In my last couple of updates, I took you down the beach heading south to town for groceries, then I showed you around our resort, and now I am sharing pictures of our daily morning stroll toward the north. Since it gets dark by six o’clock every evening, we go to bed early and we get up early. Morning walks are not as hot while the sun is rising, casting a glow on the entire beach. It’s a great time of day to exercise!
Adjacent to our resort are two unfinished buildings. The closest one is affiliated with the resort and the last one appears to be independent. The developer was allowed to build five stories tall because a condo project in town got the green light to go that high. Everything previously built on the island had to conform to the four story rule.
As we leave the new construction area, the first pink house has always been hiding in the bushes. I guess it is easier to maintain a jungle than a manicured yard. I hope the large new structure beside it doesn’t block their view!
Once a Spanish tapas style restaurant, Aji was purchased by new owners earlier this year. They cleared the land and a brand new pool is going in. I can’t wait to see the final layout, but the old Aji was secluded and magical at night. You can see pictures of how it looked before the remodeling and pre-hurricane Earl in an interesting article here.
Moving on up the beach, we pass a couple of ginormous houses that are rarely occupied. If I’m not mistaken, they are both available for vacation rentals. Once in a while we see a caretaker on the premises doing some work.
Right beside the sophisticated white house, is, you guessed it, a bar. Such is life on Ambergris Caye if you purchase something near vacant property. There are no building or zoning codes so anything can go up beside you. Possible up side – you can sing karaoke from your bedroom balcony on Thursday nights!
Any time I’ve been near this bar, I haven’t seen more than four customers at a time. I’m not sure how it stays in business.
These two condo buildings look nice after a paint job. You can tell they are some of the older buildings on the north end of the island. A couple of the units still have their hurricane shutters on the windows.
What in the world? This salon or spa is relatively new. Zoom in on the sign and let me know if you would patronize this business.
Next we pass through a vacant lot that is overtaken by jungle and a bunch of palm trees that were toppled by the hurricane last year. I must say that I like to hear the frogs talking as we walk by.
Before we reach the resort zone, there is another small building that rents out for short term stays. The pool is tiny, but at least it has one. The beaches here are not ideal for swimming because of all the sea grass covering the sandy bottom. Many people like to snorkel around the docks instead.
On many mornings, a sweet female dog joins us for a section of our walk. She lives at the resort and comes running out to us as we pass.
My pictures don’t show the ocean side of the beach because I want to focus on the houses and resorts. The water side on the right of our path features a lot of docks of various lengths and private boats. Most properties employ groundskeepers who rake up and clean the sea grass and trash from the beach, which also helps with cutting down the noseeum population.
This homeowner rents out individual rooms and everyone shares the kitchen. They also have a dog and cat on the property.
In all the years we have been walking this beach, we have seen the shutters opened once or twice on this house. It is more common to see the locals swimming in the pool. Back in December the pool was drained, but now it looks maintained again.
Another large resort, El Pescador, is owned by an American and endorsed by the company Orvis. It sits on a long stretch of beach and consists of a lodge, restaurant, three pools, and a dozen two story buildings that contain private villas. Their specialty is fly fishing, of course, but many fishermen bring their wives along for a vacation.
The last empty lot we pass in the first mile of our walk is right beside the now deserted Capricorn restaurant and it’s three cabanas. We sure ate some delicious meals there over the years. It is common for bars and restaurants to come and go on the island and they tend to change hands every couple of years. Capricorn was a long time favorite of many. Maggie worked there for 20 years and now she can be found at Captain Morgan’s.
Next we see several smaller homes, and two of them appear to have full time occupants. Fences were installed a few years back when all of the bikes were traveling along the beach. Once the road was paved in 2015, it became faster to ride on it instead of the sand. I bet these homeowners were happy when the bikes were gone!
Do you see a pattern here? Small house, resort, bar, large house, spa, restaurant…anything goes!
If you have $995,000 to spare, a condo in the above building is for sale. It has a killer pool with a view!
We’ve almost completed our first mile. I use Captain Morgan’s Retreat as a mile marker. A white two story house sits at the southern boundary of the resort. The first section of the resort has a pool with a swim up bar surrounded by one and two bedroom villas.
On our first visit in 2005 we purchased a 96 year timeshare. We receive one week per year for 96 years at Captain Morgan’s Retreat, or we can trade our week for any location available in the Interval International network.
In front of a row of additional two story villas, are some cabanas that you can see in the reality TV show “Temptation Island”. The first episode can be watched here. The participants often gathered around the original pool on the property (pictured below).
The Resort has grown tremendously since those filming days in 2002. We’ve made lots of friends over the years while on vacation. A new owner has taken over and I can see that many areas are getting an update. That makes me happy because I love this place!
Captain Morgan’s Retreat also has a casino, general store, restaurant, and a full activities desk. At the northern end of the resort, you can get a massage over the water. We will keep walking and I will cover another mile in my next update. I hope you’re not tired yet!