Heading Over to The West Side of Ambergris Caye And An Exciting New Project

Monday I took a trip to the west side of Ambergris Caye.  The “reef-less” side.  Tiny islands…mangrove shore lines with a smattering of sandy beaches.  And a handful of houses…maybe less than 5?  There is no power, sewage or water supply on the lee ward side but it is absolutely beautiful.

This is still the best map I can find about how to drive up there.  (It looks like I found it in a ship wreck.)  To the area called Grand Belizean Estates.  You can see why Ambergris Caye SEEMS like such a narrow island…

I drove over the bridge from San Pedro town…a beautiful day.

The road is paved most of the way…but in really good shape to the turn off, west, for Grand Belizean Estates.

Before that turn-off, though, someone is just filling a lot off the new road.  What was just water will now be land…after about 7 thousand dumps of sand.  Do you buy this land?  Or just make it and squat?

And then all the way west and…here.  The “Secret Beach”.

More of a secret during the week…maybe 5-15 golfcarts.  On  the weekend, a crowd!

The water was flat and gorgeous.

And…I finally have a friend with a boat!!!!!  My heart’s fondest wish come true.  And he picked us up at the beach to take us northward…

We passed one of the sand bars…and meant to stop on the way back but…never made it.

Here’s another day when I did stop.

We were on our way to an exciting project that is under construction…to open in 2016.

You can see the area, general area, in this map.  Cayo Frances and Laguna Frances.  Shallow areas frequented by fly fishermen…

You can see Blackadore Caye = future playground of Leonardo DiCaprio and friends and then Laguna Cayo Frances.

We passed one house on the way up…perhaps the only one this far north?

And old school fish trap.  Sticks and netting formed in a spiral…fish swim in but can’t swim out.  Now illegal, there are some grandfathered traps still existing on the leeward side.  The nearest supermarket is miles away by boat.

We ducked through a tiny break in the shoreline into a BEAUTIFUL lagoon…super shallow crystal clear water (perhaps two feet?) and an area, black dirt on sandy Ambergris Caye, soon to be a very very exciting business…

…for fly fishermen, nature enthusiasts and for those who really want to get away from it all.