AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums Talk Belize Trip Reports Carbunkle Trumpet's First Trip Report (w pics)

FRIDAY, FEB 15th

After a little gentle ribbing from a message boarder who will rename nameless, you are now reading the first trip report from the "Lurker" Carbunkle Trumpet. The premise of this trip was to surprise my mother and her fiancé and their 4 friends who were staying for the week. We, Mrs. Trumpet and I, flew in on Friday and the Mayan Gods must have been smiling on us as we made our connection in IAH and were on the island by 1:30. My mother and her friends were staying at Holiday (have been staying there since 1979) as the staff at the hotel is more like family and Kim was able to get us a room considering they had a full house. My mother and fiancé and another couple were fishing and the 3rd couple was out having lunch and drinks so we went over to Blue Water Grill for a late lunch. The food was great and the staff is always helpful and does a great job. We surprised all of group later in the afternoon when they came back from fishing and stayed at the hotel for drink and dinner at Celi's restaurant that night catching up. I honestly do not think I can ever remember a bad meal at Celi's and this comes from someone who has been coming to the island since I was 9 years old, for those of you who have never tried Celi's, please give them look, it is really good food and a great staff.

SATURDAY, FEB 16th
Had planned on going fishing with my mother and friends but decided to sleep in a little as I was awake very early the day before and I think I drank my weight in Belikins from the night before, so I grabbed a Johnny Cake from the Deli and walked down to see some of my Belizean friends, who also did not know that I was in town. Decided to have some lunch at the newly opened Tackle Box and got there a little before noon and were told that the kitchen was going to open at noon. Josh (?) the bartender gently twisted our arms and low and behold the Trumpets were supporting Sir Barry Bowen. Had a great chat with Josh and when I asked about if the kitchen was ready he looks at me and said they were out of gas and could not fire up the stove or kitchen equipment. I thought that the UDP said they were going to lower the price of Butane? I wanted a darned burger! Anyway we left Tackle Box and had a quick lunch back at Celi's Restaurant. Saturday was the Pub Crawl so we procured a golf cart to start the crawl meeting up with everyone at Sandbar. I would like to go on record and say a big Thankyou, Thankyou, Verrrry Much (I know, the tacky Memphis and Elvis thing) to the Taco's, Islenutt and all of those who planned, scheduled and "wrangled" the pub crawl. I think that this first one raised the bar and good luck to the other scheduled crawls, you have big shoes to fill. I had never been to Mata Rocks and I must admit that I was very impressed with the grounds and I like the little bar they have with the beach. Another joint that I never have been to was Hideaway Bar and that is now on my radar for a return trip. Now Taco Girl did a great job giving a blow by blow of the crawl on her blog and I won't post any pictures of the "later" stops as it might incriminate someone who wants to run for public office except I will say that Taco boy will need a big campaign war chest should he run for public office as I have a great pic of him at Crazy Canucks with his backpack. I really enjoyed meeting so many of the Message boarders and got a lot if insight on the subject of when Mr. and Mrs. Trumpet make the plunge and move to the island. Still don't know what I am going to do but in due time that will come. We ended the pub crawl at BC's and actually closed them down and had a great visit with Travel Queen and Inkblot; I was nice meeting the both of you. We will have to do it again in the near future.

SUNDAY, FEB 17th
Woke up feeling rather good and went for a golf cart ride as Mrs. Trumpet wanted to sleep in and on Front Street by Island Perk I was Golfcartjacked by 5 beautiful women. I kept pleading with them for my life and that I was happily married and thankfully I don't think they were armed and it went without any further incident as I drove them to their various hotel rooms. Come to think of it, I don't think they wanted me, my cart or the 5BZE I had in my pocket, I think they just wanted a ride. Anyway, collected Mrs. Trumpet and we went over to Sunset Grill for lunch, I have been there for dinner and never for lunch and I found it to be good, it was wild seeing the baby Tarpon swimming around the sea wall and we were lucky to be there at the feeding time. Now Sunday in San Pedro has been a Carbunkle Trumpet tradition to get a golf cart and head North over the bridge and do our version of a pub crawl. I am sorry that we did not get to see everyone at BC's for the BBQ and Denis Wolf and recount the antics from the night before but I am sure that our paths will cross again. We started the Sunday in San Pedro at Scott and Jody's Palapa bar and I love the swimming area and the bucket for the beer, I have never been a fan of jumping off of a perfectly good Palapa and last I checked there wasn't a head/neck trauma center on the island nearby. We killed a couple hours and brain cells watching the NASCAR race and by the way, Scott and Jody, when we come back in July can you have the Kiwi Cooler again for a special? That was the bomb! Next Stop w as the bar behind Reef Village and we have never been there and the pool area was really great. The pool deck with the colorful waterside cabana's makes for a colorful back drop. Last stop was Coco Loco and to see my Belizean Brother Marlin and check in with him. I have known 2 people on the island for the longest amount of time, Marlin and Chico Flores (now at Holiday bartending) so it was good catching up with Marlin and Linda and Jillian have been busy getting the place ready since Thanksgiving. The bar looks great and they were grating the lot by Coco Loco's for what I guess are the skydivers. While heading back across the bridge it was one of those perfect pictures with the sun over Holy Cross School. I am writing this before I download the pictures and I hope one of them turns out good. That evening we decided to head back to Blue Water grill with my mother, her fiancé and one of the other couples and had a great meal which was a perfect ending to the day. I ended up getting one of their pizzas and I am not sure of the seasoning or the cheese but those pizzas have a distinctive taste that you can not get up here in the states.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18th
Departure day now thankfully Continental has in its good graces to have a 5PM flight during high season and they extended the connection so one could do some activities before lunch and still shower off for the flight home. On this day, we figured it was only fitting that we go deep sea fishing with my mother and her fiancé. We boarded the boat with Felipe and off we went. We headed north and it took us a little longer to find the sardine's as the water was murky and not as easy to find the little suckers. I have always been in amazement of the fishing guides that I have had the pleasure of fishing with over the years (Manuel, Fred (rest in peace), Abel, Juan and now Felipe to find the sardines and to throw the nets, its pretty neat if you have never seen it done. We get some sardines and start out fishing by the reef with the sardine and I was using a bone fish that was caught the day before. Well I had a couple nibbles on the bonefish and Mrs. Trumpet/mom's fiancé did pretty good catching some good sized yellow tail snappers. Alas it was time for the party to end and we headed back to Holiday for a quick shower and throw the dirty clothes in the carry on bag. For our lunch we grabbed some sandwiches from the Deli to tide us over for a dirty dishwater dog at Jet's bar in Goldson airport. Our plane took off on time and some 15 hours later I am wearing suit pants, lace up shoes and socks. Oh and it is cold (not as cold as the Canadians are used to) here in Memphis today.

So all in all we had a great trip, I am glad that we were able to meet a lot of the message boarders and I promise that I will be faithful in posting some more trip reports. We are trying to make it happen where we can take 3 trips a year back to San Pedro as I really want to experience Lobster fest, Carnival and Halloween sometime in the near future, till then I will have to wait for July 4th. The trip was great and it was really great to see all of the business and the tourist traffic, I would only say that the one thing that chapped me a little was the trash that accumulating in vacant lots and common publics areas. I would like to challenge those who live on the island to get something done about that, a little bit of trash pickup can make a world of difference.

Thank you and Carbunkle Trumpet has left the Island!

And Now some of the pics


An oldie but goodie that still speaks volumes
View from Tackle Box

View North from Tackle Box

Camera got hijacked by Angelique

Mata Rocks Crawl

The First Couple of San Pedro (You guys Rock!)

Fire Show @ Pedro

How odd, Tacogirl with her camera taking a picture

Love me some Sunday BBQ Chicken!

Walking to the cut for a swim with Mom

I love this sign everytime I drive by it

Girls Swimming

This is what I am talking about, pay me per the filled trashbag and I will become the first ex-pat garbage man!

Love me some Palapa bar and a Kiwi Cooler!

Poolside looks like South Beach
[img]http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e312/Carbunkletrumpet/Suprise%20Trip%20for%20Mom/IMG_2050_89_1.jpg[/img]
My Brother from another Mother - Marlon at Coco Loco
[img]http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e312/Carbunkletrumpet/Suprise%20Trip%20for%20Mom/IMG_2052_91_1.jpg[/img]
King of the Mountain boys at Coco Loco
[img]http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e312/Carbunkletrumpet/Suprise%20Trip%20for%20Mom/IMG_2056_95_1.jpg[/img]
Sunset over Holy Cross (I wish it were a better quality picture)
[img]http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e...se%20Trip%20for%20Mom/IMG_2065_104_1.jpg[/img]
The Trumpets with our friends Lisa and Michael (we are the non Belizean looking ones!)
[img]http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e...se%20Trip%20for%20Mom/IMG_2097_134_1.jpg[/img]
How many floors do you count? I thought the rule was 3 stores!
[img]http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e...se%20Trip%20for%20Mom/IMG_2101_138_1.jpg[/img]
Palm Trees still jacked up from the Hurricane
[img]http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e312/Carbunkletrumpet/IMG_0971_9_3_1.jpg[/img]
A picture of the last Belikin enjoyed on the beach looking at the reef.

Great report. All those years, all that fun, all those friends -PRICELESS!!

SWEET!!!

Great report!
It was nice meeting you and Mrs Trumpet at Mata Rocks. The crawl was amazing. So many people, so much fun, probably too many Belikins. When's the next one?

Great trip report Carbunkle! It was great meeting you and the wife!

Wonderful trip report! I never get tired of reading them. The pictures were nice as well. Thanks for the write up!

Thank you, we really enjoyed meeting everyone and plan on doing it again.

Thankyou so much for sharing your great trip report and pics! Seeing Marlin at coco locos put such a huge smile on my face.I have been practising to woop his ass in cribbage because I never even had the chance to play him last year...(lol). Also happy to hear that wonderwoman (aka Linda) still likes to pop in for a drink or 2...45 days and screaming inside!

Great report and wonderful meeting youse guys!

Great report.

Guilty to your golfcartjacking....tehehehe!

Want the other four names??? Also there is a picture of
crime.

Loved meeting the two of you.