I admit it:
I used to have a slightly condescending attitude toward Ambergris Caye. "Oh, it's where the tourists go," I used to say. It's not The Real Belize of jungle and remote islands, I thought.
But the more times I visit San Pedro, the more I have come to enjoy it and appreciate it.
If you want a comfortable, shorts-and-sandals seaside vacation, at a moderate price, just a bit off the beaten path but not too far, where the seafood is fresh and beer is cold, where the water won't make you sick, an island with most of the mod cons without the plastic tackiness, with decent diving, excellent snorkeling, beautiful water and okay beaches, where local folks are mostly friendly and hablan English (though they may speak Spanish at home), with dependably beautiful weather most of the time, then I guarantee you'll enjoy Ambergris Caye.
Yes, tourism is the number one industry in what was once a fishing village. Now, fishing is so far back in second place that you can't even see the hooks. This is not, however, the edgy tourism of Cancun, with millions of package tourists hitting the beach.
San Pedro, the only town on Ambergris Caye (locally pronounced Am-BUR-Gris Key or sometimes Am-BUR-Jess Key, not the way your American dictionary would have you pronounce it) remains laid-back and low-rise. The streets are still mostly sand. Golf carts are still the major form of transportation, although the number of cars on the island continues to rise. The air strip, despite being recently lengthened, is still a strip, not an airport, and it's literally next door to town.
Condos are going up right and left. Development continues at a rapid pace south of town. North Ambergris is starting to achieve critical mass, with electrical power even to once remote houses and hotels. When a bridge finally is built over the channel, watch out! Yet, no building is higher than a tall coco palm, or three stories.
Hotels inexorably are getting more upmarket, with fresh-water pools and aircon. Prices continue to go up, too, with the best suites in the best hotels going for the previously unthinkable - more than US$300 a day. But most hotels on Ambergris Caye are moderate by Caribbean standards. Have you checked what beachfront hotels in St. Thomas or Anguilla are getting these days? Or even in Cozumel?
Still, this is not an island for backpackers looking for the cheapest deals by the sea. Neither is it for shoppers, golfers, gamblers (though there's one small casino, The Palace, and more likely coming), gourmandizers or those panting after one of those all-inclusive hedoheat experiences made famous in Jamaica.
Ambergris Caye is not for those seeking the ultimate beautiful beach, or totally unspoiled diving, nor is it for sophisticates who summer in the Hamptons and winter in St. Barts. Yet for both visitors and residents, the island continues to become more cosmopolitan. Restaurants are getting better. Expats from all North, South and Central America and Europe now call San Pedro home. A number of Belize's most-successful business people maintain vacation homes here.
In short, Ambergris Caye is at that very special point in the development of a tropical paradise. It is beyond boredom, a bit before mass discovery and just this side of just right.
Your first impression of Ambergris Caye is likely to be from the air, because most visitors to the island fly into the Philip Goldson International Airport at Ladyville just north of Belize City and then change to a local commuter (the international airport has a new domestic section) for the 20-minute hop to San Pedro. Flights to San Pedro are day-time only.
You board your Maya Island Air or Tropic Air flight. See How to Get to San Pedro. The equipment is likely to be a small Cessna Caravan or Twin Engine Islander. Hey, these are not 727s. It can be a tight squeeze for larger passengers (big guys are usually put up front), and if you're small you may be sitting in the back with the luggage. But both Maya Island and Tropic have excellent safety records. They fly hundreds of flights a week with few if any problems.
As you fly the 35 miles to San Pedro, your little plane soars over several islands, including Hen and Chicken Cayes, the larger Hick's Cayes, and then Caye Chapel (site of a new golf course, the only course in Belize). The large caye just north of Chapel is Caye Caulker, the second-most developed and most-populated of Belize's islands after Ambergris. Some flights make a brief stop at Caulker before going on to San Pedro.
On a clear day, you get a great introduction to Belize's Caribbean Coast. As your plane goes low over the transparent water, you'll see mangrove- or sand-edged islands, coral heads, the sand and sea grass bottom, fishing boats and sometimes the blur of large fish.
You'll come in over the south end of the island. Hol Chan Marine Reserve, a popular snorkeling site, is just off the southeast tip of Ambergris. A few houses dot the southern coast of the island, becoming more densely clustered as you approach the town. Just a few hundred yards off the east side of the island is the barrier reef. Usually the water inside the reef is a turquoise color, while on the ocean side it is a deeper blue.
Ambergris Caye isn't a large island. It's 25 miles long and only 4 miles wide at its widest point. Much of the island is low mangrove swamp, and there are a dozen lagoons.
The air strip, 3,000 feet long, comes into view and within seconds you're on the ground. As you taxi to the small airline buildings at the north end of the air strip, you'll see, in the bright glare of the sun, the southern end of San Pedro Town. Several popular hotels and condotels are at this end of town. Most resorts meet arriving guests in a car or golf cart, but if yours doesn't you can take a taxi or, if staying nearby, make the short walk.
The experienced Caribbean traveler will recognize San Pedro Town immediately: In some ways, it's the Caribbean of 30 years ago, before the boom in international travel, a throw-back to the days before cruise ships turned too many Caribbean islands into concrete mini-malls hustling duty-free booze and discount jewelry. There are just three north-south streets, each hard-packed sand. Wood houses and shops, painted in bright tropical colors fading quickly in the sun, stand close together. Newer buildings are reinforced concrete, optimistically girded for the next big hurricane.
Foot and bicycle traffic predominate, though the streets are busy with golf carts - keep a close eye, as the electric ones sneak up behind you silently - and, unfortunately, an increasing number of pick-ups and cars.
A few years ago, in a burst of efficiency, the town council made Front Street, whose name has been changed to the more romantic-sounding Barrier Reef Drive, one-way, with carts and vehicles allowed to go north only for most of its distance, to Caribena Street. Middle Street, or Pescador Drive, is one-way south from the intersection with Caribena Street.
Many of the hotels, restaurants and larger businesses are on Front Street. Just beyond the primary school and the bite-sized San Pedro Library (here, you don't need a library card, and even visitors can check out books, free, or a buy a used paperback for a dollar or two), you'll see Rubie's, Sea Gal, Celi's Deli, Holiday Hotel, Spindrift, home of the chicken drop, and then Tarzan's and Big Daddy's clubs, the venerable Barrier Reef building, and the Catholic church, cool and welcoming. Farther up on the right there's Fido's (FEE-dough's), the Mayan Princess, and the Ambergris Caye Museum, cozy but full of interesting stuff. As Barrier Reef Drive peters out, dead ahead is the Paradise Hotel and Paradise Villas.
To the east, beyond the line of buildings, only a few feet away, accessible through many alleys, is the Caribbean. There's a narrow strip of beach and seawall between the buildings and the sea, used as a pedestrian walk-way. A number of piers or docks, rebuilt after Hurricane Mitch in 1999 and Hurricane Mitch in 2000 washed them away, jut out into the sea. The patch of white you see a few hundred yards out is surf breaking over the barrier reef. Even if you're a strong swimmer, don't try swimming out to the reef from the shore. There is a lot of boat traffic inside the reef, and over the years several swimmers have been killed or injured by boats.
As you go farther north on Middle Street, San Pedro becomes more residential, and more local. You'll see the San Pedro Supermarket, electric and telephone facilities, a small high school, playground, and then the San Pedro River, or "the Cut" or "the Channel." This area south of Boca del Rio got a good deal of water damage from recent hurricanes, due in part, some say, to the illegal cutting of mangroves; it's not nice to chop Mother Nature.
A 60-second, hand-pulled ferry will take you across to the other side. A small golf cart and walking path wends its way north, mostly on the back side of the island, past the proposed site of Reef Village, expat homes, Sweet Basil deli, and Capricorn resort and restaurant. The cart path, badly washed by Keith, is slowly returning to bumpy normality. It ends at Captain Morgan's, where the path is blocked by a barrier erected on the beach. You can, however, walk northward, following the narrow beach to a number of resorts, including the Essene Way, with its kitchy Biblical and bizarre black-face statuary, Journey's End, at 90 rooms the largest resort on the island, and Mata Chica, new and trendy. The good smells you smell are from Rendezvous Restaurant, serving delicious Thai-French food next to Journey's End.
Be sure to take plenty of bug spray, and wear light-colored clothes, because away from the water mosquitoes here can be terrible, especially in the summer. On one visit, I saw a woman on the ferry whose back was literally almost black with mosquitoes. She was carrying an infant and did not want to use insect repellent.
Beyond the last hotel is a large, undeveloped area. Over the years, many schemes have been floated for this part of the island, once part of a private holding called the Pinkerton Estate. A large part of this area has been saved from Cancunization thanks to establishment of the Bacalar Chico national park and marine reserve. The park, which opened in 1996, comprises 12,000 acres of land and 15,000 acres of water. At present the park is accessible by boat from San Pedro, from the Belize mainland at Sarteneja and elsewhere and from the Mexican port village of X'calak. The park is home to a surprisingly large population of birds and wildlife, and there are a number of Maya sites. This northern tip of the island is separated from the Mexican Yucatán only by the narrow Bacalar Chico channel. Indeed, Ambergris Caye once was physically part of the Yucatán peninsula, the channel having been dug by the Maya.
Had you headed south from town rather than north, you'd be on Coconut Drive, another sandy little roadway. A cluster of hotels and other businesses are near the airstrip, SunBreeze, The Palms and Ramon's, among others. A short section of this street was paved a couple of years ago, at the airport. You'll pass Jade Garden restaurant on your left, then, quickly, Changes in Latitude B&B, the Belize Yacht Club with its new meeting and restaurant facility, the newly repainted budget Hideaway Sports Hotel, Playador with its thatch condo additions, Corona Del Mar, Coconuts Hotel and the Lalas' little paradise, Caribbean Villas. You'll pass the Island Supermarket, San Pedro's largest, and soft-drink and beer magnate Barry Bowen's turf, which includes Island Academy (tuition US$250 a month), one of the better private schools in Central America, and his warehouse facility. Some of the buildings, you'll note, are painted Belikin-bottle green. Here, the little road veers sharply right, past the newer Rock's Grocery II and La Margarita, a Tex-Mex place, then back left. The area west of the main drag here, or to your right going south, is the San Pablo residential area. Considerable development continues along the sea, including the new Banana Beach condotel. Villas at Banyan Bay, now expanding, Tropica, the mushrooming Royal Palms timeshare, Victoria House and Caribe Island Resort are also in this area. By this point, you're some 3 miles south of San Pedro Town. If you continue farther south, by foot or cart, you're back in a residential area, with a number of upmarket houses including one owned by musician Jerry Jeff Walker, along with shacks and other assorted digs.
Speaking of digs, the Marco Gonzales Maya site is near the south tip of the island (it's not easy to find - ask at your hotel for specific directions), one of a number of mostly difficult-to-get-to sites on the island. Other Maya sites on the island, which you can visit on boat tours to the North End, include Chac Balam and Santa Cruz. As on the north end of the island, mosquitoes are often a problem once you leave the more-developed areas in the south.
Ambergris Caye is a low-lying island, with no dramatic hills or mountains. Coconut palms - some of which are suffering from lethal yellowing disease - are the trees you will probably notice first. The island also has saltwater palmettos and other palms.
Mangroves - there are red, black and white mangroves here - are the most important tree on the island, because their root systems provide a home to a rich variety of sea life and literally prevent the island from being washed away. It is illegal to cut mangroves, but unfortunately this law is not always observed.
Sapodilla, the mimosa-like Acacia, coco plum and large Australian pines are among other fairly common trees on Ambergris Caye. In gardens around town, you will see many tropical flowering plants such as hibiscus and poinsettia.
This is not a lush jungle island, but there are many trees struggling to grow in the thin limestone soil and scrub vegetation in the sand.
The far north and south of the island are homes to the most wild creatures.
There are several kinds of sea turtles that come ashore on Ambergris Caye, mainly on the North End, the most common being the Loggerhead. Small whitetail deer can occasionally be seen, along with wild pigs, and coatimundis (locally called quash). Reportedly, three of Belize's five types of wild cats, the marguay cat, jaguarundi, and the ocelot have been seen at the north of the island.
Around the island you may see the common iguana and also its smaller cousin, the wish-willie, or the Central American basilisk, frequently called the Jesus Christ lizard for its ability to run lightly across water.
There are small salt-water crocodiles in the lagoons.
More than 250 species of birds have been seen on Ambergris Caye. Non-birding visitors may especially note the Frigate Birds and Brown Pelicans, common around piers. Seagulls, oddly, are not very common. Elbert Greer, who writes a weekly column for the San Pedro Sun, and Susan Lala at Caribbean Villas, are the island's resident birding experts.
It would takes pages to list all the undersea life around the island. Among the more interesting sea creatures are the sharks. Nurse sharks are the most common, but black-tip, lemon, tiger and even hammerheads come around. Sting rays are common, as are the larger spotted eagle rays. You will see many barracuda. Among sport and eating fish common around the island are bone fish, several types of groupers, tarpon, marlin, wahoo and snappers. Spiny lobster (legal season June 15 to February 15) and several varieties of conch (legal season October-June) are well known and delicious residents of the area. Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins are often seen from the shore or following boats, and manatees may be seen on boat trips. The narrow beaches of Ambergris are not particularly fertile territory for shelling, but many shells can be found in the shallow water just off the beach.
For detailed information on the natural history of Ambergris Caye, pick up a copy of The Field Guide to Ambergris Caye by R. L. Wood, S. T. Reid and A. M. Reid, available at gift shops on the island.
Mosquito control efforts keep the mozzie problem to a minimum in San Pedro Town and the hotel areas to the south of town. Most visitors here aren't much bothered by either mosquitoes or sand flies, the pesky no-see-ums which sometimes plague visitors in other parts of Belize.
However, both on the north and the south ends of the island, especially away from the sea breezes and in summer after rainy periods, mosquitoes are plentiful. Even when you are riding in a golf cart, mosquitoes may swarm over you. The best protection is to spray with DEET.
Africanized bees, cockroaches the size of battleships, non-poisonous tarantulas, scorpions and other creepie-crawlies do coexist with humans on Ambergris Caye, but it is rare that visitors will be bothered by them, or even see them. Supposedly two varieties of snakes are on the North End of island, a type of boa constrictor and the black-tailed indigo, neither one poisonous, but these are rarely seen.
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