Coral Bay Villas offers you luxurious beach front accommodations with a spectacular and unobstructed view of the Caribbean Sea, the barrier reef, and white sandy beaches. http://www.caribbeanmag.com/search/hotels/Belize/coralbayvillas/hotel/347/3/ en-us Copyright 1998 e-TravelMedia.com/CaribbeanMag.com Sun, 12 Oct 2008 02:47:23 EST San Pedro Town is the major settlement on the island. San Pedro's populace has grown to 4,000 plus year round inhabitants, with constant pressure from the mainland to immigrate to San Pedro due to a perception by mainlanders that it is the major or most lucrative source of income for the entire country. The residents are mostly of Mexican descent and speak both Spanish and English. The island has the largest concentration of visitor accommodations in Belize and its hotels, fishing and diving facilities are some of the best in the country. The town is a picture postcard setting - small colorfully painted houses set alongside sand streets nestled beside the clear turquoise sea. Coconut palms sway and rustle in the gentle cooling trade winds. Low rise hotels, guest houses and bungalow style resorts, from modest to magnificent, are nestled along the coast and throughout the town. If you want a comfortable, shorts-and-sandals seaside vacation, at a moderate price, just a bit off the beaten path but not too far, where the seafood is fresh and beer is cold, where the water won't make you sick, an island with most of the modern convienences without the plastic tackiness, with great diving, excellent snorkeling, beautiful water and beautiful white sand beaches, where local folks are mostly friendly and hablan English (though they may speak Spanish at home), with dependably beautiful weather most of the time, then I guarantee you'll enjoy Ambergris Caye. Yes, tourism is the number one industry in what was once a fishing village. Now, fishing is still most excellent, but tourism has far surpassed it as a contributor to the local economy. This is not, however, the edgy tourism of Cancun, with millions of package tourists hitting the beach. No building is higher than a tall coco palm, or three stories. Golf carts and bicycles are the principal mode of transportation. The streets are home to local and visiting barefoot strollers, casually making their way through the shops and restaurants or just relaxing and chatting with the locals who are friendly and tolerant. A few taxis, trucks and private vehicles are in service in the growing community, and the newly formed traffic committee is hard pressed to create an equitable policy regarding importation of future vehicles. Ambergris Caye has much to recommend it. Away from the center of town there is an abundance of birds and other animals. Much of the island is covered with a broadleaf forest that attracts wildlife. The yards of the houses and the hotel grounds all bloom with tropical flora. The sea abounds with adventure for fishermen, divers, snorkelers and sailors. Some of the best outfitters for fishing and diving trips are found here, along with plenty of charter boats. San Pedro makes a fine base for excursions to nearby attractions and the more distant islands and atolls. The stores are well stocked with a wide variety of food and some of the country's best cooks take pride in their seafood specialties. Getting to Ambergris Caye is easy, the island is serviced by hourly scheduled flights. A short twenty minute flight from the international airport brings one to the San Pedro airport, which is walking distance to town. Ferry service is also available. San Pedro's warm friendly casual atmosphere insures a perfect holiday. A familiar sign in town states, "Welcome to San Pedro where you won't be a stranger for long." San Pedro is the town you will land at, boat to, eat at, shop in, meet people; in short, San Pedro Town will be a large part of most visitors' experience of Ambergris Caye. It is the transition point between dives and Maya tours (we use the new accepted standard - "Mayan" only to refer to the language, and "Maya" as a noun and adjective). If you're new to the island, leave about two thirds of your clothing at home, bring swim suits, sun block, sandals, and a hat. I struggled hard to find a single evening I could wear long pants in an entire two week stay. This is one very relaxed place. Most people step off the plane, and struggle for about three days to slow down. It's hot and fragrant and moist, the wind is cooling, and, well, things just don't seem so urgent. You'll walk, rent a golf cart, taxi, or bicycle mostly to get around. There are only ten streets, and NO pavement! Most people go barefoot or sandals, everywhere. You can swim in the warm clear Caribbean Sea, protected by the reef. The color is beyond description. Many people just stare at it for hours. The water is really warm, averaging about 82 degrees year round. You'll find pages from resort owners throughout this site, and restaurants too. Check those out for specific menus and specials, but as a rule, fish and lobster will be cheaper and wonderful because they just caught them. Almost everything else came from somewhere else. Still the fruit is wonderful, and the local beer, Belikin is delightful. The experienced Caribbean traveler will recognize San Pedro Town immediately: In some ways, it's the Caribbean of 30 or 40 years ago, before the boom in international travel, a throw-back to the days before cruise ships turned too many Caribbean islands into concrete mini-malls hustling duty-free booze and discount jewelry. There are just three north-south streets, each hard-packed sand. Wood houses and shops, painted in bright tropical colors fading quickly in the sun, stand close together. Newer buildings are reinforced concrete, optimistically girded for the next big hurricane. Foot and bicycle traffic predominate, though the streets are busy with golf carts - keep a close eye, as the electric ones sneak up behind you silently - and an increasing number of pick-ups and cars. A couple of years ago, in a burst of efficiency, the town council made Front Street, whose name has been changed to the more romantic-sounding Barrier Reef Drive, one-way, with carts and vehicles allowed to go north only for most of its distance, to Caribena Street. Middle Street, or Pescador Drive, is one-way south from the intersection with Caribena Street. Many of the hotels, restaurants and larger businesses are on Front Street. Just beyond the primary school and the bite-sized San Pedro Library (here, you don't need a library card, and even visitors can check out books, free, or a buy a used paperback for a dollar or two), you'll see Rubie's, Sea Gal, Celi's Deli, Holiday Hotel, Spindrift, home of the chicken drop, and then Jaguar Temple, Barefoot Iguana, and Big Daddy's clubs, the venerable Barrier Reef Hotel, and the Catholic church, cool and welcoming. Farther up on the right there's Fido's (FEE-dough's), the Mayan Princess, and the new Ambergris Caye Museum, cozy but full of interesting stuff. As Barrier Reef Drive peters out, dead ahead is the Paradise Hotel and Paradise Villas. To the east, beyond the line of buildings, only a few feet away, accessible through many alleys, is the Caribbean. There's a narrow strip of beach and seawall between the buildings and the sea, used as a pedestrian walk-way. A number of piers or docks, quickly rebuilt after Hurricane Mitch washed them away, jut out into the sea. The patch of white you see a few hundred yards out is surf breaking over the barrier reef. Even if you're a strong swimmer, don't try swimming out to the reef from the shore. There is a lot of boat traffic inside the reef, and over the years several swimmers have been killed or injured by boats. Middle Street, or Pescador Drive, the other main north-south venue, is also busy. It's home to the original location of Rock's Grocery (a branch opened south of town in 1996), Elvi's Kitchen, The Reef and other worthies. Several budget hotels are also here, or on side streets nearby. As you go farther north on Middle Street, San Pedro becomes more residential, and more local. You'll see the San Pedro Supermarket, electric and telephone facilities, a small high school, playground, and then the San Pedro River, or "the Cut" or "the Channel." This area south of Boca del Rio got a good deal of water damage from Hurricane Mitch, due in part to the illegal cutting of mangroves; it's not nice to chop Mother Nature. A 60-second, hand-pulled ferry will take you across to the other side. A small golf cart and walking path wends its way north, mostly on the back side of the island, past the proposed site of Reef Village, expat homes, Sweet Basil deli, and Capricorn resort and restaurant. The cart path, badly washed by Mitch, is slowly returning to bumpy normality. It ends at Captain Morgan's, where the path is blocked by a barrier erected on the beach. You can, however, walk northward, following the narrow beach to a number of resorts, including the Essene Way, with its kitchy Biblical and bizarre black-face statuary, Journey's End, at 90 rooms the largest resort on the island, and Mata Chica, new and trendy. Beyond the last hotel is a large, undeveloped area. Over the years, many schemes have been floated for this part of the island, once part of a private holding called the Pinkerton Estate. A large part of this area has been saved from Cancunization thanks to establishment of the Bacalar Chico national park and marine reserve. The park, which opened in 1996, comprises 12,000 acres of land and 15,000 acres of water. At present the park is accessible by boat from San Pedro, from the Belize mainland at Sarteneja and elsewhere and from the Mexican port village of X'calak. The park is home to a surprisingly large population of birds and wildlife, and there are a number of Maya sites. This northern tip of the island is separated from the Mexican Yucatán only by the narrow Bacalar Chico channel. Indeed, Ambergris Caye once was physically part of the Yucatán peninsula, the channel having been dug by the Maya. Had you headed south from town rather than north, you'd be on Coconut Drive, another sandy little roadway. A cluster of hotels and other businesses are near the airstrip, SunBreeze, The Palms and Ramon's, among others. You'll pass Jade Garden restaurant on your left, then, quickly, Changes in Latitude BandB, the Belize Yacht Club with its new meeting and restaurant facility, the newly repainted budget Hideaway Sports Hotel, Playador with its thatch condo additions, Corona Del Mar, Coconuts Hotel and the Lalas' little paradise, Caribbean Villas. You'll pass soft-drink and beer magnate Barry Bowen's turf, which includes Island Academy, one of the better private schools in Central America, and his warehouse facility. Some of the buildings, you'll note, are painted Belikin-bottle green. Here, the little road veers sharply right, past the newer Rock's Grocery II and La Margarita, a Tex-Mex place, then back left. The area west of the main drag here, or to your right going south, is the San Pablo residential area. Considerable development continues along the sea, including the new Banana Beach condotel. Villas at Banyan Bay, now expanding, Tropica, the mushrooming Royal Palms timeshare, Victoria House and Caribe Island Resort are also in this area. By this point, you're some 3 miles south of San Pedro Town. If you continue farther south, by foot or cart, you're back in a residential area, with a number of upmarket houses including one owned by musician Jerry Jeff Walker, along with shacks and other assorted digs. Speaking of digs, the Marco Gonzales Maya site is near the south tip of the island (it's not easy to find - ask at your hotel for specific directions), one of a number of mostly difficult-to-get-to sites on the island. Other Maya sites on the island, which you can visit on boat tours to the North End, include Chac Balam and Santa Cruz. As on the north end of the island, mosquitoes are often a problem once you leave the more-developed areas in the south. Ambergris Caye is the name of Belize's largest island. The history of the island goes back to the days of the Maya, European Pirates, and Mexican Refugees who fled during the Caste War. The descendants from Mexico make up most of the island's population today. The economy of the island was once dependent on the coconut industry, followed by the fishing industry and presently it depends on tourism. Ambergris Caye (pronounced Am-BUR-gris or Am-BUR-grease Key) is the largest of some 200 cayes that dot the coastline of Belize. Ambergris is 25 miles long and a little over a mile wide in some places, and is located in the clear shallow waters of the Caribbean Sea just off the tip of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. Her coastline is protected by the 190 miles long Barrier Reef, the second largest living coral reef in the world. In Mayan times, Ambergris Caye was a trading post. The Marco Gonzalez ruins at the southern tip of the caye and the Basil Jones site to the north, as well as the many recently excavated "home sites" in the heart of San Pedro Town give evidence to a former Maya population of 10,000. The narrow channel that separates Mexico and Belize was dug by the Maya to provide a trade route from the bay of Chetumal to the Caribbean. Following the Maya came the whalers and buccaneers and the ancestors of present day residents who were fishermen and workers in the coconut plantations. Today tourism has replaced fishing as the major source of income for the islanders although the mahogany skiffs are still in service for charter fishing and diving. San Pedro Town is the only inhabited area on the island. It's atmosphere is that of a small bustling fishing village. The town is clustered with wooden houses, some with Mexican decor, others Caribbean, and some still remain with the English colonial architecture. Gift shops, boutiques, bars, cafes, and restaurants adorn Front And Middle streets (now named Barrier Reef Drive/Pescador Drive). A short walk in town will make you feel the friendliness of the people and enjoy their lifestyles as they go around doing their daily chores. Barefeet, tee-shirts, and shorts is the typical island dress code. The people of the island are called "Sanpedranos" and speak English, Spanish, Creole, and Maya all at the same time, making it their own island dialect. They are proud of their heritage and are willing to share it with the tourists. Before tourism picked up in the eighties, the islanders wer mostly Mestizos (Maya-Spanish). Today they share their island with the Creole, Maya, Central American refugees, and Americans that have made San Pedro their new home. The island's biggest tourist attraction is the Belize Barrier Reef that runs parallel along the entire coast of Belize. The reef is only a quarter mile from the beach of Ambergris Caye making diving easily accessible. The island's seaside is jammed with jetties and dive shops which offer trips to the different dive sites and to the Great Blue Hole. The also offer certified scuba lessons in NAUI, PADI, and SSI. One of the most popular dive sites is the Hol Chan Marine Reserve, which is only a ten minute boat ride from town. The reef's beauty and richness has put Belize among the top ten dive destinations in the world. The evenings on the island are a social event. You will find tourists and islanders at the different bars and restaurants listening to reggae and latin music and sharing the day's adventures. For those that like to take a day off from diving, the travel agencies in town arrange day tours to the Maya ruins and rain forest. For those who just want to relax, a day on the sandy beach will certainly do. When planning your next vacation to one of those exotic islands that offer everything but crowds, remember my name is . . . . . Ambergris Caye! Ambergris Caye was once a part of Mexico and therefore its wildlife is vastly similar to that found in northern Belize and southern Mexico. Plant life for the most part consists of White, Red and Black Mangrove, Buttonwood; littoral forest plants such as black poison wood, red and white gumbo limbo, sapodilla, ziricote, wild sea grape, fig,copal, coco plum, coconut, saltwater palmetto, and several small shrubs. Fauna include over 200 species of birds including endangered birds such as the black cat bird. Common sightings include the white-eyed vireo, Yucatan vireo, common tody flycatcher, great Kiskadee, black and gray catbird bird, chachalaca, cinnamon hummingbird, parakeets, black hawk, yellow-bellied elaenia, laughing falcon, white-collared seed-eater, golden-fronted woodpecker, black-headed salator, blue herons, egret birds, roseate spoonbill and the hooded oriole. Less frequent visitors to the Caye include green-breasted mango hummingbirds, yellow-backed oriole eastern kingbirds, scarlet and summer tanagers, regal white-crowned pigeons and the rose-throated becard. The northern end of Ambergris Caye is also home to many other terrestrial wildlife such as peccaries, racoons and white-tailed deer. Some locals have even reported seeing jaguars! Ambergris Caye is a food lovers paradise. Local cuisine is abundant featuring the Belizean favorite of rice and beans, stewed chicken and potato salad. Local foods are influenced by the Spanish and Mexicans with dishes such as Chimole, Escabeche, Panades, Salbutes, Garnaches, Tacos, Bollos, Tamalitos, Tamales and Burritos. Of course Seafood is a common delight, with feasts of succulent lobster, conch, and a delicious array of fish, squid, muscles, scallops and even shark. Most restaurants specialize in seafood dishes, however, lobster and conch are seasonal so be sure to check what is in season before ordering. Added to this array are the exquisite taste of seasonal tropical fruits such as pineapples, bananas, star fruit,cantaloupe, soursap, water melons, oranges, grapefruits,tangerines, may plums, figs, blackberry, mangoes, craboo, and much more. Or, if you're in the mood for something different there are several restaurants that feature European, Cajun, Indian, Chinese, and Jamaican cuisine. Ambergris Caye has many small settlements on the north and south of the main town, San Pedro. People who acquire land on Ambergris Caye and make it their home tend to give names to their pieces of paradise and as more people move into the area the names are often adapted by all. Each area has its unique features that both visitors and locals have come to love and enjoy. San Pedro Town Saint Peter Town - the only town on the island of Ambergris Caye is about one and a half-miles long and in some places about a mile wide. This is home to the majority of the island's population as well as a majority of the restaurants, bars, clubs and hotels on the island. Visitors will most likely find what they need within walking distance. North of San Pedro San Juan or St. John, is a community located directly north of the center of San Pedro Town. The area is home to majority of the work force on San Pedro and has its own unique mixture of people from all over Belize, Central America, North America and even Europe. The Zaak Ba Ajo Lagoon is a great spot to snorkel, boasting unique aquatic life and the lagoon's own little blue hole. Boca Del Rio or Mouth of the River - is a settlement in the north of the island located directly after San Juan and just before the river. A ferry links Boca Del Rio Area to other areas in the far north of the island. Visitors to Boca Del Rio can enjoy swimming where this salt water river meets the sea as well spending time at the Boca Del Rio Park. The water slides in the park are especially fun for small children. South of San Pedro San Pablo - Saint Paul is a small community located just over a mile and a half southwest of the center of San Pedro Town and facing the lagoon. Visitors often take bicycle or golfcart rides up Avenida Del Sol which stretches to the Lagoons edge - in San Pablo to watch to sparkling sunsets over the glossy surface of the lagoon. Swimming and snorkeling can be enjoyed along San Pablo Mar De Tumbo or the Tumbling Sea is the only spot on the island where the waves tumble to the shore through a break in the reef instead of first breaking on the reef like the rest of the island. This is a popular swimming area located just over a mile south of San Pedro. Other communities include the Escalente Sub-division in the south, San Miguel near San Pablo, San Telmo in the south near Mar De Tumbo, Sunset Coves in the south, San Pedrito located along the San Pedro Lagoon, Tres Cocos in the north, Las Palmas, and the Basil Jones area both also located in the north. The 1/2 mile from the beachline to the reefline has an abundance of wonders. AMENITIES: The recently constructed villas are a short fifteen minute walk south of the town of San Pedro. Each one bedroom villa is completely furnished and includes: - air conditioning/ceiling fans - private verandas overlooking the beach - fully equipped kitchen and living/ dining area - cable television - queen size bed in bedroom and sofa bed in living room In addition guests enjoy: - daily maid service - private beach area - lounges and hammocks - complimentary bicycles - easy access to restaurants and grocery stores - assistance with booking a variety of scuba, snorkeling, fishing trips and excursions to the Mayan ruins and wildlife parks - availability of laundry service Herm and Linda Penland, managers of Coral Bay Villas, have been educators at overseas American schools for the past twenty five years and chose Ambergris Caye because of the laid-back atmosphere, great year-around weather, unspoiled beauty and variety of water sports available. An unforgettable vacation awaits you in this tropical paradise on "la Isle Bonita." We hope you will choose Coral Bay Villas for your vacation spot and look forward to assisting you during your visit to Ambergris Caye. ACTIVITIES: DINING/RESTARUANTS: Type: Villa Beach Location: Beach Front (Directly on Beach/Water Front) http://www.caribbeanmag.com/search/hotels/Belize/coralbayvillas/hotel/347/3/ Sun, 12 Oct 2008 02:47:23 EST