Belize it or not...Bear & Em in Belize!
  • BeBelize Blog
  • How we got here (2010)
    • Work
    • Play
  • Construction
  • July 2-8, 2011
  • July 9-16, 2011

An afternoon adventure in Belize City

10/8/2011

5 Comments

 
We'd been wanting to go to Belize City for awhile to do a little shopping, since availability and prices of goods are reputed to be better than on Ambergris Caye.  We'd also been wanting to try the ferry, as we've always taken Tropic Air to and from the airport on our trips here, so Friday seemed like a good day to have a little adventure.  I was a bit wary of the city (often called simply "Belize" by locals), having read about the crime there, but we got some good recommendations online.  These included this highly informative blog entry entitled "How to Survive in Belize City" (http://www.sinnvollereise.de/?p=1368)  and this commercial site, which is refreshingly honest about some of the less desirable sides of the city: http://www.belize.com/belize-city.html.  Seems if we stayed on certain streets during the day, we would be okay.  Still, I insisted on preparing a "give-away wallet" (recommended in the blog above) with an expired credit card, some other expired/unusable cards, and a small amount of money, just in case. 

Although we'd planned to go Friday, we kept wavering as the weather looked dark and threatening down south, but after watching the online Doppler radar for a bit, it appeared that most of the rain would have passed through already by the time we got there, so we decided to go for it.  We grabbed our backpacks, water, rain jackets, and camera, and walked the roughly two miles to town to the ferry terminal.  We were running a little late due to some neighborly socializing outside our building, so we had to make tracks, and it was awfully hot in the bright sunshine on the way, but we made it in time and paid our $55 BZD ($27.50 US) per person for round-trip tickets.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Pretty sparse crowd today
The ferry over was not too crowded, and the sea was glassy most of the way, making for a nice, smooth ride.  But as we closed in on Caye Caulker, the only stop along the way, the skies turned dark, and we hit some fairly heavy rain.  It was kind of neat to watch the sky and sea change from the comfort of the covered ferry.
Picture
Picture
Approaching Caye Caulker
Picture
Picture
Leaving Caye Caulker after dropping off a few and picking up a few passengers
By the time we arrived in Belize City, the rain had stopped, and we were fortunate in that we never had a drop of rain while we were there.  It was overcast, keeping the temperature moderate, so really ended up being the perfect day to go.    

As we pulled into the ferry dock, we noticed the row of brightly colored buildings, a part of "tourist village" for cruise-ship visitors.  Love the Caribbean colors!  However, this was not a cruise ship day, so tourist village was closed, with just some renovation work going on.  The ferry terminal and small restaurants/gift shops there were clean and secure, so I was starting to feel a bit more comfortable.
Picture
Tourist Village in Belize City
Picture
I can only imagine how busy this ghost town would be if a cruise ship were docked
Picture
Belize Express ferry dock
And then we emerged from the safety and quiet of the ferry terminal onto the streets.  Wow, what a change.  The closest I can come to describing it is like New York City, a seedy part of New York City.  There were taxis lined up everywhere and drivers offering their services.  There were a lot of men loitering around, sitting on the curbs, and since this was not a cruise-ship day, and most of the folks who disembarked the ferry with us appeared to be locals, Barry and I definitely stood out like sore thumbs or fresh meat!  There was a lot of traffic, and no stoplights in this area, only stop signs, so the traffic movement seemed pretty chaotic, and it was not easy to find a good place to cross even at pedestrian crosswalks, since there were no "Walk" signals.  No, Dorothy, we were not in Chapel Hill any more!

We knew which streets to stay on downtown once we exited the ferry terminal and crossed the nearby swing bridge, but finding the swing bridge was more difficult than we expected.  A city at street level looks just a bit different than satellite view on Google maps!  Fortunately a taxi driving by (with a full load already) pointed us towards the bridge, and we were on our way.  We had to wait for what seemed to be an entire school's worth of kids coming the other way on the narrow pedestrian walkway over the bridge, but we finally made our way across.  
Picture
Picture
The view of the sailboats in the harbor was really pretty, I thought.  Again, loved the colors.
Picture
Once we came off the bridge into the city, it was once again a bit of a disoriented feeling, but we figured out which street we needed to be on to get down to Brodie's, a large supermarket, only a couple of blocks down.  We were happy to see a sign stating that Fri-Sat-Sun were 10% off days.  Score!  They definitely had a larger quantity and variety of goods than in San Pedro, but not all prices were better.  Fortunately we've been shopping at various groceries on the island long enough now that we had a good idea of which items were good deals and which were not.  We picked up some peanuts, olive oil, cereal, and a few other items.  I was hoping that wine prices would be lower than in San Pedro, but alas, they were not, so I am still wine-free.  I was also sorry to see that the price on the box of 100 bags of green tea I had just bought the day before on the island was less than half the price at Brodie's -- wish I'd waited!
Picture
Picture
To the left of where I was walking was a pretty sketchy park with a lot of men loitering...I walked by quickly!
As we walked along the street, a couple of panhandlers approached Barry wanting "a dolla, just a dolla man", and they were pretty aggressive about it.  We just kept walking.  Fortunately, we didn't have to surrender our give-away wallet to anyone.  Barry wanted to explore more, but I was a bit wary of staying on the streets any longer than needed to do our little shopping, and most of the stores we passed were not appealing (blasting rap music, hoochy clothes, etc.), so I urged him to find the bike shop we wanted to go to so we could get going back to the ferry terminal.  I was afraid we would not find the street it was on, but suddenly, there was the street, and there was the bike shop, Hop Sing!  Ah, the familiar smell of rubber tires made me feel instantly at home.  It was a nice shop filled with cruiser bikes and a variety of parts and accessories.  Very different from the high-end bike shops back in Chapel Hill, it was still a perfect oasis for us as there are no real bike shops on Ambergris Caye, just a small selection of very basic parts in a couple of hardware stores.
Picture
This shop felt like an oasis in the desert to me!
We purchased a flat handlebar for Barry to swap out his cruiser handlebars, and a saddle with a cutout for me.  They only had low-end saddles, so it remains to be seen if this is an improvement on my big cushy cruiser saddle.  I kinda need the cush, with all the bumps on the beach paths and unpaved and cobblestone roads here, but I also want a cutout to prevent chafing.  I know that Serfas makes saddles that have both, so I may ultimately end up needing to buy a new saddle in the US, but I will give this one a try.  It was only $19.95 Belize (around $10 US), so I'm not out much at all if it proves to be too firm for the type of riding we do here.

After leaving Hop Sing, we beat a hasty retreat (at my request!) back to the ferry terminal and were offered several cab rides along the way, even just a block away.  Once inside, I could let down my guard and relax after our foray into the gritty city, and the Belikin I had from this little snack bar/gift shop went down really nicely and left me feeling nicely tranquilo.  
Picture
We had a bit of a wait before catching the 3 o'clock ferry back to Ambergris Caye, so took a few more photos of the area while we waited.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Our ferry (nice UNC colors!) and tourist village
Picture
Another view from ferry terminal
Picture
Yep, those colors are deserving of a closeup!
The ferry back was packed!  It was people-watching heaven. One young local gal seated near us was playing loud music on her iPod (or equivalent) without earbuds, much to the chagrin of all of the rest of the passengers near her, who were rolling their eyes at each each other.  I guess she was completely oblivious that this was rude, but since she was built like a linebacker (in fact, Barry thought she was a dude!), no one dared to say anything to her.  She wouldn't have heard anyway, over her music and the drone of the three mighty outboards off the stern.
Picture
Linebacker girl with iPod "boombox" on right
Picture
Picture
Back in San Pedro!
Once back in San Pedro, we had to quickly walk up the beach to the nearby water taxi dock as we were within a few minutes of the next run north; if we'd missed that boat, we'd have had to wait an hour, and we were too pooped to schlep our backpacks full of heavy groceries back home.  Plus we knew Paisley would be missing us and wanting some exercise.
Picture
Coastal Express water taxi
Picture
Buying our tickets
We made it with only a couple of minutes to spare and packed into a very crowded boat.  On the ride north, we talked to a couple from Florida next to us who are considering a condo purchase on Ambergris Caye and gave them our card in case we could help answer any questions they might have.  It's amazing how almost everyone who vacations here ends up wanting to buy property here, or so it seems, anyway!  Guess we aren't that crazy after all.  

Today Barry installed our new bike parts.  And, we are eight for eight.  It didn't rain overnight, but we had a brief shower in the afternoon, a perfect record in October so far.  
Picture
New flat handlebars replacing cruiser bars
Picture
My new saddle. The angle of the photo makes it look much bigger than it actually is -- it's much smaller than the huge one it replaced.
5 Comments
Chip Gentry
10/9/2011 12:21:27 am

That was a nice little adventure day. I kept expecting something ominous to occur, but was glad it didn't. Liked your 'giveaway wallet' idea. Had to Google 'hoochy clothes' to expand my tropical vocabulary!

Reply
Jean link
10/11/2011 01:24:17 pm

Looks like a wonderful season at this time. My partner went with son, diving (son did it) and found Belize abit rougher road wise. This was over 15 yrs. ago. So maybe things have changed.

Hope we check each other adventures on one another's blog. (Though at this time, your blog is a tad more adventuresome.)

Reply
BeBelize Emily
10/12/2011 02:42:04 am

Thanks Jean! We live on Ambergris Caye, and it's definitely not a place for road cycling, which we loved back home in North Carolina. We enjoy riding on the beach and on the dirt roads on our beach bikes. Town is paved, but most roads are cobblestone, so a bit bumpy. I'm sure there have been many changes since your partner was here 15 years ago! Thank you for sharing your blog link - it is gorgeous. I look forward to checking it out more thoroughly!

Reply
kelly
12/25/2011 02:09:12 pm

Thanks so much for posting great photos of your adventures! I feel much more comfortable visiting for the first time with your information! For Christmas my partner bought us tickets to Belize for 10 days next month and we are hoping to visit both Ambergris and Caye Caulker. Do you recommend any hotels or cabanas? Best, K (PS love you doggie stories)

Reply
BeBelize Emily
12/26/2011 02:15:24 am

Hi Kelly! Glad you're finding our blog helpful. I'm not the best person to ask about lodging as we've stayed in so few places (and never on Caye Caulker overnight). We've had great experiences at The Phoenix and Grand Caribe here on Ambergis Caye, but if you are looking for something a bit less pricey, we've heard good things about the Blue Tang Inn and others. I would advise using tripadvisor.com to read reviews of lodging, and also inquiring on the Ambergris forums, which also includes a Caye Caulker-specific forum. Here's the link: http://ambergriscaye.com/forum/ubbthreads.php

Thanks for stopping by and hope you have a wonderful trip to Belize!


Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    UPDATE!
    Traveling Twosome

    If you're interested in following along on our post-Belize travels, please visit our blog:
    http://travelingtwosome.weebly.com/

    Subscribe

    RSS Feed

    living in Belize

    Emily & Barry

    We're an adventurous couple, married 27 years, who decided to move to Ambergris Caye, Belize from Chapel Hill, North Carolina for retirement.  We built a condo on the beach  north of San Pedro Town and moved in with our Boston Terrier Paisley in August 2011 and lived there until March 2013.  Ultimately, we decided to return to the US, but we have no regrets and MANY good memories of our time in Belize.  We hope our blog might prove helpful to anyone interested in this lovely country.

    Archives      

    March 2014
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011

    ©2013 by Barry & Emily. All rights reserved.       

    Categories  

    All
    Airline
    Architecture
    Beach
    Beer
    Belize City
    Bikes
    Biking
    Birding
    Birds
    Birthday
    Boating
    Boats
    Bridge
    Budget
    Bugs
    Caving
    Caye Caulker
    Celebration
    Chetumal
    Christmas
    Churches
    Cleanup
    Coconuts
    Color
    Cooking
    Cook-off
    Crime
    Curtains
    Daily Living
    Dinner
    Doctor
    Dog
    Dogs
    Expenses
    Ferry
    Film
    Flowers
    Food
    Friends
    Fruit
    Fun
    Fundraiser
    Guatemala
    Haircut
    Health
    Health Issues
    Healthy Eating
    Hiking
    History
    Holiday
    Holidays
    Home Improvement
    Home Improvements
    Hopkins
    Independence Day
    Insects
    Kayaking
    Lamanai
    Library
    Living In Belize
    Logging
    Maya
    Medical
    Mexico
    Moon
    Movie
    Moving In
    Music
    Nature
    Paisley
    Palapa Bar
    Parade
    Parks
    Parties
    Pets
    Photos
    Placencia
    Pool
    Pool Time
    Projects
    Punta Gorda
    Race
    Rain
    Rainbows
    Rainy Season
    Recipes
    Reef
    Restaurant
    Restaurants
    Road
    Running
    Saga
    Sailing
    San Ignacio
    Shipping To Belize
    Shopping
    Storms
    Sunset
    Thanksgiving
    Tourist Visa
    Traffic
    Transportation
    Travel
    Vendors
    Walks
    Waterfalls
    Water Taxi
    Weather
    Wildlife
    Yoga

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.