Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Rain, Planes and a boat...to Paradise

As we pulled away from Chaa Creek, and the jungle, the rains began.  It was rainy season after all!  But we had a flight in a tiny plane and rain and tiny planes were not somthing that I was really too thrilled about.  As a matter of fact, I just wasn't going to think about it at all.  Once again, we had a wonderful driver who talked enough to keep the hour and a half ride to the airport, in the rain, interesting.  But who also gave us enough quiet time to enjoy the ride and reflect on the vacation we'd just had.

As we got closer to Belize City, the sun came out!  Rain doesn't last long in Belize for the most part, just showers here and there...but it was raining hard when it did rain!  We were lucky though.  During our whole time in the Cayo, inland, that was the only real rain we had.

We got to the airport and waited for out flight. We were flying on Tropic Air, a flight that was arranged by our destination hotel and the flight would be a mere fifteen minutes to San Pedro, on Ambergris Caye.



The airport is just a small building and the runway is just a dirt strip.  I did find it a bit funny that we got a paper about lost luggage and a baggage claim ticket! 




After taking off we had a very smooth flight with beautiful views of the crystal blue Caribbean Sea. 


We had a flawless landing, had no problem getting our bags!  Although the airport in San Pedro was surprisingly larger than the one in Belize City!  And we were promptly met by Mo.  He would be taking us to Portofino, which is only accessible by water taxi! 

We chose Ambergris Caye over some of the other Cayes because it seemed to have a bit more as far as restaurants and shops as compared to some of the others.  I also found the selection of hotels easier to browse through and found more choices that fit our needs.   We chose Portofino because it is more secluded, but yet the town is accessible when we want to go there.  They offered a nice package and their communication via email was excellent when I had questions or inquired as to availibity.  Their reviews were also mainly outstanding.  At Portofino we did not get a package that included all of our meals as we did at Chaa Creek.  Since Ambergris Caye has many restaurants and we are definitely "foodies" we wanted to experience the variety offered! But our package did include a snorkel excursion as well as a sunset cruise and breakfast.

So, after our fifteen minute boat ride, which I became very accustomed to and loved every time, we docked at Portofino and were greeted right at the end of the dock.  Immediately we felt at home.  The staff there was incredibly friendly and welcoming.  We had our welcome drink and went over all of the information about the property.



We then were taken to our beach front cottage, which is their standard room and shown how everything worked and then off to lunch we went....










I felt like we were in a bit of paradise....

4 comments:

  1. I'm the same way about small planes, but looks like a great time! Love your hotel room and that mosquito net! Looking forward to reading more about your time in Central America. I'll be following you now!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Mary! It was a great trip. Luckily we didn't need the mosquito net - none got into the room, but at night many were outside!

    ReplyDelete
  3. My husband and I have been on two cruises in the hopes of getting to Belize... big storms kept us off shore both times. Maybe next time!

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a shame! As you can tell, we really enjoyed Belize. I hope you can make it there someday! There's so many things to do there!

    Maybe you'll have to plan a trip there without the cruise!!

    ReplyDelete