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Spread out in a 200-mile-long chain parallel to the mainland of Belize are the cayes, the little islands that are, for most visitors, the main stopping-points in the country. For divers, the cayes are bases for exploring the wonders of the nearby barrier reef, second in length only to the Great Barrier Reef of Australia. For fishermen, they are the gateway to teeming, barely exploited waters. And for just about everyone, they are idyllic locales for relaxation, where palm trees wave in gentle breezes along barely frequented beaches, people go about their business in tiny settlements with sand streets and small-town ways, and the cares of the world have no place.

Numbering in the scores, the cayes are the visible tips of a submarine geography of undulating ridges and trenches, plateaus, and coral reef. They range from mangrove-entangled spots that poke out of the water at low tide to coral specks to uninhabited sandy islets with a few palm trees to islands with sufficient dry land to sustain a varied vegetation as well as fishing villages. Most of the cayes are tucked behind the protection of the barrier reef, surrounded by waters multi-toned in blues and greens, the visible seabed speckled with coral and seaweed clusters. Farther from shore, four atolls—rings of coral enclosing shallow lagoons amid deep waters—transplant a bit of the South Seas to the Caribbean.

Mayans and Marauders

Archaeologists have found evidence of Mayan fishing and hunting camps on the cayes. In colonial times, the islets were the lair of buccaneers who preyed on the galleons that carried the treasures of the New World to Spain. Protected by a maze of shallow passages from the heavy ships of the Spaniards, the buccaneers rested up on the cayes between depredations, divided their booty, and dried turtle meat for provisions. Divers still occasionally come up with old Spanish coins dropped by those earlier inhabitants. The term for these islands reflects the Spanish presence.

As British adventurers shifted their attention from the plunder of ships to the plunder of the forests, the cayes were bypassed. Coconuts were planted on a large scale at one time, but hurricanes knocked down many of the trees, and in some cases wiped entire cayes from the map. In recent years, however, the islands have prospered. Commercial fishing has become a big business, and tourism has provided new jobs while fueling a real estate and construction boom.

The main cayes of interest to visitors are described below, followed by mention of a few mainland resorts with facilities and attractions similar to those found on the cayes.

Largest of the cayes, Ambergris (pronounced by locals with the accent on the second syllable) is 25 miles long, separated from the Yucatan mainland of Mexico only by a narrow channel. The island, in fact, was once claimed by Mexico. On a map, the elongated land mass with its several peninsulas and sea inlets is clear enough, but up close, most of Ambergris is mangrove swamp, that amorphous bordering condition that seems to belong to neither land nor sea. The limited dry land, and most of the coconut trees and people, are concentrated toward the island's narrow southern tip.

In Mayan times, Ambergris Caye was a trading post—ruins have been excavated at the Marco Gonzales site. Buccaneering and whaling are part of the past of Ambergris—the name testifies to the latter. Today's inhabitants are mostly fishermen. The tourist business and attendant real-estate speculation and construction are in second place and increasingly important. Ambergris boasts a premier location for exploring the barrier reef, and its hotels and fishing and diving facilities are the best in the country.

San Pedro is the major settlement on Ambergris, a little town of colorfully painted, mostly wooden, tin-roofed houses, criss-crossed by a half-dozen sandy streets. It is the only place in the cayes that has a number of motor vehicles, but this does not bespeak a bustling air. The island's fleet of pickup trucks carries visitors from the airstrip on the southern end of town to hotels and lodging houses, and odd bits of cargo from the docks. Four-wheel all-terrain vehicles service outlying hotels. But mostly, the streets belong to strollers.

The adjectives usually attached to San Pedro are "delightful" and "charming." The houses are huddled close one upon another, and much of the foot traffic of the place moves through narrow alleys. The same houses in Belize City would constitute just another shanty town, but in San Pedro, they are well maintained, the streets are fairly clean, and a refreshing breeze usually blows through. The effect of the close quarters is one of sociability and friendliness. The charm of San Pedro also comes from the townspeople. Numbering about fifteen hundred, they are mostly of Mexican descent. They speak a formal Spanish among themselves, and a somewhat fractured Belizean English with outsiders. San Pedranos are approachable and friendly, never distant or surly toward the visitor. The feeling of easiness and equality on both sides owes something to the prosperity brought by fishing. San Pedro is rather bourgeois, in a Belizean way. The stores are well stocked not just for tourists, who find the prices for Kraft dinners and Spaghetti-Os appalling, but for locals as well.

GETTING TO SAN PEDRO

By Air

San Pedro is about 35 miles from Belize City. The airstrip is just south of San Pedro, a walk of a hundred yards or so.

A virtual air bridge operates from both the Belize City municipal airstrip (fare $25) and Philip Goldson International Airport (fare $30). Flights are added as needed to accommodate waiting passengers.

Airlines serving San Pedro are:

Island Air, tel. 223-1140 in Belize City, 2484 in San Pedro. Eight flights daily, and charters. Call Island Air first—they sometimes have a special round-trip fare during slow periods.

Tropic Air, telephone 224-5671 in Belize City, 226-2012 in San Pedro. Operates 11 flights daily from Belize City.

Maya Airways, telephone 227-7215 or 72312 in Belize City. Operates eight daily flights in 6-passenger planes from the Belize City airstrip, from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

From Corozal, near the Mexican border, Maya Airways planes leave for San Pedro at 8:25 a.m. and 4:25 p.m, Tropic Air at 8:50 a.m. and 2:50 p.m.

By Sea

Several boat services are currently available between San Pedro and Belize City. Details of boat transportation change from year to year and season to season, but current departures are easily verified at the offshore marine terminal, at the north end of the Swing Bridge in Belize City.

The Andrea (tel. 226-2578 or 227-4988) departs from in front of the Bellevue Hotel in Belize City at about 3 p.m. during the week, 7 p.m. on Saturday.

The Thunderbolt Express, a speedboat (tel. 226-2217), departs from the Swing Bridge in Belize City at 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, 1 p.m. on Saturday, stopping at Caye Caulker and Caye Chapel. Fare is $10.

The Triple J (224-4375) leaves for Caye Chapel, Caye Caulker and San Pedro at 9 a.m. from the north end of the Swing Bridge.

STAYING IN SAN PEDRO

Before deciding where to stay, it's essential to understand something about the layout of San Pedro, and the advantages and disadvantages of each hotel's location.

To start with, the beach in San Pedro town is little wider than a sidewalk for most of its length, and serves mainly as a pedestrian thoroughfare and a place to pull up smaller boats. There is little room for sunbathing at any of the hotels in town, except the Paradise, where the sand of the hotel's compound is more than ample. Of course, any beachside hotel, in town or out, will offer superb views of the waves breaking over the reef.

Guests who stay in San Pedro are closer to a variety of restaurants, dive shops and places to rent boats, and to the late-evening spots where visitors and locals eat, dance, exchange tales, and engage in beer-drinking contests. Sociability is the key element in San Pedro, and the gift of gab in any language goes a long way. On the other hand, if getting away from people and noise is part of what you seek, or if you simply want a good night's sleep, you'll do better to stay on the edge of town, or at one of the hotels to the north or south.

In the way of accommodations right in San Pedro, from the best to the worst, almost all rooms are relatively bare. Most hotels are standard huddled clapboard or concrete structures. The difference from the top of the scale to the bottom is whether you get more or less light, a sea view, a comfortable bed, hot water at all hours, and perhaps a few decorations.

Outside of town, pickings are considerably better. The Belize Yacht Club and Victoria House are in especially good taste, and most other lodging places are casual and comfortable.

Air conditioning is a benefit in the dog days of April and later in San Pedro, until the rains come, or at any time of year near the airstrip and the noise of planes taking off. Otherwise, you probably won't need it.

Almost all hotels in the town are along or just off the five blocks of Barrier Reef Drive (Front St.), the street that runs north-south on the reef (east) side of San Pedro.

HOTELS IN TOWN

Rates in US$, subject to change. Telephone numbers in San Pedro begin with 226. From the U.S.A., dial 011-501 plus the number.

Paradise Resort Hotel, tel. 226-2083, fax 226-2232, paradise@btl.net, ambergriscaye.com/paradiseresort. 41 rooms. $70 to $125 single/$100 to $175 double (about $20 less May through October) plus 5% service plus tax. $20 for third person, children $10. Visa, Master Card, American Express. U.S. reservations: Paradise Tours, Box 42809-400, Houston, TX 77242 tel. 800-537-1431 or 713-850-1664, fax 713-785-9528.

Located on the northern fringe of San Pedro, Paradise Resort is an exception among town hotels in that it has an extensive, private sandy beach. One of the original hotels here, it has grown and improved steadily. Most rooms are wood-panelled, with pastel bedspreads, vanity, a one-piece tub-shower, and one large and one small bed. Some have native-style bamboo exteriors and thatched roofs, others are villas with air conditioning and cooking area. The highest prices are for condos, with kitchen and either one or two bedrooms. Facilities include a bar and gift shop, rental of diving and fishing equipment, and travel services. The restaurant (see below) is pleasant, and open to the public, and there is an additional snack bar by the beach.

San Pedro Holiday Hotel, tel. 226-2014, fax 226-2295, sanpedroholiday.com, holiday@btl.net. 16 rooms. $95 with fan, $110 air-conditioned, single or double, plus 10% service plus tax. Apartments available. Rates about $20 lower out of season. American Express, Visa, Master Card. Reservations: P. O. Box 1140, tel. 44632 in Belize City.

The Holiday Hotel is a series of interconnecting, well-maintained wooden and concrete buildings. There's only a small sign, but the entrance is marked by the figure of a seagull swinging overhead. There's more beach here than at most other in-town hotels, an advantage, as is the adjacent Celi's Restaurant, one of the better eating spots in San Pedro. Outboard motorboats are available through local guides, and there's a dive shop and travel service.

Sands Hotel, tel. 226-2040. 11 rooms. $95/$105.

A balconied concrete structure with private sundeck up top. There's also a large sandy-grassy lawn, with thatched shelters. Most rooms have compact cooking facilities and television. One very large room goes for a higher rate. There's a homey sort of disorder about this place, and the beds could be better. Bicycles are available for rent.

Coral Beach Hotel, P. O. Box 16, tel. 226-2031, fax 226-2834. 11 rooms. $30 single/$45 double with fan, $45/$65 with air conditioning, plus $30 for three meals, plus 10% service plus tax.

This hotel is a hotel is a hotel, a homey little place with front porch on San Pedro's main street, with no sand, no grounds, no pretense to being other than a base for divers. Food is good and plentiful. The hotel's Tackle Box Bar is detached, located a block away, over the water, attached to a little "sea-quarium", a pen in the sea; and the dive shop is there as well. Fishing boats are available for rent, but the emphasis is on diving for people of all skill levels. Packages available (example: three nights with diving and meals, $350 per person).

Spindrift Hotel, tel. 226-2174, fax 226-2251. 30 rooms. $50 double with fan, $80 to $125 double with air conditioning, no service charge. One- and two-bedroom apartments with kitchenette available. Visa, Master Card, American Express. Lower rates may be available in off-season.

An attractive new concrete building, and something of a town center, with the post office, pharmacy and travel agency on its ground floor. Seafront rooms are air-conditioned.

Hotel Alijua, tel. 2791, fax 226-2362. 8 apartments. $94 double, $125 for four with tax in high season, $88 and $110 in low season. Credit cards accepted.

Though not furnished in the best of taste, nor situated in a quiet location, these are comfortable and spotless apartments with kitchenette, sitting room with sleep sofa, and large bedroom with one king and one queen bed. Rates are lower by the week and month.

Hotel San Pedrano, tel. 226-2054. 7 rooms. $18/$28.

This is one of several smaller, clean hotels in town. Meals are provided for guests on request. Private bath, good for the price.

Lily's Caribeña, tel. 226-2059, lilies@btl.net. 11 rooms. $35/$45, lower May-October.

A bare-bones little place right on the water. The best rooms open onto a veranda with good sea views. All rooms have fans, and have been freshened up recently with new panelling and linoleum and lighting.

Conch Shell Inn, tel. 226-2062, conchshell@btl.net. 8 rooms, $35/$45.

Simple, breezy rooms facing the sea, some with kitchenette.

Sun Breeze Hotel, P. O. Box 14, San Pedro, tel. 226-2345, 800-327-3573 in the U.S., 32302 in Belize City, sunbreeze@diveres.com. 34 rooms. $110 single/$120 double plus 10% service plus tax. Add $40 for three meals. Visa, Master Card, American Express.

By the airstrip (but still only a few minutes' walk from town), an attractive, substantial, low-lying building in Mexican style, with covered archways, and an extensive sandy compound. Unusually, all rooms are air-conditioned, which disguises intermittent airplane noise, besides keeping things cool. Rooms are rather plain, with a tiled bath area. Dive shop with lessons, certification, equipment rentals. A pool is to be installed soon. Golf carts are available for rent, at about $25 for the day.

Barrier Reef, tel. 226-2075, fax 226-2719, barriereef@btl.net. 10 rooms. $48 single/$65double.

Located in one of the oldest houses in San Pedro, and an adjacent extension. Rooms in the original building have verandas for watching town life, and the sea nearby. Boat available for guests. Subject to late-night noise—across the street is Big Daddy's disco.

Other lodging places in San Pedro are the Tomas Hotel ($35 double); and Rubie's Hotel and Milo's Hotel, in both of which the charge is about $25 per person sharing bath, or less. Rubie's has some rooms with private bath at about $35 double, with the higher rates on the upper floor. None have any special features, but all are acceptably clean.

Martha's Hotel, tel. 2053, two blocks back from the sea near the Sands, has plain accommodations at $23 single/$35 double with private bath, less during the rainy season. The Casa Blanca Hotel (tel. 2924, 9 rooms, $10 double shared bath, $25 double with private both) has bare rooms a few blocks back from the sea and main street, but with a disco downstairs, that's no advantage.

OUT-OF-TOWN HOTELS

The hotels described below are located from a hundred yards to several miles from town. The facilities are in general more substantial and attractive than at hotels in town.

North of San Pedro

Rock's Inn, 14 units. $125 and up double, $10 per additional person, plus 10% service, slightly lower May through October. Phone 226-2336, fax 226-2349, or 800-331-2458 in the States.

There are two stories of apartments here in a white building in old Miami-Cozumel style, with balcony and concrete balustrade facing the sea. It's all fairly new, and each room has a kitchenette with microwave and utensils, a main room and bedroom, tiled shower, air conditioning and ceiling fan. Clients here bubble with satisfaction over the value. Located just past the Paradise Resort and a condominium project.

Seven Seas Resort, tel. 2382, fax 226-2472, sevenseas@btl.net. 12 units, $120per night.

About a half-mile north of San Pedro, these apartments with kitchenettes are in a three-story building covered with wood shakes. There are no services or pool.

Vehicle travel comes to an end at a waterway about three-quarters of a mile north of San Pedro. There is talk of extending the road some day, even all the way to Mexico—unlikely, but then, the most unlikely deals have already come to pass in San Pedro, despite a stretched supply of fresh water and the difficulties of transporting construction materials.

The following hotels are reached by boat only. Except for Journey's End, which provides a courtesy water taxi, you'll have to pay for every trip to town after your arrival.

El Pescador, tel. 226-2975, fax 226-2398, pescador@btl.net. 12 rooms, all with private bath. $110 single/$180 double with three meals, plus 15% service plus tax. No credit cards. Weekly fishing package $1375 with transport from Belize City. Reservations: P. O. Box 793 in Belize City.

Located three miles north of San Pedro, El Pescador is a self-contained light-tackle fishing camp/resort, specializing in bonefish, tarpon and permit. Rooms are in a large plantation-style house built by two German brothers, one of whom is the manager. Meals are buffet-style, mostly fish. Airport transfers and diving and fishing packages available on request.

Journey's End Resort, P. O. Box 13, San Pedro, tel. 226-2173, fax 226-2028, jer@btl.net. 70 units. From $137 single/$184 double, $45 additional for three meals, no service charge. Rates higher at holidays. American Express, Visa, Master Card.

Strewn over an expanse four miles north of San Pedro, Journey's End has comprehensive resort facilities: Olympic pool, whirlpool, billiards, lighted tennis courts, sundeck for naturists, basketball, sailboats, windsurfers, multiple bars and restaurants, and even slot and poker machines.

Accommodations scorecard: The small beachfront cabanas are all-wood and attractively furnished. Stucco cabanas away from the beach are larger but sun-baked. Most comfortable are the lower-priced Lagoon View rooms, with tile floors and terrace.

Rate scorecard: All on-site facilities and sporting equipment are included, but not fishing, scuba diving or snorkeling. Air-conditioning is included in Lagoon View rooms, extra in cabanas. Television and phones are not available in beach cabanas, included in other units

Endorsement scorecard: Journey's End was featured in an episode of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Jimmy Carter and Erma Bombeck slept here. Zack Lewis thought the disorderly site plan and unshaded, baking concrete surfaces could be a drawback, and he didn't use the tennis court or billiards.

Whomever you trust, the beach bar opens at 8 a.m., and non-guests are welcome to stop by for a drink, or one of the regular beach barbecues (currently Tuesday and Friday evenings and Sunday at noon) for $27. Take the free boat from San Pedro (just north of Paradise Resort Hotel) at 9 or 11 a.m., 2 or 6 p.m. Trips back are at 8 and 10 a.m., noon and 4 p.m.

Captain Morgan's Retreat, tel. 226-2567, fax 226-2398, captmorgan@btl.net. 21 units. $150 single/$190 double high season, plus 5% service plus tax, $50 for three meals. Rates higher at holidays. Master Card, Visa, American Express.

Captain Morgan's has a comfortable beachcomber's atmosphere. Each thatched-roof cabana, named for a pirate captain, comes with double beds, cross ventilation, porch, fan, and tiled shower. The grounds are well shaded. Facilities include a fresh-water pool and 40-foot-high crow's nest. Fishing, sailing, snorkeling and diving available, as well as diving and fishing packages. One transfer each way from San Pedro is included.

The sand-floored grill serves sandwiches, and the upstairs dining room offers fixed-course meals, with treetop-level views out to sea. Non-guests are welcome to dinner by reservation.

Captain Morgan's is about a ten minute walk south of Journey's End.

Green Parrot Resort, P. O. Box 36, San Pedro, tel. 226-2331. 7 units. $85 single/$100 double; or $100 single/$150 double/$180 triple with three meals. No credit cards. U.S. reservations: Morrison Travel, 2401 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton, FL 33431, tel. 800-328-1005 or 800-432-2069.

Green Parrot is a small resort of wooden beachside guest cottages with private facilities, six miles north of San Pedro, and five minutes from the Mexico Rocks snorkeling site. The central three-story tower that houses the restaurant and bar provides excellent views seaward. Boat from San Pedro arranged with reservation. Food is served family- or buffet-style, with a rotating menu that includes Italian, Mexican and Belizean specialties, as well as lots of seafood. Divers will be picked up at the resorts dock for outings arranged through San Pedro dive shops.

South of San Pedro

Hotel Playador, tel. 226-2870, fax 226-2871. 20 units. $125 double in cabanas, $135 double in air-conditioned rooms, $150 in air-conditioned cabana, less in summer.

Just south of the airstrip, convenient to town. Accommodation is in basic thatch-roofed cabanas, and in air-conditioned concrete rooms. Restaurant, bar, attractive beach.

Ramon's Village, tel. 226-2071, ramons@btl.net. 61 rooms, including cabanas and suites. $135 to $150 double, up to $295 in suites, extra person $15, plus 10% service plus tax. Meals additional. Summer discounts available. U.S. reservations: P. O. Drawer 4407, Laurel, MS 39441. tel. 800-624-4215, 601-649-1990, fax 649-1996.

Also just outside San Pedro, Ramon's is known among repeat visitors as well-managed and carefree. Recently renovated, it consists of a main dining pavilion and individual cane cabanas crowded onto the site, each with private bath and ceiling fan. The grounds are nicely landscaped, and the salt-water swimming pool is a rare feature on the island. "Suites" are efficiency apartments with kitchenettes. Full fishing and diving facilities, windsurfers, sailboats, bicycles and motor scooters for rent, excellent food, and one of the nicer beaches close to town.

Belize Yacht Club, P. O. Box 1, San Pedro, tel. 226-2777, fax 226-2768 bychotel@btl.net. 44 units. $150 and up double plus tax and 10% service charge.

The Yacht Club is a condominium boat-and-apartment complex a quarter-mile south of San Pedro, with some of the most attractive accommodations in Belize. The architecture is Spanish-colonial, with red tile roofs and archways everywhere. On-site are a gym, fresh-water pool, extensive gardens, and artificial reef. Furnishings and detailings are in excellent taste, including wicker furniture, overhead fans, full kitchen with appliances, Mexican tile counter, and wooden trim throughout. All units have a terrace and sea view. The marina supplies water and fuel, and can take boats with up to a seven-foot draft. All that's missing is a restaurant.

Hideaway Hotel, tel. 226-2141, hideaway@btl.net. 29 rooms. $65 per person with two meals plus 10% service plus tax. In summer, the rate drops to about $30 double without meals.

Located about 3/4 mile south of San Pedro, the Hideaway is not directly on the beach, but provides access to facilities for its guests. With a fresh-water pool, this hotel is a very good value. The bar has some relatively inexpensive sandwiches, and breakfast items at a couple of dollars each.

Corona del Mar Apartments/Hotel, tel. 226-2055, fax 226-2461, corona@btl.net. $100 double plus 15% service plus tax, $10 per extra person, more at holidays. Low-season rate (May through October), $75 plus service and tax.

Half a mile south of San Pedro, these are apartments in a concrete building on a white beach a few feet from the water. Furnishings, strictly home-style, include two double beds with frilly spreads, and sleep sofa in living room. Also: full kitchen, bathroom with tub and carpeted seat, and fan and air conditioning. Upstairs units have nice views.

Caribbean Villas Hotel, P. O. Box 71, San Pedro, tel. 2715, fax 226-2885. 8 suites, 2 rooms. $100 and up, no service charge.

One of the more attractive lodging places in San Pedro, a Mediterranean-style building with archways and red roof, and comfortable accommodations in an assortment of sizes, with archways, wicker furnishings, tiled floors, large bathroom-dressing room, both ceiling fan and air conditioning, cross ventilation, and full cooking facilities, including microwave oven. Three can sleep in most units, and a deluxe unit has a huge loft with a second bath. The beach is large, and outdoor facilities include two hot tubs, showers, and a 30-foot "people perch," a tower with one bird-viewing level at treetop level, and a second with a view to the lagoon side and to the sea. Grounds are intentionally kept much as they when the land was acquired by the friendly owners. The rate includes daily maid service with dishwashing, pickup at the airstrip, and use of bikes.

Mata Rocks South, tel. 226-2336, fax 226-2349, or 800-331-2458 in the States. 9 apartments, $85 and up per night, plus 15% service plus tax, $55 to $65 May through October.

A mile south of town, these are wood-sided units with steep roofs, furnished with the works, including microwaves. The large downstairs units, air conditioned, with king-sized bed and sleep sofa, go for $75 plus 15% service charge. Smaller upstairs units with double beds and sofas are $55 and $65. These are also available by the month. If you book directly, ask for a discount equivalent to the usual 20% travel agency commission. The owners (who also operate the Rock's Inn apartments) will also make diving and fishing arrangements.

Royal Palm Inn, P. O. Box 18, tel. 226-2148, fax 226-2329.

These condominium units are available as one-bedroom apartments with kitchens, and a pool on the grounds.
 
 

Victoria House, tel. 226-2067, ino@victoria-house.com. 31 rooms, all with private bath. $125 single/$135 double in standard rooms, $150/$175 in cottages, $155/$200 in deluxe rooms with air conditioning, plus 10% service plus tax. Low-season rates available. Suite and beach house available. Small charge for additional person or children. Add $55 plus 10% service for three meals (children half price). Major credit cards accepted. Reservations: P. O. Box 20785, Houston, TX 77030, tel. 800-247-5159 or 713-529-6800, fax 713-661-4025.

This classy hotel consists of a lovely old plantation house and thatched-roof Mexican-style cottages, along the nicest beach on the island, about a mile south of San Pedro. The cottage units have tile floors, hardwood vanities and shutters, two large beds with floral bedspreads, art prints on the walls, a desk, mini-refrigerator, shower stall, and high thatched roof, as well as a porch—altogether, several cuts above what you'll find elsewhere in San Pedro. Other rooms, in row units and the main house, are also quite large, with wicker furnishings and pastel decor. Meals are fixed-menu with plain, plentiful fare. Service is top-notch.

The grounds at Victoria House ramble on, with plenty of hammocks on shaded porches and between the palms, expanses of grass, and flower beds—landscaping details which are absent elsewhere on the island. The beach compound includes a volleyball area, and a three-sided bar in a separate pavilion, with free popcorn. Bicycles are provided at no charge for commuting up the sand lane to town, and the hotel van and boat make regular runs at no charge. There are also golf carts ($10 per hour), kayaks and windsurfers for rent. Diving and fishing are available at Fantasea Watersports right on the hotel dock.

APARTMENTS

"Apartment" is a loose term here—sometimes it means a hotel room with a hot plate, sometimes two bedrooms and a separate kitchen and dining room. The Del Mar apartments (tel. 226-2695), south of the airstrip, are single rooms with a stove and refrigerator stuck in. The rate is about $50 a day. Farther south, Corona del Mar and House of the Rising Sun Apartments, and Rock's Inn, north of town (all mentioned above) are more like hotel suites. Mayan Princess Suites, tel. 226-2778 (800-346-6116 in the U.S.), fax 226-2784, are air-conditioned furnished apartments with one bedroom, kitchenettes, right in the center of San Pedro overlooking the sea, available for $110 single/$125 double, 20% less in off-season.

Smaller apartments are available in town, and attached to several hotels mentioned above. The Tomas hotel has one for $40 a day. And real estate agents will be happy to set you up in a condominium unit or private homes when these are available.

FOOD

Prices for food in San Pedro are not inconsiderable. When you see the basket of carrots strapped into a seat on the plane, you'll understand something about the cost structure. Nevertheless, some eating places provide good value, and you can choose from a variety of cuisines that includes Creole-Belizean, Mexican, Italian, Chinese, and unadorned American.

Elvi's Kitchen is the current trendy eating spot in San Pedro. You can't miss the huge thatched roof. Inside, a tree sprouts in the middle of the sand floor of the main cavern, and not in a pot either. There is another, step-up level to the side. White walls with dark wood trim are decorated with assorted bottles. And aside from all this island atmosphere, the food is generally better than you'll find elsewhere in San Pedro, and prices are reasonable. Choices range from rice and beans with chicken ($6) through hamburgers and fishburgers, club sandwiches, fish in garlic and wine, t-bone steak and sautéed lobster ($25). $7 gets a daily blue plate special that could be Mexican grilled beef. Breakfast offerings for $6 or less include Yucatecan-style eggs.

The Palm restaurant of the Paradise Hotel is a pleasant white-and-pastel room with nautical decor and overhead fans. There are a couple of interesting main courses, such as lemon chicken, chicken piccata and broiled or sauteed lobster, which, of themselves, run $15 and up; and lighter fare such as crêpes or omelets for $6 to $8. Japanese specialties may be offered soon. With soup, beverage, appetizer and dessert, your bill will run to $40 per person, or more; or $8 or so for breakfast.

Jade Garden, about half a mile south of the airstrip, is one of the better eating places in town, and certainly the most distinguished, setting-wise. It's in an elevated, south-seas style building with wood siding and cathedral ceiling. You sit on wicker chairs inside, or dine on the porch with sea view. The menu is Cantonese, with chops and American-style seafood as well. Curry, sweet-and-sour, chow mein and foo young main courses are available with fish or shellfish or beef, and there are fried lobster, conch and fish with French fries, and assorted large salads as well. $17 and up for a full meal, $7 and up for sandwiches with French fries. If you've reached that point, phone 226-2126, and they'll even deliver to your lodgings.

More modest Chinese food is available at the Emerald restaurant on San Pedro's main street. The usual chow mein and fried rice are served, along with some house specials, such as chicken with cashew or pineapple. Under $10 for most items, and they have a light lunch special.

South of town, Mickey's Place, in the Hotel Playador, has a mixed menu that includes a Mexican assortment, lobster, Veracruz-style fish. $10 and up for a main course, less for sandwiches or breakfast.

The Hut, at the south end of town where you turn from the main street to go to the airport, serves bar food with a Tex-Mex flavor in a room with a low ceiling hung with macramé planters and electric lanterns. A nacho and salad plate, or chicken with rice and beans, along with breakfasts, go for under $10; and there are pricier fish and surf and turf plates and seafood kabobs available on a rotating basis.

Lily's Restaurant, snuggled along the passageway right under Lily's Hotel, is unpretentious but pleasant, dark-wood-panelled, with wicker chairs under fluorescent lights. The owner-cook has a reputation for doing up seafood properly. A meal with broiled fish, fried conch fritters or chicken runs under $20, and breakfast is available.

At Fido's shopping complex in the central part of town, The Grill chalks up the menu daily. Recently: B.L.T. or hamburger with fries, grilled grouper or chicken with fries, hot dogs or burritos. A light meal should cost about $10. You eat on a wooden deck, and, as at most San Pedro eateries, your serving does not include bread or butter or salad or any other extra on the side. At the Pizza Place, take your choice of a whole pizza for up to $22, or hamburgers or deli-style sandwiches (Reuben, club) with fries for less.

In the Sunbreeze Hotel at the south end of town, the Coco Palm restaurant serves breakfasts for $10, sandwiches, and Mexican combination plates for up to $17. That's comparable to what you'll pay elsewhere, but the atmosphere is more pleasant—big wicker chairs, pastel tablecloths, white walls with dark wood wainscoting.

Celi's Restaurant is adjacent to the Holiday Hotel—go through or alongside the hotel, then left along the beach. There are no secrets: the kitchen is open to the dining area with its white walls, dark beams and carved posts and wicker chairs. The regular menu includes hamburger platters, fried fish, shrimp and lobster main courses (Creole, fried, Parmesan, stuffed—you name it) for $10 to $25; but you should take a look at the special of the day, such as fish with stir-fried vegetables for $10 or so. Key lime pie or cheese cake are extra, but you won't want to pass them up. They open for breakfast at 7 a.m. (ranchero eggs, waffles, omelettes), not for lunch. The Deli, on the main street side of the Holiday Hotel, has BLT, turkey, chicken and other sandwiches to go.

One of the better values for light fare is the Coffee Shop by the airport. Breakfasts, waffles, burritos, tostadas, chile con carne, hamburgers and sandwiches go for $5 or so. Open from 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., and air-conditioned.

Several eateries will serve you local food bare of pretense. One is Leny's Place, near the turn from town to the airport. Beef with onions, fried shrimp, and rice and beans with chicken range from $3 to $7.

For snacks, there are several ice-cream-cone outlets. At Manelly's, on Barrier Reef Drive (Front St.), the ice cream is gummy but comes in yummy flavors such as Oreo, and there are hamburgers as well. Scoop's ice cream, the Ben and Jerry's of Belize, is sold at Alice's Store, a block west of the Coral Beach. The restaurant under the Barrier Reef Hotel has pizzas in assorted sizes for up to $20, and interesting sandwiches.
 
 

Drinking and dropping

Drinking spots are abundant and fungible, in hotels, in restaurants, and as freestanding establishments. Sandal's is near the north end of the main street, Fido's is in the thatched shopping center in the central part of the seafront, and Big Daddy's is a block to the south. Big Daddy's is also a disco, and the action goes on late into the night. The Tackle Box Bar is on a pier over the water. Butts and crumbs accumulate on the sand floor, which is renewed as necessary. The Mayan Xtasis disco and bar, recently inaugurated in the Casa Blanca hotel, brings the noise over to the other side of town.

For a uniquely Belizean entertainment, attend the Wednesday-night chicken drop at the bar of the Spindrift Hotel. Patrons bet on where a chicken ends up doing his business on something like an oversized bingo board.

Diving

All hotels offer diving, either with their own boats and equipment, or through local dive shops.

Typically, a short resort diving course costs about $155; a certification course over four to five days, $500; a day's diving, $60 to $85 for each of four persons with two dives, or $45 for a one-tank dive, or $50 for a night dive. Rates may be higher when booked through your hotel rather than in town, or lower, especially between May and October.

Rental rates for equipment vary considerably. Figure a minimum of $10 daily for either a regulator or buoyancy compensator, or for mask, snorkel and fins.

If you haven't pre-arranged diving, these dive shops are available:

Fantasea Watersports (Chris Berlin and Rebecca McDonald, PADI instructors), Victoria House, tel. and fax 226-2576, 2615 evenings.

Amigos del Mar, tel. 226-2706.

Bottom Time Dive Shop, Sun Breeze Hotel, tel. 2348.

The Dive Shop, Ltd., tel. 226-2437

Reef Divers, tel. 2371, fax 226-2028.

Hustler Tours, Hustler pier (north of San Pedro)tel. 226-2279, fax 226-2719.

Out Island Divers, opposite the Sprindrift Hotel, tel. 226-2151, fax 226-2810, (reservations to P.O. Box 3455, Estes Park, CO 80517, tel. 800-258-3465 or 303-586-6020) has diving boats with live-aboard accommodations. Their star attraction is a Saturday excursion to Lighthouse Reef. Divers fly out to Northern Caye early in the morning and board the Reef Roamer II for a brief dive into the singular Blue Hole, followed by a wall dive at Half Moon Caye, a visit to the Booby Bird Sanctuary, and a wall dive on Long Caye. The cost is about $200, or up to $300 for a two-night trip with seven dives. Mid-week trips can be arranged, and they have other multi-dive packages to the Turneffe Islands, as well as a less-expensive Blue Hole trip by water direct from San Pedro. Departures are guaranteed.

Indigo Belize (P. O. Box 450987, Sunrise, FL 33345, tel. 800-468-0123), operates the M/V Manta IV diving boat, complete with shark cage and video equipment. In San Pedro, inquire at the Belize Yacht Club, or call 2130, fax 226-2834. Their overnight trip to Lighthouse Reef, with five dives and five meals, costs about $230 per person. A three-dive day trip to the Turneffe Islands costs about $110 per person; and they have daily diving along the reef as well.

Fishing

Fishing in the flats and along the reef costs $175 to $200 for a full-day excursion in a small boat for three people, less (but not much less) for half a day, while deep-sea fishing costs about $400 for a full day, $250 for a half day, or more, depending on the boat.

If your hotel can't help you with fishing, here are some contacts: Francis Leslie, tel. 226-2128; Roberto Bradly, tel. 226-2116; Melanie Paz, tel. 226-2437, Romel Gómez, tel. 226-2034.

Snorkeling, Boat Trips, Sailing, Water Skiing

Scuba diving takes some training and some dollars and some time. For the casual visitor, a first acquaintance with the underwater world off San Pedro is often through snorkeling.

A snorkeling trip from San Pedro, if booked through a travel agency, usually to Hol Chan Marine Reserve (see below), runs $20 and up, including a park admission fee.

All-day snorkeling trips with a stop at Caye Caulker are run by Tony Eiler on his boat, The Rum Punch, from the Tackle Box pier. The $45 fee includes drinks, but lunch is extra (such are priorities in Belize). On some days, a beach barbecue-snorkeling trip is operated as well.

Snorkeling trips are a hotly competitive item from time to time, and some operators are offering discounts on the above. At Rubie's Hotel, you can currently book a place on a snorkeling excursion to Hol Chan Marine Reserve (see below) for less than the rates quoted above; or just rent snorkeling gear for $10 for the day and go out on your own. Look around and ask around. There are snorkeling boats everywhere, and you might even find a better rate.

Hustler Tours, tel. 226-2279, at the pier just north of San Pedro, runs a jungle river trip a couple of days a week that takes you across to the Northern River on the mainland, for about $85 per person. They also have morning and afternoon glass-bottom boat rides for about $15, and run the catamaran Mee Too on snorkeling trips to Caye Caulker ($50), and a snorkeling-and-barbecue trip to Rocky Point, north of San Pedro, for $55 per person.

Fido Badillo, tel. 226-2286, in Fido's courtyard, also runs a boat trip across the channel to the New River and Altun Ha. Island Adventures, also at Fido's, has a Caye Caulker trip, and a sunset cruise that calls at Journey's End and then heads through a channel to the lagoon side to watch the orb descend. Pay $15 to get aboard.

There are also glass-bottomed boat excursions. $25 will get you a ride of a couple of hours with a stop of about a half-hour for snorkeling (if you don't insist on staying dry). Pilots are adept at spotting sharks and barracudas and sting rays and schools of grunts and parrotfish and angelfish, and repeatedly maneuvering into position above them, so you can combine random views as a snorkeler with extended observation of the really interesting stuff. Look near the Salty Dog pier.

Water skiing runs about $65 per hour for two people. Beach cookouts . . . party boats . . . night snorkeling . . . water taxis . . . you name it, one of the above will provide it for a fee.

Charter trips to Caye Caulker and Belize City are available at the Lagoon Side Marina (the two-story white house adjacent to the soccer field on the lower west side of San Pedro), tel. 226-2488. They also have canoe rentals, and can arrange other water sports. At Bottom Time Dive Shop, tel. 226-2348, a 35-foot Bristol is available for $60 per person, minimum three persons.

Sailing

The Winnie Estelle, a 66-foot island trader sailboat, is operated from the Paradise Hotel dock most days on a cruise that includes snorkeling stops, lunch, and drinks, for $55, $30 for children. Call 2394 for information.

Otherwise, look around the Tackle Box Bar for sailboats on day trips from Caye Caulker. They'll take you back for about $15.

Horses

Isla Equestrian, by the airstrip, has horses available for exploration of the byways of Ambergris Caye.

Other Shops and Services

Travel Agencies: Universal Travel (tel. 226-2137) and Amigo Travel (tel. 226-2180), opposite the Spindrift Hotel , will sell you airplane tickets, arrange tours, and even rent out bicycles and scooters. Travel and Tour Belize Limited is at the airstrip.

A branch of the Atlantic Bank is located on Barrier Reef Drive, not that you'll need it, as travellers checks are accepted at most establishments.

There are several groceries in town with stocks of Pringles, Cheese-Whiz and liquors, most notably Rock's, a block west of the Coral Beach Hotel,
 

For Camera Rental (video and underwater), try Joe Miller in Fido's courtyard, tel. 226-2577. $25 to $75 per day.
 
 

AROUND SAN PEDRO

Along the seaside in San Pedro, everything is boats, from skiffs to cabin cruisers to rusting fishing boats, tied up to docks in stages of repair from serviceable to caved in. Life for residents and visitors alike focuses on the water, of course, but if you want a change from fishing and diving, turn to bird-watching on the swampy, lagoon side of the island. No expertise is needed to spot flamingoes, pelicans, egrets, and those great diving frigate birds. Other favorite activities are shelling and general beachcombing. But be aware that much of what washes up is plastic containers of one sort or another which, with no use to anyone, remain as permanent eyesores.

As a Hispanic town, San Pedro has its share of traditional fiestas tied to the Catholic faith of most of the inhabitants. Christmas and Easter are celebrated with processions and church services. The town's particular fiesta is June 29, the day of Saint Peter, which coincides with the blessing of the fleet. A more secular celebration takes place on November 27, the anniversary of San Pedro's formal incorporation as a township, in 1985.

Time was, not long ago, when the only fuel needed in San Pedro was for boats, the electrical generator, and a couple of pickup trucks. But four-wheel all-terrain vehicles have begun to kick up sand in the coconut groves, golf carts buzz back and forth, and there are even some beat-up private cars, used as taxis and for general cruising on San Pedro's two-mile road network. Planes drone over town on takeoff, regularly breaking the peace. Though still essentially small-townish and friendly, San Pedro is not immune to pretense as it develops into an international resort. The Front St. of a few years ago is now Barrier Reef Drive (though you can't drive very far on it), and Middle St. is Pescador ("fisherman") Drive. And don't take my map all that seriously. Every time I visit San Pedro, shops, restaurants and travel agencies have shuffled and settled into new locales. But you won't have any trouble finding things in the few square blocks.

The entrepreneurs of the commuter airlines, fishing boats, diving services, restaurants, and other businesses in San Pedro have their own particular style, shared by all, whether of American, Creole, Hispanic, or some other origin. Call it outback efficiency. All go nowhere, to eat, drink or chat, without a VHF radio strapped to their belts, ready to spring into action when the call comes. This hands-on-the-job appearance is more show than substance, however. You could stay for days and not see one of these radios used. And if you walk into a travel agency through its open door, you will wait and wait, and find that it is unattended. Posted restaurant hours are observed indifferently. Your boat might not show up. Things really aren't too different from elsewhere in Belize.

Cabin Fever

Ambergris, of course, is an island, and can give a closed-in feeling. If you want to get off, but don't feel like going home, try a mainland excursion. The larger hotels will arrange flights to Belize City, and connecting transport to the ruins of Altun Ha or the highlands of the Mountain Pine Ridge forest reserve. Or you can fly on your own to Belize City and hire a taxi to Altun Ha.

As of recently, you can even take a flying day tour to the ruins of Tikal, in Guatemala, for about $250. Any travel agency in San Pedro can make the arrangements, or contact Island Air.

An alternative mainland destination is Corozal, a pleasant little seaside town for wandering about (see North chapter), but facilities hardly compare with those of San Pedro.

You might also wish to do as so many Belizeans are doing these days: go shopping in the duty-free town of Chetumal just over the border in Mexico. The selection of French clothing, perfumes, radios and household gadgets is rather uneven, but prices are fair. Take a taxi or bus from Corozal. Border formalities are minimal, but remember to bring your passport. You can spend a few hours at the stores in the morning (most close for the afternoon), or stay over and return to Ambergris the next day. See North chapter for more details.

On From Ambergris

By Air

Any hotel or travel agency will arrange your ticket. Island Air (tel. 226-2484 in San Pedro) has eight flights daily to Belize City, and charters. Tropic Air (tel. 226-2012) has 11 flights daily. Maya Airways operates eight flights daily to Belize City, between 7:30 a.m. and 5:15 p.m. (Sundays at 8 a.m. and 5:15 p.m.)

Maya Airways planes leave San Pedro for Corozal, near the Mexican border, at 7:55 a.m. and 3:55 p.m. every day except Sunday. Tropic Air runs flights at 9:30 a.m. and 3:20 p.m. Hourly buses run from Corozal to Chetumal, Mexico, connecting with buses for Cancun.

Planes of both companies will also stop at Caye Chapel and sometimes Caye Caulker on request.

By Boat

The Andrea (tel. 226-2578 or 227-4988) leaves for Belize City Monday through Friday at 7 a.m., Saturday at 8 a.m., from the Texaco wharf by Lily's Hotel.

The Thunderbolt Express (tel. 226-2217) leaves from the Lagoon Side Marina (the white house near the soccer field) Monday through Saturday at 7 a.m., stopping at Caye Caulker and Caye Chapel.

The Triple J (tel. 224-4375) leaves for Caye Chapel, Caye Caulker and Belize City at 3 p.m.

Located south of Ambergris Caye, about twenty miles from Belize City, Caye Caulker has been described as a slightly enlarged version of Gilligan's Island. Like Ambergris, Caulker is partly swamp, and has only a limited settled area. But the island and town are much smaller—it measures a half-mile by about five miles, with fewer than 600 inhabitants—and facilities for visitors are less developed.

Once a pirate lair, Caye Caulker is now a relatively prosperous community of fishermen. Lobsters and conch are the main catch. Some of the residents are also skilled at boat-building. The island is called Cayo Hicaco in Spanish—hicaco is a species of palm, the coco plum—whence comes the English name, which is also spelled Corker.

For years, Caye Caulker was the place in Belize for hanging out and watching the sea. Backpackers from all over came to examine the scene, and ended up staying for indefinite periods at Belize's low-key, uncrowded, and unluxurious People's Resort.

Times have changed, and with the inauguration of a landing strip and an air shuttle to Belize City, accommodations are in a state of flux. Expect prices to rise, hotels to change hands, restaurants to re-decorate and raise pretenses.

Alas, Caye Caulker . . .

Getting to Caye Caulker

Air

A ticket to Caye Caulker on Island Air (tel. 223-1140 in Belize City) or Sky Bird (tel. 223-2596) costs about $30 round trip from the Belize City municipal airport, $50 from the international airport.

Boats

Most boats for Caye Caulker leave from the marine terminal near the north end of the Swing Bridge in Belize City. Departures are clustered aroundt 11 a.m., fare about $10 per person. Later boats will make the run for a higher price. The hour-long trip out is a tour of the cayes in itself, a zig-zag route following the path of least resistance, zipping through mangrove-lined passages, thwack-thwacking in open water, speeding over a flat surface in the lee of Caye Chapel.

Most boats are double-outboard skiffs, some are tiny single-outboards. Take the largest boat available for a more comfortable passage. Various sources will advise you to take Chocolate's boat, though there must be ten persons of all shades who claim to be Chocolate. The real Chocolate is available at Mom's Restaurant, or you can call him on Caye Caulker at 226-2151. Capt. Jim Novelo, like Chocolate, has good reason to understand gringos. His boat, Sunrise, can also be booked in advance (tel. 226-2195, fax 226-2239). If possible, try to share a boat with local people, and pay only upon arrival at Caye Caulker.

Another boat, the Thunderbolt Express, leaves for Caye Caulker and Ambergris Caye Monday through Friday at 3:30 p.m., Saturday at 1 p.m. Phone San Pedro (226-2488) to confirm that the boat is running and to inquire for additional departures. The Triple J leaves for Caye Chapel, Caye Caulker and San Pedro at 9 a.m. from the north end of the Swing Bridge in Belize City. Call 224-4375 to verify the latest schedule.

HOTELS

Caye Caulker is small enough that you can look over a few places before settling on one that suits you and that has a room available. If you're travelling at an unusually busy period, you can call Dolphin Bay Travel (tel. 226-2214) from the mainland to book your room..

The Tropical Paradise Hotel, toward the south end of the village on the reef (east) side, next to the old island cemetery, is the most substantial lodging place in Caye Caulker, a neat compound of golden clapboard buildings. Three new luxury cabanas, with air conditioning, refrigerator and television, go for 80 double, $90 triple, plus tax. Five other cabanas, and the ten clean, light, plain rooms with fan and private bath, go for $45 to $55 for one or two persons. The hotel has a fair-sized sandy compound with lounge chairs, and full-time hot water. For reservations, call 226-2124, fax 226-2225, or write to P. O. Box 1573, Belize City or anchorage@btl.net.

The Sea Beezzz, just next to the Tropical Paradise on the far side from the village, has some high-security rooms. The cost is about $25 per person.

Tom's Hotel (27 rooms, tel. 226-2102) is a neat, white building about 100 yards south of the Paradise. Rooms in the main building go for $16 with two beds and $20 with three beds. They're neat and clean, with shared bath. There are also four small cabanas with one double and one single bed each, and private tiled bath, for $35 per night, a good buy.

The Anchorage, next after Tom's (tel. 224-5937 in Belize City), consists of Mayan-style thatched cottages. Next door are Ignacio's Beach Huts, little multicolored units that look like a takeoff on roadside motor courts of the early days of the automobile era. At less than $10 per person (minimum two persons) with private shower, they're a bargain.

Shirley's Guest House (tel. 226-2145), next down the coast, has nice but small rooms, some sharing bath ($20 double), some with private bath ($30 double). It's not your best deal money-wise, unless you take into account the relative privacy, with an extensive sandy area and well-tended plants, and then it starts to look very good indeed.

Clustered near the water on the reef side, in the middle part of the village near where boats dock, are: Deisy's Hotel (6 rooms, tel. 226-2123); Lena's Hotel, behind Deisy's (11 rooms, tel. 226-2106); and Vega's Far Inn (7 rooms, tel. 226-2142). To the north are the Rivas Guest House (6 rooms, tel. 226-2127) and the Miramar. Back from the beach are the Hideaway (6 rooms, tel. 226-2103); Edith's, with quite small rooms; the Sandy Lane, on the sandy lane that cuts across the island from the Martínez Restaurant, with hot water; and the Hotel Marín. All have mostly basic rooms for $15 per person, or less. But being by the sea under the palms relieves what might be dismal accommodations in a mainland town. The Marín also has some units with private bath.

Two new concrete rooms at Vega's Far Inn are an exception to the above general description. These have air conditioning, private bath and all mod. cons., at a rate of $60 double.

The Reef Hotel, just north of the Miramar and looking out to sea, is more substantial than its neighbors, a concrete structure downstairs and wood-clad on the upper level, painted white with red trim. Rooms have private showers, and the rate is $30 single/$35 double, slightly less during the low season from May through October. Next door, the Rainbow Hotel, the light-blue and green building, has 16 rooms with private showers for $35 double downstairs, $30 upstairs.

At the northern end of the village, by the Cut, is The Split, a palm-shaded beach village of nine clapboard cottages and thatched-roof rooms. With ample sand and water on three sides, it is one of the more desirable locations on the island, and is slated to give way to a more substantial resort. Telephone 226-2187.

There are at least a dozen other places where you can rent a room inexpensively by the week or month, either on the beach, or set back in the village. One, M & N Furnished Apartments, tel. 226-2111, is just behind the Martínez Restaurant. Chocolate's gift shop, where Mr. Lionel Heredia and Mrs. Annie Heredia stock t-shirts and the like, has one room for rent at $60. Call 226-2151 to reserve, or write to P. O. Box 332, Belize City.

FOOD

You are served in Caye Caulker's eateries strictly in island style. In one place, a man in fedora who looks like he hasn't slept in days sidles up, slips you a menu, gives you a conspiratorial glance, and hunches to write down your order out of view of anyone nearby. In another eatery, you sit down, study the menu posted on the wall, and are ignored. You ask the man behind the counter if the restaurant is open, and are still ignored. In another, you comment that there are a lot of mosquitoes. The owner agrees.

Lobster is the best buy on Caye Caulker, when it's in season, from mid-July to mid-March. Boiled or broiled, it costs $5 or less as a main course. By the time lobster gets to Belize City, the price has more than doubled.

The Tropical Paradise Hotel has what comes closest to being a real restaurant—it's clean, well-lit, has artificial flowers in vases and superimposed blue and red tablecloths on the tables, and keeps regular hours. Banks of ceiling fans put out a breeze to lift the roof. Main courses such as curried shrimp or steak with beans, plantain and rice—a good-sized portion—go for $6 and up, sandwiches and breakfasts for less. Marín's Restaurant, in the southwest part of the village, and the Martínez Restaurant, offer similar fare less attractively, at slightly lower prices.

Follow the crowds to the Sand Box restaurant for one of the most reasonably priced menus in Belize, and the best home cooking on the island. Look over the menu, and don't worry about the spelling. A filling bowl of chili con carne (with chili!) is just $4, and they also have lasagne, snapper filet, barbecued chicken, stroganoff, and other pleasant surprises. Most eateries on the island are dark and drear, but the Sand Box is light and airy, with high ceiling and plenty of windows, and a sand floor, of course. Take a good look at the menu.

Sobre Las Olas, located to the north of the cluster of hotels at the long pier, has a menu of Mexican and seafood items. Jan's Deli has grocery items and a tour menu.

The Aberdeen Chinese restaurant in the Rivas Guest House serves foo youngs and chow meins and curries, as well as rice and beans with lobster and steak sandwiches.

And there is any number of home-based eating rooms. Glenda's, one street back from the sea, has been recently popular.
 
 

Snorkeling and Boat Excursions

A snorkeling trip out to the reef in a sailboat or a small motorboat, with stops in two or three places with different types of coral formations, will cost under $15.

A run to Ambergris Caye and back, again in either a sailboat or motorboat, or a snorkeling trip to Hol Chan Marine Reserve, will cost under $20 per person.

Talk to the boat owners any morning, in the vicinity of the Martínez Restaurant, where they get groups together, or inquire at Seahawk Sailing, to the north near The Cut, or try one of these operators with fixed abodes:

Island Sun offers daily sailing trips to the reef for about $15 with rental of snorkeling equipment, $20 for a trip to Hol Chan reserve off Ambergris Caye.

Sunrise Boat Tours (Jim and Cindy Novelo, tel. 226-2195, fax 226-2239), has a fixed-price menu of trips: $16 to San Pedro and Hol Chan Reserve, $20 to $30 to cayes to the north or south, $45 to the Turneffe Islands. All prices are per person based on ten passengers. Get aboard for a Robinson Crusoe adventure.

Snorkeling equipment can be rented at a number of places—one is next to the police station (which is usually locked up)—for less than $10.

Diving

The island's dive shop, Belize Diving Services (tel. 022-2143), at the northwest corner of the village, by the soccer field, offers two-tank dives for $45 and up, night dives, a four-day entry-level course for $300, and full equipment rental. Inspect your equipment carefully before you go out. Write to P. O. Box 667, Belize City, to make advance arrangements.

Services

Sea-ing is Belizing is an unpretentious gift shop and photo studio, toward the north end of the village, by the soccer field. Owner James Beveridge offers underwater photo safaris to all offshore areas of interest, and underwater photography courses, as well as books, photos, slides and film for sale. Call 226-2189, or write to P._O. Box 374, Belize City, for advance arrangements. Chocolate, the boat operator of local renown, has a gift shop well stocked with t-shirts and post cards, toward the north end of the village, reef side.

Dolphin Bay Travel, tel. 226-2214, just south of the piers, arranges air tickets.

CariSearch (postal address: 47 Caye Caulker), run by a marine biologist, offers marine tours and lectures, and also operates Galería Hicaco, an art gallery and gift shop, near the Tropical Paradise Hotel.

The post office is at Celi's store and bar, which is inland from the Tropical Paradise Hotel.

AROUND CAYE CAULKER

Caye Caulker village is a square of sandy lanes under the palms, facing the gentle sea to both east and west. On the reef side are docks and docks and docks. This is genuinely a fishing village, and you are a bystander. The beach is no more than 11 inches of sand, meandering down the shoreline. There is said to be a pickup truck somewhere, and several golf carts sneak up and down the lanes, but sleeping dogs occupy the right of way at all hours. Outlying clusters of houses are reached by trails through the palms.

Almost all of the buildings on Caye Caulker, for guests and residents, are raised on posts, or more spindly stilts. This keeps you above the level of the sand flies (another reason development is limited) and more squarely in the breeze. When the wind is strong, your room has a noticeable sway—something like that caused by a mild earthquake.

To the north, the village comes to a halt at the Cut, where Hurricane Hattie blew through the island in 1961. It's a popular swimming spot. The water is shallow and fast-moving. Many of the structures on the island look like they would not survive another good storm.

The southern tip of Caye Caulker and part of the offshore extending out to the reef comprise Siwa-Ban, a nature reserve in development. As at the better-known Hol Chan Reserve off Ambergris Caye, Siwa-Ban has three zones.

The forest includes stands of coco plum, sea grape and mangrove; a sea grass section extends to the reef; and the reef section includes two channels that are throughways for roaming schools of fish. The black catbird (siwa-ban in Yucatec Mayan) nests only in the forest on Caye Caulker and in the rapidly disappearing stands of trees on Ambergris caye. The establishment of the reserve, during a period of frenzied building, could help save the black catbird, as well as provide a sanctuary for other species, including the American crocodile. For more information on the reserve, send a request and donation to Siwa-ban, 47 Caye Caulker, tel. 226-2178.

On From Caye Caulker

By air, you can go back to Belize City, or, on Island Air, to Caye Chapel or Ambergris Caye, when volume warrants.

By boat, speak to the captain who brought you out (if you were satisfied with the service) to arrange your return to Belize City.

Otherwise, tell somebody at your hotel of your travel plans. Deisy's Hotel can book your trip the day before, and there are others who will make advance arrangements for slightly less than what you paid to get out to Caye Caulker. Or be out by the dock near the Martínez Restaurant at 6:30 a.m. Unusually, departure is prompt, at 7 a.m. One boat usually leaves at 6:45 a.m. from Deisy's, as well.

The Thunderbolt Express from Ambergris Caye touches Caye Caulker at about 7:45 a.m.

For Ambergris Caye or Caye Chapel, look for the Triple J at 10 a.m. or the Thunderbolt Express at about 4:30 p.m., or arrange a dropoff from a sailboat headed that way.

Caye Chapel measures only one by three miles. Most of it is covered by coconut plantations and beaches. The island boasts a location just off the barrier reef only fifteen miles from Belize City, and has its own landing strip.

Pyramid Island Resort. 32 rooms and two beach houses. $125 and up double, plus 10% service plus tax. Add $30 per person for three meals. Low-season rate $40/$60. Master Card, Visa, American Express. Reservations: Box 192, Belize City, tel. 224-4409, fax 223-2405. U.S. reservations tel. 800-458-8281.

This resort owns all of Caye Chapel. Accommodations are in a long row of die-of-depression fifties-motel-style plywood rooms with plastic panelling, linoleum, and cheap furniture. But they're slowly being renovated, they all face seaward and are air-conditioned, and the beach is long and sandy and beautiful.

The central bar-common room rises to a pyramid roof, visible by any navigator. In additional to the dive shop, gift shop, and fishing and diving boats found at most of the better hotels on the cayes, Pyramid Island has a fresh-water pond, tennis and volleyball courts (at no charge) and a golf driving range, as well as a full-service marina—and a beach party on the last Sunday of every month.

Fishing in small boats is available at $125 for two persons, diving for $50 per person, snorkeling at $15 per person.

Maya Airways and Tropic Air flights between Belize City and Ambergris Caye. The Triple J boat (tel. 224-4375) leaves for Caye Chapel, Caye Caulker and San Pedro at 9 a.m. from the north end of the Swing Bridge in Belize City, from Ambergris Caye at 3 p.m. The Thunderbolt Express (tel. 226-2217) leaves from the Lagoon Side Marina on Ambergris Caye at 7 a.m., stopping at Caye Chapel on the way to Belize City. Departure from the Swing Bridge in Belize City is at 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, 1 p.m. on Saturday. Sometimes, other boats for Ambergris Caye, will stop at Caye Chapel on request.

Castaways Lodge is the only outpost on this mostly grassy and denuded caye, a wooden building with a large deck. The six rooms are bare but adequate and light, without cross ventilation, each with a toilet and shower. Everything is painted in cheery white with turquoise trim, and the awnings of the common room and bar open up to the sea air. Diving and fishing are the main guest activities. A sea wall protects the beach. Castaways is pretty and has a sense of isolation, though it is an easy hop by boat from Caye Caulker.

This lodge is currently being refurbished. Inquire at the tourist office in Belize City for more information. Access is by hiring a boat at Belize City, or by persuading a boat for Caye Caulker to drop you off. How you get back is between you and the owners.

Nine miles out from Belize City, St. George's Caye was the site of the major settlement and informal capital of Belize from about 1650 to 1784. A Spanish fleet was driven away just off the island in 1798, an incident that secured Britain's hold on the territory. An old graveyard from the early settlement remains at the southern tip of the island.

St. George's Caye suffered badly in 1961 when Hurricane Hattie washed away a good part of the island, but rebuilding has proceeded over the years. Today, it is a little slice of paradise, with at least two windmills, a venerable cemetery, a dozen private cottages with neat lawns on island-wide lots, several docks, and a rest-and-recreation base for British forces. There are no facilities for the public, and unless you're staying at one of the two lodging places, the island is basically not visitable.

St. George's Lodge. 10 rooms and 6 cottages. About $275 per day per person, including airport transfers, meals, two dives daily, tanks, and weights. 25 percent reduction for non-divers, 50 percent for children. American Express, Master Card. Reservations: Box 625, Belize City, tel. 224-4190 (radio patch to lodge), fax 223-0461; tel. 800-678-6871 in the U.S. , info@gooddiving.com

St. George's is the most serene of the diving lodges I have encountered in Belize, a state that results from the nature of the island—a non-commercialized getaway—and the seemingly imperturbable personality of the owner, Mr. Fred Goode.

The main building is a shipshape roundhouse, hardwood-panelled, shuttered, and set above the grassy ground on piers. Guest rooms in this part are like cabins aboard ship, each with a full bathroom. Over-water cottage units are larger, with thatched roofs, and air circulation over, under, around and through. Waves lap underneath the clefts in the floorboards. Electricity is provided full-time by windmills and batteries. Meals are mainly seafood, plain but copious, served family style. Bring your own bottle of liquor. Coffee is brought right to your door at 6:30 a.m.

There are a sun deck and a palm-shaded beach, and a solar-heated hot tub, but most guests come to enjoy diving with no distractions, and ratings of St. George's Lodge are consistently high. The reef is a half-mile out, and varied sites for divers of all levels are no more than twenty minutes away. Equipment includes three compressors and four dive boats. Instructors and a divemaster on site can complete dive training started elsewhere, or certify from scratch. Fishing, too, can be arranged, and there have been numerous perfectly contented guests who were out doing not much at all.

Cottage Colony is a set of cute guest units with porches and cut-out trim, built in rows close to one another. Floors are of polished wood, furniture is wicker, the bathrooms are motel-standard with showers. Two units in front, near the beach, are larger, with kitchens. The arrangement of the cottages across a sandy-gritty compound affords little breeze, and there is no cross-ventilation, but the air conditioning cools things off. Barbecues and picnic tables are provided. There is a dive shop on site.

Cottage Colony affords an opportunity to stay on a pleasant and little-visited island with easy access from Belize City. The rate is about $100 single or double, $1000 for a week-long dive package, $1400 for a fishing package. For information, phone 223-3571, or contact the Bellevue Hotel, 5 Southern Foreshore, Belize City, tel. 227-7051, fax 227-3253.

Gallows Point is almost due east of Belize City, and just seven miles away. Even in the wide-open Bay Settlement, justice sometimes caught up with miscreants, and Gallows Point is where that justice was meted out.

Gallows Point Resort. 6 rooms with private bath. $120 single/$160 double/$50 per extra person, plus 15% service plus tax, including three meals and transport from Belize City. Also rustic shared-bath accommodations with bunk beds for under $25 per person. Reservations in Belize City c/o Hotel Belcove, 9 Regent St. West, tel. 227-3054, fax 227-7600, belcove@hotmail.com.

Hotel rooms are all on the second floor, off a sea-view veranda, each with cold-water shower. Activities here are snorkeling, scuba and fishing. Anchorage available for yachts.

This resort also offers day trips to the caye from Belize City for about $65, including a light snack; and diving trips, for about $60. Weekend excursions, including one meal and two nights of lodging, are about $140.

This 234-acre mangrove island is just ten miles east-southeast of Belize City.

Spanish Bay Resort. 71 North Front St., tel. 227-2725 or 221-2024, fax 227-2797 in Belize City, sbturton@btl.net. 10 units. From $160 daily including meals, diving and tax, from $100 daily non-diving. Credit cards with surcharge.

Spanish Bay is a divers' resort, two miles from the barrier reef, affording easy access to a number of southern sites less frequented than those near Ambergris and Caye and Caye Caulker, some of them uncharted. A powerful dive barge takes groups out in short order to reef, walls, and as far as the Turneffe Islands; and compressors, air tanks, belts and weights are sufficient for as many divers as the lodge can sleep. The central roundhouse bar-dining pavilion sits over the water and is almost encircled by a deck. Inside, it's spacious and airy, hung with maps and charts, and stocked with board games for evening amusement. Guests stay in individual over-water cottages, each with two double beds, with hot water, fans, and hardwood panelling. Price includes transport from Belize City. Only drinks at the bar are extra. And since Spanish Bay is just a jump from Belize City, it can be a base for inland travel as well.

Hold onto your false teeth! The boat to Spanish Bay Resort hesitates not for swells or wakes. In ten miles and thirty minutes, it chatters through shipping channels and past police patrol skiffs and stray islands, from the heat and hustle and hassles of Belize City, toward an enlarging tangle of mangrove and palms, around the point of Spanish Lookout Caye, into harbor.

The entire resort settlement lies within a hundred yards or so of the dock. A central roundhouse office-bar-dining room, as at virtually every offshore resort in Belize, is a workaday structure with no architectural distinction or exterior adornment to face the weather, save a solidly anchored wraparound deck.

All the character resides inside: decorations of ships' wheels, umbrella ceiling, kerosene lamps to light board games and card games and conversations at night, a floor fan turning constantly, propelled not by electricity, but by a ceaseless breeze that also encourages bugs to move on.

The masterwork of Spanish Lookout is comprised of its five double cottages, set on stilts directly over the shallows, facing into the prevailing easterly breeze. Forget air conditioning. When the sun pulps a standing person into a sweat—and it can, all year, anywhere in offshore Belize—step inside. The wind skips off the Caribbean, cools to sea-water temperature, slides through screening and opened louvers, and exits toward the mangrove: all-natural cooling.

Spanish Lookout is a modified mangrove islet. The sand and shells of the lodge grounds were deposited by dredging a channel with shovels and wheelbarrow, and only sticks appear to hold it all together. There is no topsoil, the beach is minimal. But the compost of the island's vegetation—"mangrove peat"—blooms with tomatoes and watermelons and radishes and carrots, bananas and soursops and avocados and watermelons, papayas and peppers and herbs. The same substance, with a top coating of sand, underlies the other-worldly Air-pillo trails through the property. A channel crosses the island, along with a plank walkway.

Drinking water comes from rain caught off the roofs of caye-standard plywood workaday outbuildings, and a small desalination operation. Here, away from everything in the world, the staff cottage has satellite television, powered by solar panels and the generator that runs the compressors.

Beyond the lodge area, the island is as it was built up by colonizing plants, and carved by winds and rains and tides and storms. Red and black and white mangroves dominate, along with buttonwoods.

Ecology is the folklore of Belizean tourism, and every offshore resort proposes an eco-menu: trails through mangrove inhabited by rare bird species; swimming with dolphins in a protected lagoon; on a lucky day, a manatee waddling-swimming just off the dock. Remoteness from the modern world.

Spanish Bay is all this, except that remoteness is a state of mind, a matter of where you aim your gaze. Follow the plank walkway over the mangrove and channels to the western edge of the caye, and watch the sunset over the mainland, and, at a quarter-turn, the lights of Belize City. Light your torch, cross back above the black waters to your porch, and the other world, a moonlit sea, a swell of waves, and phosphorescence.

Though scuba diving is the mission for most visitors to Spanish Bay, I was on a non-diving visit with my wife and three children one August. What do you do at a diving resort when you are not diving? Plenty. You take it as you would any South Seas isle where you have the good fortune to be marooned. You plow through the stack of novels that was piling up at home unread, with a break when absolutely necessary to fetch a piña colada.

The kids have the run of the island while the divers are out: they pile up shells in mounds and more mounds, which will wait to be fetched on our next visit. They jump into the sea out the back door of our room, swim around to the beach, and repeat the process in numberless iterations. They go through all the board games. They chase teeny fiddler crabs, play peekaboo with fish that blend into sea grass, drop bread crumbs into an empty spot of water and watch the tarpon swarm and churn. They imagine perils aplenty, but there are no dangerous animals, not even deep water or undertow or crashing surf.

Nearby is Little Offshore Belize: Sargeant's Caye, Goff's Caye, English Caye and Rendezvous Caye, various specks of sand or mangrove on which to make landfall and explore for ancient remains, or shells, or bottles from afar.

One day we pulled a Robinson Crusoe. On its way to the reef, the diving barge, skippered by Karen Pasquariello, once a church administrator in Texas, stranded us with a hamper and cooler at Sergeant's Caye, a half-acre, three-palm-and-sand remnant of the larger island that was blown apart one hurricane year. What remains of a settlement is snorkelable: a miniature lost world of post anchors, a concrete block, a bathtub, scattered among brain and fan and elkhorn coral.

We moved from submarine archaeology back to our South Seas fantasy on the beach, sandwiches and fruit and drinks, touched with specks of sand, which is not a plentiful substance in Belize.

Food is a touchy point when travelling anywhere with kids, who abhor novelty. And it is a touchy point where last-minute shopping for finicky tastes is not possible. It was not a touchy point at Spanish Bay, where replenishment of the freezer from Belize City is less of a problem than elsewhere. We all enjoyed hamburgers at lunch, and my kids amazed me by slurping up an okra soup that initially looked yukky. But one evening, they cringed at a platter of lobster. I could have creamed them. But Elda Ceballos, lodge manager, cook, and accommodating hostess, had chicken ready in minutes. The employees were lucky that evening.

Rains descend on a vulnerable island in instant rage. When blinds flapped and papers flew up, we scurried to batten down our tempest-tossed room, sealing shutters and securing doors, making a snug haven a-rock on stilts in the lashing, roaring wind. But only for minutes, till the weather moved on.

This is Spanish Bay, and to some degree, it is any lodge off the mainland of Belize. The food will be more plentiful or less so. A longer-than-usual rain might limit diving and muddy the view under the water. You will almost certainly be more removed from Belize City in nautical miles, if not in ways that matter. And when it is time to leave, you could hope for another weather delay, or, as we did, ask the boat driver to slow down.

This island, southeast of Belize City, is about 45 minutes away by boat.

Moonlight Shadows Lodge has just two thatch-roofed cabanas on the island, going for about $50 per day. Fishing can be arranged, but there is no diving equipment, and you'll come out here just to be away from everything. Food can be prepared according to your preferences, or you can do your own cooking. Call 822-3665 to discuss everything.

These are small cayes 20 miles south of Belize City, inside the barrier reef. A commercial fishing camp is located here; otherwise, there are no inhabitants.

Ricardo's Beach Huts

Father and son Eterio and Ricardo Castillo have constructed five simple, over-the-water guest cabanas at their lobster and fishing camp in the Bluefield Range, 21 miles south of Belize City. Visitors may birdwatch, snorkel, or fish from dugout canoes. They also have an unusual opportunity to look in on the lives of the fishermen. There's lots of sand here—more than at many a formal beach resort—and unspoiled, unlittered mangrove and palms, as well as the usual aquatic attractions.

The minimum charge for a stay at Ricardo's is about $150 for two persons for two nights and three days. This includes meals and transportation, and for additional days, the charge is about $30. For information, speak to Anna Lara at the Mira Río Hotel, 59 North Front St. (P. O. Box 55, tel. 224-4970) in Belize City.

Twenty-five miles east of Belize City, the Turneffe Islands form a large ring surrounding a shallow lagoon—an atoll. Most of the cayes are swampy, but a few contain enough sand to support coconut trees, and are used as fishing camps.

The main attraction for visitors is the fishing. The flats within the island group are said to contain one of the largest concentrations of bonefish in the world. Permit frequent the deeper waters and, like bonefish, are present all year, while tarpon run in the spring in large numbers. For divers, there are sharp dropoffs, coral varieties and sponges on the ocean side, while snorkeling is good in the relatively shallow waters of the Central Lagoon and inside the reef. Bird sightings regularly include great numbers of blackbirds, brown pelicans, frigate birds, sandpipers, terns, and cormorants.

Turneffe Flats. 6 individual cabins. About $2200 per week of fishing, including transfer from Belize City; $1600 diving; $1150 non-fishing. The fishing rate includes a guide and skiff for every two fishermen. No additional service charge. Reservations: Box 36, Deadwood, SD 57732, tel. 605-578-1304, fax 605-578-7540, flats@rapid.net. Open all year.

A fishing and diving camp situated on the northeast side of the island group. Despite the remote location, the cabins are wood-panelled and attractively furnished, and provided with private baths. The camp chef serves up meals with seafood, of course, as well as fruit and fresh-baked pastries. The package price includes a stay of one night in Belize City, and a two-hour boat trip to the island on a 31-foot Ocean Master.

Turneffe Island Lodge.

On 12-acre Caye Bokel, this is a village of houses on tall stilts with screened porches, standard-issue catch-the-breeze structures. The lodge has a new 38-foot dive boat, and the main attractions are diving where relatively few divers go, and fishing for bonefish and permit in the flats surrounded by the islands. Diving packages generally include three dives daily

Blackbird Caye Resort. P. O. Box 888, Belize City, tel. 227-7670, or 800-537-1431 in the U.S., bbird@btl.net. $1300 weekly, or $1550 for diving, or $1750 for fishing, including boat from Belize City, meals, tax and service charges.

This is a sports resort with an ecological theme, on mangrove-covered Blackbird Caye, one of the major islands of the Turneffe group. Visitors are invited to swim with bottlenose dolphins (the subjects of ongoing studies) and view alligators, turtles and manatees from fairly close up. For scientists—and maybe for you—an attraction is that local species live largely without mainland influences, and some of the resident birds have flourished, while becoming virtually extinct on the mainland.

Guests stay in single-room thatch-roofed cottages on stilts, each with private bath. No liquor is available except for what you tote along. Fishing packages include two sorties daily. Diving packages include three dives daily.

Sixty miles east of Belize City is the Lighthouse Reef Lagoon, its shallow waters surrounded by a reef and the open sea.

Lighthouse Reef is barely populated, but not unvisited, for it is home to some rare wildlife, and its waters hold the Blue Hole, one of the natural wonders of Belize.

Half Moon Caye Natural Monument, near the southern end of the 30-mile-long, 8-mile-wide lagoon, is Belize's first national park, a bird sanctuary for the nearly extinct red-footed booby. White boobies predominate on Half Moon Caye. Elsewhere, most adult boobies are brown. Other species that make their home on the sandy caye include the magnificent frigate bird, ospreys, mangrove warblers, and white-crowned pigeons, as well as nearly a hundred others. Iguanas also live here, and hawksbill and loggerhead turtles lay their eggs on the beaches. Vegetation is sparse, mostly coconut palms, along with a few ziricote and wild fig trees. The waters off Half Moon Caye are said to be among the clearest in Belize, with visibility of 200 feet. The solar-powered lighthouse on the island, and the one on Sandbore Caye, to the north, give the reef its name.

Camping is permitted on Half Moon Caye. Visitors should check in first at the Audubon Society in Belize City.

The Half Moon Caye dropoff is rated unbeatable by many divers, plunging from a coral ridge 25 feet under the surface down, down, down, several thousand feet, broken by caves and canyons, bridges and tunnels.

More than 400 feet across, the Blue Hole is a shaft that drops from the ten-foot-deep lagoon, and opens into a series of elaborate, stalactite-filled caverns, starting at a depth of about 90 feet, and continuing down to 400 feet. The caves were formed in another geological age by underground rivers. In a more recent time, the ocean crashed through the ceiling of the cavern, creating the Blue Hole. Locals say it is the lair of a sea monster. Tilting stalactites indicate that earthquakes have shifted the formation from its original alignment.

The tunnels and chambers of the Blue Hole system were explored intensively by Jacques Cousteau in the early seventies, and may be visited by divers based on larger chartered boats (see Diving, page 46), which usually anchor at Lighthouse Reef. Long day excursions are available from most of the cayes, and shorter excursions from the Turneffe Islands. Fish species are not especially plentiful in the Hole, but for divers, it's a seemingly bottomless wall.

From the air, the Blue Hole is recognized by a change in the color of waters, from the light blue of the open sea to the darker blue of the Lighthouse Reef Lagoon to the deep blue of the shadowy Blue Hole.

Out Island Divers, at San Pedro on Ambergris Caye (tel. 226-2151), offers a one-day excursion to Lighthouse Reef, with a brief dive into the Blue Hole, followed by two wall dives and a visit to the Booby Bird Sanctuary. Indigo Belize in San Pedro (tel. 226-2130) operates overnight diving trips to the reef on the M/V Manta IV, including five dives.

Lighthouse Reef Resort, tel. 800-423-3114, lighthouse@btl.net. 9 cabins. $1300 weekly; $1400 weekly with diving; $1700 weekly with fishing, meals and transport included.

Convenient to the Blue Hole, this resort is a luxury getaway even without the diving. Guest rooms are air-conditioned, and there is lots of lonely beach. Unlike most offshore lodges, Lighthouse Reef Resort has an airstrip, and divers on week-long packages get out here in less than a half-hour from Belize City.

SOUTH WATER CAYE

South Water Caye is a 12-acre island east of Dangriga, with just one real hotel, and assorted cottages and rooms for rent.

Blue Marlin Lodge, P.O. Box 21, Dangriga, tel. 522-2243 (radio patch), fax 522-2296, 800-798-1558 in U.S. 14 rooms. $125 single/$200 double with meals, plus $125 round-trip for boat transfer, or $1400 per person for a one-week diving package, including meals and two daily boat dives (Saturday arrival). Fishing, $1650 per week, non-divers, $975 per week. Surcharge for credit cards, travellers checks.

Blue Marlin is a private island getaway that has been expanded to take a few guests. Diving is the main activity here. Introductory and certification courses are available. The diving package includes day trips to outlying sites, such as the Blue Hole and Glover's Reef. Videos are taken on request. And, as you might guess from the name, marlin fishing is excellent (from March through May), though only limited fishing equipment can be provided. All rooms have attached bath, hot shower, and fans. The lodge dining pavilion hangs out right over the water. Additional amusements include billiards, wind-surfing, volleyball and horseshoes, and inland trips to the jaguar reserve and along a river. In Dangriga, ask at the Riverside Hotel for information about shorter stays.

Pelican Beach Resort on the mainland in Dangriga (P. O. Box 14, tel. 522-2044, fax 522-2570) has two wooden vacation houses on stilts available for rent at about $100 per day. Each sleeps six, and includes linens and cooking facilities. Meals can be arranged for an additional $30 per person. At Pelican Inn on the western side of the island, five bedrooms of assorted sizes, each with toilet and shower, are available at $55 per person daily with three meals.

TOBACCO CAYE

Southeast of Dangriga, Tobacco Caye, consisting of a few acres of sand and coconut palms, is developing as an informal resort island. You can do nothing here without a guilty conscience, or enjoy snorkeling—the reef is within wading distance—or pitch in with lobstering and fishing.

Tobacco Caye is in the process of opening up, like Caye Caulker several years ago. Costs are moderate, but for the trip out, which can run as much as $125 for a charter from Dangriga or Placencia if you can't find space on a boat that's already going. Campsites with cooking facilities and modest rental cabins are available. Meals can be taken in private homes.

Reef's End (P. O. Box 10, Dangriga), one of the better accommodations, is a row of four rooms, each with private bath, going for $50 single/$75 double, and there are two cabanas, each with two double beds, at a higher rate. The eatery-bar is positioned over the water. Call 522-2171 in Dangriga to reserve and arrange transport.

Mr. Elwood Fairweather is a boat owner who can arrange stays on the island. He runs regular trips from Dangriga on Tuesdays and Fridays for about $15 each way, and has rooms with meals for about $25 per person, as well as camping. Ask for Mr. Fairweather (and inquire about new facilities) at the Río Mar Inn in Dangriga.

How to Get to Tobacco Caye

To make it in one day to Tobacco Caye from Belize City, take the 10 a.m. Z-Line bus to Dangriga. There are usually several boat owners waiting at Riverside where the bus terminates, and they will organize transport out for about $15 per person.

Otherwise, call 522-2171 in Dangriga (the number for Reef's End) to hook up with a scheduled departure, or hire a boat at Riverside for a special run.

LAUGHING BIRD CAYE

Laughing Bird is a faro, an atoll-like island rising steeply from the sea floor and enclosing a central lagoon, and so unusual in Belize that it is a protected area. Located about 20 miles east-southeast of Placencia, the island is home to the laughing gull, as well as pelicans, green herons, swifts, and melodious blackbirds.

CARRIE BOW CAYE

This little island is the site a a Smithsonian Institution field laboratory. Some of the resorts of southern Belize arrange visits during island-hopping tours; or you can check in with the Pelican Beach Hotel in Dangriga.

GLOVER'S REEF

Seventy miles southeast of Belize City, Glover's Reef National Park is a circular stretch of coral surrounding a lagoon, virtually duplicating a Pacific atoll. The cayes on the southeast side of the reef were in earlier times the base of the pirate John Glover. There are no permanent inhabitants at the reef, though it is visited from time to time by commercial fishermen. Pieces of old pottery indicate that the Maya of Belize frequented the reef in pre-Columbian times.

Manta Reef Resort, Southwest Caye. U.S. reservations: 14423 S.W. 113 Terrace, Miami, FL 33186, tel. 800-342-0053, fax 305-388-5842. 10 cabanas. About $1500 per person weekly, including meals, diving, and transport out by boat, $1500 fishing, $1200 for R&R.

Manta Reef gives immediate access to little-explored dive sites: Spaghetti Western, Barrel Head and Hot Fish Hollow, among others. Whale sharks are common sights, along with the manta rays that lend their name to the establishment. Divers of all skill levels are welcome, and everyone begins with a check-out dive, followed by an optional review course. Two daily boat dives and two night dives per week are included in packages, along with beach dives. Bonefishing is available right at the resort, or from skiffs in the flats of Glover's Reef Atoll. Accommodations are in panelled cabanas with wicker furnishings, more attractive than usually found offshore, and an air-conditioned house is available. Food is ample. Add about $500 single occupancy, children under 12 half price.

Glover's Atoll "Resort" and Biological Field Station is an isolated yet accessible colony of seven rustic cabins on 15-acre coconut-covered Long Caye, directly on the reef, and nearby North East Caye. The Lomont family, who have run things here for years, offer a Sunday trip out to Glover's Reef at 8 a.m. from Sittee River, where they also have a modest guest house (arrive by the 8 a.m. Saturday Z-Line Punta Gorda bus from Belize City, connecting with truck at Sittee River junction, or taxi). The price is right: less than $100 per person for a week, under $150 for two weeks, including the boat ride (three to six hours, returning Saturday). And—get this—you pay only half as much to camp. Nobody tends to your every wish here, and some aspects are rather basic. But you get cooking facilities (bring, buy or catch the food, or take meals with the caretaker), well water, porch, hammock, lanterns, outhouse, and gravity shower, and can rent boats and canoes. Bring your own towels.

For divers, limited snorkeling and diving gear is available, along with a compressor. You can wade out to the dropoff, or rent a diesel boat for a longer run. Bring equipment to fish for tarpon, snapper, jacks, bonefish and barracuda.

Out at Glover's Reef, rentals and services are usually on a cash basis, to minimize overhead, though Master Card and Visa can be accepted with advance approval (a 10 percent surcharge will be applied). Sample charges: $50 for half-day sailboat charter, $5 daily dugout rental, $12 for an air tank plus equipment rental for a dive from shore. Scuba instruction and certification are available.

North East Cay, across a channel from Long Cay, with three of the cabins, is a reserve, and use of motorboats, and certain guest activities, are limited, to avoid disturbing nesting turtles and other species.

If your needs are modest, call the Glover's Atoll contact at 822-2149, fax 522-3505, or write glovers@btl.net, to see if there's room. To charter a boat out and arrange a taxi, try calling Mr. Tino Tzul in Dangriga at 522-2438. For a radio patch to the island, call 824-3310. For firm reservations send $50 by cashier's check to Gilbert Lomont, Box 563, Belize City. Closed September through November.

WIPPARI CAYE

Just eight nautical miles due east of Placencia, Wippari Caye Lodge has four cabanas going for about $30 double, or $65 with food. For that price you get limited facilities and great snorkeling. Scuba diving is not available. Call 722-3130 for information, or ask around in Placencia for George Cabral or David Dial.

RANGUANA CAYE

Cabanas with cooking facilities and shared bathrooms are available at Ranguana Reef Resort, for $35 single/$45 double, plus $75 for the trip out. Bring your own groceries, scuba and fishing gear. To make arrangements, contact Eddie Leslie at Ranguana Lodge in Placencia, tel. and manual fax 722-3112.

COASTAL RESORTS

You don't have to go out to one of the cayes to find expanses of sand, coconut palms, calm blue waters, dozens of species of birds, and excellent fishing. To a greater or lesser extent, the villages along the coast of Belize listed below have facilities comparable to those on the cayes.

Belize River Lodge. A fishing camp upriver from Belize City, near the international airport at Ladyville. The address is Box 459, Belize City, the telephone number is 225-2002, but you'll do best to book through a travel agency. The rate for six nights of sleeping and fishing is about $1300.

Pelican Beach Resort, Dangriga.

The Placencia Peninsula.

Safe Haven Lodge, near Punta Gorda (South chapter).
 
 

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