I was just going through some photos from our last night on Ambergris Caye. It was Tuesday, 9.15.09 and we were just preparing for dinner with Robbie and Mirna. We took a stroll along the beach North of Cocotal Inn and Cabanas (our first time venturing North of Cocotal) and were very pleased with the serenity of the island. Being the rainy season, most resorts were closed and no one was in sight. It was like having the island to ourselves, and of course, the wonderful company of the Cocotal Inn and Cabana dog, Myra. (May-ra, not Maura). Really cute dog she is- she’s very happy to keep you company for a bike ride or a stroll along the beach, or even just to laze around with you while you nap in the hammocks on the dock.

Anyways, these are our final night photos from Ambergris Caye. We were so sad to say goodbye…

The first day Courtney and I were in Belize we scheduled a snorkel trip with Ecologic Divers to Hol Chan and Shark Ray Alley thanks to the help of Beaulah from Cocotal Inn and Cabanas. Originally, Courtney and I were hoping to get on a snorkeling trip to see the Manatees. That trip would allowed for a stop on Caye Caulker, which we never got to check out except for a brief stop on the water taxi from Ambergris Caye to Belize City. The manatee trip is a full day trip, while the snorkeling trip we partook in was a half day trip.

We were greeted by Ted on the dock at Cocotal Inn and cabanas around early afternoon. Yes, they come and pick you up at the location you are staying if there is a dock there. Otherwise they might arrange for the nearest public dock. One great thing about Cocotal Inn and Cabanas is the dock. They are actually one of the only properties on Ambergris Caye that extends from the beach side to the lagoon side. You can view the sunset over the lagoon and watch the sunrise over the Atlantic ocean, all within steps of each side!

Getting back to Snorkeling, we hopped on the boat and arrived at Ecologic Tours where we were fitted with the proper equipment needed for our snorkeling trip. Courtney did not need anything and I only needed a set of flippers. Cocotal Inn and Cabanas does not allow you to take flipper out on adventure snorkel trips, you can only borrow their equipment for activities off their dock or using their ocean kayaks. Makes sense, they don’t want to lose their equipment.

After about 30 minutes of getting ourselves together, we hop on the boat with Ted and Charlie (the tour guides) and head towards Hol Chan. It’s about a 10-20 minute boat ride to get to Hol Chan. We arrive and see a boat sitting on the water with some really bored looking park rangers on it. To go to Hol Chan, you must pay a park fee (which Ecologic Divers notifies you about in price of the trip up front). We gear up and jump into the water. I get in the water a few minutes before Courtney as he is getting the underwater HD camera together. I immediately see a large turtle swimming off in the distance. I swim over and follow him for a minute before worrying if I might get in trouble leaving the group. I head back to the boat and Courtney had just jumped in the water with the HD Cam. I start taking shots with Courtney’s underwater camera that he received as a gift. It’s a great underwater camera. Ted leads the group and shows us lots of cool fishies. We see an eel, grouper, jack, etc. Courtney would be better at naming the exact species of fish we saw. There were so many, I was overwhelmed. They also just point out the species of fish and it’s hard to identify the name of the species as everyone is busy snorkeling/underwater and communication via words is hard to follow. Regardless, we saw some really cool things, including sting rays and brightly colored coral.

Commercial Break for Part two: Shark Ray Alley and chumming…Please visit our friend Marie at Belize Hot Card and learn how you can save lots of $ on your trip to Belize!

We planned for a stop off at Jaguar Paw Jungle Lodge on our way to Table Rock to do a little zip lining. The lodge is located just east of Belmopan making it a nice stopping point to break up the trip a little prior to a second stop in Belmopan for lunch. As we cruised on down the Western Highway, Liz and I noticed an old, faded billboard advertising Jaguar Paw. No arrows, or instructions “turn here” were printed on the sign, but 1000 feet later, we’d instinctively stopped and prepared for a U-turn. We pulled into some farmers driveway and turned around. As we approached the sign, we saw no further indicators that this was actually the turn off for Jaguar Paw. But some guys sitting under the sign approached. We rolled down the window and ask them but were greeted with a faded tour guide’s license and a solicitation. “Yes, this is road to Jaguar Paw, but we are licensed tour guides. We take you for zip lining, cave tubing.”

“No thanks,” we said. “We’ve got reservations at Jaguar Paw.”
We continued down this road south for about 2000 feet before we hit potholes. Hundreds of them. Massive potholes. Boston has big potholes. Big like, your tire will fall in them and you feel a good bump. Belize has small potholes. Small, like your tire will fall in them and you feel a good bump. They have big potholes, too. Big potholes like your car will fall in them and you will become a bump.
We drove through what looked like an exploded mine field for some time, crippling the hooptie and contemplating our next move should one of the axles fall off. Some of the holes were manageable. We could straddle them or pass them on the left or the right. Others were less easily avoided. Some were, in fact, so massive, there was actually less road than pothole.
After a long while, we passed a similar adventure post full of tour busses and a few signs indicating zip lining and cave tubing. Liz wondered if that was it, but we pressed on. A long while later, we started to wonder if this was actually the right road. Maybe it was just a billboard. Again, no arrows. No “turn here.” Nothing.

Finally saw a sign. A small, almost inconsequential sign sat on the side of the road indicating this was still the way. We breathed a sigh of relief and pressed on.

Jaguar park is located inside a protected nature reserve. We entered the park and told the ranger our intent. He pointed us on and waved us a goodbye. We entered the park and were immediately hit up by yet another tour guide who tried to sell us on cave tubing. “No thanks,” we said and drove on.

We came to the steepest hill I’ve ever tried to ascend in a car. The trail was about 15 feet wide with two two-foot wide strips of broken concrete running up the middle. A pleasant, one lane “road” led us up a hopelessly steep hill where any other vehicles would surely smoke us before we ever even saw them. The strips of concrete, while reliable, were narrow and skirted by deep, rocky troughs that we were sure to avoid. As we ascended the hill, I had only one thing to say:

“Oooooh…..myyyyy…..God.”

The car made it, barely, and we descended the other side.
We parked and walked into what is easily the hokiest (no offense Virginia Tech) “jungle lodge” I could imagine and signed in. The cost was $45US per person. For $52 we could have lunch, too. It was about lunch time and we hadn’t eaten much so we decided to grab lunch, too. We sat down at a nice table in a nice dining room, decorated in tourist cheese and began to set up the equipment.

Lunch came out. It was delicious; chicken, rice and coleslaw. A pretty common dish, as it turns out in Belize. I loved, it, Liz ate it.

Then the power went out.

For about five minutes, we were limited to ambient light from outside as the staff ran frantic trying to restore power. Eventually, it came back on, we left our gear at the front desk and headed out to the zip line tour.

The weather during our trip was spectacular. We were fortunate enough to not encounter any rain showers while staying on Ambergris Caye.

While we stayed in the Table Rock Jungle Lodge we did encounter a 20 minute shower returning from Caracol to Table Rock. Also, while I was sick on Friday, 09/18/09 there were on and off showers all day. Courtney did not claim to encounter any while on ATM, although most of his time that day was spent in the cave.

When I look at our weather widget in the upper right hand corner of the website all I have been seeing are rain and thunderstorm icons. Belize must be getting hit now with the “rainy” season and we were lucky enough to just miss it!

Monday, 9/14/09, While I was sitting at Cocotal Inn and Cabanas getting my sun and rest on in the pool and on the dock, the maid pulled me aside and said, “Ma’am, Beaulah needs to see you in the office.” “Eeek!” I think to myself. I was actually at that moment walking back to the bar to write down on the sheet of paper that I had drank a beer. I totally forgot to log it at the exact moment I took it from the fridge. With the maid stopping me and telling me that, I immediately think to myself, “Oh Crap, I didn’t log the beer right away and it’s an hour later and Beaulah totally knows I didn’t and thinks I didn’t and is going to yell at me!” Mind you, Cocotal Inn and Cabanas has a really nice open air bar- it’s an honor bar. That means, you take what you want (Belikin beer, Sodas, etc) and you mark it down to pay for it when you leave or to be invoiced on later.

I walk into the office and Beaulah doesn’t yell at me about the beer at all, but instead, informs me that Courtney had called me earlier from Ecologic Diving and she walked around the grounds to find me but couldn’t. At the time she was looking for me, I was actually next door at White Sands grabbing lunch. I say “phew” and explain to Beaulah I thought I was in trouble for the beer (funny, I know) and she laughs and just says, “Let’s call Ecologic and see if we can catch Courtney before his last dive.” She promptly dials Ecologic Divers whom I catch the owner on the phone and she mentions “Courtney requests your presence for a night dive tonight. We will pick you up on the dock at Cocotal at 5:15 p.m.” “Okay, great!” I say as I hang up the phone. I head back to the room and take an hour nap. It’s about 3:15 when I wake up. I go back to the honor bar and grab a coke Light. Yeah, not a diet coke, but a Coke Light (it’s equivalent in Belize to a Diet Coke). A few minutes later, I hear a boat pull up to the dock at Cocotal and see Courtney walking down the dock towards me. I’m quite excited. We had spent the day apart and I had missed him and I was glad to catch some alone time before going on our night snorkel and dive. At this point, Courtney gathers himself in the hotel room and we decide to go to the nearest grocery store, Lulu’s, to try and grab some food for dinner after the dive and for breakfast. We wander over to Lulu’s (a short walk from Cocotal) and see that the store is “closed” but to go see a server at the front bar and they will assist you to open the shop. (they are open normal hours as any store is but in the low season it doesn’t make sense to have workers sitting in there when no one is around). We walk to the front bar right on the water and beach and walk in on a PARTY! We are greeted by a few who ask us to stay but we insist we can’t because we have to go on a night dive/snorkel. They ask us to return after our night dive. We showed up about 8:00 p.m. when most everyone was already at their limit- but we still had a blast!

Honestly, the pictures do the talking, but I wanted to thank Victoria for her hospitality and also all the wonderful people we met that night at Bella Vista.