A Trip to the Island of Ambergris Caye and San Pedro

Belize is home to a bunch of islands called Cayes. today Ashely was able to join me in a trip to San Pedro on the Ambergris Caye located north of Belize. To get there you have to take either a boat or a plane, we choose the boat, longer trip but cheaper and it was a beautiful day for it.

It took some traffic magic to get to the water taxi launch because Belize City is a complete mess. It beats Boston for one-way street madness. However, soon we were on our way across the warm water headed toward the island.

One of the many islands along the way, honestly I have no idea which one. It was all very pretty and equally indistinguishable. We also stopped at a private island to drop some packages and at Caye Caulker.

We arrived on the crowded streets of San Pedro, everything you could want from a Caribbean island town. Small streets, mainly golf carts to get around. It had elements of where I lived in Californian, but at the same time completely different.

There were golf carts bike but almost no cars to get around. And an occasional tractor.

There was also a church with this painted sculpture in front of it. Most people do not know that medieval churches were all painted this way, as were the Ancient Greek marble sculptures. The Pantheon? All pastels.

Compared to Belmopan the town was in a lot better shape, and the vegetation much more lush. This was a cool thatched roof house with a cacophony of color.

All around were dugout canoes, but some must eventually be retired from active service, and in this case turned into a planter.

This was the place we got lunch, it was a huge thatched space with a delicious and much needed ceviche. I missed this when I left California, fresh seafood prepared in delectable ways was common and this brought me back a bit.

The view we had while eating was equally enjoyable. You can feel the relaxation seep up from the sand.

Just outside of the eatery there was a group of rusted anchors that must have been pulled up at some point, I like the picture it made.

We walked up the beach, found this collection of conch shells on the edge of the water. The water was such an amazing shade and it was amazing to watch the water break a mile out and have no shore waves at all.

There were a surprising amount of dugout canoes still in use. This is another retired one but as someone that has designed and made my own boats I found it fascinating.

So a large part of this ecosystem is the mangroves. They have been working on restoring and protecting the mangroves here.

Ashley believed that when she was here 10 years ago that these were not here. There were crabs and fish skirting around her feet as she waded in.

There was a dock there to with a door to prevent people from wandering up it. It looked like it had not been used in a while but made a great portal-to-nowhere.

There were these amazing hotels along the beach. When we finally got far enough north it turn a bit worse for wear but it is obviously how much the tourism trade has brought a little more wealth here.

There were tons of painted billboards everywhere. This one specifically caught my attention, something about the face distorting terror that seems to fill her eyes is captivating. Like going for a deep dive and discovering that instead of air they gave you puppies. For a brief second you would think, "Puppies!" But then the water would come in.

The walk back to head home. We ended up not going snorkeling, time was sort and we both felt like it was better to relax and enjoy than rush to try to fit that in. Just means I need to come back when I am scuba certified (looking at you Craig) and dive instead.

On the dock was this boat, at first I thought it was fiberglass but as I looked at it closer I realized it was in fact a dugout canoe covered in fiberglass. It was so insanely heavy and it the literal meeting of the old world and the new.

We took the last water taxi out around 4pm and then negotiated the extremely crowded and confusing streets of Belize City (google maps, thank you. Apple maps was completely useless throughout Belize) and the sky was dark from smoke. The slash and burning of the fields filled the air with smoke. For the first time since I moved to Cali in 2003 I saw a completely red sun, except then it was wild fires that had filled the sky rather than purposeful burns.

It was a wonderful day and I am not too burned from the experience. A final shot of the beaches...