AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums The Cayes Ambergris Caye Turtleman's, Ragamuffin's and Spanish Lookout?

Hi all...

We're working on our third trip to Belize, and want to try something different. We did mainland, Ambergris and Caulker on the first trip; Ambergris and Caulker on the second. We're water people and are looking into things for the third trip. Have a question or two...

We started out thinking a few days up at Turtleman's and then on to Ragamuffin's trip from Caulker to Placencia. Then stumbled on to the Hugh Parkey site for Spanish Lookout Caye.

The main thing we're interested in is any info or opinions on Spanish Lookout Caye and Hugh Parkey. I started out with a prejudice against it because of the dolphin experience.

We'd love input from anyone who knows anything about the place.

Did the Raggamuffin's trip in 04 and loved it! If you enjoy camping you will too.
Posted a trip report on 5/13/04

I didn't stay at the Turtlemans place, but did dive with him and also spent some time with him and his family at a private party on Christmas. I was very impressed with him, and look forward to addtional trips with him.

You are really swimming in hiis back yard when you go with him. While he won't admin it, I belive he has his fishy friends named, and goes to visit them in a regular basis.

On our trip, I saw him swim out of his way to get get a piece of plastic off a piece of coral. He folded it up and placed it in his pocket.

RC - We are campers, in our little world of Idaho and Montana. That's why we are thinking Ragamuffin would be so fun! We're looking for a couple of different things from what we've done the last couple trips and Ragamuffin fit the bill.

DitchDoc - Very interested to hear that we could dive at Turtleman's. We weren't sure about that since we didn't see anything on his site about it. Love to meet some of his fishy friends! One of the reasons we liked Turtleman's was that it sounded like exactly what your post stated. Truly believes and lives the conservation lifestyle. That was one of our concerns about the Hugh Parkey thing - seems too commercial. That's why we wanted personal experience information about his setup. Based on Turtleman's website we felt it was what we wanted and believed was right.

What intrigues me is that no one has responded with any info on Parkey's setup. We don't want to spend time at any resort/company who contributes to the "cruise ship" mentality. (No offense meant to cruisers - but personally we don't agree with it.) His place has interesting things to offer, but not sure if it's the type of place we want to support.

If anyone has additional opinions and experience with HP's setup on Spanish Lookout Caye and the impact it has on the area, we'd also like to hear it.

Thanks again all!

I was at Spanish lookout Caye in Sept. Nice set up. It wasn't open to the public at that point so was not crowded but is definitely set up for volume (and cruisers.) I think staying on the island would provide a better atmosphere than just the day trip thing. The 8 or 10 cabanas are over the water and are fairly spartan. Renovated from whatever it was in its last reincarnation but not really made more deluxe or anything. Fairly rustic. The real $$ went into the main buildings, and the dolphin set up. Food was good, lovely restaurant deck area, big gift shop, big, nice boats, well run with that Parkey professionalism. The dolphin area and "show" is good if you are into that thing. Professional but still contrived for tourists. You do get to interact with the dolphins in a very structured sort of way but when they look you right in the eye (which they do) it is freaky and you know they are thinking, highly intelligent creatures who probably should be running the show rather than performing in it! I have lots of pics of it, I will try to post. Probably not what you are looking for IMO.

Just to be clear here, Turtleman offers snorkel dive, not scuba.

With that said, after getting certified years ago (former dive instructor rating) I kinda looked down on snorkeling, I mean, why window shop when you can go into the store look around and stay for a while. Greg Smith (turtleman) sure changed my mind, and I learned so much from him. He will go into detail about the big coral die off of a few years ago, etc.

If you get to Turtlemans place, there is a geocache <http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=GC10A99&Submit6=Go> very close.

Visit the link to learn more about geocaching worldwide.

BarbaraK - Thanks for the great response! We'll be down in off-season and just might have to check his place out. (Fewer people there in October I'm guessing.)

DDD - I didn't say it, but only one of us is a diver... and he still likes to snorkel. Greg's knowledge and willingness to share it was one of the things that attracted us to his place.

Now the problem is that all three of our options sound good - and we'll only be there for 13 days. That's allowing two days for travel there and back, and one day to decompress when we return.

I'm sure not complaining about having three great options!

Hey, Montana, we have several Montana folks living on Caye Caulker including me. We have done the Ragamuffin trip and loved it.

Hey there Cooper! From the mountains or the plains?

I was born and raised in Missoula (but now in Post Falls, ID), and parents have been in Billings for the last 15 plus years. They're thinking of relocating to our neck of the woods now that they're getting older. Still have a brother in the Bitterroot Valley outside of Missoula.

Just got back tonight from a week vacation over on the Washington coast. Time to get back into work mode, and continue our planning on the fall Belize trip!