Belize- Ambergris + Caulker trip report/ August 09
Aug 23rd, 2009, 08:22 PM
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Belize- Ambergris + Caulker trip report/ August 09
Once in Belize City took a quick flight over to Ambergris Caye. I love those low-flying puddle jumpers-such amazing views of all the different turquoisey color variations in the water! Stayed at Caye Casa in northern San Pedro for 3 nights just to begin our decompression. Good location on the beach without much traffic and they had a nice dock for swimming and a small pool; easy walk along the water into town. Well, easy unless it was high noon + blazing hot sun. Had some great meals in San Pedro- loved the Blue Water Grill! Wild Mango’s and Caliente were also yummy. Had breakfast the second day at Estels and met her husband Charlie who is co-owner of the place- we wound up hearing some great stories of how he came to Belize and his life in the music industry. If you get a chance, you have to meet this guy! Just fantastic yarns about ditching his past life/Florsheim shoes, show-drumming, and family. Estel also makes a mean fry-jack!
We took a water taxi to Caye Caulker and stayed at the Iguana Reef Inn which was great! By this time I was all about my patented layering of water resistant 45 spf followed by a heavy coat of 98% DEET- didn’t burn but could not keep from being bitten by the damn mosquitoes. I should’ve just done shots of the DEET w/ permethrin chasers…
First night dinner at Don Corleone’s was great- some of my FB friends may recall my run-in with the roach in their bathroom-I didn’t give the fully gruesome account on FB- got up mid-pee to grab my purse and shake the thing off only to have it run down my bare butt. I’ve never screamed so quietly in all my life. I’m sure the man in the stall next door didn’t know what the hell was going on. That didn’t keep us from eating there again as the bathrooms were well removed from the building plus I’m sure bugs are everywhere anyway. My husband wished he could have witnessed the mayhem...
Other notable dinner was at Habaneros- weird, inventive menu and great vibe. Favorite place hands-down was Sandro Take Away: Italian man and his wife? (girlfriend? daughter?-not sure but a lovely woman nonetheless) have a little shoebox of a place right on the beach next to E-Z boys tours. 2 picnic tables- that’s it. Anyway, Sandro whipped up the best Italian food this side of Florence and lucky for us it was lobster season! LOVED everything about their food- fantastic tiramisu, great seafood linguine, killer salads- just wonderful, authentic, fresh food; and cheap. Bring your own Belikins though; he doesn’t have a liquor license.
Amor y Café seems to have the only good coffee between Caulker and Ambergris; how can that be when Belize is right next to Guatemala??? Yummy sandwiches and breakfasts there. The Caye Caulker Bakery deserves a shout out as well for snacks and breakfast tarts. The Sandbox had yummy fish burgers (Mark attempted regular burgers 2X but was disappointed twice- once at the Sandbox and the other time at Herbal Tribe- stick to what’s local folks). Syd’s had nice lobster skewers and fresh cantaloupe juice-mmmm so refreshing in that soupy heat! Yeah, the skin-cocktail of spf, bug spray + humidity/sweat got old quickly….but we did learn to either be in the water between 10 am and 3 pm, or siesta-ing.
Mark did a few dives; I had a phone interview…the dock at our hotel had great sunsets and we saw lots of good-sized rays in the water every evening just before sunset.
We went cave-tubing on the Sibun river and that was fun and beautiful! (Arranged through Tsunami tours.) That same night I came down w/ a heinous fever…don’t think they were related however as it appeared a virus went through Caulker during our stay. Lissette and Jim at Iguana were super helpful and very kind- which is part of why we decided to stay on the island and not move on to more southerly cayes. Our 2 weeks there were great-would like to see mainland ruins there and in Guatemala next time but not during the summer. Started reading the book 1491 by Charles C Mann to learn more about what the Americas were really like and it makes me want to explore even more!!
We took a water taxi to Caye Caulker and stayed at the Iguana Reef Inn which was great! By this time I was all about my patented layering of water resistant 45 spf followed by a heavy coat of 98% DEET- didn’t burn but could not keep from being bitten by the damn mosquitoes. I should’ve just done shots of the DEET w/ permethrin chasers…
First night dinner at Don Corleone’s was great- some of my FB friends may recall my run-in with the roach in their bathroom-I didn’t give the fully gruesome account on FB- got up mid-pee to grab my purse and shake the thing off only to have it run down my bare butt. I’ve never screamed so quietly in all my life. I’m sure the man in the stall next door didn’t know what the hell was going on. That didn’t keep us from eating there again as the bathrooms were well removed from the building plus I’m sure bugs are everywhere anyway. My husband wished he could have witnessed the mayhem...
Other notable dinner was at Habaneros- weird, inventive menu and great vibe. Favorite place hands-down was Sandro Take Away: Italian man and his wife? (girlfriend? daughter?-not sure but a lovely woman nonetheless) have a little shoebox of a place right on the beach next to E-Z boys tours. 2 picnic tables- that’s it. Anyway, Sandro whipped up the best Italian food this side of Florence and lucky for us it was lobster season! LOVED everything about their food- fantastic tiramisu, great seafood linguine, killer salads- just wonderful, authentic, fresh food; and cheap. Bring your own Belikins though; he doesn’t have a liquor license.
Amor y Café seems to have the only good coffee between Caulker and Ambergris; how can that be when Belize is right next to Guatemala??? Yummy sandwiches and breakfasts there. The Caye Caulker Bakery deserves a shout out as well for snacks and breakfast tarts. The Sandbox had yummy fish burgers (Mark attempted regular burgers 2X but was disappointed twice- once at the Sandbox and the other time at Herbal Tribe- stick to what’s local folks). Syd’s had nice lobster skewers and fresh cantaloupe juice-mmmm so refreshing in that soupy heat! Yeah, the skin-cocktail of spf, bug spray + humidity/sweat got old quickly….but we did learn to either be in the water between 10 am and 3 pm, or siesta-ing.
Mark did a few dives; I had a phone interview…the dock at our hotel had great sunsets and we saw lots of good-sized rays in the water every evening just before sunset.
We went cave-tubing on the Sibun river and that was fun and beautiful! (Arranged through Tsunami tours.) That same night I came down w/ a heinous fever…don’t think they were related however as it appeared a virus went through Caulker during our stay. Lissette and Jim at Iguana were super helpful and very kind- which is part of why we decided to stay on the island and not move on to more southerly cayes. Our 2 weeks there were great-would like to see mainland ruins there and in Guatemala next time but not during the summer. Started reading the book 1491 by Charles C Mann to learn more about what the Americas were really like and it makes me want to explore even more!!
