We were told by a local that San Pedro Belize was the famous island Madonna dreamt about last night, and we couldn’t be more excited to visit this iconic place. San Pedro has a very different vibe to Caye Caulker, though – definitely bigger, more crowded, and exploited by tourism. Besides the cute little town center with colonial style architecture and nice bakeries, most of the island was urbanized with resorts and Hotels. Did we have a good time? For sure! But can’t say it has stolen our hearts just like other parts of Belize. That doesn’t mean however that we don’t have a couple of stories to share.
That first night in San Pedro we got on a couple bikes – there’s also a heavy golf cart traffic on the island – and headed back to the pier to retrieve our shoes. Yes, we had left them in the other island. Are we the only ones that after the second or third stop of the trip have an extra plastic or paper bag to carry the items that suddenly don’t fit in the suitcase anymore, and ends up forgetting it along the way?
Anyway, to our defense, we had our hands extra busy with a free lunch that a lady in Caye Caulker had been distributing around the island in the “spirit of Christmas”. This lady owned a little kiosk by the pier and was being aided by two other ladies from Britain, who had moved to the island a couple of years prior. Besides lunch, they insisted in offering us Rompope, a creamy liquor similar to eggnog and seasoned with spices that tastes like Christmas (actually really yummy), and this unexpected invite left us leaving the island with two trays of food and no shoes.
Gladly and thanks to Belizean hospitality, the water taxi crew made sure to send our shoes in the following boat. How nice of them! Issue solved right? Well, not really. We were in the main town square that night celebrating just getting our shoes back, when we got approached by an insisting street seller selling his crafts. After finally managing to be left alone, we immediately got distracted again by other village scenes – a man being denied entry into the church by the priest because he was “demasiado boracho”, beautiful Christmas celebrations, and being hit by the sudden need to eat lobster again.
We were scanning around for restaurants, when we realized we didn’t have our show bag anymore. We lost them again, right after getting them back! We felt pathetic. Probably someone saw the a bag and just took it. But well, things happen when you are travelling, and our shoes had different plans now that they had tasted the freedom of travel. Gladly we wouldn’t need any other pair of shoes in the island besides the sandals we were wearing.
The following day in the island we decided to bike across the whole island (about 15 kms) to the oxymoronic “Secret Beach” – probably, as we realized once we arrived, the most popular beach in the island. The ride was quite a stretch, but we decided to fight the urge to just spend the whole day laying at the beach and decided to go for it.
For a few times during our travel we found water bottles washing up to shore. To my surprise, these bottles had become covered in small crustacea and algae and were now a small, floating ecosystem of their own! How beautiful is that?
We were the only ones who adventured biking and were passed by hundreds of really smoky golf carts. The roads were full of potholes as it had been raining, but the desire to get to that beautiful beach kept us going. We passed a variety of different landscapes, from swamps and rice fields to resorts and construction sites. It seemed that the island is quickly expanding, but urbanization plans don’t necessarily consider landscape architecture or other environmental concerns.
We were really proud to make it to the beach. We have been biking for what felt like forever and could really use some time to relax. All other visitors arrived by cart and laid their towels exactly at the entrance to the beach. By walking just a few more minutes we found a refuge hidden after a curve and between a few dozen trees (note that this was December, in other times of the year might be busy as well). The place had dozens of tables, lounge chairs and swings placed all around the beach and even way into the sea, since the water was waist-deep for several hundred meters.
We finally claimed our spot under the sun (or cloud) and enjoyed the good vibes of this place. Here gain, we met some cool characters. The rastaman who owned this place and offered to give us a ride back if we would stay partying with them until closing, and an itinerant artist who sold us a beautiful Mayan calendar made in stone.
The 365-day solar year, known as the Haab’, was used for everyday activities. The Tzolk’in and Haab’ cycles interlock to form a 52-year cycle called the Calendar Round. After 52 years, the same combination of Tzolk’in and Haab’ dates repeats.
Later that night we were back at the Hotel area and taking a stroll along the beach when we started hearing exciting cheering and screaming coming from a few meters ahead, in an otherwise very quite beach. Intrigued, we went to check it out. We arrived to a bar with a patio opening to the sea. The bar had a host that was cheering and hyping up the crowd, gathered all around the patio. “What is going on?”. We got a couple of drinks and approached them and, to our surprised, the whole crowd was gathered around a chicken placed on top of what looked like a giant bingo card. The chicken was just going around beaking corn from the ground while people cheered enthusiastically. That’s when it hit me, I had heard of this before – we were witnessing the legendary Belizean game, “Chicken Drop”.
So how does it work? Basically all players place their bets in the beginning of the game: they must chose a number, or a few numbers, out of the bingo card where they believe the chicken will release a “drop”. However wins, gets a monetary price and well, needs to clean the chicken drop. The crowd was going wild with anticipation, yelling to the chicken to “stay right there” or “no, move!”. At the end of the game, a quite big and proud tourists yells from the top of his lungs in victory! He had won. And to my surprise, he was indeed asked to clean the drop. That’s Belize for you!
We spent the last day in Belize again inside the water, because we couldn’t miss the chance of going snorkeling again in that beautiful aquatic paradise. I was so impressed how the guides seemed to move inside the water as if they been born in the sea already. They deep dive, swim through underwater tunnels and know every single fish species. Their knowledge and passion for the sea is really beautiful to witness.
However, this last guide didn’t have any problem with feeding the sharks to make sure they approached the boat – a practice that is frowned upon among ecologists. Even though it was tremendous so swim up close to a nurse shark and a stingray and be able to feel their skin, we were left wondering if the Shark Ray Alley had indeed been artificially created by men to attract tourists. We were told the local legend that the Alley was created by accident by a fisherman who used to clean his catch in the area, but we had our doubts. In any case, we were grateful to have experienced this sea in so many different ways.
After one and a half weeks, we left Belize with amazing memories of the jungle adventures, the laid-back island life, the juicy food grilled at every corner of the streets, and the wonderful underwater treasures. A country with so many facets, that it is hard to paint a single picture of it. Belize is a melting pot of Latin-American and Caribbean cultures, languages, ethnicities and life styles. And, most of all, we will remember it by its amazing people, children of the sea and the jungle, all willing to welcome foreigners into their paradise and share their wisdom.
Thank you, Belize, for welcoming us with open arms.
by Carolina Sequeira, 31 January 2025
The Mind of Caro 
🇧🇿🤗🤿🏝️🌴🪸🌅🐠🦜🌎
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