When planning our trip in 1998, we made the decision to stay in San Pedro Town for our Ambergris Caye portion of the trip.  The previous year, we had been very impressed with the SunBreeze Hotel.

It's location at the south end of the town offered a very convenient location as one can walk to just about anything within 6 blocks of the hotel.

I E-mailed Julia Edwards the General Manager and obtained a firm price and booking for the period of time that we planned to stay.  (Oldgator respectfully suggests that you make reservations prior to leaving on your trip, the properties are spread out in most of Belize and transportation is expensive which means, that,  what you might save on drop in you would spend in transport to get there).

We arrived at the SunBreeze on October 24, 1998 intending to stay 5 nights.  On the 25th, the surf began to get up, due to Hurricane "Mitch".  There were rumors floating around that we were going to be evacuated on the 26th.

Sure enough, when we got up at 5:30 am the next morning, they were already removing all of the furniture from the Restaurant, Bar, Sun Deck and Rooms as they became available up to the 2nd floor rooms which were now being used for storage. The building is constructed of concrete and tidal surge into the first floor rooms and the public areas was of most concern.

Our next move was to obtain some breakfast as the SunBreeze restaurant was closed.  We walked both ways from the hotel and not a single restaurant was open. Everyone was boarding up and trying to get ready to get off of the Island. (Before it was all over,  we would not eat until 11:00 pm that evening in Miami)

I had made reservations on Tropic Airlines, which, is located just across the street from the SunBreeze for a flight to the mainland at 2:00 pm.  So at 1:00 pm we arrived at the Tropic Airlines terminal expecting to leave at 2:00.  This was not to happen as basically any influential local person was permitted to jump ahead of the tourists and non influential locals. (I am not sure if this was a monetary advancement or just the old boys network at it's best).

Anyway, it was 5:30 pm and almost the last plane load to leave when we finally departed. (Note: Tropic and Mayan Airlines only fly during daylight hours)

The trip back to Belize City Metro Airport was a little hairy as it was pouring the whole way and the wind was blowing around 35 mph steady from the east.  Looking down from the plane it was impossible to see the sea, or land.  Our pilot made a couple of turns, lowered the flaps and as we lost altitude out popped the little Metro landing strip, which was a welcome site.

Having checked all of the airlines and finding out that they either had no flights scheduled or had discontinued service to Belize until the storm had moved on, I called the U.S. Ambassador's Office to request assistance in getting back to the U.S. mainland.  We were told to stay close to a phone as it was possible that an evacuation flight might be arranged later in the evening.

We did not want to just hang around and then not have any place to stay so we checked into the Radisson Hotel in Belize City.  (This is a first class operation, nice facilities and even nicer staff).  We dropped our bags in the room about 7:00 pm and went down to the dinning room to get a meal. ( We thought! ) This was not to be.  Just as we ordered and got our salad from the salad bar, the phone rang and it was the Ambassador on the line telling us that she had arranged for us to have 2 seats on an evacuation flight which had been arranged by the British Government.

The good news was that we could evacuate, the bad news was that we had only 1/2 hour to get to the airport.  We dashed up, got our luggage, and went  down to the desk to check out. They would not think of charging us for the short time we had been there and everyone really performed to get us into a cab for the 10 mile trip to the airport in the blowing rain.

When we got to the airport, naturally, they had never heard of us. We lucked up  as a representative of the U.S. Ambassador's Office showed up and made arrangements with the people from "Miami Charters" which had been engaged by the British Government to fly any British Citizens who wanted to evacuate to Miami.  As there were still some empty seats we were going to get aboard.

One little problem arose, they were charging $300.00 per person for the trip and they were only accepting cash,  which after the trip expenses we did not have.   We pleaded with everyone and finally the charter company agreed to let us charge the flight on a credit card. They had to borrow the credit card machine from Taca Airlines (who's office was closed) to run the ticket which eventually worked it's way into the Miami Office of "Miami Charters" and then to me in about 2 months.

Having had our vacation on Ambergris Caye and the SunBreeze cut short, we decided that we would again make reservations at the SunBreeze for May of 1999 as we planned to spend our 40th anniversary in Belize.

We had planned to go first to Placencia and then come back to Ambergris Caye. We had the car packed for the drive to Miami early the next morning, when the phone rang about 6:00 pm with the shocking news that Norma's Mom had just passed away.

So it was stop the Belize trip and find an affordable way to New Hampshire where her family live.

I would like to acknowledge here that everyone and every business with whom we had made reservations, such as, American Airlines, Lewis Auto Rent Belize, The Inn at Robert's Grove, Kevin Modera Guide Services, Tropic Airlines, and the SunBreeze Hotel all cooperated without  question, in allowing us to postpone our trip until June. We thank you all !

On the original plans, our son and his girlfriend  were supposed to travel with us the whole trip.  However, with the time off that they had taken to attend the funeral they could only get 4 days off in June.  They selected to meet us on Ambergris Caye for that portion of our trip.

When we awoke  on the morning of the 25th the wind was blowing 25-30 mph out of the east and their were huge waves breaking over the reef. (Just like they had done with "Mitch" the previous year). We checked the weather channel on the cable TV. and it was being predicted that the weather was going to get worse before it got better.

Rick and Marilyn arrived about noon.  We had made arrangements to go reef fishing in the afternoon.  However, this was changed to Bay Fishing behind the Caye(s) out of the wind. We did not get the thrill of catching game fish that day as we only caught a lot of small 1-3 lb snapper and a couple of Spanish

The next day, the wind was blowing even harder and it was raining intermittently. With the weather like it was we decided not to go snorkeling as planned. We spent the day just bumming around.  We had rented a golf cart for 3 days at a good rate,  which was arranged by the hotel, so we crossed the river on the hank pulled ferry and went on the Caye  for lunch at The Sweet Basil Gourmet Restaurant which was delightful.

As it had stopped raining for a while, we visited many of the shops in San Pedro on the way back to the hotel.

On the 27th Norma and I flew back to Miami and Rick and Marilyn stayed in Belize until the next day.

We hope that our next trip to Ambergris Caye will provide better weather and allow us to fully enjoy the facilities and amenities of the SunBreeze Hotel.

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