 | | San Pedro's Water Taxi Terminal |
The largest island in Belize, Ambergis Caye is a 25 mile-long, skinny strip of land lying off the north-east coast of Belize near the border with Mexico. Belize is home to the world's second-largest coral reef system (185 miles long) and is known for the great condition of it's reefs and abundance of sealife. With the reef one-half mile off the eastern side of the island, Ambergris Caye provides the most accessible location for visitors new to Belize to explore this Central American paradise.
Because the barrier reef runs the entire length of the country, the island is sheltered from ocean tides and allows for other ocean activities like kayaking, deep-sea fishing, and windsurfing. Being about 45 minutes from the mainland by water taxi (which is a very unique and interesting experience), Ambergris Caye is a great base for doing day-trips to the mainland to visit Mayan ruins or go cave tubing. With so many different activities to try, pleasant caribbean weather and a suprisingly relaxed atmosphere, Ambergris Caye is a great destination where the non-divers in your group will have as much fun as the divers!  | | Hol Chan |
The Diving
The main activity on Ambergris Caye focuses around San Pedro, a bustling little town of 5000 on the southern portion of the island. Although experienced travellers to Belize might choose Caye Caulker or one of the southern atolls to keep away from the crowds, the atmosphere is still very relaxed compared to other higher profile Caribbean destinations. There are about 2 dozen different dive operators to choose from and based on what I saw you couldn't really go too far wrong. Almost all the dive operators also run day-trips to the south of Belize to dive the Lighthouse/Glover/Turneffe Atolls or the Great Blue Hole, a location made famous by a visit from Jacques Cousteau in 1970.  | | Shark Ray Alley |
With the reef 5 minutes away by boat, there is plenty of wonderful diving immediately accessible. I was able to organize my dives the same day that I dove, and on one of my trips got the benefit of being the only diver aside from the divemaster aboard. The must dives are Hol Chan Marine Sanctuary and SharkRay Alley, both about 10-15 minutes out from San Pedro. Another popular local dive is Mexico Rocks, a set of shallow coral formations.
Hol Chan (or little channel) in Mayan is a marine reserve, created in 1987. It consists of a small channel that cuts through the barrier reef. Although crowded, this dive is definitely worthwhile; the abundance and variety of life here was tremendous and included moray eels, grouper, snapper, tarpon, barracuda, and eagle rays. Because the dive is very shallow (starts out in 10-15 feet of water and goes down to about 40 feet at the reef), the opportunities for photos are excellent. The other "dive", SharkRay alley, is really a snorkel dive and gives divers the chance to see nurse sharks and southern stingrays up close and personal. Originally a place where fishermen cleaned their catch, this attracted stingrays and sharks to feed, and now they congregate around this shallow (5-10 feet) area and have a great tolerance for humans. The experience of touching a nurse shark and a sting ray, and comparing the differences between the rough and soft feelings of their skin is something I will never forget.  | | San Pedro Town |
With hundreds of miles of barrier reef to choose from, there are tons of dive sites to pick from, and the likelihood that you will encounter another dive party at the same dive site outside of the popular Hol Chan and SharkRay dives is quite small. The dives tend to get deeper outside the reef (50-100 ft.), and are distinct from inside the reef, where the water is very shallow and calm. I saw some large nurse sharks and eagle rays in the few coral canyon dives I did outside the reef and although I didn't see any, turtles are also to be found outside of the reef.
Other Stuff
In comparison to other caribbean destinations, Belize is actually quite a decent-sized country, so it's definitely worth considering a trip to the mainland to add a whole new dimension to your trip. A very good website to start your research on mainland Belize and its history and culture, is at www.travelbelize.org.
Mayan Ruins
Belize is home to the ancestral center of a large portion of classic Mayan civilization, and many ancient Mayan sites have been recently discovered or cleared throughout the country. The size and sophistication of many of these structures is very impressive and it is definitely worth visiting a Mayan ruins site from Ambergris Caye. Altun Ha and Lamanai are two Mayan sites that are easily within striking distance of Ambergris and provide very exciting day-trips. We visited Altun Ha on a day-trip and spent lunch at the Marimba Jungle Spa. I can definitely recommend the local drink, a caribbean concoction called Rum Punch (actually at the Marimba Spa, you can get a fearsome thing called a Viper shot that involves Viper Rum, watermelon, and a flame, but I didn't have the nerve to try that). The sub-tropical rainforest, and the variety of the flowers and fauna, made it a very different and fascinating experience than the island.
Cave Tubing
Although we didn't have a chance to do this, this sounded like an extrememly pleasant way to relax and wile away an afternoon. Apparently you gently float down a long underground river in inner tubes, taking in the wonderful backdrop of rainforest activity and underground caves as you drift by. |
