Belize offers unspoiled beauty, bargains

SAN PEDRO, Belize — Needle-nosed ballyhoo fish leap from the water, lured by the wake as Capt. Bobby Halliday motors off Ambergris Caye. The turquoise waters here are so clear you can see blades of sea grass and lobster traps more than 20 feet below the surface.

Halliday has been guiding fishing trips through these waters for years, making some customers so happy that they gave him the two 60 horsepower engines that power his boat, the Blanca Lilly. He slows to troll, and suddenly even more is visible below: Parrot fish. Angel fish. A 5-foot bull shark, silent as a shadow.

He rigs up our fishing poles in more than 30 feet of water, and we quickly land a pile of Spanish mackerel, yellowtail snapper and one hard-fighting barracuda. Halliday pries a mackerel from a hook, spilling blood on the deck.

When I step back, he laughs.

"That's when Bobby's having a good day, when there's blood in the boat," he says. Then he nods to my husband. "That's a good catch, man."

We'd pondered where to spend a winter vacation, eager to swap gray skies and chilly weather back home for blue water and fresh seafood. We'd been to several Caribbean islands, but we wanted something different.

Our research led to Belize, an English-speaking nation of 280,000 that seems undecided on whether to market itself as Central America or the Caribbean.

No wonder. It has the best of both — friendly, welcoming people grateful for every tourist, and brilliant, varied marine life that snorkelers and divers treasure.

The mainland is 180 miles long and no more than 68 miles wide, but Belize is best known for its cayes, or islands. There are more than 200, most of them inside a coral reef that is the world's second-longest (after Australia's Great Barrier Reef).

The most popular and developed island here is Ambergris Caye, home to the town of San Pedro, white beaches and a laid-back mood.

To get there, you fly to Belize City, then catch a boat or plane. The flight is short, but the view is unbeatable: Even from hundreds of feet up, through scratched plastic windows, you can see massive rays in the water below.

From the dusty airport, it's a quick water taxi or golf cart ride to the resorts, where the first impression is mixed. Though the water is a brilliant palette of blues, the beach is rimmed in weeds and flotsam.