Yucatan 2014 Recap (Belize)

The first thing to note about San Pedro is how small it actually is. Literally 2 or 3 blocks wide, every local is just bound to know each other. Our taxi did a good job guiding us to our hotel, informing us about how there's one paved road, the joints to check out, and what beers attract certain demographics... I won't get into detail with that one. We got to Belize Hutz around 5pm, but actually looked like 7pm (we had no idea Belize was an hour change plus lack of daylight savings time!?) and checked in. Decided to explore the island for food since there wasn't much of that from the time we left Cancun. Average Joe's is probably the closest establishment to the south end of town for dinner. Just a small dive next to a gas station, this place wasn't bad at all... had one bartender who was also the food server and a woman in the kitchen in the back. A local couple also brought their dog to just hang out with everyone. Highly recommend getting anything with chili on it from Average Joe's, packed a decent punch. Had a few Belikins (national beer of Belize) and called it a night early (around 9pm Belize, which was really 11? Who knows anymore).

The next day we rented bikes from the Hutz, $12 a day. Good deal considering the main mode of transportation on San Pedro is the golf cart and that'll ring you up for about $60 for 8 hours. I got an email from Amigos del Mar early... they had cancelled their boats for the day due to rough conditions. I was pretty upset, considering Shark Ray Alley was one of the reasons I came down here. So we took bikes out to breakfast and happened to come across a smaller tour group. Turns out they were going! Signed up real quick and came back at 2pm. We picked up an old lady and two younger dudes from Los Angeles to take the trek. Really? Old lady going to Shark Ray Alley? Well, all right, now I'm not so scared.

Got to Hol Chan Marine Reserve about 20 minutes later and dove in. What a site this place was... reef, colorful fish, sting rays everywhere, even caught a glimpse of a rare spotted eagle ray. Towards the end of this swim, when we got near the boat, the snorkelers were huddling around me. What the hell is going on? I don't see anything... later, I was told that there was a sea turlte literally right under me for a few minutes, really wish I caught a glimpse or a pic on my camera. Did happen to see a few impressive sea turtles though, but had no idea one was stalking me... creeper Thrash. Oh well, onto the next: Shark Ray Alley.

Despite it only being about 10 minutes long, I'd have to say Shark Ray Alley and Chichen Itza were the highlights of my trip. Upon arriving at the spot, we were literally the only boat there for some reason. Our captain took a bucket, threw some chum into the water and heeere they come. About 25 nurse sharks surrounded half the boat. The captain was urgent. 'Jump out on the other side of the boat and hurry up before they're gone!' The guide dove right in, one of the California guys did a few seconds later. Then me, Neal and the old lady. When I got in, there were still about 10 in the vicinity. Crapping my pants would've been completely acceptable but instead I swam around. These sharks were pretty harmless, and they did bring about incredible wildlife. The guide instructed us to look under our boat. It reminded me of that scene in Finding Nemo where there are tons of turtles in the current stream, and how gorgeously animated that scene is. It was quite serene. Meanwhile, colorful fish were just swimming up to my camera and looking into the viewfinder to pose, so awesome. Another couple sting rays later, and it was time to leave. I'll never forget how elated I was on the ride back to the dock. Shark Ray Alley is a must-see for anyone really... and at $50 including the $10 park fee, it's a pretty good deal for a couple hours. Once we got back, time to hit the bar for dinner. Checked out a new place on the main paved road this time, not bad. Neal watched the Raptors/Nets game on a TV with some patrons, I chatted up the bartender. Chill night out... Neal even got some free drinks out of it due to helping cheer on this Canadian's Raptors team.

Next morning was hell. Had to get to the dock about a half mile away at 5:30am. It was windy out too, which would be a little bit of foreshadowing. Got to the Amigos' dock around 7 to check in and get our gear. Had four snorkelers on our boat and the rest, about 12, were diving. All really great people too, couple from Los Angeles, newlyweds from Chicago, my new buddy from Dayton, OH. The boat set off at 8am, headed for the Great Blue Hole. Once we got past the reef, pretty much all hell was breaking loose. The waves were enormous, would say about 10 foot swells. Felt like we were going into The Perfect Storm. One of the girls on board got really sick, another was on the verge... and she was local! About a half hour past the reef, we came across a small wooden dingy with no motor. Our captain stopped, expecting the worst but pulled up next to a guy scuba diving off the side of his little boat. What the hell was he doing out there?! No way he was making it back to the mainland in those waves. But he refused help and we were on our way again. We passed by Turneffe Atoll. The waves ceased, the sun came out, everyone was basking. Passing Turneffe, the waves picked up again for another hour. We arrived at a serene part of the Carribean with no land in sight. 'All right we're here.'

Wait, what? I don't even see anything... well if you look closely in the distance, you can see the outline of a shallow reef circling our boat. And inside this circle was dark blue water. Dark blue water that reached depths of over 400 feet. We jumped in. The snorkelers stayed along the edge, capturing some decent reef life. Not so much happening in the Blue Hole and wouldn't recommend it unless you were diving. But the views of the actual drop-off were pretty crazy. At the end, we saw a barracuda pass us slowly kind of freaking us out, but that was the extent of it. Meh to Blue Hole snorkeling... off to Half Moon Caye. Half Moon was the highlight of this trip. When I think of isolated vacation spots, this is what I'll think of. The small island had a wildlife sanctuary on it, bathrooms, and not much else. The snorkeling was great too, real shallow with plenty of diverse fish life, couple sharks. The current was too great for me though to the point where I exhausted myself too badly to even eat lunch. I just laid down on the boat and drank four bottles of water. After lunch, we went out to the last point of the trip for 15 minutes and then we were on our way back. Rough waves still, but we were going with them instead of against so slightly easier. Amigos set up some coconut rum drinks for everyone so that got a little party and social hour going. We passed Turneffe and everyone was quiet as they looked at the setting. It wasn't like in America where people would just grab their phones and start snapping away. Just sat there and enjoyed it. We ended up passing by the area of the wooden boat on the way back but it was no longer there... never heard what had happened to it. When we got back to shore, we said our goodbyes to our group. Neal exchanged a few emails, unsure if anyone's reached out yet. But what a nice, relaxed group of people. Arriving back at the hotel, I had the most insane sealegs. It was trippy as all hell, but still managed to make it back out to Average Joe's for our last night in Belize. Nachos with chili, please. And give me a Belikin... make it two, I don't have to be up tomorrow.

The next morning, we made our way back to the dock. I decided after that ferry from hell that I was going to fly to Corozal and meet Neal via taxi in Chetumal. Once he saw the airfare and the travel time, he changed his mind about the ferry too and bought a plane ticket. Two hour rough ferry vs 15 minute scenic plane ride? No-brainer. We took off at 10am, got to Corozal by 10:30, got to Chetumal by 11:30 after going through all the Immigration and Customs stuff. Note: Both Belize and Mexico have departure fees. If you do the same trip we did, except to pay about $45 USD total for both. Now we pull into the town of Chetumal and the moment of truth: is the car still there? We parked it in a spot where we had no idea if it was even legal and we had been gone for three days. We pull around the bend of the Sam's Club: there it is! Just like that moment in Dude!, Where's My Car? We tip our awesome taxi guy from Belize, who chatted us up the whole way (travel advice, his history, love advice???) and we hopped in our little car and were on our way back. Quick stop in Tulum at 3pm for lunch. I'll post a picture of the 'chicken burrito' I ordered later... there was some 'Lost in Translation' stuff going on there. Tulum ruins closed at 4pm so we never made it, just continued on our way to Cancun.

Checked into Hotel Sotavento again around 6pm, but Neal wanted to get a phone charger since he left his in Belize. So he was off to Walmart, if he could remember the way... anddd I didn't see him again until 9pm. When recalling the ordeal, 'I don't know what the f*** happened, I ended up in the center of Cancun somehow and thought I was seriously going to die and no one spoke English.' I'll include some lessons at the end of this. So 9pm, we're on the R-1 to Senor Frogs for our final night. We hadn't seen them in three days, figure they'd probably forget our faces. Nope, the female bartender opened right up to Neal again, Old Man was still there rocking hard. We were getting free shots most of the night, people just pouring booze into our mouths without us even asking for it. Neal was in a conga line of some white party that was going on, as well as dancing on stage. I was chatting up the people at the bar and taking pictures for everyone. A solid night out, tons of local beers, free shots, even some flaming shots, still under $100 USD total. Both went hard, Neal moreso. Somehow the kid fell asleep standing up on the bus. Not like I was any better, I was accidentally feeling up people's faces looking for something to hold onto.

The last day in Cancun, we spent it at the Underwater Museum off the coast of Isle Mujeres. Was ok, nothing too special. Little bit of wildlife here and there but I wouldn't recommend to go out of your way for it. Was snorkeling in pretty much the open sea... the advertisements make it seem like the water and statues aren't too deep but they're pretty far down there. Our tour ended and it was time to pack it up. Got new clothes on, went back to Sotavento and waited for the limo. Made it back to the airport in plenty of time, so just sat around and checked out pictures. Turns out we had an upgrade on our United flight home to Economy Plus. Had internet on my phone which was incredible... and not only that, but the flight back to Newark was only 2 hours and 45 minutes?! That's almost as fast as going from Newark to Miami. Made it back safe and sound with plenty of things to share... and souvenirs of course. Got my brother Belizean hot sauces, sister a shot glass and my 67 oz glass from Senor Frogs, smaller sister a book on how to write Mayan dates and got my parents hats and mugs from San Pedro.

Some things I learned on this trip:

1. Don't drive around Cancun, take the R-1. Or R-2 if you need to get to Walmart. A lot of times these will be pretty crowded, but they come so frequently (every 5 minutes) that you're bound to catch an uncrowded one more times than not.

2. Want to get off the bus? Don't be afraid to just yell, 'Stop!'.. or 'Alto!' if you're feeling brave in your Spanish accent. There's also a little buzzer on the near the rear and front doors.

3. Find a good exchange rate and convert as much cash as you can early. Everyone's got a varying exchange rate, good to know how much you'll actually be getting.

4. Cancun is highly Americanized, that goes for the water supply. Lots of people talk about Montezuma's Revenge, but really that goes back a long time. Nowadays, Cancun has relied on tourist dollars to upgrade its water filtration system.

5. It's the Cosmic Day of the Woman. Before 2012 to the beginning of time, it was the Man. We did pretty well for ourselves, invented electricity and all that.

6. Mayans knew early acoustic engineering techniques. Speaking of acoustics, during an Elton John concert held at Chichen Itza, the rumbling of the music caused a new base of an ancient building to be unearthed in the area. Way to go, Sir Elton.

7. Driving in Mexico is pretty easy, just don't kill yourself on a speed bump. They're actually so brutal that vendors set up on the speed bump because people literally stop their cars going over them long enough to buy something.

8. Don't take the ferry to San Pedro/Caye Caulker from Chetumal. Just fly, you're doing your back a great service.

9. The official language of Belize is English... that was easy. The national beer is Belikin and comes in regular, stout, light and Lighthouse Lager. And was actually very good.

10. Don't go over the reef in a kayak, you probably won't come back. Fact.

11. I only met one person who utilized sarcasm in San Pedro... our waitress at a breakfast joint. Telling me that they put hot sauce on pancakes down there and that I should try it.

12. Do the Blue Hole if you're an avid scuba diver. Too much money and time if you're not.

13. Shark Ray Alley. Once you go, you won't stop talking about it.

14. Tropic Air pretty much owns the San Pedro airport, but don't be fooled as there's also a Maya Air portion to that airport. Save a couple bucks and have some extra flight options to choose from.

15. Awesome trip, would definitely try it again.

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