Quite literally an old, nicely maintained Victorian house, the resort’s Palmilla Restaurant has tremendous atmosphere and character. As we dine on freshly caught seafood, Sergio lays out the trip he has planned for me. Tomorrow, we will snorkel. The rule of thumb in the scuba community is don’t dive within a 24-hour window of flying because during that period of time, the residual nitrogen in your bloodstream could still be at harmful levels, and flying puts a diver at risk for suffering an embolism or the bends. Snorkeling, on the other hand, is perfectly safe, since you never dive down any farther than you would in, say, the deep end of the public pool.
Plus, you can still drink a few Belikins the night before and be bright-eyed the next morning. After dinner, we have a drink at Fido’s Restaurant & Bar, a beachfront bar at Fido’s courtyard that draws as many local patrons as it does tourists. The tavern is recognizable from the street because of its enormous thatch
palapa (roof made of palm leaves), the largest in
Belize. Sergio maneuvers our
golf cart (the primary mode of transportation in San Pedro) up to the front porch, and we listen to live music, courtesy of a couple from
Chicago on their honeymoon who asked if they could stand in with the house band. It’s the storybook tropical setting: good music in a straw-roofed lean-to flanked by white-sand beaches and a lonely palm tree wrapped in Christmas-tree lights. I relax tonight for the first time in a long time. And I sleep more soundly than I have since my prechildren days, drifting off with the sound of the
Caribbean lapping against the dock outside my hotel room.
Under the Sea
The next day at 7:30 a.m., Elito Arceo maneuvers his 30-foot boat up to that same dock. His Seaduced adventure outfit has been taking people under the sea for over a decade, and Elito knows the ocean floor better than the fish do. We don our snorkels and flippers as we’re whisked away to a spot four miles offshore, where we’ll get to know the barrier reef up close.
I have snorkeled in the
United States and off the coast of
Mexico, but I have never before seen marine life as active and bathed in as many colors as I do here. Spadefish, stingrays, biblical-size grouper, eels, and nurse sharks -- yes, sharks! -- swim right up to me, and we check each other out. I spend the whole day out here with Elito and Sergio, taking in the rugged wilds of the barrier reef. Sergio and I debrief later that evening at Rojo Lounge, housed in the Azul Resort, a new property in the far reaches of San Pedro.