Kat
Contributor
My boyfriend & I went for 16 days to Mexico & Belize. We stayed at 5 different hotels & used every mode of transportation we could find. I have tried to break the trip report into small sections, to make it easier to read through.
Part 4: Ambergris Caye
Parts 1, 2 & 3 are posted in the Mexico forum.
Friday August 11th
XTC dive op, from Xcalak, MX brings us to San Pedro, by boat. We dock at Amigo del Mar, walk over to the immigration office & were in. Return to the boat & get our dive bags, hail a golfcart/taxi and we are checking into our hotel.
I had done extensive research & decided on The Tides Beach Resort. It had a dive shop, a pool, breakfast included, was south of the cut and was reasonably priced. We actually arrived a day earlier then we had said we would, but it was no problem. Got our room pronto & then went to the onsite dive op, Patojo's Scuba Center and set up our dives. We go down the beach for lunch & see a Chicago Rush flag flying at Ecologic Divers. We go to check it out & we recognize the owner Steve ( ecosvl here on SB) from the Rush games. Ecologic has a class operation & we are regretting not booking w/ them. We have not dove with Patojo's yet and I feel uncomfortable pulling up stakes before we dip a toe in. Next time it will be Ecologic.
Saturday August 12th
Dive 1 San Pedro Canyon As soon as we get to the bottom we are met by a very friendly remora. 2 nurse sharks swam right along with us almost the whole time. It turns out the DM feeds them, so they are very friendly. The DM holds one & motions for us to come & pet it. It's skin was really cool. The dive site has beautiful canyons with deep walls and lots of coral. We also see a green moray eel & 2 barracudas. Vis is approx. 70 ft. and we do 70 ft. for 50 min.
Dive 2 Tuffy's /San Pedro Cut Lots of friendly nurse sharks looking for a handout. At one point there were 5 or 6 and they follow us the entire dive. We saw a turtle resting on the reef & we got very close to him. Saw another barracuda. Enjoyed the reef very much. Vis was approx. 60 ft. and were down for 40 min.
I was looking forward to a swim in the pool, but it was not to be. As the owners children, their cousins, the neighbor kids & assorted friends are already in the pool. There was so much screaming & splashing that it was impossible to have a conversation at the bar, or anywhere on the pool deck at all. Unfortunatly, there was no napping in the room either, due to the non-stop and I mean non-stop screaming. I had to go and sleep in a hammock at the dive shop one day, because of all the screaming. I felt, as a paying guest at this hotel, I should be able to use the pool but the kids took it over every single day. I was able to swim in the pool twice. My other complaint was the maid service. We would return from a 2 tank dive & the maid had still not arrived. We are talking about a 10 room hotel. We came back from a 3 tank dive at the Blue Hole, after 5 PM & the maid was just finishing up.
Sunday August 13th
Dive 1 Victoria's Tunnel We really enjoyed this dive. It had a long swim thru. Plenty of fish life with many of the species following us, waiting for a handout. However, vis was poor, only about 30 ft. It was surprisingly dark & murky and reminded me of diving in the Pacific. Our max. depth on this dive was 100 ft. and we were down for 50 min.
Dive 2 The Tides We were actually disappointed with this dive. There was nothing special, just a staue of Jesus. Vis was still dark & murky and our bottom time was only 40 min.
Monday August 14th We booked a land based trip with SEArious. We went to the mainland to do the zip line & cave tubing. It was a bit of a long boat ride & then drive. And then we hiked to the zip line. But the zip line was awesome, I wish it had been longer or we could have done it twice. We had a nice lunch & then we hiked to the river for the cave tubing. Again a long hike for a short tubing ride. But fun, fun, fun! It was probably a huge waste of money, but we had a blast. We were really lucky too. We had three other couples from all over the US who were a blast. You wouldn't think that Alabama, Bevery Hills, Brooklyn & Chicago would be a good mix, but we had a ton of fun together.
Continued in Part 5
Part 4: Ambergris Caye
Parts 1, 2 & 3 are posted in the Mexico forum.
Friday August 11th
XTC dive op, from Xcalak, MX brings us to San Pedro, by boat. We dock at Amigo del Mar, walk over to the immigration office & were in. Return to the boat & get our dive bags, hail a golfcart/taxi and we are checking into our hotel.
I had done extensive research & decided on The Tides Beach Resort. It had a dive shop, a pool, breakfast included, was south of the cut and was reasonably priced. We actually arrived a day earlier then we had said we would, but it was no problem. Got our room pronto & then went to the onsite dive op, Patojo's Scuba Center and set up our dives. We go down the beach for lunch & see a Chicago Rush flag flying at Ecologic Divers. We go to check it out & we recognize the owner Steve ( ecosvl here on SB) from the Rush games. Ecologic has a class operation & we are regretting not booking w/ them. We have not dove with Patojo's yet and I feel uncomfortable pulling up stakes before we dip a toe in. Next time it will be Ecologic.
Saturday August 12th
Dive 1 San Pedro Canyon As soon as we get to the bottom we are met by a very friendly remora. 2 nurse sharks swam right along with us almost the whole time. It turns out the DM feeds them, so they are very friendly. The DM holds one & motions for us to come & pet it. It's skin was really cool. The dive site has beautiful canyons with deep walls and lots of coral. We also see a green moray eel & 2 barracudas. Vis is approx. 70 ft. and we do 70 ft. for 50 min.
Dive 2 Tuffy's /San Pedro Cut Lots of friendly nurse sharks looking for a handout. At one point there were 5 or 6 and they follow us the entire dive. We saw a turtle resting on the reef & we got very close to him. Saw another barracuda. Enjoyed the reef very much. Vis was approx. 60 ft. and were down for 40 min.
I was looking forward to a swim in the pool, but it was not to be. As the owners children, their cousins, the neighbor kids & assorted friends are already in the pool. There was so much screaming & splashing that it was impossible to have a conversation at the bar, or anywhere on the pool deck at all. Unfortunatly, there was no napping in the room either, due to the non-stop and I mean non-stop screaming. I had to go and sleep in a hammock at the dive shop one day, because of all the screaming. I felt, as a paying guest at this hotel, I should be able to use the pool but the kids took it over every single day. I was able to swim in the pool twice. My other complaint was the maid service. We would return from a 2 tank dive & the maid had still not arrived. We are talking about a 10 room hotel. We came back from a 3 tank dive at the Blue Hole, after 5 PM & the maid was just finishing up.
Sunday August 13th
Dive 1 Victoria's Tunnel We really enjoyed this dive. It had a long swim thru. Plenty of fish life with many of the species following us, waiting for a handout. However, vis was poor, only about 30 ft. It was surprisingly dark & murky and reminded me of diving in the Pacific. Our max. depth on this dive was 100 ft. and we were down for 50 min.
Dive 2 The Tides We were actually disappointed with this dive. There was nothing special, just a staue of Jesus. Vis was still dark & murky and our bottom time was only 40 min.
Monday August 14th We booked a land based trip with SEArious. We went to the mainland to do the zip line & cave tubing. It was a bit of a long boat ride & then drive. And then we hiked to the zip line. But the zip line was awesome, I wish it had been longer or we could have done it twice. We had a nice lunch & then we hiked to the river for the cave tubing. Again a long hike for a short tubing ride. But fun, fun, fun! It was probably a huge waste of money, but we had a blast. We were really lucky too. We had three other couples from all over the US who were a blast. You wouldn't think that Alabama, Bevery Hills, Brooklyn & Chicago would be a good mix, but we had a ton of fun together.
Continued in Part 5
