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The Journey Begins October 17, 1997. After gorging myself on Thai food and many beers on Hate Street in San Francisco, I gather myself and head off to SFO (I'm not driving of course). My flight leaves at 11:59pm and I want to be as sauced as possible so I can sleep on this 7 1/2 hour flight. I check my bags, pay my $40.00 departure tax, and head for Gate G. I'm flying TACA Air, "the official airline of Costa Rica" -- all I know is that you don't have to pay for your drinks, and you can have as many as you want. I say good bye to my friends, board my flight, and fall asleep within 5 minutes. So much for my grand scheme of consuming 7 more gin and tonics -- (note to self: drink 7 gin & tonics on the flight back). I wake up 5 1/2 hours later as the plane touches down in Guatemala City and make the first of many groggy transfers. The Belize bound passengers are separated from the herd and shuttled to our next plane. I swear it's an aluminum-sided 1971 Winnebago with wings, but I'm in Guatemala and there's no heading back now. The flight is relatively smooth and we touch down in Belize City forty minutes later, aluminum siding intact. After being shuffled painlessly through customs, I make my way to Maya Air and I am immediately directed to a small 12 seat Cessna that will shuttle me to my final destination, San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize. Ambergris Caye Ambergris Caye is a small island that sits just off the tip of the Yucatan on the Carribean side of Belize. The caye (from the Spanish word "cayo", meaning small island) is about 20 miles in length and less than a mile wide in most places. A good part of Ambergris is marsh land and most of the population of 4000 locals is situated in the small town of San Pedro on the South end of the island. Town is small but has everything you need -- good food, good beer, a few choice night clubs and some of the friendliest people I have ever encountered. Ambergris' main source of cash flow comes from tourism -- particularly the dive industry. (see top of next column) |
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The roads in San Pedro are unpaved. Fortunatly everything is in walking distance. If you're lazy, you can rent a golf cart or a bike for a modest fee. Let the Diving Begin The barrier reef is about a ten minute boat ride straight offshore from San Pedro on the Carribean side. It is the secound longest barrier reef in the world, with The Great Barrier Reef in Australia being the biggest. Most of the diving is canyon diving, or diving between the "fingers" as the locals call the walls that seperate each valley. If you boat it out to some of the outer atolls there are some incredible drift and wall dives. One of the main diving attractions is the Blue Hole, a limestone "sinkhole" that measures 412 feet deep and 300 feet wide. The water temperature is 84 degrees year round. I spent the week diving in my board shorts and a long sleeve rash guard. The air temp is 85 plus -- it's humid but not overbearing. As for the sea life, what didn't I see? In my week of diving I saw crabs, lobster (big ones), grouper, manta rays, eagle rays, electric rays, tons of yellow tail snapper, parrot fish, octopus, morey eels, spotted eels, sea cucumbers, sea spiders, sea turtles, an abundant number of nurse sharks, and to top it off, I swam with dolphins. Twice. What to Know!
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