Our trek south began at 3am, on Thursday morning, Jan. 30. Brenda got home from work at about 10:30pm the night before, got to bed about midnight, and was still checking the clock at 2! Nolan drove us to the airport at 4am and we were on our way south!
We made a quick stop in Phoenix. We had a visit with our favorite American, Max, then back to the Phoenix Sky Harbour airport Sat. Feb. 1 at 4am! Again, Munchie got about an hour's sleep! Our route to
Ambergris Caye in Belize was via Dallas/Fort Worth Int. Airport. Made our connection without a hidcup.
We arrived in Belize at 1:15pm on Saturday, Feb. 1st. Stepping off the plane onto the tarmac was just awesome! It was bright and sunny, the beautiful Caribbean waters were there and beckoning! We eagerly headed to immigration anticipating our last leg of the journey to the Caye, our 15 minute Tropic Air flight. This was not in the cards! There were about 3.2 billion people that had just arrived in Belize at the same time we did and we were all herded into 3 lines for customs and immigration. The middle line appeared to be the shortest so we deftly jumped into that one. Big mistake! The line on the left was definitely the choice for as when we finally got to the front of the line, we saw that the left line up was feeding two fast and efficient agents just pumping the travels through! The line on the right had also opened two booths and was moving bodies expeditiously! The center line, our line, however had one booth and the agent was being meticulous and cautious with each new entrant to the country. This translated to about an hour + wait to clear customs. We got to the Tropic Air counter, a 1 minute walk from the customs area, 5 minutes before our pre-booked flight time. As it turned out, with the masses headed to the Cayes and south, all of the flights were delayed. We were bumped from the 2:40pm flt to the 3:40pm flt and were in the air promptly at 4pm!
Now, Munchie is not the best flyer, and when we walked out onto the tarmac to jump in our 14 passenger single engine Cessna, I believe her heart rate increased a beat or two!! Her trepidation was however unwarranted as the 15 minute flight was smooth and quick! Our pilot put us down like a mother lying a sleeping babe down for a nap, much to my Munchie's delight! I had thought that our three full sized suitcases may have been an issue with Tropic Air as their website had indicated an allotment of 33lbs per bag and each of our bags were tipping the scales at 49+lbs! They didn't even weigh them! The friendly Tropic Air personnel just smiled and took em!
The San Pedro airport is a gem! The staff were helpful and courteous. Since we were almost two hours past our scheduled arrival time, our arranged transport to the house was not around. No worries! This is a small place, one of the staff at the baggage claim, who is used to this scenario, was able to speak with our management company and Jerry, the cab driver picked us up and took us to meet Armondo. Now Armondo was supposed to meet us at the airport but being a busy Belizian businessman, he had other ventures that he was attending to! So Jerry drops us at a dock and says Armondo with be back soon to take us by boat to the house. We had about a 15 minute wait by the dock watching the pelicans fish and then Armondo pulled up in his boat. Now Armondo is a tall thin man, with long, tussled graying hair. He's sort of got that 60's surfer dude appearance, but with a spanish accent! He said "You guys are late!". He did say it with a bit of a chuckle. We wondered why the boat ride rather than a cab by land, but after getting our golf cart delivered and making a short trip to the grocery store, realized why! The boat trip was about a relatively smooth 5 minute ride right to the Coral Pelicano's dock. The road trip would have been a bit longer and pretty bumpy!
We learned from the guy at the grocery that the road was in pretty rough shape because of a lot of rain the previous month, but should be graded pretty soon. This where I believe you must apply island time and therefore soon could mean by middle of next month?!
The house is pretty cool, although the kitchen supplies do not meet my bride's standards! But she'll make do! The private beach front is awesome!
I am sitting here Sunday morning, looking out on beautiful sunlit waters, it is a bit windy, so may be hard on my hair do, but it is fantastic!
We've had a leisurely morning and are now prepping to head out and explore a bit. Hope to have some spots reckied for everyone's arrival!
That's it for my first post,
Cheers!
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