San Pedro

[carbon]

What is this town like? Any shops with handcrafted merchandise?

[karpowij]

Was in San Pedro 6/2/04 during my NCL Sea excursion to Shark Ray Alley. I loved the town. Plenty of typical souvenier shops. Bought a handcrafted wood stingray from a street vendor. The town is kind of funky in a Carribean way. Would go back again if I ever get the chance.

[carbon]

Thanks karpowij, How long was your Shark Ray Alley excursion? How much time did you spend in San Pedro?

[karpowij]

It took about an hour via boat to go from the tender port in Belize City to the Shark Ray Alley. We snorkled for about 75 minutes then had lunch in San Pedro where we stayed about 2 hours. Then had a rough one hour boat ride back to Belize City as a storm passed through during lunch. Usually they pick you up and drop you off directly at the ship but due to rough seas we had to go to the tender port. Feel free to ask other questions.

[danfiveoh]

Karpowij:
I was thinking of booking the shark ray alley tour but now am leaning toward taking a local puddle jumper flight over to San Pedro and spending the day there. We've done so much snorkeling on past cruises and we've done the cave tubing in Belize. Any thougths about spending an entire day in San Pedro?

[carbon]

Karpowij, We are arriving on a Royal Caribbean ship next March. The Shark Ray Alley Snorkle and sightseeing tour is 7 hours and 30 minutes. If the ride is 1 hour each way, we snorkle for 75 minutes ,each lunch in San Pedro for two hours...that adds up to about 5hours and 15 minutes. I wonder what else we will be doing? They must give us extra time in San Pedro. Karpowij, were did you eat lunch? Did you visit the handicraft center in Belize?

[karpowij]

I don't remember the name of the restaurant in San Pedro. It was arranged through the excursion. It was in a restaurant/bar on the beach. Although I liked the atmosphere, the lunch wasn't very good. Overcooked chicken and fries. There is better Shopping in San Pedro than at the tender dock. Didn't make it to the handicraft centere. Made it back to the tender port just in time to catch the last tender back.

[TrqoisWtrs]

danfiveoh- would highly recommend taking the puddle jumper to San Pedro. Flight itself is fun and you can ask to sit up in the co-pilot's seat. On our flight back to the mainland we landed on Caye Caulker to pick up one passenger. That was the tiniest runway! :eek:
[img]http://us.f1.yahoofs.com/users/4f9c468f/bc/aa43/__sr_/eda3.jpg?phYEv6AB1xF9YMXb[/img]

San Pedro is a fun place to spend the day. Lots of shops and bars/restaurants. We spent 9 nights on Ambergris Caye last month and can recommend Cannibals and Jerry's Crab Shack (ate at both twice). Cannibals is a neat place that faces the ocean. Only outside tables. Good food - great fresh fish sandwich. Jerry's also had good food (crab legs!), but its not on the beach. Everything is within walking distance of the airport. Most of the shops and restaurants are on the main street.

More restaurant info: [url="http://ambergriscaye.com/pages/goodscv/restaurants.html"]http://ambergriscaye.com/pages/goodscv/restaurants.html[/url]

[danfiveoh]

great info and link, thanks tigger!

[Shaken_Bake]

My very favorite part of my fantastic trip was the excursion to Shark Ray Alley. My DH and I usually do my own excursions due to price and flexibility, but my husband went scuba diving and I couldn't tag along to snorkel. Ten minutes before the posted departure time, I ran up to the excursion desk on our ship (RCCL's Enchantment) and asked for whatever they had where I could snorkel. I little while later, I was on a small boat with 20 others - I didn't even know what the itinerary was! We had a great crew who gave us a lot of info about the area and what to look for.

After a brief stop in Caye Caulker to pick up some fresh sardines to feed the fish, we were on the barrier reef watching the shadows of the sharks (nurse sharks, no threat, so they say...) and rays under the shallow water. I really had to talk myself into jumping in, but boy am I glad I ever did... I could not believe my eyes about what I saw under the water. So many fish! Rays all over, seemed very tame - we were warned to be careful not to kick them, but otherwise we could reach out and pet them as they glided by. The crew even grabbed the rays on either side and held them up so we could see their undersides - funny mouth and teeth! A number of nurse sharks glided under me, some maybe seven or eight feet long. Oh, the fish, the colors, the varieties. I felt like I was swimming in a giant tropical aquarium. Then our group did a tour of the coral reef. If you look in the distance, the reef looks kind of bland and colorless. It's when you're right next to a formation that you can see the vivid colors and shapes. Unreal! I could have spent hours more floating around. It was the highlight of my trip.

We spent three hours in San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, for lunch and shopping. Very funky, kind of primative town. With the sand streets, golf carts are the primary mode of transportation. Ramshackle buildings of all different hues. I found the people to be so nice and laid back, ready to chat or help if you needed it. Such a refreshing change from the previous day, trying to ignore or fend off the aggressive vendors in Cozumel. There are many different races and national origins there. I saw Americans or other westerners who obviously lived there, people of Spanish and African descent, even Amish who somehow ended up there. I've seldom felt like I've been in a true melting pot as I did that day. I didn't think there were a lot of shopping venues (I really needed some trinkets for my children and I had a hard time finding them). I did, however, stumble upon a shop that had some Central American style handicrafts in the window. When I went in, I was warmly greeted by Ricardo, the owner, whose main product was jewelry he made out of black coral. I spent a half hour chatting with him about all different things about living on the island (he was third generation there) and how the jewelry was made. It was very unique and some pieces were exquisite. I ended up buying a small necklace and matching earrings for about $50.00. Who knows if this was a good value or not; I liked the stuff and I liked talking to Ricardo even more - well worth the cost of admission!

I spent the rest of the time in Fido's Bar and Restaurant, an open thatched roof joint on the water. Nothing like sipping a drink with the ocean breeze cooling you nicely, watching the palm trees and the water... I would heartily recommend an afternoon or more in San Pedro for a true off the beaten track destination.

[carbon]

Sounds like a wonderful day! Which shore excursion from Royal caribbean did you take? Shark Ray Alley Snorkel & sightseeing Tour, Shark Ray Alley & Beach with Lunch or Barrier Reef Snorkle at Rendezyous Caye (not sure of the spelling). How long was the excursion? Thanks, for any info.

[Shaken_Bake]

[quote name='carbon']Sounds like a wonderful day! Which shore excursion from Royal caribbean did you take? Shark Ray Alley Snorkel & sightseeing Tour, Shark Ray Alley & Beach with Lunch or Barrier Reef Snorkle at Rendezyous Caye (not sure of the spelling). How long was the excursion? Thanks, for any info.[/QUOTE]

I took (I believe) the Shark Ray Alley Snorkel and Sightseeing. I was afraid there might have been some kind of bus or walking tour, but all Sightseeing meant was you had three hours to do whatever you wanted. Lunch at Fido's was included, but it wasn't stellar - a boney piece of bland bbq chicken, rice, cole slaw and a juice. (Do try Belikan beer - quite tasty). It takes around seven hours, we left the boat around 9:00 and returned at 4:00. A lot of time is spent getting to Ambergris and back - over an hour on the return. The boat is small but fast and the bench seat got very hard by the end. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the ride and the motion never got to me (or anyone else).

[carbon]

bump for squirteena