Trip Report Ambergris Caye, White Sands - April 2017

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MichaelMc

Working toward Cenotes
Messages
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Location
Berkeley, CA
# of dives
100 - 199
I got to spend a week on Ambergris Caye with my non-diving brothers family, in a house two doors south of White Sands dive shop, April 1-8. No atoll dives due to weather, but three nice local dives. A friendly English country with basic infrastructure but not much that is very advanced.

Snorkeling: On the west side the Caye, Secret Beach was a great spot with clear 3-4’ water going a long way out, and a pier to find cool fish under. A good afternoon for family and four 9-14 year old boys. 30 minutes by golf cart from our house. Nice bar there for food, refreshments, and bean bag toss. We rented snorkel gear from White Sands. Later the house manager arranged a guide to surface snorkel at Hol Chan and Shark Ray Alley. High winds had made them a bit rough, so those new to snorkeling had a hard time, but most had fun. A few life preservers as belts turned breathing anxiety into ‘what is that fish’ and laughs. Hol Chan for more wild life, Shark Ray Alley for many sharks and rays. I strayed further from the group. Floating 1-2’ over the reef beside a large school of blue tangs was a blast.

Diving: Winds shut down diving outside the reef most of the week. Mexican Rocks, inside the reef at all of 11’ deep, was fun with a turtle, nurse shark, and lots of fish and new to me coral, 11’ 41 min 20’ vis, DM Hue. The last day it cleared enough for two dives on the local reef, just north of White Sands. Very nice, a swim through, lots of coral intermixed with sand channels. A nurse shark gliding back and forth along reef. A barracuda getting cleaned. I’m not an expert on bleaching, but the reef looked nice. We started gearing up around 8:15, left the dock 9ish, home by 1 ish. Water and mask soap on the boat, 70’ 44min, SI at dock for tank change and pineapple, 62’ for 49 min, 50’ vis, 3 min 15' safety stops. I walked over to the shop, but others arrived by what appeared to be White Sands boats. My 5m suit required venting at 83 degrees and 11’, but left me happy at 81 degrees and 60’ with zipper open, though I like it warm. I swam in the front side of the group, some were bicycle kicking a bit, but most seemed ok.

White Sands: They did a good job. Boats were good. DM/Instructors were good. My two tank boat had maybe two groups of 6-7 people. My group had an instructor, Sam, with a trainee/DM following, trainee/DM brought a low air group up early. The shop said my group was limited to 60’ as one girl was finishing AOW, but that was fine. The DM let me venture deeper as I had a computer, and checked with me that I was fine at the end of the safety stop. I watched him do the AOW checkout and it was very professional, very careful. I think I was the only one with my own gear. At least everyone else's BC was the same. White Sands offered to fill a pony if I brought mine, but I did not get that organized prior.

Atolls: I tried to do a Turneffe trip, with Amigos del Mar, but it got cancelled for lack of people. A guide said the Blue Hole based ones get canceled less often; a deep dark hole might be the cost of getting to the atolls from San Pedro..

Casual diving: I was very happy with a routine of waking up, working for a few hours, walking down to the shop to go diving, coming back by late lunch, and then going snorkeling with the family. For all of two dive days.., but oh well, the weather was not kind.

Inland: We/I did the Zoo and the howler monkey sanctuary, via 90 minute water taxi and guide, they were nice to see. The rest of the family did a major Mayan ruin as well. 6am at the dock to 5-6pm return. Inland is very warm. Those are long days! School kids and people working in Belize City make that commute each day. That is rough!

Travel: We did Tropic Air to the Caye, very happy. I forgot to arrange cell service, and could have in San Pedro. No issues at airports, customs, etc, all very nice. I brought all my gear, except lead and tanks. Steel plate w/ attached lead, suit, fins, lights, SMB in one checked bag, regs, wing, masks, etc in carry on. 42 lb of dive gear. Luggage with cheap wheels and cobble/sand streets/alleys do not mix well, the wheels lose their thin rubber veneers.

Rental house: We stayed at Stella Di Mare. Very nice. Victor and his wife were very helpful. A dock, two kayaks, house keeping, pool, hot tub. Good enough internet to run jobs on my server in Berkeley, pretty cool really.

Seaweed: It didn't affect boat diving, but there was Sargassum on all the eastern beaches, and men shoveling it into wheel barrels to cart off every day. A strong motivation to study or work hard is seeing people work every day with pitchfork and wheel barrel to remove beaches worth of seaweed, and never finishing..

Country: The people we saw and talked with were nice. San Pedro and the airport seemed safe, as we were told. My first Caribbean trip. They have no railroads, three highways, our guide said two highway patrol vehicles, and the main cargo port has no advanced cargo handling. Google maps shows the port as unpaved paths through stacked shipping containers, a central building, and one crane on the pier. Those are the main impressions from the trip inland and later reading.

Pictures: no camera, sorry, mental images only.
- Small turtle swimming into anchor rope, divers helping free it.
- Floating on surface, just above bed of stag horn coral, beside a school of blue tang.
- Hovering around coral outcrops, juvenile damselfish like specks in the water.

Michael
 
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Thanks. Your report is especially valuable because of the non-diving aspect; I suspect Ambergris Caye draws a number of people who aren't just hitting Belize for the diving. Non-diving family are a fact of life for many of us (at least for some trips), and having entertainments/activities for them is important.

Belize is a curious destination in that it's huge compared to some of the islands, and has a wide array of activities but the best land-based (e.g.: rainforest walks, Mayan ruins, the Belize Zoo, etc...) and the best diving (e.g.: Lighthouse Atoll, Turneffe) are far apart so people often need to either pick one & accept trade-offs on the other, or split their vacation. Or such was my impression from threads discussing it.

I've wondered if people on Ambergris Caye, much closer to the mainland, might get to take advantage of mainland activities. You went snorkeling on island, but:

Inland: We/I did the Zoo and the howler monkey sanctuary, via 90 minute water taxi and guide, they were nice to see. The rest of the family did a major Mayan ruin as well.

What Mayan ruin?

Where these excursion options difficult to learn of or arrange and price?

Thanks.

Richard.
 
There are many small mayan ruins around Belize, but I suspect it may be Lamanai, which is a very nice, large ruins, otherwise there are trips to Tikal in Guatamala. Didn't go to Tikal, but heard it was amazing.
 
I did the Lamanai tour on a cruise ship excursion up New River, and saw Mask, Tall (I think it was called) and Jaguar Temples (they let us climb atop the 1st 2). It was a neat excursion. If that one's practical from Ambergris Caye, that'd be a nice advantage. Haven't done any others.

Richard.
 
Thanks. Your report is especially valuable because of the non-diving aspect;

Belize is a curious destination in that it's huge compared to some of the islands, and has a wide array of activities but the best land-based (e.g.: rainforest walks, Mayan ruins, the Belize Zoo, etc...) and the best diving (e.g.: Lighthouse Atoll, Turneffe) are far apart so people often need to either pick one & accept trade-offs on the other, or split their vacation. Or such was my impression from threads discussing it.

...
What Mayan ruin?

Where these excursion options difficult to learn of or arrange and price?

For the kids/adults we also did an afternoon of walking around San Pedro, starting at a pastry shop, then a scavenger hunt by cell phone photo. Two of the 14 year olds went off as a team, the 9 year old teamed with his mom, the other 14 year old teamed with my brother and I. A recommended ice cream store was on the list to find, and meet at in 40 min. Then the reverse to meet at the golf carts/grocery store to stock up. The 14 year olds went swimming off the house pier once the vis cleared up. There was lots of craft work and pool by the 9 year old, and iPad/books and listening to baseball by the 14 year olds. One dinner was at a restaurant by the dive shop, one at the resort next door. Others at home as family, followed by group games organized/browbeat by mom. Coconut and almond cutting taught by the house manager.

I think the ruin was Lamanai, it was up river in Belize and a/the major ruin. Leaving at 5:30 to make a 90 min water taxi, a van ride, an exciting and great boat ride, then the ruins, then all the way back. I do not know the price, my brother arranged it through the house manager. Some of the group climbed to the top. After the following day's water taxi and van rides to zoo and sanctuary, my brother was done with water taxies in rough water. I know the snorkeling trip was $50 U.S. /pp.

I think the ruins were meaningful to the kids, I'm not sure about the zoo and sanctuary, they are nice and neat, but small. I think the bigger impact is seeing great people who do not have as much opportunity as we do. Riding around with the guide asking about the country, houses and buildings we saw, education, and industries, drove that home. I'm not sure how much of that the kids got.

Michael
 
This is all good info. I am heading to Belize, staying in San Pedro, in June. We are looking at a few dive trips, but also some other activities for the non-diving part of the family.
 
There are many options for doing mainland tours from Ambergris Caye. I have done a trip to Laminai via Tropic Air. It is a much easer schedule. I believe we left the San Pedro airstrip at 9am and we returned about 2:30. It is more expensive, but a much nicer day than taking the water taxi and then getting on a bus to Orange Walk. We flew into Orange Walk for a short van ride to the New River. Once there, it is a 26 mile trip up the river to Lamanai. After touring the ruin, back down the river we went and back to range Walk to fly back to San Pedro. I am sure you can also fly to San Ignacio and tour the two sets of ruins in San Ignacio or take a day trip to Tikal. I know Island Divers offers a day trip via water taxi that includes Cave tubing, Ziplining, and Ruins all in once day.

The trip to Belize City is about 90 minutes by water taxi or 10 minutes by small plane.

Really the right way to do things is to stay at a Jungle Lodge like Caves Branch and spend a few days in the jungle on adventures.

There are also cabins at the zoo which rent very cheaply. It is a great stop off on the way to a morning flight from the international airport at the end of a trip. Staying at the cabins makes it easy to do a night tour of the zoo. It also allows the chance to stay in the jungle for the night in very simple accommodations.
 
I definitely recommend popping over to the mainland if you get the chance. Tons of stuff to see and do, much of it within an hour's drive of BZ City.

And if you're taking an afternoon flight out, consider spending the morning at Altun Ha. As ruins go, it's on the small side but that's perfect for a couple of hours. It's only about a half hour drive from there to the airport. The grounds are well kept, so the place is easy to get around.

AWMIII! Where've you been? Good to hear from you. I agree to really do it right you should arrange to spend a few days and nights at a jungle lodge. Lots to choose from.
 
I bet the guys getting the seaweed off the beach aren't worried about getting their TPS reports done in time, or if they ever use the phrase "you must have a case of the Mondays"

Check with Island divers if you want to go do a trip to Turneffe, last time I was there I did a trip with then due to the winds not allowing boats outside the local reef. I just wish I was a more experienced diver at the time, I just was not able to stay down long enough to maximize the experience. The first dive, at the elbow, I surfaced after 35 minutes give or take then 50 + dolphins showed up and spent some time with the other divers. I thought well I will get to see them on another dive, that has not happened yet.
 
I definitely recommend popping over to the mainland if you get the chance. Tons of stuff to see and do, much of it within an hour's drive of BZ City.

And if you're taking an afternoon flight out, consider spending the morning at Altun Ha. As ruins go, it's on the small side but that's perfect for a couple of hours. It's only about a half hour drive from there to the airport. The grounds are well kept, so the place is easy to get around.

AWMIII! Where've you been? Good to hear from you. I agree to really do it right you should arrange to spend a few days and nights at a jungle lodge. Lots to choose from.

I have been busy diving. I established a dive travel business and have been taking people on trips. I got back from San Pedro about 2 weeks ago.
 

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