AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums Talk Belize Trip Reports March 29th to April 5th Family of 7 in San Pedro

tq, which one was the hot buffed guy? lol!!

SUNDAY, MARCH 30th, 2008

Today is a day to relax with family and unwind from the 2 day journey to Belize. We whip up a fresh breakfast of eggs, toast, and ham, after which.

Next, Harold, Tim, and myself take a trip downtown to see Israel and drop off my dive equipment. We make arrangements for snorkelling and diving in the Hol Chan Marine park the next day before taking a quick tour of downtown San Pedro. The three of us bought wide brimmed grass hats before heading back to the villa for the ladies, kids, and a quick refreshing dip in the pool.

The rest of the day is spent in San Pedro, having lunch at Estelle's, and walking down the beach, followed by cruising the streets of SP in our golf cart.

Before we know it, the day is getting long and we quickly do some grocery shopping and head home for a dip in the pool and a bite to eat.

Just a relaxing enjoyable day in the sun...

MONDAY, MARCH 31st, 2008

Once again, we wake up to a quick breakfast of eggs, ham, and toast. Harold, Tim, and myself head to the Mata Rocks dock and are met by both Israel and Peter in the Protech boat. Introductions are made and away we go to the Hol Chan Marine Park. Peter and Israel brief us on the history of the park and explain what we're going to do.

Harold and Tim snorkelled with Israel, while Peter and I decided to dive the site and get all the kinks worked out of my equipment and weights. A good thing too, as I forgot to account for the added bouyancy of the wetsuit that I brought. Normally I wear a 3mm farmer john shorty, this time I brought a 5mm shorty with full length sleeves. Ooops!

On the dive, I saw a few jellys right as I hit the water. We also saw a group of tarpon, and the usual pelagic suspects. The one thing that I really enjoyed about this dive were all the outcrops. The thing that I disliked was the moderate current, but once again, no big deal.

Next, we headed over to Shark Ray Alley where we had a blast. My brother in law, Tim, especially enjoyed this part, as did my father in law, Harold. Harold is a nervous swimmer to begin with, never mind sharks and rays in the wild. Israel playing with the sharks and rays immediately put him at ease I think. Good times all around!

Next thing you know, it was the afternoon and we were getting dropped off at the Mata Rocks dock again. We walked the few blocks back to the villa when Tim told us he was stung twice by jellies as he hit the water at our fist stop at HCMP. Once on the ankle, and once on the inside of the arm. No big deal he said, he barely even felt it..... cool!

The rest of the day was spent playing in the pool and cruising the streets of San Pedro again. Once again, we went grocery shopping. We had lots of fun in the evenings with the golf carts!

TUESDAY, APRIL 1st, 2008

The crunch is on for me to complete 10 dives (9 dives and 1 snorkel) before the end of my trip. I don't know if the weather is going to hold out and keep the waters calm enough for me to dive, so I decide to do a tally of 4 dives today.

Breakfast as usual today, pancakes and fresh fruit! I hitch a quick ride in the cart to the Mata Rocks dock where Israel is once again waiting for me to arrive. I think I only had to wait once for him to show up, and only becuase I was 20 minutes early!! We go to pick up another diver at the Victoria House, a very nice guy from Texas by the name of Erick.

We are quickly briefed by Israel that we are heading to the Paradise Canyons. I'm feeling a bit sick on the boat, something I haven't felt in years, I guess it was from being away from a boat on the open ocean for so long. Thankfully, I hold on to my breakfast. At the site, we are instantly greeted by several playful nurse sharks and a few groupers. My max depth was 94 feet and the dive lasted for a duration of 45 minutes. I'm quickly impressed, as I love spur and groove / canyon style dives. For me, they are only trumped by wall dives.

We head back for our surface interval. Erick and I go into the lounge at the Spindrift for a softdrink and get out of the heat and chat a bit. Before we know it, it's time for our second dive of the day.

Israel briefs us that we are going to Dardanellos Canyons. Again, I'm not feeling well on the boat, but better than earlier in the morning. Max. depth I went to was 92 feet and the duration of the dive was 51 minutes. A great dive, once again!

We drop Erick off and I head back to Protech with Israel, where I meet the rest of my family for lunch at Caliente's. Great food there as well, better than Estelle's I think.

Lois and Harold jump into the boat with Israel and myself for their first ever open water dives in the ocean. Their certification dives were done in a cold freshwater lake here in Manitoba.

We're briefed again and head off to Esmeralda. This time, I didn't feel sick... starting to get my sea legs again! I don't think there was a I dive that I didn't see nurse sharks or rays on. Israel did a great job with my in-laws, and they felt extremely comfortable with him. He took the time to make sure they both got to the bottom safely with their ears equalized. I can't say enough about Protech! My maximum depth was 61 feet and the duration was 38 minutes.

We headed back in, Harold was turning green from the seas, and so both my in-laws opted out of their second dive. I on the other hand, went out with Israel on my 4th dive of the day to Toffee Canyons. It was explained that once upon a long time ago, cruise ships used to anchor here. Upon descending, I immediately take note of a huge block with an anchor point on it. It's tilted at an angle, which Peter later explains was originally sitting level until storm surge moved it. The block was approximately 5 feet, by 5 feet, by 4 feet, and looked to weight an incredible amount. There was a lot of damage on this dive from storm surge, in the end, we cut the dive short as it was getting dark, murky, and I was getting cold and tired from a long day of diving, and I also knew that I needed time to get ready for the "April Crawl". With over 1200+ PSI left in the tank, we ascended and packed it in for the day. My maximum depth was 52ft and the duration was 41 minutes.

Izzy dropped me off at the Mata Rocks dock, and I wearily walked back to the villa. I showered and decided to have a quick nap with my 6wk old daughter before heading out.... little did I know that this would be a fatal decision. When I woke up, it was almost 7PM and we still hadn't even ate yet. We quickly ran out and bought groceries and had dinner. By this point, it was 9PM and I was sacked. (Sorry again everyone! :()

Stay tuned for more.....

Worth the wait Cunuck! Trip reports in installments are just fine, a little "fix" for us each day : )

AAAyyyyyyyy - the Pirate missed the crawl?? OH - I was so looking forward to those pics. Note to self: Don't dive day of or day after crawl Makes me tired just thinking about all that diving!

Canuck Diver, enjoying your trip report and pictures.

You and your wife are amazing, to travel with children, and in laws. Glad everyone had a great trip.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2nd, 2008

Yet another beautiful morning. We go through the usual morning rituals and eventually, I'm picked up by Israel at the Mata Rocks dock, and then head over a few docks down to pick Erick up.

This morning, Israel has something a little different planned an explained that we're heading to the Cypres Tunnels, where we have many options for swim throughs. We're both excited to start this dive ... so off we go. I haven't felt sea sick since the very day, so all is great despite some fairly rough chop outside the reef.

We drop down and are greeted again by many nurse sharks and groupers. I can see already that this by far is going to be the best dive so far during the week (and ended up being my favourite of the trip). The swim throughs and canyons were spectacular. If you haven't done this dive yet, make sure to hit it on your next trip! Maximum depth I hit was 97 feet at a duration of 39 minutes.

After our usual surface interval at the Spindrift, we head out for another great dive. This time, we head to Mayan Princess Canyons. An enjoyable dive with my max depth hitting 87 feet and a duration of 50 minutes.

I walk back from the Mata Rocks dock only to find the cart and my family are gone, and I have no key to get into the villa (forgot to take one this morning). After practicing some Stress & Rescue breathing to calm myself (LMAO!!) I manage to get myself into the back screened in porch... atleast here I am out of the sun and have a comfortable chair to sit in. I wait for almost 2 hours with a ravenous hunger and thirst from diving. I have only a few dollars on me, so buying stuff is out. And then I start to worry... "what if I need to use the bathroom for #2"?

Thankfully, Lorne, one of the villa owners had come by to check the pool and get a villa ready for some new folks moving into one of the other units. I was able to get inside, use the bathroom, eat, drink, and even have a nap. About 4.5 hours after I had gotten back from diving, my family finally got home.

They had assumed I had a key and would be doing more than 2 dives (don't know why they thought that... but oh well!!).

The rest of the afternoon, the family and I hit the streets on our cart again. This time, buying our food from street vendors and smaller stores. We notice an instant savings, and better quality produce than the larger grocery stores. We bought 4lbs of fresh tortilla (so fresh it was still warm), fresh chicken breast from Lino's Butcher Shop, and some amazingly fresh cinnamon bread from the baked goods shop across the street. We would eat extremely well later that night without the expense we were starting to associate with food in SP.

We spent the afternoon hanging out at the pool and watching my son learn to swim. We were also treated to an all out ctenosaur fight (see my photos) when we heard one falling through the leaves and branches of a tree and landing with a thud. The other combantant climbed down the tree and the fight started..... incredible to watch!!

Another great day in paradise. We spent the late hours playing cards and laughing about the weeks events.

On a side note, I also went to a small internet place for a jug of water ($3.50) and used the internet for 1/2 an hour ($1.50). It was just south of Mata Rocks by about 100 feet or so. The owner was a very nice guy. I recommend him and his services!

THURSDAY, APRIL 3rd, 2008

We wake up already thinking that our trip is almost over. Everyone is in a rush to get moving this morning, as the family has decided to check out a timeshare ... only they're late. I quickly whip some breakfast up and drop them off at the Mata Rocks dock. I then park the cart back off at the villas and grab my stuff and walk to the Mata Rocks dock to be picked up by Israel.... only... when I get there, my family is still sitting there. They missed their boat and were all a bit dejected (they were doing it so they could snorkel at Mexico Rocks).

They walk back to the villa and leave me to be picked up by Israel. I'm debating doing 3 dives today, but ultimately decide that 2 is enough for the week, and that tommorow (Friday) will be spent entirely with my immediate family (Tim, Lois, and Harold are booked for the Cavetubing / Zipline tour) on the beach.

Once again, Israel is early. We pick Erick up and head to a site called Tackle Box Canyons. Once again, Erick and I agree this is one of the best dives of the trip. A maximum depth of 91 feet was recorded and a duration of 49 minutes.

After another interval at the Spindrift, we head out for what will be my last dive of the vacation. Israel briefs us that we are going to dive Cypres Gardens, not to be confused with Cypres Tunnels. What can I say, a fantastic dive, and again, in the top 4 dives of the entire trip. A maximum depth of 84 feet was recorded and a bottom time of 54 minutes achieved. I'm sad my diving is over for the trip, but I am looking forward to spending the entire day tommorow with just my wife and kids on the beach.

I get dropped off and walk back to the villa. The cart is still there, but no one is home. I find a note saying they "went to Captain Morgan's Retreat for a timeshare presentation and snorkelling". Also on the note was "you can get there by cart if you feel like driving there to pick us up".

Well, I grab a bite to eat, down a Belikin, change my clothes, get my topside camera gear together, and head out on the cart. I decide to put 2 gallons of gas into the cart, who knows how far I'm going to have to go ... in the end, it turned out to be a wise decision.

I paid the $5 USD toll bridge fee (round trip) and headed north. The road got worse, less civilization, dirty wet ditches filled with garbage and other unidentifiable objects lined the side of the roads. The standing water was red like dirty old ATF oil and bubbled with larvae and insects. And the drive took FOREVER!!! The entire time, I couldn't help but think to myself "Who the @#@$!! would buy a !#%^@#$!$ timeshare way the !@#%#@ out here?!! You'd have to be a @#%^@#$% idiot!!!".

I finally reach my destination with a sore rear end and high blood pressure. Captain Morgans Retreat is a really nice resort, but their sales people are rediculously high pressure (but very nice despite this), the food expensive, the store expensive, and the resort is out in the middle of NOWHERE! I'd hate to drive into town every day from this place.

Anyways, enough ranting on that... we spent the day there. Tim and Lois took a kayak out and snorkelled. Harold held my daughter, Elizabeth while she slept, and Michelle and Thomas played in the pool all afternoon. Thomas practically learned to swim in the pool here. What did I do? I took pictures of my wife and kids all afternoon and enjoyed the beverages.

We closed the place down and headed home. Along the way, we stopped and ordered pizza from Pedro's. The Pineapple, Shrimp & Garlic was disgusting. Hardly any shrimp on it, the pineapple was non-existant, and they loaded it with wayyyyyyyy too to much garlic. The meat lovers pizza on the other hand, was absolutely fantastic!!!

Everyone had an early night, as some of us had to be up before 6AM to catch their tour to the mainland.

Stay tuned for the final installment.....

Great trip report, you have to love the roads up north though, makes you appreciate the cobblestoned ones in town.

Keep her going! I'm glad I didn't try the northern road pased Palapa Bar! Almost everybody on the Board said NO don't go there!

I'll finish the report tommorow... as a side note...

My mother-in-law, Lois, had a botfly laravae on one of her ankles and got rid of it. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see what it looked like prior to her removing it, and her only answer was to "go online and look it up".

In the past few days, I've had a development of 6 or 7 bumps high on my left rib cage that appear to look like pimples, or mosquito bites. I first noticed them on Wednesday night, it's now Sunday evening, and they haven't gotten any better.

I hadn't noticed them prior, and I don't have them anywhere else on my body. I'll be curious to see what they end up to be.

I'm skeptical that it is botfly larvae, however, tommorow I am slapping the superglue on them in as a precautionary measure.

If anyone knows what a botfly infection looks like in its early stages, a description would be great, as there are no pictures of it on the net.

Anyways.... the final installment is coming... cheers!

Looks like an open wound, never scabs over.