SVG To Belize

When I last wrote we were riding at anchor in Bequia.  As I write this entry I am sitting on the balcony of our hotel in San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize.  The in-between 72 hours was interesting to say the least.

We pulled the anchor up in Admiralty Bay around 11 am.  As we left the still waters of the Bay we were hit with 22+ knots per hour winds and near 9-foot waves.  Deborah and I had never experienced sailing like this but Pam felt safe (albeit wet from crashing waves) so we did as well.  The waves were so rough I saw a similar sized sailboat raise a full third of its length out of the water as it crested a wave.  With only a reefed main (not fully extended), the Blue Pearl clipped along, over and through the waves and we arrived in Saint Vincent in just over an hour.  We dried off and said our goodbyes before making our way to the airport.  For those that want to continue following the adventures of Glen & Pam on the Blue Pearl, have a look at their blog at http://www.thebluepearl.ca/

Our Liat flight was on a Dash 8 to St. George’s Grenada, with a brief stopover in Trinidad.  Unbeknownst to us, Liat often dumps weight in Saint Vincent when the winds are high, by leaving some luggage.  My bag arrived but Deborah’s did not.   With signs of panic setting in and thinking about our early morning flight, we spoke to the airline representative and he said, “fingers crossed” it will make the next flight.  By this time two more 737 loaded flights arrived and the single line through Customs snaked throughout the entire airport.  We resigned ourselves to an hour's wait and joined the queue.  We then noticed the Liat man flirting with an off duty female Customs agent.  Shortly after and to our surprise, we were pulled from the line and whisked through Customs without being questioned.  Our bag arrived at the hotel two hours later and all panic ceased.

Sunday morning we took off for Cancun via Miami.  Unfortunately, the US makes visitors in transit go through Immigration and Customs.  Even though we were connecting to Mexico we had to retrieve our bags and face the huge lineups of any major airport hub.  We thought we might get lucky by using our Nexus Cards but Nexus is not recognized in Miami.  We spoke to an airport security person about using Nexus and they directed us to the empty Diplomat line (while the other had about 500).  Sheepishly, we went to the Diplomat line and were immediately accosted by a US Immigration officer.  He is the one who told us Nexus is not recognized and we had no business being in that line.  I guess our puppy dog eyes worked once again and we were ushered through as diplomats without stopping.

Back to Miami

Not Much To Look at Arriving on the Yucatan

Arriving Cancun

Arrival in Cancun was easy.  The line was about a 20 minute wait but we got lucky and punched a green light instead of red, and cruised through the formalities.  It was only when we left the Customs & Immigration area that it got interesting again.

I begin by stating that I despise timeshare salespersons.  Like all Mexican tourist airports, you must gird your loins, be steadfast, and march with aggressive purpose, through the gauntlet of sales people that plea for your attention with offers of “help”.  We steeled our nerves and we managed to get through unscathed.

We arrived in Cancun with a loose plan.  We booked an airport hotel for the day of our arrival back in SVG.  We knew we had a reservation at Ambergris Caye the second night after.  Our challenge was to get the 400 kms from Cancun to Chetumal, and find something interesting to see and a place to stay, along the way.

Our immediate challenge was to get to the hotel.  This is when it got interesting.  We read the fine print on our reservation and discovered that courtesy shuttle service had to be arranged 24 hours in advance, not the 15 minutes we had allowed.  It was to be $34 US for a bus (and would take hours) or a $68 US taxi ride.  We went to the tourist Information desk to ask for help. 

We first asked for advice on what to visit along the way and the Tulum Mayan Ruins were recommended.  It was when we asked about transportation that we discovered that the Tourist Information Booth was a covert cover for the Time Share industry.  We were quickly turned over to Ernesto.  He immediately took care of our hotel transport issue with a phone call providing a free ride.  He had our attention and he then offered a free ride (150 kms) to Tulum the next day, with the proviso we stop for a sumptuous free breakfast at the Grand Mayan Palace Resort and a quick 90-minute tour of the facility.  I immediately said no and that we were not interested in a timeshare sales chat.  Ernesto persisted and said if we don’t ask questions and are determined not to buy, it will be over quickly.  He was going to solve two big problems for us and we began to weaken but not commit.  Long story, semi short, we held out for the Resort Breakfast (excellent by the way), the free ride to Tulum and $150 US cash. It proved to be the longest 90 minutes of our lives.  It was five hours in total and sucked all our entire reserve of energy.  NEVER AGAIN!

Just as Ernesto promised, Alberto arrived at our hotel at 7:30 and off we went to the Mayan Palace.  It is truly a beautiful property.  Ernesto had warned us that they would match a Canadian sales person with us and sure enough, Lev, a Russian born, Montreal raised, Burnaby educated 28 year old met us and took us to breakfast.  He began the process of breaking us, getting to know us, compared us to his parents and he to our kids.  His tour and pitch were warm and gracious and due to our Canadian connection managed to give us a 50%-off deal on a permanent two weeks a year, at the bargain price of $68,000 US.  When he failed to close, Gordon from Poco joined us.  Again, due to our great connections, he got the price down to $34,000 US.  When he failed, we met Luca from member services and he managed to get us a special one-time deal of $9000 for two weeks, for two years.  Luca’s failure meant we met Roberto, a personal representative of an owner of the resort.  Roberto got Luca’s price down to $3400 but we remained strong.  We were finally turned over to a man who introduced himself as one of the owners.  He didn’t give his name but his power meant he could give us a one-time, two-week offer at $2600 US.  When we turned him down he took a moment and looked at us before asking how we could turn him down.  It was then that we broke into our, “its not you, its us” speech.  We told him his property was beautiful and his financial offer was generous but we couldn’t say yes because we are “ditherers”, we cannot make a decision if our life depended on it.  Sadly we were incapable of making spur of the moment decisions and not interested in changing.  With a look of disgust, we were finally dismissed to collect our $150 and the free ride to Tulum.

We found the Tulum Posada 06 hotel online and it proved to be clean with very friendly staff.  We walked to the ADO Bus station and bought tickets to Chetumul and ferry tickets to Ambergris Caye, Belize.  We taxied to the Ruins and hired Florenzo as a personal guide.  Florenzo had a bit of a cold that made him difficult to understand but we gathered that Tulum as the last city built by the Mayans and it was built around 1200 AD.  Comparatively the Mayan city in Coba (45 kms) away, was built in 300 BC.  Tulum was built as a seaport to facilitate trading with other Mayan Caribbean cities.  It was discovered in more modern times when some folks sailing off shore said, "wait a minute, the Yucatan is flat, what are those green hills?"  Under the dense jungle foliage, they discovered the ruins. In the evening we enjoyed some Dos Equis on the deck and authentic Mexican food at Don Caffeto’s, dinning on the patio, on Tulum’s main street.

Tulum's Harbour

Princess in Front - High Priest's House in Back

Mayan God Descending From Heavan

Tourist Train

Pickled Everything Appy at Don Caffeto's, Tulum

The ride to Chetumal was good.  The modern highway cruiser was clean, air conditioned and had TV and movies (in Spanish).  We read our books, as there is nothing to see along the 400 km corridor between Cancun and Chetumal.  The countryside is flat and the vegetation is scrubbed tropical.

The trip was not without further surprises.  After spending all our pesos we found out the 80 minute water taxi ride had an additional $6 tax over the $40 US ticket.  As well, Mexico Immigration charges each tourist $30 US to leave the country.  No credit cards were accepted, only cash.  We walked many streets in search of an ATM and met many unhelpful Chetumalians before scoring some cash.

Chetumal Ferry Dock - No Pictures Beyond Gate

As we prepared to leave on the 30-person small ferry, six Mexican soldiers arrived in full combat gear, armed with automatic weapons.  We were told to line up gym class style, single file, with our toes on a line, our bags in another and our carry on in yet another.  A drug dog was put through its paces, sniffing everyone and everything.  One person reached forward when his bag was knocked over by the dog and the automatic weapons came up and he was sharply ordered to step back.  The dog identified three bags and three young men from England were pulled out as the rest of us stared.  The weapons were still at the ready as the bags were searched.  Nothing significant was found and after a half-hour delay we were on our way. 

After a Flat Ride - Arrived Ambergris Caye

Arrived in Belize, walked through Immigration & Customs (no charges) and after a five minute taxi ride were in our hotel, drinking free rum punch on the beach.

New Place to Explore - New Beers to Drink