April 7, 2004

Greetings,

It is said that you can never go home again. In scuba diving terms, I guess that means that you can never expect a dive trip to recapture the magic of a previous dive trip. My 2001 trip to Belize was did, in fact, possess a certain unique magic. My 2004 trip was pretty different. Not bad, but different.

The trip began the same—with a visit to the legendary Jet Bar in the airport in Belize City. Jet is a Belize institution, a little man about four feet tall with coke bottle glasses. He sells the local Belikin beer at US$3.00 a pop—roughly double the price at other bars. But I guess that airport prices are higher the world around. I did buy a t-shirt in the airport that was only US$6.00, so that was a good deal.

One leg of the trip that was definitely better the second time around was the airplane ride to Ambergris Caye. The ancient Czech planes had been replaced with modern Cessnas—complete with deluxe leather interiors, making the 20-minute flight a far more comfortable and far less scary experience.

Our hotel, the Sunbreeze, is directly across the street from the airport, thus eliminating the need for a taxi ride. I rate the Sunbreeze highly—perhaps not the four stars reported in the guide book, but it was clean and comfortable, complete with a nice pool, a fine restaurant, and a happening little bar.

On the other hand, I give Aqua Divers, the on-site dive shop, lower marks. My complaints are four: 1) they seem to have an aversion to continuity. On nearly every dive, we had a different boat, crew, and / or divemaster. Divers who rented their gear had different gear every time, and I had a different weight belt every time. 2) they did not seem to welcome suggestions from the divers on dive sites. They seemed to have their own agenda, and did not want to deviate from it. 3) they were unable to put together a trip to the blue hole, even with three attempts. We did get to Turneffe Atoll, but never did get to the blue hole. 4) their commitment to safety was less than impressive. On our night dive, we had a crew of one. Our dive master led the dive, but there was no captain on the boat in case of emergency.

Overall, the diving off Ambergris Caye is not that great. The reef took a major pounding in 2000 from Hurricane Keith, and has yet to fully recover. Dead coral was covered with the same green algae that I found in the Caymans. However, there were occasional forests of new elk horn coral. Fish life is less abundant than in some places in the Caribbean, although one could not help noticing the large number of grouper—some very large fish—around everywhere. Sometimes they followed us like puppy dogs, looking for grouper treats.

One of my criteria for success in a dive trip is seeing things I’ve never seen before. On that basis, the trip was a success. There were several species of needlefish, including the ballyhoo—a truly extraordinary little thing that looks like a swimming hypodermic needle. A fast-swimming hypodermic needle. There were also indigo hamlets, glassy sweepers, and some odd bottom-dwelling jelly fish—or maybe they are a form of urchin—either way, they were not in my reef creatures book.

Our dives on Turneffe Atoll were also a success. As with my 2001 dives to Lighthouse Reef, the reefs at Turneffe had healthy coral structures and were covered with colorful sponges.

My first experience with my new underwater digital camera was mixed. I took some nice shots, but unfortunately brought only the 32MB card, leaving my 256MB card home. So I was limited to about 30 pictures. I also discovered that Canon does not make a strobe light that fits my camera housing, so I may have problems moving up to a more professional setup.

On this visit, we took a day off from diving to visit Lamanai, a Mayan ruin on the mainland. The trip was fairly arduous with an hour and a half boat ride to the mainland, an hour long ride on a schoolbus over bumpy, unpaved roads, and another hour long boat ride up the New River. That boat ride was pretty interesting, with stops to look at birds, fresh water crocs, and monkeys.

Lamanai was inhabited continuously for about 3,000 years, from about 1,500 B.C. until the Spanish came in the 1,544 A.D. Of course, the Spanish tried to convert the heathens to Christianity. The heathens burned down the Spanish churches.

I found the ruins themselves to be dramatic—less so than Chechenitza but more so than Tulum. Out of 730 buildings that have been discovered, only a few have been dug out of the dirt that covered them. The High Temple, the largest structure appeared to my naked eye as being on the same scale as the biggest pyramid at Chechenitza. Being in the midst of jungle made the place more mysterious than Tulum, on a bluff overlooking the ocean. The monkeys in the trees added a bit of the exotic too.

The nightlife in San Pedro was strangely absent. Whereas in 2001, there was a boisterous crowd every night at Fido’s, the place was dead on both visits (Monday and Friday). The Jaguar nightclub had been carved up. There was a fast food joint out front, a sports bar on the side, and a smaller nightclub in the back. I never saw the nightclub open. On the plus side, a new bar opened up next door to the Sunbreeze. Putty Tat’s is up on the third floor, so it can catch the sunset (most beachfront places face east). I had a few quiet beers at Putty Tat’s after the bar at the Sunbreeze closed for the night. The owner said that the previous week had been busy, so maybe we just found the quietest week of the season.

While walking down the beach, we noticed that the Paradise Hotel, where I stayed in 2001 was closing. For old time sake, we had a couple of beers in the tiki bar. The price was right at US$1.25—the same price as the grocery store. The bartender told me that new owners were going to tear down the hotel and build condos. It just broke my heart. The Paradise was such a wonderfully laid-back place.

Later that night at the Sunbreeze bar, this old guy came in and bought me a couple of drinks. It turned out that he was the owner of the Sunbreeze, and he had come in to celebrate his latest business venture—he had just bought the Paradise Hotel! It turned out that he was an Irishman from Boston who had moved to Belize in the 60’s and had built the Paradise, among other places. After selling the place to Japanese investors years ago, he had just bought it back.

As we were sitting at the bar, his daughter came over. She runs the restaurant at the Sunbreeze. Like myself, she had mixed feelings over the new venture, having grown up at the Paradise. I felt her pain.

On the plus side, San Pedro has pretty much cleaned up after the hurricane. The damage that had been evident in 2001 was pretty much gone. We met a Canadian guy in BC’s, a beachfront bar, and he told us of his favorite restaurants. We had an excellent whole snapper at Cosina Carumba on our first visit. On our second visit, Bob was disappointed with his fish and chips, but I thought my grouper in coconut milk was great. Both times the conch cerviche and salsa was excellent. Jamal’s Jerk Place was really good for dinner and really mediocre for breakfast. The Stained Glass Pub was good. Caliente was bad. The Cobb Salad at the Sunbreeze was fantastic.

One evening in San Pedro, I met a guy selling Cuban cigars on the street. His prices were much lower than in the stores, so I got three Cohibas—at $7.50 each. After years of occasional cigar smoking, I’ve decided that I prefer the smaller Robustos to the mucho-grande Churchills. There’s no doubt that the Churchill is cooler-looking, but it takes all night to smoke. In cigars, less is more.

Overall, the island didn’t seem to have the same carefree atmosphere as before. Maybe I was living in a fool’s paradise (or maybe a fool’s tropical paradise) on my first visit. One theory is that the island’s economy is hurting. The year 2001 was back in the free-wheeling pre-9/11 days. Tourism has slowed down, and there’s less money around. Another theory is that the island developed too fast, so there’s not enough money around for everyone to prosper.

Back in the USA, I played the Madonna song “Isla Bonita” over and over. I had heard it before and wondered if the San Pedro in the song is the same San Pedro as on Ambergris Caye. Some Madonna websites say that the song is named after San Pedro, California, but people in Belize know differently. Evidently, her visit in the early 90’s is well remembered, and there are numerous signs around San Pedro saying “Isla Bonita”, the Spanish name for Ambergris Caye (means beautiful island).

I think that on my next visit to Belize, I’ll take a more dive-oriented approach—either on the Nekton Pilot or at the Lighthouse Reef Resort. The diving at the outer atolls is as good as it gets, and I’d like to get more of it.

Cheers,

Bruce