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Touring San Pedro with Gary & Rick
Every morning, two planes leave Corozal's little airport for San Pedro (one Tropicaire, one Maya Island Air) and I say to myself, usually out loud, "Well, I could be going to San Pedro right now!" I have never been there until now.
Ambergris Caye is an island -- would be a Mexican peninsula if not for a channel cut through to the sea which is called Bacalar Chico. It defines the Belize border at that point. Ambergris Caye is about 28 miles long, stretching from Bacalar Chico on the North to Hol Chan Marine Reserve on the south. San Pedro is almost to the south end. The town is several miles long because developers have built luxury hotels north of "downtown", so far away that you need to rent a golf cart to go visit them. If you're staying at one of those, they will pick you up or you can take a taxi
(a mini-bus). These are very expensive hotels by any standards, with rates running from $150 to $400US a night, depending on the season.
The water taxi ride got us into S.P. about 9AM. Fortunately, we found a bar open right away (The bar at Paradise Resort Hotel -- Belikin beer $3 dollah -- cheapest we ever did find in S.P.) struck up a conversation with Richard, a "regular" (i.e. a tourist who regularly comes to S.P. every winter.) He was staying at the Paradise Resort on a special deal. Their rooms run about $100US, but he recommended
Lily's, a block south. We drifted on down to Lily's, which is in the north central part of town. It has a little bar/restaurant in the front and rooms upstairs & down. Our upstairs back room was $50US, with a view of the next building. <grin> Small, but clean and comfortable, it was just right for sleeping and
showering!! (Who wants to hang around a room anyway??) Felipe, the owner/manager, has been running
Lily's since the mid-70's, and could tell you some amazing stores, I'm sure. A
very nice guy.
We started hitting places on the main drag, found the best place to buy supplies (Milo's, a little store behind
Lily's) where I found most of the prices to be reasonable comparable to the most expensive goods in Corozal. A later stop at Island Super Market confirmed the rumors that everything is much more expensive on Ambergris. Of course, Island Super carries the kind of Gringo goods which are expensive in the US!!
Lunch time found us at Cannibal's -- whose slogan is "We'd love to have you for dinner.". I met Cannibal's founder, Dianne, at a wedding on the mainland shortly after we arrived in Belize, and I looked forward to seeing her again. Alas, it was not to be. Dianne got tired of the island, sold the restaurant, and reportedly was taking a cooking school in the States! Pam, the new owner, chatted with us, told me about Dianne and herself, and then served us a couple of her famous lobster Cannibal sandwiches, It was lots of filling, wrapped in a big flour tortilla. a sortof Burrito. Plenty of lobster (which was going out of season) very good, but pretty expensive -- about 10 dollah.
We hit Fido's (pronounced Fee-doughs) for a beer, and chatted with Malcolm about the possibility of our band playing there. He was interested, but wants to hear an audition tape. He says that on a good night, he expects 400-600 customers. We went back that night to see Category 7 (see below) and he had maybe 150-200 customers while we were there. Regular Belikin on tap, 5 dollah a mug.
We wandered down the beachfront, admiring the bikini-clad honeys. This is something you won't see around Corozal. The girls wear underwear, shorts and T-shirts to swim. If they even wear a conservative "bath suit" (much less a Bikini) to the bayside, groups of teenage boys will gather 'round and make lewd remarks about them. My original thought was that someone should explain that gentlemen don't behave that way, and then (if necessary) punch their lights out. Now, I just want to point out that, by doing that, they are depriving themselves of one of
Modern Man's finest pleasures -- Girl Watching. Suffice it to say that girl watching on San Pedro's (and Caye Caulker's) beaches is FINE, FINE, FINE. And free!
On down the beach, we surveyed the Island Academy. This was built for Barry Bowen's kids -- built right next to his house -- and run by his wife. Typical of most of Barry's projects -- admittedly self-serving, but very good for Belize as well. The tuition is $250US per month; the school has a very good reputation.
Then to the offices of the San Pedro Sun, where co-owner Eileen Jamison sold us a paper and gave me the rate sheet, which is high enough that I would think that the Sun is a pretty successful concern. A lot of work (according to her) but successful. On Wednesday, the next weekly issue is about to be published, so my copy was a little out of date but stimulating. It is a good paper, but clearly reflects the gringo outlook on Ambergris. If you plan to relocate to Belize, are thinking about SP as a permanent destination, you should subscribe. (www.sanpedrosun.net) It's 40 bucks (US) for 26 weekly issues, mailed to you in the States.
Everywhere we saw, and sometimes chatted with upscale gringos. One couple told me about their Tri-maran, which they got at a steal price -- a lot less than the usual $500,000 -- $600,000. The boats are made in France and you sail them here. They were looking for a place to provision and I suggested Chetumal.
We stopped at Ramon's Village, the nicest place in Central San Pedro. They claim to be "The Island's Leading Resort Facility" and they price everything accordingly. A bottle of Export Belikin, $3 dollah on the mainland, was $6 dollah in their bar, with nothing cheaper.
Richard had told me he hung out at Estelle's, a little place just south of mid-town. Charlie, the owner, who used to play C&W drums, was hard to find, but there was loud country music playing, so we had a couple of $4 dollah beers and I talked to a disgruntled visitor who claimed that someone had stolen $3500 out of his room. [Later investigation revealed that he is a compulsive liar.] The moral is: Tourists are fun to chat with but don't believe everything you hear.
Richard had warned me that Charlie refused to compete on the basis of price. I noticed that he was selling little bags of chips for $2 dollah a bag, and we
buy them for a shilling in Corozal. We declined to eat there, but the music was good, so we had some more beer. After that, we went back to the room & took a nap. (Life in the tropics
is tough!)
Dinner time, we started looking for a place to eat, with an eye to music. Because of Category 7, there isn't any other music on Wed. night. <wow> We opted for Shark's, over the water, and some "authentic Tex-Mex", supervised by two guys from San Antonio. I've been hungry for Enchiladas ever since my wife had them at J. B.'s (on the Western Highway) and I didn't have them then. The enchiladas at Sharks were absolutely the worst food I've had in recent memory. The "enchilada sauce" was some overcooked boston baked beans piled on top of a couple of sorry looking rolled tacos. To make up for the lack of quality, they were REALLY EXPENSIVE. I would be glad to give them instructions on how to make enchiladas.
After dinner, we headed for Fido's to hear Category 7. On the way, we were diverted by the fabulous "Chicken Drop" at the Pier Lounge, right on the beach. About fifty or sixty people were standing around a wire cage. The floor of the cage was a checkerboard, with random numbers which (I guess) ran from 1 to 100. (I didn't stay and count them.) Every one was shouting and hollering at a chicken that was walking around inside the cage. It turns out that everybody buys numbers (spaces) and the chicken chooses the winner by pooping on a particular square. The winner gets $100 and the opportunity to clean up the mess. Please understand that San Pedro has to have a lot of excitement like this to keep up with Cancún.
[When I was living in the Black Forest northeast of Colorado Springs, they used to have an Outhouse Race in the
Springtime, until the more uppity residents complained that it didn't show much class. I wonder what they'd think about the "Chicken Drop".]
After all that excitement, we managed to get a table in the back at Fido's, to watch Category 7, which was Category 6 for the night, because a player was missing. <!!>. The band, all local, is a high energy band, with three singers and three guitars, drums, bass, keyboardist missing for the night. They were good and loud. Very good. Very loud. The crowd was enthusiastic. I had the feeling that some of the dancers were professional entertainers (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) but the whole scene was very high energy and probably good for San Pedro! At about 10 o'clock, we decided that we'd reached our fun quota and went back to
Lily's for a nightcap and beddy-bye.
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