San Pedro was wonderful!
I stayed at Changes of Latitudes Bed and Breakfast in San Pedro. It is a small B&B with 6 rooms, but was just charming and perfect! Lori, the owner is helpful and will tell you all about San Pedro, the best places to go, and help set you up with some fun trips.
I started every day with a Lori´s great homemade breakfast, and then go diving (I did 6 tanks total). Then I´d go home, shower, go out for lunch, hang on the beach and then dinner... walk on the beach and bed... Sigh... Eat, dive, eat, lie on beach, eat, walk on beach, eat, sleep and start again the next day....Very relaxing!
The diving was great! It was the same, but different than Cozumel. (I´m living in Cozumel) Hard to explain... The reef is stunning there. More like virgin reef.... and TONS of it! BUT, outside the Marine Park area there are very few fish! (fishing is allowed outside the park) Really really strange outside the park... lots of reef and little fishies, but not much bigger than 2 inches except for the sharks eagle rays and turtles. Then there is the Hol Chan marine park where the fish are protected. WOW!!! Talk aboaut life!!! There was more life at the marine park than I´ve ever seen in Cozumel!!! LOADED with all kinds of fish! TONS of massive Southern Stingrays, Morays, a whole school of huge tarpon, and schools and schools of all different fish.
I dove with Barefoot Watersports for the majority of my dives. They have a great fleet of boats and a wonderful staff. Dawn and Mike are wonderful people! They made me feel so welcome! Like family! The divemaster, Carlos is amazing... he finds all kinds of little creatures....I´ve gone diving with a ton of divemasters here in Cozumel. It is rare and a real treat to find divemasters like Carlos, that are so talented. That take the time to find the cute little creatures. In anycase, he found all kinds of COOL stuff! He pointed out all the little creatures hiding in their hidey holes! He found everything from little christmas tree worms, to flame scallops. He loves those little spotted drumfish! I wish all of you could have been there!!! On our night dive, he would point his flashlight around the coral to attract the plankton. The massive grouper and snapper and moray eels would come and try to eat the little plankton and life that was attracted to the light! It almost looked like the snappers were trying to eat the moray eels!!! LOL
One note: Very different than Cozumel, people are allowed to feed the sharks and play with the rays in the marine park. I find that a little perturbing... cause I´m use to the natural behavior of the marine life in Cozumel. It was strange to me that everytime I turn around, there is a huge snapper or grouper following me, waiting for handouts! Those guys literally follow the divers through the entire dive!
What else? Hmmm... oh yes, one evening, Carlos took me to a beachclub/bar where they had an awesome band playing. I can´t for the life of me remember the name of the place. It was south of the Barefoot Watersports pier by 2-3 hotels... The band played music that was sortof like salsa... but not quite. It had a different Carribean sound to it. They also played Reggae, meringue and some local music that I´d never heard before. I loved it all!!! He tried to teach me how to dance to the local music... but alas, it is harder than salsa!!!
Then comes the food. The food isn´t quite Mexican... but similar. I went to some local food places. Like Cozumel they also have tamales, empanadas, salbutes etc. but they have a slightly different twist to them. The tamales have a spicy kick to them. They add this Belizian spicy tomato sauce to it, mmmmmm... They have panades that are like the Mexican panuches, but instead of beans inside of the fried tortilla, they have fish. YUMMY!!! Then, my favorite item called "fritos" or johnney cakes.... kindof a cross between a donut and and empanada... a piece of salted dough fried up (or baked) into a puffy tasty bread like thing... Their staple food is rice and beans, or beans with white rice. So, my friend explains to me... these two dishes are different! Rice and beans is the rice and beans mixed together and fried. Beans with white rice is a bowl of beans and a plate of rice. In the end, they throw the bowl of beans into the rice, mix it up and eat it. So, you go figure, what the heck is the difference between the two??? So, my favorites: Celi´s Deli for Lunch or Dinner!!! Ambergris Delight and the Reef for their yummy fishy dinner specials and last but not least Caliente for lunch with a beautiful view.
In the end I was sad to leave. Sure, Cozumel is also another beautiful paradise island, but Ambergris Caye has its own charm. I will most definately be back!
Thanks to all of you for sharing all the useful information that I got off of this board prior to my vacation!
Achu
AmbergrisCaye.com 
