Digging Up Bones in San Pedro, Ambergris Caye

Departure/Arrival Day -
We got up on Sunday after sleeping intermittently through the Caye Caulker normal Saturday night/party all night night. Packed our bags, had some coffee and breakfast before catching a water taxi over to San Pedro. It had been almost exactly a year since we had visited San Pedro with Joanne and Larry. I guess we arrived at the San Pedro ferry dock at about 11 in the morning and turned left at the beach to go straight to Ruby's Hotel...only about a 1/4 km. walk from the dock.

The 5-Star View from our Room at Ruby's

We didn't have reservations and knew within reason it would be easy to get a room this time of the year, but it still feels good to get that room. We ended up in a third floor room overlooking the water...no a/c needed. It was right next door to the room we had stayed in on our last visit to San Pedro. The views over the water at Ruby's make me feel like I am in a 5-star resort but Ruby's is anything but that.


So the walk down memory lane began.

 

After unpacking, we walked north past Fido's, by the town square, past Wet Willy's, and all the way down past Wayo's Bar. Wow....San Pedro was really quiet! Guess a lot of it is the time of the year. For Caye Caulker and Ambergris Caye to be so close together they have a world of difference in feel and attitude. For example, Caye Caulker is small and everybody either walks or rides a bike. It has quite a few backpack hotels with hotels and houses sprinkled around. Caye Caulker is all about golf carts, quaint hotels in town, large resorts out of town, and quite a few elaborate private residences. The travelers to Caye Caulker are predominantly backpackers, many European, while San Pedro attracts an older crowd/mostly American/many Texans. In some way, San Pedro is like being at home, ie, I look at each traveler that we pass and feel like I know them from somewhere.
We spent our first day walking the town, lounging on the beach, and went to Fido's in the afternoon to hear Dennis Wolfe and friends play at the Sunday evening jam session. We had some of the best conch fritters ever. Later on, it was Waruguma's for pupusas followed by a bottle of wine up on the balcony at Ruby's overlooking the water. 

The First Full Day -
It's easy to get into our beach traveling routine. It's like this - get up in the morning, have coffee, go for a long walk, eat breakfast, lounge around on the beach with a few beers during the day, do a little shopping and look seeing, more lounging on the beach while we discuss where we want to go for the evening, then do our evening thing. Our first full day started early and we took a long walk all the way down to Banana Beach Resort to see if Ingrid was around. Joanne and Larry had really wanted us to look her up. Darn! She has taken a new job at Cowboy Doug's out across the bridge. We had a wonderful breakfast at Estel's on the Beach and did our beach lounge lizard thing.

Breakfast at Estel's

The Crazy Canuck in the Daytime from the Beachside

Somewhere during the day we continued on our quest of digging up bones by going to the The Crazy Canuck and looking for Ollie. Ollie had taken Joanne, Larry, Terry and I on a fishing trip last year - and we had caught fish! He's a bartender when he isn't fishing. Ollie wasn't going to show up for work until after 5 so we decided to head back north to the hotel, and look for Ollie at another time. We stopped at a little beachside bar and upon leaving we were approached by a fishing guide...they spot Terry's Guy Harvey t-shirts a mile off. No, no fishing in our future this trip. No. No, thanks, but no fishing. NO! Dennis Wolf and the Usual Suspects were going to be playing at Fido's later on and we had decided to go listen. And more conch fritters. The show was good and lasted until about 11pm.

At Fido's

   When we left Fido's we just weren't ready to call it a night. These are usually the times an inner voice is telling you that you should call it a night. It is quite a walk from Fido's to the Crazy Canuck in the dark, but we weren't through digging up bones. Sure enough! Ollie was working. We had a nice chat and then in walked the fishing guide....did I mention it was a long walk? Wow, was it just coincidence we met up with this guy from several hours ago? Why didn't I listen to my inner voice instead of me telling Ollie to bring him a beer?! No fault of the Crazy Canuck's nor of Ollie's. I will take responsibility for this encounter. We can be quite quick on our feet when we need to be ---- Goodbye to Ollie, really good to see you again, off we go for the long, dark walk back to Ruby's.
Tomorrow we'll continue digging up bones - let's go see Joe and look for Ingrid!

If Yesterday was Monday Today Must be Tuesday -
Joanne and Larry had really wanted us to rent a golf cart, so we decided today was the day. We got the golf cart before breakfast then headed out to George's Kitchen for breakfast (best biscuits and gravy ever!). George's closes on Tuesday's so we went and had breakfast at Banana Beach then headed south cross-country on the golf cart. We stopped by Joe's Texas Grill but it wasn't open yet. We again shopped around for a long-term rental for Joanne and Larry. We definitely think the south side of town is the place to be....somewhere in the little village close to Joe's....great condos and houses for long-term rentals if anybody is wanting to stay on Ambergris Caye for awhile. We went almost as far south as we could go before turning around and going back into town.

The house I picked out for Joanne & Larry on Ambergris Caye

Breakfast at Banana Beach

Later in the day we headed north acoss the bridge and as far north as we could go. All the way to Rojo Lounge, stopped at the Palapa Bar, and past Cowboy Doug's.

The Palapa Bar

But, we didn't stop to dig up bones/look for Ingrid....walking thru the huge grounds of the Caribe something-or other was just too much. Joanne will have to contact Ingrid and let her know that she "heard" Ingrid had changed jobs. We still had golf cart time later in the day so we went to see Joe out south one more time. Oops - we had read the sign wrong and realized Joe closes up on Tuesdays too.

Joe's (from League City, Tx) Lone Star Grill & Cantina
 

Just enough time for an afternoon lounge on the beach before dinner at El Fogon. El Fogon serves Carribean/Belizean food and the whole concept makes it fun and relaxing. You have a choice of appetizers, main course, and dessert for a fixed price. The wait staff is helpful and friendly and we enjoyed talking with them. We had decided to go there when earlier we had peeked inside the closed wooden fence and got caught by one of the owners. She described the place in detail to us with such pride and friendliness it made us want to go back. Later on, we realized from Trip Advisor that El Fogon is one of the top spot in San Pedro to eat. We had conch fritters and fish balls, seafood main courses, and key lime pie for dessert. Mmmmmm!
Tomorrow - do we head out or stay? Where are we going if we leave?