Secret Beach Belize, Belize
Ambergis Caye I
We
check out Belize city for a few minutes
it’s
10 after 12, and the person before us, buys the ticket and still gets
on the ferry which should have left 10 Min ago. We were not so lucky,
but we were able to drop off our suitcases – now we only have the
heavy backpacks!! Our ferry will leave in 1.5 hrs. Inside the
terminal are giftshops and restaurants – no we don’t want to buy
anything and no we are not hungry. So we decided to go for a “short”
walk because it is super hot and humid – I think we a drenched in
sweat.
To
the right first came the cruise ship terminal and no we can’t go
in, unless you are from the cruise ship.
So
we ventured a bit more, after one of the local tour guides told us,
it’s only 2 minutes to the famous Belize sign: so we walked there
and got our picture and right near it is that famous lighthouse.
Belize
City – the largest town in the country:
- it was the Capital until 1961, when it got destroyed by Hurricane Hattie
- with 57.000 people it is the largest town in Belize
- they also say Belize City was built from rum bottles: it arose from pirates, bucaneers and privateers like Sir Francis Drake and Captain Henry Morgan – the pirates here wanted land, wealth and rule: The British Bucaneers settling here called themselves Bayman – after the Bay of honduras: they defended their shores and Island Paradise against the Spanish and lived in their tropical utopia – but they also brought slavery and war to Belize. In 1798 the final battle at the St. George Cayes the Spanish tried one more time to gain control over Belize: it only lasted for 2 hours then the Spanish left for good: Today Sept 10 this day determine Belize’s future is National Day. And then they started with British honduras and the Logging: this is what makes this country so unique: British
- The Fort George Lighthouse: Henry Edward Ernest Victor Bliss from Portugal, sailed into the Belize Harbour in 1926. He was sick from food poisoning and not able to go on shore, he spend several month on his yacht and he loved the country he could see, but never set a food ashore – he got called the Sea King. The local fisherman all respected him. He was so impressed that in his will he established a trust of 2 Mill$ for the benefits of the people of Belize. His white tomb is here and they built the lighthouse as a memorial to him
A
wet Ferry ride
and
we made sure we were first in lane for the ferry, so we get a good
seat. On the upper deck at the corner – ok so what we discovered
later is: it’s so extremly windy, we both took our glasses off and
put them inside the camera bag, so we won’t loose them – and yes
we are on the upper deck, but we still got once in a while soaked in
salt water. It was a beautiful leaving of the Belize harbour – and
we could see Cayes and the turquois green water glimmering.... we
went quite far out, it was a 1.5 hour ride: 56 km on the water. A
quick stop on Caye Caulkner and then we arrive at our destination.
our
beautiful view hotel
only
200 m from the ferry station, there are two ways to go there: on the
beach or by road – we decided for the road because of the
suitcases. Ok so the cobble stone is maybe not the best for the
suitcases either. And there we are: we have an upstairs room – palm
trees in front of us and view on the ocean. We also discover that
there is another ferry and this station is right in front of us!!!
we
love the balcony: the first thing we do is make a coffee and relax a
bit, before we venture to check out the town a bit.
if
walking – make sure you don’t get hit by a golf cart
ok
so there are not a lot of cars, but a lot of golf carts and some of
them drive like crazy and don’t care if they cut of your toes... so
you better be careful. There are a lot of cute little roads and a lot
is going on here, there will be no shortage of restaurants here. And
finally we end up on the central plaza, close to the ferry station
and see there they have a lot of food vendors there... looks super
yummy, and we found a bakery: guess someone gets spoiled tonight!!!
Supper
in the Central Plaza
we
decided to eat in the plaza and got us some home made food re-heated
and cooked freshly on the grill. It was super yummy and super
cheap!!!!! Maybe we have to come back here tomorrow - and we did come back every night to a different vendor.
on
our windy Balcony
and
then we end our day on our balcony – and listen to the wind
blowing. It is quite windy – hopefully it gets a bit calmer
tomorrow.
Why
does everyone come to Ambergis Caye?
- We are now on the Northern Cayes – 70% of all tourists to Belize come here
- they also call it La Isla Bonita
- we are visiting first San Pedro: that is where the action is, by the way this is also Belize’s largest island: 25 miles long and up to 1 mile wide and San Pedro the largest town on the island has 16.500 people living there and if you want to leave town you need a golf cart!!
- The word Caye comes from the Spanish wordkey for islet: some of the smaller ones are submerged during high tide: overall belize has over 200 Cayes and they are all on the 180 miles long Reef
- if you look at it on the map you can see it: once it was the southern part of the Yucatan Peninsula and an important Mayan Trade center: 1500 years ago in order to open up better trade routes the Mayan’s dug the channel at Baclar Chico that is now separating Ambergis Caye from Mexico
- once it was a hideout for the pirates: they did discover here treasure like gold coins, old bottles – the proof that the pirates were here
- It was not very populated until after the Caste War, when the Mestizos and Mayans were forced onto the island
- San Pedro is named after Saint Peter the patron of fisherman and was founded in 1848
- in 1869 james Hunt purchased land for 625 US$ with the gold from his wife (she was a rich refugee), by the 1950s the coconut plantations got destroyed by a series of Hurricanes
- in the 1960s the government forced a purchase of Ambergis Caye and redistributed the land to the islanders
- they the lobster and fishing industry took over and they overfished, they now had to look for another income and acted as tour guides and diving guides
- Today tourism is the booming industry
No
better way to wake up
you
wake up, the sun shines on our balcony, you hear the wind and the
palm trees and you see the sparkling waters of the ocean. What a
beautiful sight. And we sit here with our coffee... what more do we
want. Did I mention that here is a lot of pink (I mean we are in the
Conch Shell Inn – and as we know the Conch shells are beautiful
pink inside). Coffee and breakfast... and it’s wonderful
Driving
a golf cart
today
we plant to rent a golf cart – this island or town is Golf cart
country – you see them everywhere. What is really funky is: you
turn the key, but the golf cart doesn’t start up – that is when
we learned the secret to drive them. Once the key is turned it won’t
start, but as soon as you press the “go – Pedal” it starts up
and starts driving, if you let go of the pedal is automatically turns
off. But you do have a “break” which is called “Stop-Pedal”.
And you have kind of a gear: so under the seat in the middle is a
lever which goes in neutral/Forward or Return. It’s kind of fun to
drive them, it feels like one of the bumper cars. Even if you put the
petal to the metal they won’t go super fast. And when you go over a
bump or pothole they jump a bit, so it’s good to hold on!! First
challenge was to drive through town and know who comes where and then
also not to hold up all the traffic – once out of town we had to
cross the toll bridge!! really – on the way there no big deal, on
the way back, there was like a line up. And then we turned and on
both sites were the mangroves.... it’s kind of cute. The whole
drive was not that far away only 12 km, but it still took us close to
45 min!!! That is how fast they go.
The
Secret Beach
our
goal was the Secret Beach: guess it is not that Secret anymore,
because there are signs everywhere and there are so many bars along
the beach – it is clearly not a Secret. So where to go? We were
choosing a spot with palm trees and then you walk out and there is
that beautiful turquois clear water we imagined they have in the
Caribbean. So the great part is you can have free lounge chairs (and
free parking) but the other part is, that you can’t bring your own
drinks and food. Because it is so beautiful we decided to have a
Beach BBQ: at around noon the guys were barbequeing chicken, we got
one meal for two and it was the perfect little beach snack... keeping
us going in and out of the water and relaxing in the sun.
Once
we thought we had enough sun, we slowly ventured back: and Gine had
to drive a bit in the golf cart too – it’s kind of funny to drive
it. And we were way above our renting time limit, by they said: no
big deal and we hope you had fun!
2025-05-22