Sorry for the extremely cod title, but it's a pun you see everywhere here, with minor variations.
It's quite surprising that Belize seems little thought of in the UK as a holiday destination. I've been to a couple of Caribbean islands and would say this is the equal of some of the best there.
Maybe some Brits share my prior image of British troops sitting in a jungle hilltop bunker, sweaty and mossie-bitten.
So, many thanks to Sarah for telling me about her hols in the country and seeding the idea, and to Ian for his recommendation of Ramon's Village.
We got off the flight from Miami without having chosen between the three ways to get from Belize International to Ambergris Caye. These seem to be:
1) Direct flight in a 12-seater plane - a 40-minute wait then a 15-minute flight, but about £97 each, return, on Tropic Air.
2) Taxi to Belize City Airport then a slightly cheaper flight.
3) Taxi to Belize City marine terminal, then a ferry (misnamed as a "water taxi") here via Caulker Caye - probably just under two hours travelling plus an undetermined wait for the boat.
We took option 1, mainly as the easiest path. This was good on the way here, but really pays off on the way back, when we'll need to get up at 8am instead of around 5am.
The air strip is right next to Ramon's and they rang to get a golf cart sent for us. Most of the vehicles on this part of the island are golf carts, mostly hired by tourists apparently unable to walk the short local distances.
Having now taken a boat ride along the nearby coast, Ramon's Village stands out as the native-looking one, all wooden with palm-thatched roofs. It's history is quite interesting: originally built in 1961 with the first pool on the island; destroyed by a hurricane on the night of its completion; derelict for 20 years; mentioned to a regular U.S. visitor by his fishing guide, Ramon; bought and renovated on the condition that Ramon manage it; re-sold in the 1990's and repeatedly improved since; some staff dating back 20 years now, with Ramon still managing.
It does seem like a great fusion of local culture with U.S. business sense and standards (all prices in the hotel are in $US). A worthy recommendation.
We arrived at Ramon's and found ourselves in a one-room, detached "cabana" with a high thatched roof supported by poles inside that sat on the wooden walls. It would have been fine, apart from containing two 4'6'' beds, rather than one larger bed. Apparently we got a "double" rather than a "king".
Ramon's bookings can only be made via a U.S. phone number where the lady puts you on hold for several minutes, regardless of where you're phoning from. I guess our wishes either didn't get passed on or got garbled in translation.
Anyway, we managed to upgrade on the second day to a room with a king sized bed and further from the road. After that I felt better and managed to relax more.
We've had a few highlights during our time here:
- Snorkelling beside many colourful fish in "Hol Chan" marine reserve, a hole in the barrier reef that protects this whole part of the coast and limits local tides to a couple of feet.
- Moving on to "Shark Ray Alley" where we swam close to sharks well over 8 feet in length and even closer to sting rays about 5 feet across.
- Seeing local fishermen filleting fish and standing beside them in the water whilst smaller rays tickled my legs as they swam around after scraps.
- Sitting all day on the beach under a palm-thatch sun shade, watching the line of surf from waves breaking on the reef, with a regular supply of cocktails and cold Belikin local beer.
- Hiring a golf cart ourselves for a couple of hours and going to the edges of this part of the island.
- The flight to the island, low over the water with great views.
- Great local food, with honourable mentions for Caramba, Elvi's Kitchen (who would have thought that was what elviskitchen meant on Facebook?), Wild Mango's (for a great tapas-style lunch) and Hurricanes, where we each had 3 half-tails of lobster with meat that came out whole and delicious.
Anyway, tomorrow we move on to Peru and Lima, and from sea level to 5000 feet. I wonder what we'll discover there?
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