San Pedro, Ambergris Caye

This has got to be the most laid back vacation I have ever been on. Not that I'm complaining - it's pretty nice to have basically nothing going on and just enjoy life, especially after my crazy schedule back home. We arrived in San Pedro early yesterday afternoon on another small Cessna. From Dandriga we landed 5 times before our stop here, but each flight was very short so it wasn't too bad.

Our taxi driver was a bit of an ass, though, and ripped the page with the condo name AND key safe combo out of my hand while driving. I think he pretended not to hear me ask him to return it, and I could see him read through the entire email. So, we were a bit worried about the key to the condo but the owner gave me instructions on how to change the code so I think we are all good. There are many more Spanish speaking people here yet most still seem friendly. It's much busier than Hopkins, too!

Yesterday we plopped our luggage down in this spacious, 2-bedroom condo (very modern, with all the amenities of home, and each bedroom has its own bathroom) and started walking down the beach. Scott had spoken with someone from a dive shop called Ramon's prior to leaving Calgary, and put our names down for a Blue Hole dive Thursday. We found Ramon's and talked with them again and found out the dives have been cancelled since the weekend due to weather. Now it's hit and miss whether the companies go out because getting across the edge of the reef and out into the deep water is pretty treacherous in the existing wind conditions. We are not sure whether we'll even get to dive much while here but people are saying the weather is supposed to get better. If anything, we should still be able to dive along the reef because the boats don't need to cross out into the ocean for those.

We did a bit more exploring, found a restaurant on the beach called Fido's, which had a really awesome fish BBQ dish, served with rice and beans and a yummy, creamy coleslaw. It was perfect for just how hungry I was. Prices are much higher here, especially for the rum drinks I so love much so I have to be watchful with what I order more so in San Pedro.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love plantain? I was surprised with a bonus slice of fried plantain too!!

After lunch, we headed out to explore more of the area, looking for a SIM card for my phone (no luck yet) and some grocery stores (there are a few). I found a roadside fruit/vegetable stand that I had to take note of because I wanted a watermelon for our week here. The watermelons are huge, so we'd need a few days to eat a whole one. I did pick up a smaller "huge" melon this morning for around $5 US. I'm really not sure if that's a good price as I never buy watermelons back home. I've learned Bryan really likes them so I think I will be buying them more!

The problem I have discovered with all the fresh foods I am exposed to during my travels is that I am becoming more and more disappointed with the food back home. Of course, maybe this will help me from overeating so often but I still doubt that! Tomatoes, except for those straight out of my garden, have forever been ruined by Italian tomatoes; pizza crust, same deal (though there are a few almost comparable places popping up now in Calgary). Here it is going to be the tropical fruit and fish!

After lunch, we came back to our condo for a dip in the pool and some downtime before heading out for dinner. Another stroll along the white sandy beach with the slightly cool ocean air blowing, we stopped at another beachfront restaurant called Caprice. This is one of the few places we've seen that is open to both the beach and the street, and it had a smattering of tables along with beach furniture for lounging, a nice sized bar and good sound system.

Their menu is extensive with a wide variety of seafood selections, making it very difficult not to order everything we saw! Again, not enough meals to try all this wonderful food! Anyway, Scott did order their crab cake with shrimp appetizer, which he generously shared with us. He said it was the best crab cake he'd ever had and both Bryan and I agreed.

Our main courses arrived with a bit of artistic flourish, some tiny, thin breadsticks poking out of our food, looking a lot like large antennae.

Scott's lobster and shrimp dish came with pasta Alfredo, an interesting side dish option, along with a great mixture of corn and beans. I think there was even some crab in there.

Bryan tried their blackened fish, another grouper meal, with pasta marinara as his side.

My entree was a wonderfully flavourful mixture of peppers, onions and tomato sauce smothering some delectable shrimp, along with that same corn and bean salad and a very cool pile of coconut rice. I cannot get enough of the coconut flavour down here!

After dinner, we decided to head back to the condo with the intention of an early night. We had talked about a sunset catamaran cruise for today so we wanted to get up early to find out about that and potentially a dive or snorkel. On the way back, the guys decided one drink at the bar (Mayo's) three buildings down from our condo was needed. Well, sitting at the bar we met a couple from Texas (who are exactly like the stereotypically Texans we Canadians have formulated an opinion about - to them, Texas is the centre of the universe, and they were not afraid to make that statement at least 6 times) and a couple from Portland. All four people were very nice and friendly, though, so we ended up having a great few hours with them at the bar. A few too many drinks and a couple of shots of Fireball Whiskey later, there was no chance we'd be making it out early to find out about tours today.

We all slept in today and went for a late, late breakfast...actually, let's just call it lunch. We hit a cute little hostel bar, called Sandbar, where Bryan and I shared a delicious taco pizza. The bartender was super friendly and even offered to have the hockey game on for us later that evening. We picked up a few things from the grocery store and sat by the pool for a bit. This turned into nap time, again, and we woke around 6:00, got ready and wandered around until we hit Pineapple's, a restaurant at the Ramon's Village Resort. They have a Tuesday night set menu with scallops, shrimp, chicken, pork, or fish of the day, served with a flour tortilla, a bowl of beans, coleslaw and mashed garlic potatoes. Priced pretty good, $15 for Scott's pork chop meal, $20 for my fish and $25 for Bryan's scallops. If I could get my hands on banana leaves, I'm finding that cooking fish in these keeps the fish moist, with a melt-in-your-mouth texture.

 

During our exploration yesterday, we came across a sports bar owned by someone from Chicago. This seems like my kind of bar...Blackhawks and Riders!!

Tonight we did make it home early, by 9:00. Much to my chagrin, there is pretty good cable TV here so I've lost the boys to that for the night. I awoke with a sore throat that I'm nursing so maybe heading to bed now is my best choice anyway. We are determined to get out on the water tomorrow so it'll be up early to get organized.

 

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