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I am dedicating this page to my recent trip to "Banyan Bay Villas", located in San Pedro Town, Ambergris Caye, Belize.I now have a few pictures from my trip up. Follow the link! ;)(The following info. was taken from the book,"Ambergris Caye:Paradise With a Past" by Glenn D. Godfrey,1996)Ambergris Caye,(pronounced "key"), is the largest of Belize's more than 200 off-shore islands. It's about 25 miles long, and 4 miles accross. From a plane overhead it looks like a spiny backbone of irregular grey mangrove lagoons. The Caye shares a northern border with Mexico, at the Yucatan, which hosts the long-ago Mayan-made channel that seperates the two countries apart. And Cancun is only 20 to 30 miles north of San Pedro!(So we obvioulsy had to drink bottled water! lol ;)The place dad and I stayed at, San Pedro Town, has the largest lagoon around Belize. The island of Ambergris Caye was bought by a Mr. Blake in 1842 for only $625 dollars! San Pedro was later further established in 1848, by Mestizo refugees from the Guerra de Castas in the Yucatan(Ambergris Caye's northern Mexican territorial border).The Barrier Reef lies about a half mile off the windward side of the island of Ambergris Caye, and is the longest barrier reef in the Western Hemisphere and the second longest in the world. (& I got to scuba dive just off the reef!)One of my favorite places to dive was called the 'Hol Chan Marine Reserve', just off the coast of San Pedro, which became established in 1987. (Hol Chan means "little channel," in Maya). It hosted a rich protected area of marine wildlife, such as nurse sharks, schools of huge grey-ish groupers, lots of brightly colored angelfish, flat, grayish-white sting rays, and even the occasional eel could be found hiding underneath the coral reef, at about 30 feet or so. (The groupers, angelfish and sting rays tended to stay closer to the surface, at about 10 feet or shallower.)San Pedro's average temperatures are fairly warm; ranging from 89-90 degrees Fahrenheit during the summer months, and from 70-85 during the winter!!!Ambergris Caye was also once a home to the Mayans that lived in it's rich, tropical lagoons. They flourished in Belize, and the surrounding Central Americas, for 15 centuries, between AD 250-900. Many of the Mayan decendent still live in or around the Cayes today. They try to carry on their heritage through local art, sculpture and tourist attractions, such as the Mayan Pyramids, which are found on the Mainland of Belize.It's not known what became of the full-blooded Maya of Ambergris Caye, but it is safe to assume that when The Europeans invaded Belize, they brought with them serveral infectious diseases, which first took hold on the main Belizean island, and probally went onto infect the locals of Ambergris Caye. The Maya have all but dissapeared from Belize. Only scattered remains of a once flourishing civilization, now remain.The official beer of Ambergris Caye, is called "Belikin Beer" and is found only in Belize. Although the beer is the most popular consumed product in the Cayes, the coconut plantation industry still remains the most fruit-full raw good, followed by the fishing/lobster industry at a close second. (And tourisim is still the main non-food income provider for the area).Today a fisherman is lucky if he can catch 1,000 lbs of tails, on a 10-day trip, since a recent legal limit on the tails has been issued. They must weigh at least 4 ounces per tail!The official Belize airline, that carried us from the main island of Belize, to the one we stayed at(Ambergris Caye), is called Tropic Air. It reminded me of riding a "prop" plane, as we call them here in the States. I got to ride in the front with the pilot, both times cause I was the smallest passenger on board! hehehe...Belize recieved it's independence from Great Britian on Sept. 21, 1981(the year I was born!) Today, it is still a part of the British commonwealth, since it uses their currency for money. Most of the locals on the island, surprizingly, speak English everywhere you go...only away from the tourists, in the comforts of their own homes, do they speak their native Spanish or Mayan dialects. Making English their main language, has dramaticially increased the tourism population and new settling of the area, since many people from the United States like to come to San Pedro 'to get away from it all'. And hearing your own native tongue, helps a lot!The official population figures(taken at the last, long-ago census) are about 1,200 people for the island of Ambergris Caye. But, it can be estimated that close to 4,000 people reside on the island, half of which are new arrivals!(I'm buying a new scanner today, & hopefully I'll have my pics from this trip up very soon! Plz. be patient with me! I have alot to say about all of this!!!)My Favorite places to TRAVEL to:
My Favorite Web Sites
My Yahoo Home Page
The Place We Stayed!
The Hol Chan Marine Reserve(Dive Site)
My Pictures From Belize!
