My weekend trip to San Pedro on Ambergris Caye, Belize

Here is a run-down on my quickie trip to Belize.

Saturday:  I got up at the ungodly hour of 3:30 am to catch my 6:00 am flight on Delta to Atlanta and then on to Belize.  As usual, Delta found a way to screw things up.

If you print your boarding pass at home the night before departure and there is an equipment change, you have to re-confirm your seats at check-in or the gate.  OK, that makes sense, but if they encourage you to use self service options like printing your boarding pass prior to arriving at the airport,  wouldn't you think they would give you a warning regarding this?  Or suggest that you print your boarding pass in the morning so that it is closer to your departure and any equipment change would be taken into consideration? Or at the very least couldn't they make the announcement at the gate more than 30 minutes before departure time so that half the plane isn't in line waiting to re-confirm seats at the time they start boarding?  Those actions would all make sense so I do not expect Delta to even consider them.  The actual flight to Atlanta was fine and surprisingly, it was on time.  Of course the plane that was taking us to Belize was late getting in and we barely got off on time.  The good news is that the right side of the plane was only two seats across and I had a seat to myself for the approximate three hour flight to Belize City.

Leaving Philip Goldson Airport on Tropic Air

By contrast, once I arrived at BZE (Philip Goldson International Airport) I waltzed through immigration in 10 minutes.  I had no checked baggage so I made a hard left turn just past immigration and went around the corner to customs.  Being one of the first to go through, there was no line.  I remember last time that the customs guy was downright surly, but this time was a different experience.  The customs agent asked if I was bringing in more than $10K in cash (I wish  had that kind of money) or any liquor or tobacco.  I responded appropriately and gave the customs form to a man sitting on a stool next to the exit.  When you leave the customs area you either go to the right to get to the taxis and rental cars, or go to left to the airline counters for ticketing and check-in.

Both Maya Island Air and Tropic Air have people standing at the entry to the check-in hall with print outs of who their passengers are so they can get you processed very quickly and efficiently.  If they can get you on the next flight, they do and expedite your processing.  As it turns out they could squeeze me on the next flight, so I called my buddy Mike and confirmed he could pick me up at noon instead of 1:00.  I got checked  in and went through their version of TSA, proceeded into the departures hall where I waited a whopping 10 minutes before boarding my Tropic Air flight to  San Pedro.

The landscape just South of Belize City

Mike met me at Tropic Air and we stopped at Banana Beach so I could get checked in.  Mike just recently got an iPad and asked me to pick up a leather cover for him.  I sent him a link to Amazon where he chose the one he wanted and I had it shipped to me last week and brought it 
with me.  Had he bought this himself he would have probably paid twice as much with shipping and the horrific import duty imposed by the Belize government.  We went to the Blue Water Grill (at the SunBreeze Hotel) for lunch and a beer.  We talked about what I wanted to do in terms of a real estate purchase and we agreed that while I am not ready to jump in at this point, it would be a good idea to check out the North end of the island to get a better idea of what I do or don't want and, at a minimum, rule out some options.  After a wide ranging discussion of  domestic and US politics, the state of the economy and banking, we agreed to meet on Sunday at 10:00 am to check out a few properties and, no doubt, conduct a serious investigation into the quality of Belikin beer. 

The beach at Banana Beach as seen over my toes.

Mike has been in San Pedro for only ten months and has already made enough in the real estate business to buy a condo.  He is still having problems with his golf cart and has paid a fortune in repairs but is on the verge of purchasing a used Polaris.  Mike also said that the Banana Beach ownership has changed.  The Canadian owners apparently were not able to meet their balloon payment and had to give it back to the previous owner that was holding the note.   It is obvious that there is some delayed maintenance that needs to be taken care of.  Most of it is little stuff but the kind of things that most people notice… rusting door hinges, the need for a good paint job on the doors and stained grout in the bathroom.  The wi-fi connection is still pretty bad so I logged in using the neighboring property's connection (Grand Colony).  Grand Colony is also under receivership.  I have not seen any of the rooms but I understand that it is supposed to be a pretty nice place.  It was originally a combination of time-share, hotel rooms and full ownership.  The Grand Colony property includes a very large section of land just to the North.  If someone had the cash to fully develop this property, the potential for a truly impressive property exists.

Saturday afternoon I walked into town and stopped to take a look from the outside of two properties that are currently advertised for sale.  Both Paz Villas and the Sailwinds condo property are just south of the Ambergris Lake Condos and are about a two block walk to the beach.  Paz Villas looks old and faded.  The pool is small and I did not bother to check out the basketball court and grill area because I was not impressed by the front of the property.  There was a broken down golf cart parked near the entrance and it appeared that some of the units were long-term rentals to locals.  The Sailwinds has great photos on the real estate web site, but the building appears to be built practically on the lot line with maybe a three foot setback.  The building looks nice, but it is right next door to a construction yard filled with heavy equipment. 

Coming in for a landing at the San Pedro air strip, Ambergris Caye

I noticed during the twenty minute walk into town that the place was dead; hardly any tourists around.  When I was here in February the town was jammed with people and all the shops were open and you could here music at the bars you passed.  Now a lot of the shops were "closed for renovations," which is always a euphemism for "we were under capitalized and have gone out of business" or "there is no point in being open during the off season, so we'll open back up when the tourists return."  As it turns out, a lot of people must have arrived on Sunday because there were a lot more people out and about the next day.  Walking through town I came across another property that has units listed for sale.  The Mayan Princess is in heart of town and while the rooms face the  ocean, in season it would be very loud.  I made a mental note to cross this property off my list of possible purchases.

After wandering around the central part of town for a bit I headed over to the central square to find a street vendor and dinner.  After checking out a couple of places I settled on two chicken burritos from a guy who swore that he had the best food in town.  After paying a whopping $5 BZ, I had to wonder if he wasn't right… they were really good and I certainly couldn't argue with the price!  I walked up the beach a bit further and then doubled back down to grab a couple of beers at Crazy Canucks before calling it a night.