Someone really has it in for the new Animal Hospital

A Detailed Review of Pedro's Inn

What follows is an excessively long review of Pedro’s Inn.  If you want to get to the details, you can skip The Backstory and go straight for The Review.  Or for the cliff notes version, scroll down all the way to the Summary.  Updates to the original review are made in Italics.

The Backstory…

Four years ago, my fiancée and I decided to have a small destination wedding.  We settled on the country of Belize and in particular, the town of San Pedro on the Caribbean island of Ambergris Caye.  Neither of us had ever been to San Pedro, or even Belize for that matter, and knew little about the country.  After a ton of reading and online research, we invited a few friends, packed up and flew off to Belize.

We had a terrific wedding on the beach and the entire trip was simply an unforgettable experience.  The locals that we met were so friendly and welcoming.  It made such an impression on us that we’ve been back many times since.

This spring as we were returning from our yearly trip, I received notification of discounted airfares to Belize for October.  American Airlines was offering a round trip rate of $330, and since we usually pay $600 or so, the deal was just too good to pass up.  We immediately purchased the tickets and prepared for a fall trip to our paradise.

Before our first trip, we had researched many lodging options.   Ambergris Caye is an island split in two by a small river.  The town is south of the river with several small hotels and resorts along with the daily activity associated with town living.  The north end of the island is much more quiet and quaint, peppered with remote resorts that are accessible only by water taxi.  We decided that being within walking distance of many bars and restaurants and having more to do would make for a better trip.  As a result, we booked our stay in town.  It turned out to be the perfect decision for our group.

Ever since we have stayed in San Pedro town.  In the past, we’ve put up around $150 per night for a stay at The Blue Tang or more usually $250 a night for a nice two bedroom condo at The Palms.  Both are outstanding properties and come highly recommended if you are willing to pay that kind of money.

However, this year we decided to make our trips more economical.  For our spring visit, I did quite a bit of research and after some recommendations decided to book at The Conch Shell, a small inn on the beachfront in the center of town.  I assumed the location would be perfect and thought that I couldn’t enjoy San Pedro without the beachfront setting, so I negotiated a $50 rate (discounted from the regular rate of $67 per night) and booked a room for my 2 week stay.

Needless to say I wasn’t too happy with my accommodations.  In short, the rooms felt very insecure and there was a lot of noise from the dive shops early in the morning.  Also, the lack of air conditioning left me extremely overheated, the tv reception was unwatchable and the in-room wifi was extremely spotty at best.  If you want to read up more on my experience, check out this link: http://jasonsouthwell.com/post/111109861/a-quick-move

On that spring visit I became acquainted with Pedro’s Inn.  Pedro’s is a popular bar, hotel and backpackers inn.   I ended up spending many evenings enjoying Pedro’s thin-crust pizza and playing poker in the back room with the locals.  Pedro himself was there to welcome me to his bar and show me what it means to “ring the bell”.

When we were planning our fall visit, I decided to try Pedro’s Inn as a value accommodation.  We’ve loved our stays at more expensive places like The Blue Tang and The Palms, but were not at all happy with  our last attempt at a value stay with The Conch Shell.

I’ve traditionally thought of Pedro’s Inn as a fun bar with a back-packer’s style hostel, but apparently over the past year Pedro’s has been reinventing itself.  He still has his 14 “hostel style” rooms starting at $10 US per night, but recently Pedro has built a new hotel building across the street from the bar.  The new hotel has 32 rooms with air conditioning, cable tv and start at $50 US per night.

For our trip, we had 8 people coming down and we needed 5 rooms.  Pedro graciously offered us a discounted rate of $40 per night.

The Review…

Location

Pedro’s is a unique little campus on a dirt road by the airstrip.  It’s two blocks west of the main road through town with its back to the runway.  To get there from the airport, head south on the main street past Tropic’s new terminal and make a right just after you pass the Island Academy.  You should see the sign for Pedro’s Inn.

I will be honest.  Initially I had some concerns about staying at Pedro’s.  This was going to be our first visit to San Pedro where we would not be staying on the beachfront and the first time we would be without a verandah with which to enjoy the cool sea breeze.  Also, on our prior stays, we always made sure to be located within a short stroll to excellent bars, restaurants, and gift shops.  I was worried that Pedro’s was a bit far from the center of the town activity and I did not want to be isolated from everything that we enjoyed about San Pedro.  There was also a minor concern that Pedro’s proximity to the airstrip would make for a day filled with noisy distractions caused by puddle jumpers  landing and taking off all day.

I’m happy to say that my concerns were completely unfounded.

Pedro’s location turned out to be a nice change of pace for us and was surprisingly convenient.  I found Pedro’s Hotel to be much closer to the places I like to frequent than The Conch Shell, my other value hotel experience.

Within a five minute walk from Pedro’s you will find some of the best bars in town,  A short stroll will bring you to two of our favorites, BCs and Crazy Canucks and other fun stops like the Road Kill Bar and Coconuts beach bar.  Also within a five minute walk you can find 3 grocery stores, a gas station  and most importantly, the Beer Distributor where you can buy cases of beer at wholesale.

And if you find yourself missing the beach, the best sunbathers beach in town can be found a two minute walk away at The Exotic Caye resort (Crazy Canucks) and the best swimming beach in town can be found three minutes away at Ramon’s.  Also within a five minute walk from Pedro’s you will find the following beach hotels and resorts:  The Palms, Changes in Latitudes, Belize Yacht Club, Corona Del Mar and others.

On those occasions when you do decide to walk into town, a quick 3 minute walk to the beach and another 4 minute walk in the sand north (right foot in the water) and you find yourself at Estel’s our favorite breakfast place or Central Park, the place to go for a midnight snack.

And about that airplane noise concern?  I don’t remember ever hearing an airplane.  Pedro’s is close enough to the airstrip that I must have heard a takeoff or landing at some point, but honestly, I just can’t remember hearing it… at least not while at Pedro’s and certainly not while I was in my room.  I guess it just wasn’t a problem.

Facilities

Pedro’s is a campus of three buildings, one sporting the bar and hostel, one sporting the office and Pedro’s home and the third being the new hotel across the street.

Just in front of the office building is Walter’s Big Deck and Pedro’s new pool.

The pool is a beautiful fiberglass pool imported from Miami and was extremely well maintained.  The water remained the perfect temperature for cooling off on a hot Belizean day and the private deck provides ample room for taking in the rays.

Pedro’s has free wifi and the pool area is the best place to get a strong signal.  The connection is perfectly fast enough for browsing and email but was a bit slow for serious work (granted, serious work for me is different than most).  Pedro’s internet speed was comparable to Coconut Hotel’s free wifi and significantly faster than Lime Bar’s free wifi.  But a visit to my friend Tim and Tina’s house showed just how much faster island internet access can be.  Regardless, imagine chilling by the pool with a beer, checking in with your life back home in between dips in the pool to keep cool.  That was pretty much every morning of our vacation.

The office is the center of your operations while at Pedro’s.  You will find Cindy or Lorie behind the desk ready to answer your questions, help you book an excursion, rent you a bike or just to chat you up for a bit.  Also in the office you will find free morning coffee.  It’s a delicious blend and when they empty the pot, they will make more.  We  enjoyed filling up their huge coffee mugs and taking them up to the pool to relax and take in the Belizean air.  Maybe it’s the coffee speaking, but mornings at Pedro’s pool are paradise.

Also in the office you will find a refrigerator fully stocked with soda, beer and water for your daytime purchase and consumption at the pool. They also permit you to use the refrigerator to keep small items cool and provide a microwave to heat up something when needed. I wasn’t aware that this was available until later in the visit when it was offered to someone else in our group. I didn’t take advantage of it. I’m guessing it’s something they don’t advertise, but make available on request.

At about five in evening, Pedro’s bar comes to life.  The bar has the standard Belizean beer selection as well as other standard alcoholic drinks and sodas.  You will find that the bar has a definitive persuasion toward Jagermeister.  While you get the sense as you first step into the bar, you should ring the bell to get the full understanding of what I mean.

After you’ve been drinking for a while, you will most certainly get hungry.  Pedro’s has a great selection of specialty thin crust pizzas, a common favorite being the garlic shrimp pizza.  If you’re not in the mood for pizza, they also have great barbeque chicken wings or chili on the menu.  Walter, the cook (and apparently all-around handyman) at Pedros’ does a terrific job.  He’s also a very nice guy to chat with if you get the chance.

For those rounders among us, there is an (almost) nightly game of No Limit Hold’em in the back room.   Some nights they play 1-2 NL and other nights they play 2-5 NL.  The game is filled with local expats from the UK, Canada and US, among other places and everyone has a very good time.  If you like to play poker like I do, you will certainly get your fix playing in this game.

The bar is often very busy but the bartenders Cindy, Lorie and Raul all do a terrific job keeping the drinks flowing and the food orders coming.  It’s a fun time even if you are not staying at Pedro’s.

Room

My prior attempt at a value stay at The Conch Shell prompted me to expect the worst with value stays in San Pedro.   I knew that Pedro had air conditioning.  That was the biggest amenity lacking at The Conch Shell and hence I was looking forward to it at Pedro’s, but  I wasn’t sure what to expect otherwise.

I will say that upon arrival, everyone in my group was pleasantly surprised.   What we found were extremely solid and quiet rooms with amenities not found in the other value rooms in town.

The first thing you notice when entering the room is that the beds are deceptively simple.  They are plain wooden frames sporting a single thin mattress.   These simple beds however proved to be rock solid and extremely comfortable with the mattress holding a perfect firmness.  The king size bed was very large and extremely easy to get in and out of bed without disturbing my wife.   My back felt terrific after a week sleeping in the beds, and I slept more solid than I have in years.

The next thing you notice is that the beds are built higher than normal.  This ended up being quite a positive as it allowed us to use the space under the bed to store our empty luggage and dirty clothes.  Since the rooms at Pedro’s have little storage space, the under-bed space is highly useful.

The TV’s at Pedro’s have a full range of cable TV channels and offer crystal clear reception on all but three or four channels.  This is a HUGE upgrade from my experience at The Conch Shell where only 3 channels were even sort of watchable, and that was only if you squinted your eyes just right.

The bathroom is very simple, sporting a toilet, a shower and a few towel hooks (the sink and mirror is in the bedroom across from the bathroom door).  The water ran plenty hot and the water pressure was adequate for a nice relaxing shower.

The biggest positive of the room had to be the terrific air conditioning.  It makes the room as cold or as warm as you want it and it works very well.  The AC at The Palms doesn’t work half as well as the AC at Pedro’s.  I love good AC and Pedro’s got good AC.

We did have a few wishes for the rooms at Pedros.  There isn’t any space to hang clothes outside of the few hooks in the bathroom.  My wife likes to unpack immediately when checking into a hotel room and that was the first thing she noticed.  She mentioned it a few times through the week, so it must have bothered her.   I just used the door of the bathroom and the curtain rod to hang wet clothes to dry, but a few more hooks or a clothes hanger would be nice.

Also, the beds came outfitted with only sheets, no blankets.  This normally wouldn’t be much of an issue but I like to sleep with the AC cranked up and my wife gets cold very easily.  We likely could have asked for a blanket or something, but it never crossed our mind during the daytime and we solved it by covering my wife with a dry beach towel.

And finally, I really miss having in-room internet access.  The Palms and The Blue Tang Inn both have in room internet access.  I do most of my blog writing at nighttime and ended up having to queue it up for publishing the next morning.  It did also keep me from doing work on vacation.  A minor annoyance for me, but I think my wife liked my situation just fine.

Overall, the rooms at Pedro’s were a pleasant surprise.  They were very clean, extremely quiet and unexpectedly comfortable.  I would recommend them over the rooms at The Conch Shell any day of the week.

— update — It was asked of me to elaborate on the furnishings of the rooms.  The rooms at Pedro’s hotel are very simple. You get beds, TV, shelves, sink and bathroom. There is an overhead light in the bedroom and bathroom and there is a ceiling fan in the bedroom. It would have been nice to have a side table or chair to place remotes or water bottles on, but we found the bed big enough that there was plenty of room between us to keep whatever we needed within reach.

Also, to answer a question, the rooms are accessible from an internal hallway that passes through the center of each floor.  Each room has one window that provides plenty of ambient light during the day.

Staff

I’ve already mentioned most of the staff, but I want to mention a few specifically.  Most of what makes Pedro’s so special is the attention you get from the people behind the place.  Cindy and Lorie are great to talk with and jump at the chance to help you with anything.  They can book you on an excursion or simply make any other arrangements in town.  We were looking for a nice place to have a big dinner with everyone in our group for our anniversary.  Lorie knew that Mango’s was reopening for the season that very night and suggested that she call to get us a reservation for our group.  She also was instrumental in helping the rest of our group get the most for their dollar when determining which dives to take.

The most amazing thing was that Pedro himself worked to make our stay perfect before we even arrived.  When I had posted my disappointment that the Blue Lotus Indian restaurant (my favorite restaurant) would be closed during our visit to his forums at http://ambergrisvacations.com, he stepped up and offered to fly in the best Indian food from Belize City and have an Indian Night and Pedro’s.   We absolutely took him up on his offer and his proactive customer service made an amazing stay simply outstanding.  And the Indian food was probably the best I’ve had…

Summary

It is really hard for me to say just how much I enjoyed our stay at Pedro’s in anything less than 3000 words, but I’m going to try.

A stay at Pedro’s is full of unexpected amenities and outstanding customer service.

When compared to other “value” accommodations in San Pedro, Pedro’s Inn is simply, cleaner, more comfortable, safer, extremely quiet, more friendly and has more to offer… at a cheaper price.

From the free pool-side morning coffee, to the free wifi, to the evening food and fun in the bar, to the comfortable beds in air conditioned rooms, you find yourself extremely content and ready for a perfect vacation in the Belizean paradise that is San Pedro.

If you are looking to save a few bucks on your next vacation to Ambergris Caye, I highly recommend giving Pedro’s a try.  If you don’t drink, are nitpicky about perfection in your room, like to cook most of your meals in your room, are a grumpy person in general or have no sense of humor, you may wish pony up some extra money and stay at The Palms or go get pampered at Victoria House.  For the rest of us, Pedro’s is a great hotel and I’m sure that you will be pleasantly surprised with your stay.  I know we were.

Our Last Day

Well, this vacation has just flown by so quickly.  I’m not even close to ready to leave.  I can’t believe that we’ve been here a week already.

For our last day, we decided to run down to get breakfast at Limes by the Tropic Air terminal as I had heard that they have the fastest free wifi on the island from a post on the http://ambergrisvacations.com forums.  Unfortunately the connection was the slowest I’ve found.  I have been promising a video upload to YouTube for a week now.  Pedro’s and Coconuts calculated my video upload as taking 3 hours while Limes was calculating out to 23 hours.  Fastest internet my rosy rear.

Regardless, we all ordered breakfast while there.  Limes’ breakfast is really no where near as good as Estel’s.  I ordered eggs over easy on toast and received eggs over hard on really dry well done toast.  It wasn’t bad, but it also wasn’t what I wanted.  Estel’s has yet to screw up my order.  The worst Estel’s has done was to pre-crack my runny yolk, and that only happened once.  I really am fond of Estel’s and it even won over my entire group on this trip.  I probably won’t return to Limes, at least for breakfast.  Tanya had a hotdog and she seemed pleased, so maybe I’ll come back for a dog or two.

After Limes, James and Will took a stroll into Wings and I went to price out a couple of golf carts.  We had decided to take a trip up north for the day and the guys offered to pay for the carts as a thanks for our treating dinner on Thursday night.  Thanks guys!  It wasn’t necessary but it is appreciated.

We drove the carts back to Pedro’s and made a quick change into our bathing suits.    The trip up north is peppered with bars and many of them will allow you to use their pool if  you are buying drinks.  So we started off toward the bridge.

Four years ago when James was last here, the Boca Del Rio bridge was just a fantasy.  At the time, there was a small barge that you would drive your cart up onto and a man would pull the barge across the cut with a rope.  It was a quaint experience that helped punctuate the eccentricity of the island.  Unfortunately, or fortunately, they have upgraded the crossing to a two lane bridge wide enough for a golf cart traveling in each direction.  We paid our $10 round trip toll and crossed the bridge.

Our first stop was Reef Village. The bar and pool at Reef Village is on a little island in the middle of a lagoon surrounded by villas and condos.   The pool was very refreshing and the drinks were nice and cold.  In previous visits to the bar, I’ve received very warm beer and water, but not today.  It was a very refreshing stop.

After a couple of drinks we hopped back on the carts and headed north through the area called Tres Cocos.  This section of the island is my wife’s favorite and it is very beautiful.  The area is very rich with black soil, perfect for lush vegetation.  It is really a great and peaceful drive.

Our next stop was the Palapa Bar.  The Palapa Bar is a two story bar at the end of a pier with seriously overpriced drinks.  We did not swim at this stop, but they do provide innertubes and sell beer by the bucket so you could chill in the water near the end of the pier if you so desired.  We however went up to the second floor and had a drink.  The bar advertises slow cooked wings and since it was about time for a light lunch snack, I ordered four orders and we waiting.  The food did not come quickly so as to provide us more time to drink more overpriced drinks, but when it did arrive, I was extremely impressed.  The wings are slow cooked over a 14 hour span and the meat just falls off the bone.  They are served in no breading or sauce, but there is a terrific buffalo style sauce on the side for dipping.  We quickly devoured the four orders, paid our overly large tab and started down the steps to our carts.

From the carts we continued north to Grand Caribe, a new and rather large condo complex on the ocean.  The buildings are just plain beautiful and they are coming along very nicely.  It looks as though all of the buildings are up and they are finishing off the last couple with the main lobby and office building the last to complete.  We have looked at the condos there on previous visits and are continually impressed.  They are priced out of our range, but if I had the money to pick one up, I would.

The road to Grand Caribe was very well maintained.  There were a few bumps but otherwise, it was extremely passable.  The road north of Gran Caribe was another story.  We had planned on making it all the way to Captain Morgans, but that was a lost cause.  We instead stopped at the Lazy Croc and the convenience store next door for some pop and turned around.  We weren’t about to chance it any further.

On the way back, we had a choice of either visiting The Cloisters or Coco Loco’s swim up bar.  Ti and I had looked at pre-construction condos both at The Cloisters and at Bermuda Landing (next to Coco Loco’s).  We decided to pass The Cloisters and go to Coco Loco’s because we’ve been there before and knew it would be a friendly stop.  One of these days we’ll need to try The Cloisters though.  Bob was very proud of his plans for the pool and bar and we owe it to him to get there someday.

Coco Loco’s was quite a happening place. There were about 10 people already there, locals I’m sure, enjoying various drinks.  We ordered some of our own and slipped into the pool for another cool-down.  While there I took a short stroll down the beach to see how the Bermuda Landing condos were progressing.  I remember the insides of them being something special but was a bit let down by the way the outside looked.  The windows seemed a bit cheap and smaller than I expected them to turn out.  Regardless, I’m glad we didn’t put money into them at the time.  Besides, for the same price you could buy one of the gorgeous condos at Grand Caribe.  There is no choice in my book for the money.

We then headed back to Pedro’s for a quick change.  Our friends Tim and Tina from http://investinbelize.com were meeting us at Crazy Canucks for happy hour and we went right over.  They were already there and we had a great chat.  It has been great to see them and I wish we would have had more time to get together while we were here.  We arranged to meet them for breakfast in the morning though, so we’ll get a little more time.

After the rest of our crew arrived we decided to head into town to get some lobster at The Reef restaurant.  The Reef is a sand floor restaurant on middle street across from Carumbas and is well known to be the best place in town for the freshest seafood.  They recently underwent a pretty thorough remodel that left the new place looking nearly identical to the old.  The menu appears little changed but it felt a bit expensive.  I remembered it being cheeper, but I could be wrong.   A lobster dinner was about $45 BZD, which I guess is $22 USD which might be about right.  Lobster prices in the US have come down considerably this year so perhaps I just expect too much from the prices here.

Regardless, they have about 12 ways that you can have your lobster prepared.  I got mine with the standard garlic butter and it was absolutely delicious.  In fact, we all agreed that it was the best meal that we’ve had on the island for the entire trip.  Tanya had a fish sandwich and the fish was some of the freshest she’s ever eaten. We were all very impressed.

While inside the restaurant, Alex a neighborhood salesman came strolling through trying to sell his necklaces.  We had first met Alex two years ago at BC’s when we were there with TacoGirl from http://tacogirl.com and Tim and Tina.  As soon as we mentioned that we met him with Tim and Tina, he remembered that he met us at BCs and also that he had seen us again at Crazy Canucks last May.  That kid is going places, I swear.  He is not only one hell of a salesman, but he has a terrific memory and that will take him far.

We did not end up buying anything from him and continued on with our meal.  After we were finished eating, Alex returned and brought a friend with him.  They sat with us and chatted for quite some time, mostly about school and pig latin…  why? I have no idea.  While talking though we found out that his friend was the son of Raul, one of the bartenders at Pedro’s Inn.  Raul is a great guy and a hell of a bartender, and his son is a cute kid with a great mind for linguistic studies…  well he caught onto pig latin very quickly anyway…

After paying our bill we hopped the carts and headed back to Pedro’s to start packing up our stuff.  After getting a good start, we decided to finish off the night in Pedro’s bar with a drink or two.  Ti had planned not to drink and I was happy just sipping on a lighthouse, but unfortunately Tyler, one of the guys in our group, was a bell ringing fool.  In Pedro’s when you ring the bell, bad things happen.  Very bad things.  Needless to say, I ended up doing both my Jager shot and the one destined for my wife.  So much for not drinking much.

After an hour or so I decided it was time to try my hand at the 2-5 No Limit Hold’em game going on in the back room.  It was my last night and I had to give the guys a chance to win back all the money I had taken from the game over the week.  The wife gave me permission so I headed back.  The first hand was a big winner on a lucky four-flush board and an hour or two later I had Aces win against Kings.  Needless to say I cashed out a win of exactly $1000 which puts me at a net profit for the trip of $1740.  I’m actually going to be going home with more cash than I brought with me.  That’s not something that happens often when you go on vacation.

This vacation has been a unique one for us.  We have been to Belize many times and never before has the vacation been quite like this one.  Some may say it has to do with the new friends that accompanied us this trip, but I think it comes down to one thing.  We stayed at Pedro’s.  I’ll be writing a post soon with an in depth review of the hotel, but I’ll just say this for now.  Pedro makes your Belize vacation into something more… something different…  If you’ve been to Belize before, spend your next trip at Pedro’s.  You will certainly see Belize from a different perspective, and not just because you’ll be a bit buzzed on Jager.  It honestly will be a trip you will never forget.  Thanks to Cindy, Lori, Raul, Walter, Peter and everyone else on the Pedro’s staff that have made this trip just a spectacularly fun time.   We will miss you all.

Indian Night at Pedros

Friday we started the day with a walk to Esltel’s for some breakfast.  Our morning was extra special though because Charlie, the owner of Estel’s came down to join us.  Charlie has stories to tell.

If you have a chance to sit down with Charlie, I highly recommend it.  He has been here in San Pedro since the late 80’s.  He and Dennis Wolfe came down here together and received the first work permits as musicians in the country of Belize.   He has the unique perspective of an outsider that became an insider and watched the country grow from it’s humble beginnings as an independent nation.  His story of the population boom due to the discovery of Belize by 60 Minutes is very educational.  For a great history of the island, and the country overall, chat up Charlie at Estel’s.  You’ll find him chill’n inside at a table next to the cash register with several cute puppies.

After 4 hours of chatting with Charlie, we made our way back to Pedro’s for an afternoon swim.  I can honestly say that Pedro spared no expense with his pool.  It is a beautiful fiberglass pool boated in from Miami and is perfectly deep and exactly the right temperature to cool off on a hot day.  I spent most of the afternoon swimming and catching up on blog posts.

Before our trip to Belize, I had found that one of our favorite restaurants would be closed during our visit.  The Blue Lotus is a restaurant accessible only by boat on a pier across the lagoon from San Pedro town.  When it first opened, it did so serving excellent Indian food.  They have since trimmed most of the Indian food from their menu and expanded with other American, Asian and Belizean favorites.  While I don’t care for their menu as much these days, the few Indian dishes on their menu are still very tasty and the atmosphere is hard to beat.

When I found out about their temporary closure, I made sure to state my displeasure on Pedro’s online forums at http://ambergrisvacations.com.  Pedro stepped up and made a very nice offer to fly in some Indian food from his favorite restaurant in Belize City.  He set up Friday night as an Indian night at Pedros.

Well, it was time for Indian night.  It appears that 20 or so people are required to make an Indian night worth it when flying food in from Belize City.  I think Pedro had about 25 or so for this night.  He had ordered two types of Tikka Masala, two types of Korma, some Vindaloo among other dishes and of course, plenty of Naan.

The food was very authentic Indian and had the perfect amount of spice.  It was flavorful and better than anything we can find in Vegas.  It also was better than what we could get at The Blue Lotus, both with the old and current menus.  Pedro’s was a fun place to eat some Indian food, mostly due to the free flowing Jager, but I can’t say that I didn’t miss the open lagoon breezes found at The Blue Lotus just a little bit.  I do send out serious thanks to Peter though for making another night at Pedro’s just that much more special.

My wife was ready for bed by about 9:45 or so and I heard rumors of a poker game starting up in the back room, so I sent my wife off to bed and went back to check it out.  The game tonight was a 2-5 NL and so I sat in.  The game unfortunately didn’t hold together for too long.  It was just long enough for me to loose $130 netting me a profit of $740 for the trip.

It's Our Anniversary

Thursday we awoke to the realization that it was actually 4 years to the day that Ti and I were married here in San Pedro.  We had a small wedding in front of the Blue Tang Inn where we wrote our own vows.  It was really special.  Reverend David Simpson officiated the short ceremony and afterward we carted down to Ramon’s for an amazing dinner.  It was a day I want to remember forever.  James and Tanya were both here on our first trip 4 years ago and I’m very thankful that they both could make it back with us on this anniversary trip.

After getting around, we went down to Estel’s for breakfast.  Pedro was heading out of town for the day and offered for us to take his golf cart if we dropped him off at Tropic.  It was very much appreciated as we had a little running around we wanted to do anyway.

After breakfast, which was tasty as always, we made our way across the bridge to the north to see how the new movie theater is coming along.  It has made some progress, albeit slowly, since our trip in May.  What was more surprising is that there is now a grocery store open on the right side of the road heading north right at Reef Village.  It was even stocked and open to customers.  I don’t recall them even have started it when we were last here.  Maybe I just missed it, but it seems to have gone up very quickly.

Reef Village looks to be coming along well.  They’ve finished several more villas since our last visit and I personally kind of like the setup they have there.  My wife couldn’t disagree more. Guess it’s a matter of taste, or lack thereof.

We continued up to Pedro’s new construction in Tres Cocos right next to Sweet Basils.  He’s apparently building some new hotel and it looks to be very well built.  There is still a lot to finish though before they will be taking any reservations.

What was surprising was to find that Sweet Basils is undergoing a complete renovation and rebranding.  The building is still there, but they are apparently becoming Legend’s Burger Bar, a grommet hamburger joint.  If there is one thing missing on this island, it’s a terrific hamburger (sorry Tackle Box, yours doesn’t qualify).  I guess if there are two things missing the other would be a great steak place, so hopefully Legend’s will have some steak options as well.

We turned around there and headed back into town.  I’m trying to map some of the streets for OpenStreetMap.org so we took a different way back.  After getting back to Pedro’s we went in for a little vacation afternoon nap.  The rest of our group had gone to the Blue Hole for a diving adventure that morning, so we wouldn’t be meeting up with them for a couple hours yet.

I asked Lori, (one of the gracious hosts at Pedro’s) to make us an anniversary reservation at Mangos for later at night.  Mangos had apparently been closed for the off-season and today was to be the day it was reopening.  Ti and I had previously been there for lunch and loved the food, so we figured it would be a good option for a nice anniversary dinner.  Ti and I aren’t the type to do these types of events by ourselves so of course the entire crew was invited.

When the rest of our group got back from the dive and changed, we made our way down to Mangos for dinner.  We started with a trio of Ceviche, some chips and guacamole and an order of their shrimp stuffed jalapenos.  We loved the jalapenos so much we had to get another order.  For dinner, we mostly each tried something different.  Everyone who ordered fish raved about their meal.  My wife got the Carne Asada and also thought the food was delicious.  I had a pork dish and found it to be a bit dry but otherwise flavorful.  The best part was probably the special Sangria made from a blush wine.  It was extremely tasty.

When the guys were on their dive, they had met the guy who would be playing guitar at BCs later that night, so when we were finished at Mangos we walked down to BCs for some drinks.  Unfortunately, before long and with our full stomachs our eyelids grew heavy and we strolled back to Pedro’s to turn in for the night.

No poker for me on our anniversary.  Net profit still $870.

Lunch with Tim and Tina

Wednesday was a lazy day…  as most of our days here have been.  Ti, Tanya and I went to my friend Tim and Tina’s for lunch.  Tim and Tina are the terrific couple that sold us our land down south and they have a great house right on a canal by the end of the airstrip.  We chilled on their deck eating amazing chicken sandwiches with chips & queso.  Tina sure knows how to cook and it was great catching up with them.

If anyone is considering any island investments, we can highly recommend http://investinbelize.com.  Tina also has a great blog about life on the island at http://investinbelize.com/bog1.  It’s a great read.

After a long lunch we went back to Pedro’s for an afternoon nap.  Ti and I had planned on playing in Pedro’s wednesday night poker tournament.  It’s a $225 buy in NLHE tournament in which you get $5k in chips.  We got there a bit early for the tournament and decided to eat some of Pedro’s famous garlic shrimp pizza. It is seriously delicious.  Just before tournament time my wonderful wife decided to chicken out and just watch.  Yes I said it…  she chickened out…

Regardless, I sat down to play while my wife watched.  The structure is a bit odd as there are no antes introduced in the structure.  I suggested that they might want to add them at some point to help the game along.  I lasted about 3 hours or so before busting out 6th out of the 11 that started. I made a bad move with a Queen 6 suited that would have made more sense had there been ante’s involved, but was way too early given the structure of the game.

Obviously, I won no money.  That makes for my first loss of the trip and kicks my net profit down to $870.  Ti wanted to go out afterward but we ended up getting caught up in a movie and going to bed early.

Lunch with Pedro

Tuesday I was pretty torn up over the Charger’s loss on Monday night (and perhaps due to the copious amount drinks consumed throughout the day) so we planned for a lazy day poolside.  But first, Ti, Tanya and I decided to start the day with some baked goods from the Casa Pan Dulce bakery.  They have a storefront downtown, but if you travel further north toward the bridge you will run into their blue bakery building which also has a storefront.  My impression is that the storefront in town always sells out of the good stuff first, so we decided to hop on the cart for a ride to the blue bakery with a hope that they still had some good cinnamon buns.

As we were approaching the cart, Pedro stopped us to invite us over for lunch.  They were having a little get together to watch some football and had a lady coming over to cook for the group.  We delightfully accepted and headed off for the bakery.

The bakery did not disappoint.  They had two types of cinnamon rolls as well as thick crust pizza, pigs in a blanket and various types of breads.  Maybe it’s just because it’s the slow season, but they seemed to have plenty of everything.  On prior trips, it always seemed they were sold out of the best stuff pretty early.

Regardless, we stocked up on goodies and headed back for some coffee on Walter’s Big Deck.

After a relaxing morning we went in to clean up for Pedro’s luncheon get together.  We were the first to arrive and found his bar transformed with one long table set for 20 or so people.  The smells wafting from the kitchen were certainly making us hungry.  Soon people started trickling in.  Several I knew from playing poker or from around the bar and yet others I met for the first time.

The food was an outstanding spread.  There was carved roasted or baked chicken, two types of potatoes, peas, meat stuffing, vegetable casserole, and a terrific pudding desert.  I’m sure I’m missing something.  It was all so good.

Pedro is a class act and his hospitality is really appreciated.  We seriously enjoyed ourselves and the food was spectacular.

We napped through the afternoon, still trying to sleep off the busy Monday.  After waking up we all walked downtown for Papusa’s from The Papusaria.  The Papusaria is probably the best food value in San Pedro.  For $2.50 BZD you get your choice of Pork, Chicken or Lobster Papusas with or without beans and cheese.  Papusa’s are kind of like a corn pancake stuffed with goodies.  The lady at The Papusaria was extremely nice.  She even let our friend Will cook his own food.  If you are looking for an evening snack, or even a full on meal, Papusa’s make for a very inexpensive yet delicious option.

I split from the group at that point to head back to Pedro’s for the poker game while the rest of our group went out for ice cream.  At the poker game, I was extremely tired, refusing alcohol of all sorts. However, even with my tight and uncreative play, I managed to pull in a big win of $675.  Net profit for the trip, $1095.

A trip down south

On Monday morning in #Belize, several people in our group decided to go snorkeling at Hol Chan and Shark Ray Alley.  We’ve done the snorkel trip before so Tanya, Ti and I decided to head over to Estel’s for breakfast.

Estel’s is a great sand floor restaurant in San Pedro on the beachfront that serves breakfast all day.  They aren’t open for dinner though, so all day to them apparently means during breakfast and lunch hours.

At Estel’s the menu is on a huge chalkboard in the back of the restaurant near where three cute miniature schnauzers sleep away the Belizean heat.  On the board are great standard American style breakfast fare with Belizean favorites like Fry Jacks mixed in.  Prices are very average for a breakfast place in the United States so while you aren’t saving anything by eating there, the food is great and atmosphere can’t be beat.

After talking over what the afternoon might bring, we decided to head south to visit our land and continue on to visit Robert at the Ras Safari bar.  Pedro was nice enough to loan us one of his golf carts for the day, but since there were 8 of us, we needed one more to make the trip.  On the walk back from Estel’s we stopped by Moncho’s to get a second cart.  Moncho’s was a bit pricey compared to what they’ve charged us in the past, but we went ahead and took it anyway.

We piled everyone on the carts and headed south.  Our lot is about 4 miles south at the last electric pole and with the recent rains, you just never know what condition to expect the road to be in.  We were very fortunate that the road was in terrific and dry condition all the way to our property.  I’m also happy to say that our land, while it continues to get overgrown, is still very much there waiting for our eventual settlement.

There is a new house going in two lots to the north of our property.  I believe their names are Leslie and Samson.  We haven’t had the pleasure to meet them yet, but it is really nice to see that we will have some full timers there to keep an eye on things on our end of paradise.

After taking a sufficient number of photos, we continued on to the Ras Safari. The road unfortunately took a little turn for the worst.  We managed to make it through though and I was very glad that we did.  Robert was just finishing up a barbecue and had plenty of his famous Jerk chicken waiting to be consumed.  We all munched some grub and consumed many a beer and rum drink.  Robert is a class act and I urge anyone visiting the island to somehow find your way down to the Ras Safari for a bit.

Tommy owns the lot just to the north of the Ras Safari and he’s doing terrific work preparing his lot for his future home.  His pier is just plain beautiful and the trees he’s planted look great.  He’s building a real paradise.

After quite some time with Robert, we mounted the carts and headed back north.  On the way back, we decided to swing by the Sandbar to show our guests the island bowling alley. We met the owners Dave and Lori and had a great time chatting with them.  They are living the dream and I wish them well.  I think both the Ras Safari and the Sandbar have problems with location, but I love them both and hope they continue to survive.  I recommend a visit next time you’re here.

We then headed back to Pedro’s to watch my Chargers loose to the Broncos on Monday night football.  On the plus side, I was drinking and therefore cared less about the loss than I would have otherwise.

My wife decided to go back inside and head to bed so I finished the football game from Pedro’s poker room.  Even through the inebriation I managed to win $360.  Total profit for the trip so far, $420.

A Lazy Sunday in Belize

For a lazy Sunday morning in #Belize, we decided to sleep in good and late.  We managed to get everyone around by about 11 and headed over to Coconuts Hotel for some lunch and use of their free wifi.

As usual, I had their stuffed jalapenos, which were as tasty as ever.  In Belize, stuffed jalapenos are nothing like the tiny jalapeno poppers filled with cheese that we get in the US.  Instead in Belize, stuffed jalapenos are huge peppers stuffed with chicken.  Some places will provide a sauce for dipping… at Coconuts, they provide a tasty spicy ranch sauce.  It’s seriously one of my favorite foods in the world.

While at Coconuts we ran into our friend Robert and his dog Mango.  Robert is the owner of the Ras Safari bar way down at the southernmost point of the island.  He said that business was slow and that he was helping out Coconuts by cooking his famous Jamaican Jerk barbecue for the day.  It was really great to see Robert again.  He’s good people.

After heading back to the room at Pedro’s to drop off my computer the guys grabbed one of Pedro’s kayaks and we all headed down to Crazy Canucks for some Sunday afternoon drinks while listening to Drummer Dan’s All Star Band perform some terrific tunes.  If I remember correctly, Crazy Canucks is now under new ownership, but honestly, neither the bar, nor the Sunday barbecue event appeared any different than on my past visits.  That however is a good thing as they always do a fun party and I’m not sure I would want it any different. We did notice some activity upstairs at Crazy Canucks though.  It appears they are preparing the space for something.  An expansion to the bar maybe or a restaurant?  I’ll have to inquire about it.

After relaxing with some Lighthouse and rum punch, we headed down along the beach back to Coconuts where Tyler, one of the guys in our group had snuck off for some Jerk barbecue.  Of course it looked great and smelled even better so we had to get some for ourselves.  Robert does an amazing job with his (apparently super secret) Jerk seasoning.  If you get a chance to try it on your next visit, do so.

We ended up partying the rest of the night at Pedro’s.  I was even able to sneak away to the back room for some poker and walked away a $60 winner.

Back in Belize

It feels great to be back in #belize.  October may be one of my favorite times of the year here.  The temperature and humidity is perfect. Mosquitoes have been nearly non-existent and while we’ve ran into a bit of rain, it has been a welcome change from the desert of Vegas and we’ve had plenty of daytime sun to give us a perfect little tanburn.

On Saturday when we arrived, we headed over to Pedro’s Inn where they were just getting set up for “Walter’s Big Deck Pool Party”.  Last year Pedro installed a very nice swimming pool around which Walter apparently  built a very nice and very big deck.  It’s perfect for Big Deck parties and that is exactly what we enjoyed.  A party with a very big deck.

The rest of our group had already arrived and met us out on the big deck for some swimming, drinks and Walter’s amazing chicken barbecue.  The chicken came with beans and slaw and was just perfectly prepared.  We were also very privileged to have Cindy hand deliver us plenty of Belikin and Lighthouse, a privilege she emphatically informed us was available for this one day only.  The rest of the week we are apparently required to get off our lazy rumps and walk the 30 feet into the bar to pick up our own damn beer.  I suppose I can deal with that.

Ti and I broke away from the group to get some sleep since we had come in on the red eye.  After getting up we met up with the rest of our group in Pedro’s bar for some of his world famous thin crust pizza.  I’ve described it before, but it’s worth talking about again.

Pedro’s pizza is on what I would describe as a cracker style thin crust.  The toppings are extremely well done and tasty and if you like the cracker style crust, you will absolutely love this pizza.  My wife (who is not alone in this sentiment) believes that Pedro’s pizza is the best pizza she’s ever had.  Me personally, I prefer a fluffier airy crust, so I don’t place it in the “best I’ve had” category, but I certainly can’t complain either.  The price is very reasonable for island pizza and they do the flavor right.

Afterward we headed off for the walk into town to chill at the Big Daddies Beach Bar.  About a quarter of the way there, it just started pouring.  We had brought a couple of umbrellas, but they really didn’t do much.  When we finally arrived at Big Daddies, we were just plain soaked.  Honestly though, we didn’t care.  We were in Belize…  We were drinking on the beach… and we were loving life, soaked or not.

After a few drinks we headed down to Fido’s for another drink and to see if there was any live music.  It turned out there was a band and they were really great.  Their rendition of Zombie from the Cranberries rocked.

By then we are ready for some snacks so we took a quick swing by the stalls in Central Park for some of the mystery meat burritos and Belizean style hot dogs.

Of course, on our walk home, it started pouring again and we were drenched by the time we got back.

All in all, it was a terrific first night on the island.

Belize Bound

Well, today is the day I head off to Belize.  This visit will both be the fourth anniversary of my first visit to Belize and the fourth anniversary of my marriage to my amazing wife.  On October 22nd, 2005 we were married on the beautiful sand under the palms in front of The Blue Tang Inn in the wake of Hurricane Wilma’s threats off the shore of Ambergris Caye

The best man from my wedding, James will be returning with us this trip as will my wife’s sister who was there on our first trip.  It will be a great reunion of sorts.  James is also bringing some friends from San Diego, and as I understand it, they know how to have fun.  As a 35 year old man, I’m not sure I know how to have fun anymore, but I’ll give it a try.

On this visit, as it is our second this year, we’re trying to travel on a budget.  We received a terrific rate on the airfare and decided also save some money on accommodations.  In the past we’ve stayed at The Blue Tang Inn and The Palms, both of which are absolutely spectacular.  On my last visit, I tried to save money by staying at The Conch Shell, but moved out when my wife arrived as I didn’t feel very secure and there was no air conditioning.  Needless to say, my attempts at a value-stay on Ambergris Caye haven’t been all that successful.

On this visit we decided to give Pedro’s Inn a try.  Pedro’s is a bar and hostel with a newly built hotel across the street.  I sought out Pedro’s on my last visit thanks to much discussion of him on the Belize message boards through the years.  I found his bar to be a fun place to hang out.  That alone would be enough, but it turns out he also has a game of Texas Hold’em running in the back room and has pizza on his menu, so as you would expect, I fell immediately in love with the place.

I certainly hope to be reporting on my visit with some regularity.  Please check back and live vicariously through us for a week or so.  We wish you all were there, and especially Angela…  it won’t be a true reunion without you.