Day 15 - Saying Good-bye to Ambergris Caye and the wonderful friends we made at Portofino's

 

Puddle Jumper from San Pedro - Cay Caulker
 - Belize City - Total Trip time: 16 Minutes

It was a sad day when the sun rose at 5am - last day in Ambergris Caye. Flight from San Pedro was at 9am. We had booked a flight with Tropic Air on a small 10 seater. It made for a remarkable flight back to Belize City. You could really get an up close view of all the smaller islands. It was a six minute flight from San Pedro to Caye Caulker where we picked up an additional passenger. From there we went skyward again for another 10 minutes to Belize City. It was a quick and enjoyable flight to the main airport.

From there we made our way to Miami and finally back to Charlotte. 

Caye Caulker Airport Terminal 

Exiting the Tropic Air plane in San Pedro

Day 14 - Last full day before departing

Thomas returning with Clinton from a
sardine run

Thomas holding a Remora fish - typically found catching a
ride on a shark

This was the last full day in Belize and we all wanted to make sure we got the most out of it. I got up at 5:20am and got ready to take the boat at 6am to San Pedro to hit the ATM one last time. Mo, Portofino’s boat captain, was heading into town to hire some temp workers and to pick-up some staff members. He was planning on departing San Pedro at 7am to return to Portofino’s. This was perfect as I had desire to waste any time in town.

Once back at the villa, I awoke Thomas and we headed down the restaurant for some breakfast. Anna was on her iPad having some coffee and Olivia was catching the last few grains of sand from the Sandman. While Thomas was eating, I made arrangements with Clinton of Action Divers to go out fishing at 11:30am.

Check out the fish - now you see the shirt?

Thomas diving for Conchs

Young master Schiffers quickly devour his breakfast and made his way down to the docks. He was to take fully advantage of every last fishing opportunity. He hung around with the Action Diver crew and was gone out on the water at around 10am. Sardines and Conchs were to be cast netted and gathered for our outing.

Anna came down to the Green Parrot, along with Olivia and we ended up having some breakfast and liquid pork chops while we waited for time to pass. Gena and Jason, a young couple from NY, joined us at the bar and we chitty chatted most of the morning away.

"A Boat Captain in the Making" along with Clinton from
Action Divers, Belize

Thomas and Clinton arrived at the docks at around 11:20am, so I walked down to them. I jumped into the boat and we were off for the afternoon. Clinton took us to several different fishing sites and our hooks were cleaned quite often. However we did manage to catch quite a bit of unique fish. The most interesting would be the Remora fish that young Thomas caught. It is a sucker/cleaner fish and is typically found catching a free ride in Belize on nurse sharks. It has a round, almost oval, sucker patch on the top of its head positioned right behind the eyes. The intriguing part here is that it usually attached to a host, so to catch it in open water was special.

Triggerfish

We fished with several different baits, each one hoping to land a specific species. I managed to wrangle in a Triggerfish with some conch. Our goal was to catch quite of few of these today, but for some reason they didn’t want to participate in our plans. We also managed to catch a Mangrove Snapper, Lane Snapper, School Master Snapper, several larger Grunt and a whole host of other fish which we didn’t keep. We did try for some Bonefish today, but the seaweed hampered those attempts. Before we knew it 4:30pm and we needed to head back.

The day ended quickly. I came back to find Anna snoozing. She had an adventure of her own at the Rojo Bar earlier in the afternoon with Gena and Jason. Olivia was lounging and listening to music in the bedroom. Anna and I had dinner later in the evening, did some packing and threw a hook in one last time.

Day 13 – Chukka – It’s Time to Play

We crested a hill in the jungle only to find an adventure station called Chukka at its bottom. This was the cave tubing mecca of Belize and this was the outfit that did it the best (so they said). Upon arrival we exited the bus and were ushered to a small building where we filled out the standard. Once we signed our first new born away, we went to get suited for caving apparel – hard hat, headlamp and life-vest.

Lastly, each of us grabbed a floating tube and made our way towards the river. It was a beautiful 20 minute walk through the jungle. Zee, one of the tour guides, pointed out various trees and plants along the way. On one occasion he picked what looked to be a nut off the ground and smashed it with a rock. He picked out a fibrous material and handed to both Anna and I. It was basically a miniature coconut, which tasted a little grainer than the normal coconut. Before long we were at the river. Some our party had not made it down with us and was a little behind, so while we waited we just played in the water.

Zee tied the tubes together for the journey down. It had rained a couple hours earlier and the water was flowing faster than normal. We were told the caves would be flooding soon, so they wanted to make sure we all stayed together and wouldn’t get carried away by the rapids. Wasn’t what the Schiffers wanted, but better safe than sorry. We heard that the Mayans sacrificed children for safe passage. We had two...no sacrifice today...but we still hoped for safe passage today.

Off we went into the darkness of the caverns. It was a thrilling ride as we rode the river through the caverns. At times we turned all the headlamps off to get the true effect of the real darkness. The sheer void of light left us totally blind we no recognition of anything even directly an inch or two away from our eyes. Amazing that Mayans would travel these caverns with the limited resources and technology that we have today. Stalagmite formations were all throughout the cavern along with the local bats which anchored themselves to the ceiling.

Soon we arrived at the cavern’s opening only to find out the tubing had ended. Thinking we would have to hike a ways, we found ourselves just 50 yards or so away from the main lodge. Everyone dried off a bit, changed and we went off to a covered area where we were feed a delicious lunch of rice, beans and chicken. Anna and I had a couple of Belikin and 30 minutes or so later we were back on the bus to heading back to Belize City. The ride took about a 1.25 hours to back before we got on the water taxi to San Pedro.

All of us were happy to get back to Portofinos. It was a long day with a lot of travel time. The rest of the evening was sprinkled with fishing, dinner and lounging. Needless to say, we all turned in early.

Day 13 - Belize Zoo

Rise and shined the kids at 6am. We were picked up by Searious Adventures at our dock at 6:45am to make the trip to Belize City where we would catch a tour bus (school name – named Faith) for the Belize Zoo. We did a couple of water taxi stops on the way to San Pedro and then had a 1.5 hour water shuttle ride to Belize City. Beautiful ride and had a great conversation with one of the tour guides. Learned a lot and he (Gus) was very informative about the island and their culture.

It didn’t take long and we were just off the coast near Belize City where it looked like we were driving the boat right into the jungle packed beach. Instead it was a very narrow split which once we broke through the vegetation, it opened up to a canopied river. It was absolutely gorgeous! While on the river the crew broke out some Johnny Cakes (biscuits with cheese & ham or chicken), along with a melody of fruits. We headed upstream for another 15 minutes and then docked to catch the bus.

James was our tour guide today. The bus ride took about 50 minutes. We were on good roads the whole way. Once we were out of the city, we wove through the savanna for the most part of the ride and them the mountainous or forest region for the last 10-15 minutes. The roads here are none descriptive and there is virtual no road signage or billboards. So when we came up to the zoo entrance it was sudden with no indication that there was a zoo here.

We only had an hour and half time to spend at the zoo so we charged through. It was small zoo only about 28 acres. They had from what I remember around 40-50 exhibits. The Belize Zoo was a great place for the kids to get an up close look at all the animals. It was a very charming place as it was all covered by forest canopy. Arches of trees, vines, palms and flowers were constantly above through all the paths and walkways. We enjoyed watching all the pumas, jaguars, ocelot and the other cats. There were plenty of bird exhibits and Thomas even manage to get a lick or two from the Tapirs. 

Next stop - Chukka where we would have the thrill of cave tubing.

Day 12 - Chillin'at P'Fino's

In front of the resort, Seaweed - Came in
droves over the night.

Young Master Schiffers enjoying the view!

Got up at 6am this morning and went down to the Parrot Green Bar for coffee and a bagel. Kids slept until 9am when I went in their room to wake up Thomas. I ended up having him ride a bike with me to a resort up the beach about a mile up that has a trampoline out in the water.

As we got outside we notice the seaweed came in a mass amount throughout the night. Luckily we did not need to clean that up. For the rest of the day we simply relaxed and got in some massages, fishing and general lounging, as the next day would be a long day.

One of the local here on Ambergris - Not very talkative though

Other notable images taken throughout the week

You don't see this type of signage at your local bar. Not sure what they're meaning...

Can-O-Thomas

Glad read this one. We have not done a coconut since seeing this sign!

Thomas learning the ropes from Blinky how to tie of a boat properly.

Termite mound - This one was about 2.5 feet tall  x 2 feet wide

Yes...Yes... But this is the inside of a conch shell

Traveling along the Northern part of Ambergris Caye

You truly don’t realize what all is involved with getting from point A to point B here on the island until you need to really get something done. Here on Ambergris Caye most everything is located in San Pedro which is located on the southern tip. Anything about two miles north of that starts to require water taxis.


Due to some of the road conditions, most of the locals here travel mainly via the water. It didn’t dawn on me until earlier this morning how the water taxi system truly worked. The water taxi/ferry service is run by Coastal Express. There are docks at every resort and mostly ever home.

At the end of all the resort docks and several public docks there is a red and green light. Red indicates you need to go north and Green means south, back towards San Pedro. The boats also have a light on the front of the boat indicating which way they are going. If both lights match they come out of the channel and to your dock….you’re getting a ride! These taxi only run on the halves of every hour. If you happen to miss one, you have to wait an hour.

Cost each way for tourists is $11 US / locals $5.50.

Day 11 - Lobsterfest Caye Caulker

Jacks (1.5-2.5 feet long) at Shark Ray Alley, next to the boat

Fuzzy headed and slow to awake, we awoke a little slower than usual. We had a wonderful time last night and chatted up the other travelers quite a bit. Before the dive shop closed, Anna schedule a trip for in the next to take us at 10:30am to Caye Caulker. Caye (Key) Caulker is currently having Lobsterfest until this upcoming Sunday (6/28) and we wanted to sample the local cuisine and see the sights.

Nurse Sharks at Shark Ray Alley near Ambergris Caye, Belize

We got ready and headed down to the dock at around 10:15am. There were no boats docked nor did we see any close to returning. It wasn’t until around 11am that one the Action Diver boats got back to Portofinos. It seems we may have had a mis-rum-derstanding last night when we made arrangements. No problem though, they were gracious enough to accommodate and we were on our way around 11:30am.

Just taking in the sheer aquatic beauty

We stopped and fished a little along the way and then stopped at a nature sanctuary they call Shark Ray Alley. It is a channel opening in the reef about 100 yards wide where the locals have taught the sharks and rays to congregate by chumming the waters repeatedly for the scuba and snorkel adventurers. They have done a phenomenal job because they were out in droves.

Didn't eat or stay there, just decided to do a group pic

Caye Caulker Police Station

Once we got near the area we were quickly greeted by a school of Jacks. Pretty big guys too. Too bad we couldn’t simply drop a hook there. Since it is a nature sanctuary they do not allow fishing there. Clinton, the boat captain, threw in some sardines and the frenzy started. Within less than 10 seconds not only did the energentic jacks fight for the snack, but we quickly had a school of 15+ nurse sharks by the boat looking to participate in the feeding. Wow…that was quick. These guys came from nowhere. Young Thomas was jumping with excitement. He literally threw on a dive mask and jumped right in. Talk about chumming the waters...We let him swim for about 10 minutes and we were off to lunch at Caye Caulker.

Catching some sunrays

Restaurant and bar at the end of the island

It didn’t take too much longer before we hit land (around 2:30pm) and Clinton dropped us off at a dock where we walked over to a restaurant named Bamboo. Totally Caribbean style, this restaurant was really unique as all of its chairs were swinging planks on ropes hanging from the ceiling. We ordered just a few appetizers to hold us over until with hit the local street fair. Olivia had a beautiful vegetable tortilla with a strawberry smoothie. She was a little hungrier than the rest of us. Thomas, Anna and I had Buffalo wings and popcorn lobster. I almost forgot what chicken tasted like, having eaten seafood for almost every meal.

Lobsters, lobsters & more lobsters

After lunch we all strolled the streets (all three of them) and check out the local food, knick-knacks and entertainment. We finished the walk at “The Split” where we had gone earlier in the week. Grabbed a beer, let Thomas go for a swim and had Clinton pick us up with the boat about an hour later. It was 5pm when we left Caye Caulker.

Clinton waiting for us by The Split

We had an enjoyable boat ride back which took around 40 minutes. The rest of the evening went by quickly even though we didn’t do much of anything. Thomas did catch a yellow stingray later in the evening and after admiring it he let swim back towards the reef. Anna and I caught a couple of Belikin beers. We admired them too, but weren’t as friendly. We did not let them get back to their case once caught. These guys were to be consumed….

Day 10 - Mexico Rocks!!!

Olivia getting close with a nurse shark. Whoa!!

Check out the fish on the back.

The day started with tapping clatter on the roof. Rain..rain..rain. Looked like our cave tubing adventure day today was to be cancelled.  I went down to the lobby at 6am and inquired to see if the caving tour was still on. The answer was” No.” It had been raining heavily on the mainland and with those types of rain it floods the caves. Not a great tourist experience, so we rescheduled for Monday.

Nurse Shark about 5 ft in length.

Beautiful Coral at Mexico Rocks

Everyone was up due to the trip preparations, so we ended up doing breakfast instead. At 7am it down poured and down poured!!! Thomas ended up fishing down at the dock during the rain and managed to snag it a Barracuda (had it for lunch). It was still raining until 9:30am at which time I ended up going to Action Divers and convinced them to take us to Mexico Rocks for a snorkel. We were either going to be wet on land or in the water, so why not in the water looking at some local wildlife.

 

Olivia, Anna and I ended up going. Thomas decided to stay with the local dive and fishing staff and troll for sardines, hang at the shack and chat with the locals. Clinton took us out to the local dive site, Mexico Rocks. The three of us hopped in the water once we got to the dive site and Clinton started chumming the waters. Game on!!!!

Southern Stingray at Mexico Rocks, Ambergris Caye

Within a matter of moments there were several nurse sharks devouring the sardines. Seeing creatures your size or larger swim around you is a bit nerving. Although nurse sharks are relatively harmless and want nothing to do with use land dwellers, it is still an unpredictable animal. Both Olivia and I had a couple of encounters that grabbed our attention when we went either head to head or turned to see one of these beautiful creatures head towards us. The nurse shark is such a sleek and magnificent creature. To see it in such numbers in nature on a private snorkel excursion is beyond excitement. At the end I counted over 8 different nurse sharks.

We also were greeted by two southern stingrays and of course our little buddy – Tequila. The stingrays came and went throughout the dive, but Tequila hung around mainly by the boat hoping for some handouts. Anna pointed out a huge Moray Eel about halfway through our dive. He had a muted green coloration and seemed to be quite healthy. And by healthy I mean “fat”. This bad boy was definitely not taking any Slim Fast.

We ended up snorkeling for a little over an hour before heading back to the resort. I would have to say this dive has to be one of my favorite dives I have ever done. Just in seeing all the different biodiversity we saw in the short hour was superb.

Immediately on our return, we all grabbed a bite to eat except for Thomas who had already managed to have some barracuda for lunch. He had caught it prior in the morning and had the kitchen staff prepare it for. What a life, huh? That poor barracuda was apparently not part of the catch & release program.

Weather was still good so I planned a fishing trip out to the inside the reef with D. I arranged for the ladies to get a massage since they had no intention of fishing. I figured that seemed like to be a fair trade. One of the guys we had met earlier in the week, Justin was going to join us. He had never been out fishing and I told him on our next little boat ride he should join us. We packed out poles and tackle and off we raced to the first site.

Soon to be cooked!

Freshly made with conch!

Wouldn’t you know it, first two casts and our new young friend Justin snagged a Snapper and a Grunt. It was a great way to start the casting. We ended up reeling in quite a bit of fish. Most we threw back due to their size. Several though were some really nice catches. Anthony, the boat assistant, went diving for both conch and lobsters while we fished. He brought up three massive conchs and managed to catch three Spiny Lobsters.

Justin pulling out all the monster fishes. Putting the Schiffers to shame.

Back to the dock and it was cleaning time. Fortunately, it was all to be done by the boat captain, D. He did have a little help from Thomas who is becoming quite a fish-prepper. 

His shirt says it all!! From left to right - Thomas, Anthony & D. Getting ready to empty the live well.