Country #83 Belize – First Day; Very unique experiences

I recently came back from a trip to Belize which is country #83 for me.

Upon arrival in Belize City, we connected on a Tropic Air flight to the island of Ambergris Caye, where we would spend the next few days exploring the town of San Pedro. Usually, I stay in the capital city for a few days, but Belize City (we would stay one night at the end of the trip) is one exception. There is literally nothing (almost) to do there. More on that in a later post. For now, I want to tell you about Tropic Air.

Getting to San Pedro – If you arrive at Belize International Airport, there are two ways to get to San Pedro. One is by ferry and one is by Tropic Air. The ferry will take 1.5 hours and the flight is 15 minutes so for me, flight is the best option. Once you clear immigration and customs, the signs to the domestic transfer desk are well marked and it a very easy process to check into your Tropic Air flight and proceed to the gates. The airport is pretty small so you should have no issues. After a short wait, our flight was called for boarding and we walked over to the prop plane that would take us to San Pedro:

The views from the air were really nice:

I was really impressed by Tropic air in terms of service and on time departures. We would come to use it a couple more times during our time in Belize; including for island hopping. At times, it felt like a plane version of Uber. I think larger carriers could learn a lot about customer service from Tropic Air! I highly recommend them any time its an option in Belize.

Once we arrived at San Pedro, we exited the airport and waited for our golf cart rental.

Yes! The main mode of transportation on Ambergis Caye is golf cart. There are many rental companies and we prebooked one in advance.

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Its a really liberating way to get around. I loved the open air which made me more in tune with the surroundings while driving around. Its great to be able to feel the breeze, hear the sounds, and smell the smells. One thing you should always remember about the golf carts is to lock them up (using a sort of bicycle lock type device the rental company will provide). Apparently, every golf cart key in the world is the same… Anyway, after getting our cart, we proceeded to our hotel, the Alaia.

Our room was pretty nice but there were a lot of ants in certain areas. I informed the front desk and housekeeping came to fix the problem. After that, we had only minor bugs in the room every now and then. Certain things in the room were also not working but were eventually fixed like the sliding door lock and phone. The best part of the room was the view from the balcony.

One thing you should know about San Pedro is that while the water is a nice turquoise blue, there are very few beach areas. Also, those beach areas are not the white sand Caribbean type. However, the island is still worth visiting because the snorkeling is so good.

After getting settled, we decided to explore a bit before dinner. The first place we hit up was a pupusa shop. A pupusa is a kind of flatbread with various toppings and is the national dish of El Salvador.

They are totally delicious. Also, it was our first time trying Marie Sharp’s hot sauce. A local Belizean product. After that, I asked for it at every meal, and put it on almost everything!

For dinner I made reservations at Elvi’s kitchen. They had live music which contributed to the nice dinner to follow. The place gave us some complimentary banana bread to start:

Here was the menu:

We started with the Fisherman’s Chicharon which was basically a fried fish and pretty good:

Next, some street corn which was just ok (this is one of my favorite dishes but I would say 90% of the time, it disappoints; the first and best I’ve ever had was a place in container park in Vegas).

The mains were VERY delicious. First, stone crab cooked with Mayan spices. At first, it was a bit weird to have these warm because I am used to the ones in Miami at Joe’s which are served cold (and I have actually never seen these served anywhere else but Miami). The Mayan spice was totally on point and so delicious. I loved these.

I also had the curry which was also very delicious.

The meal finished with dessert:

Overall, this was a great dinner. Atmosphere with the live music was awesome. Service was good and the food was too. I would return especially for the crab claws and highly recommend.