with them just didn't seem right. After one day with them, we switched to another shop. I won't get into specifics, but it just wasn't to be.
We ended up with Reef Adventures (Cap'n Ron) partly because of location...they are located right beside Paradise Villas. There is something to be said for doing surface intervals in your own suite. It just clicked with them. They were fabulous right from the start and they put a smile on our faces. We were pretty much allowed to dive the way we wanted to which meant that we got to slow it down considerably. Looking at the small stuff and not feeling like you are swimming back to shore is a much more preferable way of diving to us. Michael, Travis and Chucky were awesome. There isn't much more to say than that.
The diving itself was good but not great. The topography made for some interesting dives, but the lack of fish was surprising. Since we were diving in smaller groups, we tended not to travel as far for dive sites. This may have something to do with it as we seemed to be diving in locations that all the other dive shops were at. There were so many divers in the water that some dive sites reminded of the local training areas that we have here at home.
The water was on the cooler than we would have liked it side (about 76 F) but it is still much better than home. The visibility was also not the best, but again, still much better than home. The wind was blowing almost the entire length of our stay so there was considerable chop on the water which made for challenging entries back into the boat. One day, was a little much and the boats weren't even going to the outside of the reef. That was fine with me as it let some of the bruises heal.
At the end of it all, 15 dives were logged. I even got to participate in the "lion fish eradication program". It was the first time using a spear gun and yes I even got a few. We chose not to do the Blue Hole as it was a dive that held little interest to us. I know that we also blew off the two other dives, but they will be there for the next trip.
The only downside to the entire trip was a flooded housing and my wife's camera being destroyed.
All in all, it was more than we bargained for. The people of San Pedro were just amazing. Thank you...until next time.
Getting there, especially on points, from the west coast of Canada is a bit of milk run but in the end it's worth it. There isn't much to say about UA/CO as it was pretty much par for the course. The staff at Tropic Air, on the other hand, were great. The flights were full from Belize City to San Pedro but they put us out on an earlier flight and managed to get everyone's bags on the same flight. Who knew a small aircraft like that could carry that much baggage.
We had booked at Paradise Villas after quite a bit of research. Our decision was based on a number of factors and we were not disappointed. As it has been stated many times before, the units are individually owned and we rented through Nellie's Property Management. We knew that some units would be nicer than others. Ours was in the others category, but it served well for our partial stay. We were moved to a different unit for the final few days (we knew ahead of time) which was much more desirable. A word of advice...the two bedroom units do not have outdoor space which we sorely missed with our first unit. The second was an upper one bedroom in a much better location within the complex.
The complex itself is great and the location was everything that we could ask for except a better beach. Not a big deal. We used the pool a great deal and many times we would go sun ourselves on the pier where we could interact with the local kids. It's nice to see kids playing and not being locked inside glued to a tv playing video games. But I digress.
The complex is located easy walking (crawling if necessary) distance from everything. There are grocery stores, shopping and restaurants very nearby. Having cooking facilities in our unit was great and it certainly reduced our food costs. We ate breakfast and lunch in our unit every day except one. For dinner, we tried to mix it up and eat at a variety of restaurants as well as eating at the food vendors located at the central square. The cost and quality of the latter tended to be a great draw for us. The lobster burritos were fantastic. The more we went, the bigger they got.
There wasn't a single place that we ate where we did not have a great meal. A few of the restaurants we ate at were Elvi's, Waraguma, and the Reef. There were also the little hidden gems that those with much more time in San Pedro under their belt would suggest. We didn't hit them all so we have something to look forward to the next time down.
As for the diving. Based on a lot of recommendations on here, we started out at Island Divers. We tried them out and the vibe with them just didn't seem right. After one day with them, we switched to another shop. I won't get into specifics, but it just wasn't to be.
We ended up with Reef Adventures (Cap'n Ron) partly because of location...they are located right beside Paradise Villas. There is something to be said for doing surface intervals in your own suite. It just clicked with them. They were fabulous right from the start and they put a smile on our faces. We were pretty much allowed to dive the way we wanted to which meant that we got to slow it down considerably. Looking at the small stuff and not feeling like you are swimming back to shore is a much more preferable way of diving to us. Michael, Travis and Chucky were awesome. There isn't much more to say than that.
The diving itself was good but not great. The topography made for some interesting dives, but the lack of fish was surprising. Since we were diving in smaller groups, we tended not to travel as far for dive sites. This may have something to do with it as we seemed to be diving in locations that all the other dive shops were at. There were so many divers in the water that some dive sites reminded of the local training areas that we have here at home.
The water was on the cooler than we would have liked it side (about 76 F) but it is still much better than home. The visibility was also not the best, but again, still much better than home. The wind was blowing almost the entire length of our stay so there was considerable chop on the water which made for challenging entries back into the boat. One day, was a little much and the boats weren't even going to the outside of the reef. That was fine with me as it let some of the bruises heal.
At the end of it all, 15 dives were logged. I even got to participate in the "lion fish eradication program". It was the first time using a spear gun and yes I even got a few. We chose not to do the Blue Hole as it was a dive that held little interest to us. I know that we also blew off the two other dives, but they will be there for the next trip.
The only downside to the entire trip was a flooded housing and my wife's camera being destroyed.
All in all, it was more than we bargained for. The people of San Pedro were just amazing. Thank you...until next time.
