Walking North Ambergris Caye from Costa Maya Resort to Grand Caribe, Part One

Costa Maya Resort is 6.5 miles north of San Pedro town so getting up there was the first part of the trip.  And that requires getting on the local water taxi, the Coastal Express (located at the Amigos Del Mar dock in town).  Founded by John McAfee (you may have heard of him), it now has new management after Mr. McAfee quickly departed Belize.

After we dropping off all but one passenger, our boat left the Las Terrazas dock and spotted a small turtle that wasn’t moving.  Baby turtle in distress?   Only the very cruelest of souls could cruise on by…our captain asked both of us if we were in a huge rush and we stopped to save the turtle.

Or give it our best shot.

But the poor guy had already passed.  We threw the sucker fish back into the water and took the turtle back to Las Terrazas where the employees on the dock were going to call The Belize Turtlewatch program.   Awwwww…

Why did I choose Costa Maya as a starting point?  Well…when I first moved to the island, it was an active time share resort and now it is closed.  And has been for a year or two.  I heard that a bunch of ministers of Belize, even the Prime Minister, had purchased the property which immediately peaked my interest…and my suspicions.  Time to see what’s going on.

I navigated my way down the dock (sorely in need of repair) under the close surveillance of some workers standing in the main building.   The resort looked pretty good…the gardens and grounds are definitely being maintained.

But the guys indicated they were closed and gave me the “move it along vagrant” look.  It’s a little bit like the stink eye but not exactly.  Fair enough.  I headed south.

And ran into some swings perfect for rustic but oh so romantic wedding shots.

Next up an absolutely gorgeous villas part of a place called Canary Cove.  It looks seriously posh. I was hoping to see maybe Tom and Suri or maybe Rihanna and Chris…

but I only saw these two tween girls driving some sort of dune buggy.  Not quite the same but still interesting…

I passed a few docks that were spruced up with some conch shells on the posts.  Love that idea.

And the name of the house.  Anyone know why it’s named Casa Top Hat?

Catchy names and cute signs seem to be de rigeur in this swanky neighborhood and I like it.

I’ll wind down this post by passing Portofino Resort.  I’m only 15 minutes into my walk.  This could turn into a whole series.

Hammocks over the water.