The Coast and Cayes of Belize

The Seaside Guesthouse is the best budget hotel I could find in Belize City. The guesthouse, as its name suggests is located right on the sea, which makes for a great breeze that will keep you cool at night if you are lucky enough to get a room facing the sea. The rooms are outfitted for four people, so if you are traveling alone, or even in two, you might be asked to share a room if it gets crowded, and in that case it might become a bit of a squeeze. I was traveling in a group of three and I was thankful that there wasn’t a fourth because I honestly don’t know where they would have gone! But, beyond the size, the rooms are perfectly clean and comfortable, and as I said, the cool Caribbean breeze coming off the sea is enough to carry away any worries, and if Belize City is your first stop, it’s the best way to welcome yourself to Belize.

The location of the guesthouse, just a couple of blocks right off the Swing Bridge, puts you in the center of Belize City with easy access to restaurants and a few bars in the local hotels where you taste your first panty ripper (coconut rum and pineapple juice) or strain your vocal chords (and everyone else’s eardrums) signing karaoke, which is offered at many bars. The ferry docks are right over the Swing Bridge, giving you access to the outer cayes, and the bus station is about ten blocks away, giving you access to the rest of the country.

What I really enjoyed about the Seaside Guesthouse was the staff. This was the first place that we stopped in Belize, and it was the first place we discovered the famous Belizean hospitality. The woman who runs the place was wonderfully accommodating and fed our starving stomachs with some traditional Creole bread and tamarind jam. It’s so thick that all you need is one piece and you will be set for the day. She was also able to gives us some tips about what to do and where to go, both around the town and the country, and had Internet available. If you are a budget traveler looking to stay one or two nights in Belize, this is the place to do it.

Placencia in Southern Belize is often touted as the "haven for backpackers" by many of the guidebooks and for some good reason. In comparison to the resort towns like San Pedro on the cayes, Placencia is a much less hectic, and not to mention cheaper, place to spend your days on the beach and snorkeling. The peninsula of Placencia is a five hour (usually) bus ride from Belize City. Our trip took around 6 hours because of a huge accident on a bridge and because of the fact that our bus got pulled over by the police. So it is best to leave as early as possible in the morning so that you do not roll into town around 10:30pm like we did. Also, I highly recommend making reservations in advance, if possible. We had heard that we would have no trouble finding a place to stay, so we went ahead without reservations, but when we arrived in Placencia we were shocked that nobody had rooms. We had almost resigned ourselves to sleeping on the beach when we stumbled across the last room in Placencia, a dirty roach-infested basement room that cost us $8. The beach probably would have been better. . .

Despite the mishap of the first night, which was only saved by the extreme helpfulness of the locals, Placencia turned out to be one of my favorite stops in Belize. The town has a much more laid back atmosphere when compared with the cayes up north, and it isn’t crawling with tourists yet. We found great food, the best being a fajita stand owned by a friend we had made the night before. She opens up the stand in the center of town at 8am (fajitas for breakfast!) and only keeps it open until about 1pm, or whenever she feels like closing. Her specialty, though, are conch fajitas. One of those with a little Marie Sharp’s hot sauce was one of the best meals I had the whole time in Belize

Beyond the food, Placencia has the longest stretch of pure sand beach in Belize, which makes for good sunbathing. In addition, Placencia is close enough to the outer cayes of the south that you can take day long snorkeling and diving trips to the Barrier Reef and beyond. There are also Mayan ruins nearby, and the Cocksomb Reserve.

There is even some nightlife around town. There are a few tourist bars that will provide you with drinks, but also keep an eye out for local activities. While we were in town, there was a local dance party at spot on the beach with a live punta band. Then the next night there was a huge garifuna full moon party on a beach a few miles north of town. In both cases tourists were definitely a rare sight, but the locals all made us feel right at home and showed us how to punta until dawn. That is something you won’t see up north on the cayes!

The Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Preserve is a great day trip from Placencia that will allow you to see some of the jungle at the base of costal mountains as well as, hopefully, some wildlife. Although it is often called the Jaguar Reserve, don’t really expect to see a jaguar, as they are quite rare. Our guide said he has only seen one while on a tour in all his years doing tours. Still though, it is a nice trip, especially when combined with a stop by the banana plantations and a tip down the river on a tube.

A trip to Cockscomb is easy to arrange from any of the numerous tour providers in Placencia, and all will charge about the same price. We paid $50 for an all day trip to the reserve, lunch, a trip to the banana plantations, and a tubing trip. The price is a bit expensive, when you compare it with prices farther inside the country and in Guatemala, but is much cheaper than most things on the northern cayes.

The drive out to Cockscomb took about two hours, although on the way we stopped by a local banana plantation. The region around Placencia is filled with banana plantations that send bananas off to Europe. It is mostly migrant workers from nearby Guatemala and Honduras that work the plantations because the wages are better than back in their countries. While at the plantation our guide explained the process of banana harvesting, which is quite fascinating. It involves putting the bunches onto large hooks connected to a track, that winds its way around the whole plantation. The bananas are then taken off the bunches, washed and put on conveyor belts. It was amazing to watch.

After our tour at the plantation we headed out to the Wildlife Reserve for a hike. We spent about two hours hiking through the jungle, our guide pointing out various animals and tapir tracks along the way. The hike included a stop at a waterfall for a refreshing swim. Upon our return from the waterfall we had some lunch and then grabbed tubes for a leisurely tube ride down a river in the reserve. The river took us winding through the jungle for about an hour. It was a wonderfully relaxing journey through the heart of the jungle that allowed us to see all sorts of birds.

All in all it was a fun little trip. We didn’t see the most spectacular wildlife, or swim in the most spectacular jungle waterfall in Belize, but it was a nice way to spend one of our days around Placencia.

With the largest barrier reef in the Western hemisphere as well as an extensive system of cayes and atolls, Belize has some of the best diving and snorkeling in the world, and the best place to do it is off of the northern cayes such as Ambergris and Caulker. A snorkeling or diving trip, though, is something not to be missed.

We decided to do our snorkeling from Caye Caulker. The nice thing about Caulker, as well as Ambergris, is that they are both close to the Barrier Reef so you do you get to spend less time in the boat and more in the water. We went through the tour group Tsunami Adventures and we were very happy with the tour they provided. They gave us the standard day snorkeling tour of Hol Chan Marine Reserve and Shark-Ray Alley, but the nice part was that our guide made sure to leave early enough to beat the rush to both places. Both Hol Chan and Shark-Ray Alley are the most popular places and since most tour groups run the same schedule, the sights get terribly crowded at certain points throughout the day, but our guide at Tsunami Adventures made sure we got to each place a little early so that we could beat the rush.

Hol Chan Marine Reserve is a large reserve around a small channel in the break and is a sight for spectacular snorkeling. The coral was varied and colorful and so was the sea life. No more than five minutes after entering the water, I saw a nurse shark swimming languidly along. Our guide was very knowledgeable of the area and very aware of where animals like to hide. With his help we found an octopus hiding in coral and a huge moray eel at least six feet in length tucked under a ledge. Along with that we saw a rare school of spotted rays. At least seven rays, some as long as nine feet came swimming through the channel right when we showed up. It was one of the more spectacular sights I have ever seen snorkeling. It’s too bad I didn’t have an underwater camera

Shark-Ray Alley is the tourist attraction of Belize snorkeling. We originally didn’t want to go because we heard about how touristy it was, but it is hard to find a tour that doesn’t stop by, so we gave in. Shark-Ray Alley basically became a popular place for nurse sharks and rays because fishermen used to dump their chum there after filleting fish, but that has long stopped, and now it is tourists who flock to see the sharks and rays. The sharks and rays keep coming though because a lot of guides still toss chum in the water. Thus, when you pull in, the sharks, hearing the motor, immediately come up. Admittedly it was neat to swim with them, but I was glad we got there early because soon it became a crowded mess of sharks, rays, and snorkeler legs.

San Pedro and Ambergris Caye are the heart of tourism in Belize. It is where the vast majority of tourists choose to spend their time in Belize. Many come to Ambergris for a week or ten days and barely even leave to see any of the other sights Belize has to offer. It is a resort town that is doing its best to compete with the likes of Cancun for the hot spring destination. It has cheap hotels, chic resorts and one giant strip of bars and dance clubs. If you are looking for the type of Caribbean where you either spend your nights drinking and your days sunbathing or if you are of the type who likes to hole yourself up in a resort, then Ambergris is your place. However, if you are a budget traveler, or someone who enjoys experiencing local culture, then stay as far away from Ambergris as possible.

We had not originally considered staying on Ambergris, instead we had planned on spending our time on the cayes on Caye Caulker, Ambergris’ little brother, but we decided that we should give Ambergris a shot, for at least a night. At first sight, the town of San Pedro didn’t seem to be too bad. We managed to find a cheap and clean place to stay right on the beach, Edith’s and the town seemed rather quaint. We found a great place for dinner, the Jam Bel Jerk Pit, which serves up a host of Jamaican dishes, all of them spectacular. The best part is that they will make it as hot as you want if you tell them to make it extra spicy, the will make it extra spicy…I’m salivating just remembering their jerk pork.

San Pedro during the day is fine place. It is your typical Caribbean tourist town. It has cheap T-shirt stores, hundreds of places offering snorkel tours, and plenty of beach bars. At night is when San Pedro gets into full Spring Break mode. The discos all start blaring their music and every club has the guy standing outside yelling at you to come inside. As the night goes on the streets fill with drunken tourists and things get a bit crazier. If that is your scene, then San Pedro is a great place, but if you are expecting a quieter vacation, then I’d recommend staying away. It was OK for one night, but after that I had to head out.

Probably my biggest gripe about San Pedro and Ambergris is that the friendliness that Belizeans are so famous for has been slowly whittled away by tourism. It seems people are much more out for money than to help you have a great time. For me, I came to Belize to experience the life and culture of the people in Belize and share in their beautiful country, and that is not what I found in Ambergris.