Being that this is within 2 weeks from leaving for Belize, we have our transportation plans finally set in stone for our transportation to and from Ambergris Caye and to and from San Ignacio. What a relief!

Courtney called up RentalCarGroup.com and requested a Suzuki Jimni for our three day rental- Wednesday around noon until early Saturday morning of our trip. The Suzuki Jimni was no longer available and apparently they claimed that all cars that were within budget there were already reserved as well as with the other car rental companies in the area. Maybe we should not have procrastinated so much on booking the car rental?

We did make a reservation with RentalCarGroup and had to weigh in the pros and cons of doing so with them. The cons, a tad bit more expensive than the other car rental places we had looked at but the pros involved this company having two locations- at the Marine Terminal where the water taxi arrives/drops off and also at the Goldson International airport. The ease of taking a water taxi from Ambergris Caye and grabbing the car right there will be much better and worth the money of the headache of taking/paying a taxi to take us back up to the International airport to pick-up a car rental. All in all- we got the car rental for $195. And we are able to drop it off at the airport when we leave Belize nixing a taxi cab ride from the trip.

We have also decided to take a flight right from the International Airport when we arrive in Belize straight to the Ambergris Caye. While taking flights from the municipal airport is way cheaper, you also still have the headache of getting your bags, grabbing a taxi and traveling to the municipal airport and then waiting for the flight you booked there. Also, if you book with Mayan Islands Air and pay
with cash, you tend to get a 20-25% cash discount. A one way trip is $63 and add in the discount and you pay $53.55 each. If flying from the Municipal airport with Maya Airlines it would have cost $35 but with the discount at $26.25 per person but add on the cab fare of $25 and the time you waste doing it. We can fly out of The Philip Goldson International airport for an additional $15ish dollars each and save about an hour or more of down time and nix that taxi ride.

As for the water taxi, we found an express water taxi (San Pedro Express Water Taxi) that will take about an hour to San Pedro from the Marine Terminal near the Swing Bridge in Belize City. The price is the same as the other water taxi we were considering. We have decided that will be our method of leaving Ambergris Caye.

Thanks to a number of helpful advisory comments from one of our followers, Liz and I were tipped off to a really valuable money-saving opportunity. Marie from Hot Card Belize told us about their outstanding discount card that is virtually universally accepted at businesses and restaurants on Ambergris Caye and Caye Caulker.

You can pick up one of these cards for US$50. The upfront fee is quickly covered the moment you start planning your trip! Book a room with one of several different Hotel or vacation rentals and save 10 – 25%. The Hot Card can get you a 10% discount on Tropic Air, making your arrival on Ambergris or Caye Caulker that much cheaper and more pleasant! Once there, you can save on rental cars, golf cart rentals (the only way to get around the islands), and bikes. The card also gets you great restaurant benefits such as free drinks, two-for-one specials and 10% discounts on meals. Several different adventure vendors offer outstanding discounts to cardholders. The one I am most excited about is Ecologic Divers who are offering an astounding 15% for trips paid in cash!

Probably one of the best benefits of the Hot Card is its shopping value. Take this card to the Lagniappe Provisioning grocers or the Galleon Duty Free for all of your food and beverage needs. This is perfect for Liz and I as Cocotal Inn and Cabana’s has kitchenettes to serve our meal or between meal needs. Finally, a number of different retail stores offer sales discounts to Hot Card carriers.

Liz and I haven’t quite figured out all the ways we’re going to save with this card, but by initial estimates, it’ll be much more than the US$50 price tag! We will carefully document where we are saving and how much we estimate and report in a later post. Once we get back from the trip, we’ll report how much we actually saved. We’re confident it’ll be well worth it.

Hot Card Belize

I was dead set on diving the Blue Hole in Belize next month… right up until I started to hear mixed reviews about it. It seems as though not everyone was super impressed about their experience.

Liz and I were at the Museum of Science today and I saw a poster for the IMAX film Deep Sea. I said “it’s too bad we didn’t get you certified this summer. You’ll miss so much.” That started a brief conversation that readdressed my thoughts about diving vs. snorkeling. I told Liz we might be able to schedule a couple of days of snorkeling if I were to do a night dive instead of an all day dive. She said “you’re going to dive the Blue Hole, right?”

I told her I didn’t know, to which she replied “that is the whole reason you wanted to go to Belize!”

This is true. This is the absolute truth. I was dead set on diving the Blue Hole for years and couldn’t wait for the opportunity. But until recently, I was ignorant to what the dive actually was. I thought it was characterized by an immensely beautiful wall full of amazing little creatures and colors and plenty of fish.

Just as Liz was speaking, I looked to my right and saw a couple passing by. The man had a t-shirt with the unmistakable image of a 2nd stage. The logo on the shirt was blocked for the instant it took me to process the meaning of the shirt. Then, his arm moved, and I saw, printed on the shirt, the words

Dive
Belize
“Excuse me, sir” I called out.

I managed to get the man’s attention and Liz and I, while standing in line to buy our tickets for an IMAX movie, had a conversation with this man and his wife about their two trips to Belize! We would have riddled this couple with questions if they would have had the patience, but we were at least able to find out a couple of things.

Turns out the Blue Hole is sans fish. If you want to see lots of different species of the swimming critters, this is not the right place to dive. On occasion, it does have sharks! And it does, in fact, have a wall. The wall is covered with hard and soft coral, sponges, and fans, etc. The dives go down to about 130 feet (typical open water max depth) at which point little light remains but the deep dark depth can sill be seen.

Dives to the Blue Hole cost $250.00. You get two dives. Figuring on most common dive excursions, that’s 190 for the Blue Hole dive by itself. Take that fat amount of cash and apply it to a few regular, reef dives, and you’ve got lots of great adventures that may be equally as thrilling. It’s the bragging rights, I think.

Sounds fun on a dive boat or online dive forum:

“I got to dive the Blue Hole”

Manatees are fascinating creatures that are about as unique as animals come. They are close relatives to Elephants, which is no surprise, given their shape and mass. It’s believed the manatee evolved from a land mammal some 60 million years ago. Large, bulbous animals with puppy dog faces, the manatee is rather cute and cuddly looking. Their mass (they can weigand thick blubber would suggest a slow and lethargic animal. This is not entirely true. While they aren’t a speedy and aggressively moving animal, their large flippers and streamlined bodies do permit them to move very quickly when properly motivated.

There are four species of manatee including the West Indian Manatee, which makes its home in Belize. It is not entirely different from Manatees found in Crystal River, Florida. The two are actually both distinct sub-species and together represent one of the four living species of manatee. The Caribbean manatee have found a home at Belize’s Swallow Caye.

I had an opportunity to snorkel with manatees in Florida several years ago. The experience was memorable. We saw many beautiful, scarred manatees sitting in the muck and swimming up and down the river. The scars come from unfortunate encounters with boat propellers, a constant danger for manatees despite Floridian laws regulating RPMs. The manatees are still wild, but visitors like myself pose an increasing threat to these creatures as the encounters condition the animals to perceive boats and people as less threatening. Care is taken to avoid feeding or touching the animals.

The Florida manatee is facing many human threats. Besides the occasional harrowing brush with a boat, loss of habitat and the poisoning of their waterways due to chemical runoff are severe threats. In the Caribbean similar pollution threats are affecting the feeding ground of the West Indian Manatee. Additionally, in Jamaica, many manatee get caught in gill nets and drown.

Liz and I may take a tour with Ecological Divers to snorkel with these animals while in Belize. Ecological Divers offers a snorkel tour that includes another neat destination and lunch for a fair price. We’re still finalizing our plans and this could fit nicely into the equation should I be willing to adjust my diving schedule slightly.

Imagine: It’s late Wednesday afternoon- you’re taking a stroll along the beach in San Pedro near Caliente and happen to notice a crowd around a large board with numbers on it labeled 1-99. You’re not sure what is going on. You inch your way into the crowd and notice people holding papers with numbers on them. The people have bet on a number. They are calling and waving their hands at a chicken that is strolling across the numbers.

“Take a sh**t you dang chicken! Now! That’s my number! Now now now!! Crud!” As the chicken passes onto the next number.

It’s great to win the bet, however, the unfortunate part- the winner has to clean up after the chicken.