San Pedro the island paradise that Madonna sings about and apparently Leo DeCaprio just bought an island next door. San Pedro is in North Belize and just a short boat ride to Mexico. The island town is huge compared to the other little fishing villages we have been visiting and a great place to re- provision. The island is a lot like Key West in many ways, and in fact, in one of their marketing brochures they boast a 'Key West' feel. It is however, much less Americanized and very Caribbean. The streets are mostly sand, some are mud, and the main street is red brick. The streets are narrow, without side walks, which does not stop the multitude of gas powered golf carts, tractor pulled beverage trailers, motorcycles and cars to speed up and down the streets at break neck speeds. Pedestrians do not have the right of way in this town. There are no stop signs or lights so a wave, or a shout informs one of the drivers intention. It does take a while to become accustomed to the chaos, but we must be getting braver because we are thinking of renting bikes tomorrow. The island is much like Key West in its prices. We where amazed, it is REALLY expensive. We have found that many of these little coastal towns and islands in Mexico and Belize have just recently, within the past 5-10 yrs, been discovered as the new tourist hot-spots and development is out of control. There are new, very large, resorts being built all up and down the coast and it seems the towns are in a strange limbo between a funky Caribbean town and a West Palm beach resort. You may see a shabby, beach side palm frond hut acting as a bar, a bike rental and a good place to buy pineapples; right next door to a huge half finished 5 story resort, decadence oozing from its walls, ice cold A/C, lights on in all of the rooms (vacant or not), flat screen TV's abound, and the pool runs maze-like throughout the property, equipped with pool bar, water polo nets, and a very attractive young Caribbean 'pool boy' who leads the water aerobics sessions. The dichotomy is surreal. Although we are getting into the groove of San Pedro, we found an outdoor coffee bar we like, we found a hot spot to scam free wireless and there is a great little store with fresh vegetables, we have decided we want to go inland for a visit. We have found that all the places we visited so far are very much like Key West. Mangrove and reef eco-systems, tourist town, beachy island type places, snorkeling, diving and boat trips are the biggest attractions. Although the reef here is fantastic, and we like the island feel, we feel we are missing the inland jungles and Mayan ruins that would be something new and exciting for us. We plan on heading south in a week or so and hope to find a safe harbor to leave our boat so we can take a couple of days to go inland and explore. Apparently it is much more affordable one you make it off the coast as well!
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