Belize Travel Fun

By James Harrold

What would you do if you were going to
Belize for the first time?
James Harrold lived in Belize for three years and decided to write this book to answer this very question. In this book, Mr. Harrold writes a story about two brothers who take their wives on a two week vacation to Belize. The characters are fictional, however, the names, places, and details in Belize are factual.
Neat adventure!!

• Language: English
• Publisher: James Harrold
• Release date: Nov 21, 2010
• ISBN: 9780615407258

James Harrold

About the Author: James Harrold is a retired Insurance executive and writes as a robust hobby. He retired from the Insurance business in 1997. In 2001 Mr. Harrold moved to Belize and lived in San Pedro, Ambergris Caye for three years. This experience led to the writing of his first book, Belize Travel Fun, a travel adventure book about Belize. He now lives in Virginia and loves to reminisce about his political days in the Reagan era. He is currently writing the sequel to his second book, It Takes Two...A Political Historical Adventure Novel.

Book preview

PROLOGUE

My name is Tom Stacey and I would like to invite you to enjoy a trip to a fabulous Country, Belize, Central America. The trip that I am about to explain to you was taken with my wife, Willie, and my brother and his wife, Tim and Susie.

Just to give you a little background, our father, William Stacey, is a successful Attorney. He has Law Firms in Oxford, Ohio and New York City. Because of his help on the Nixon Campaign, he was appointed to the Director of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and then later appointed to the Director of the Import and Export Department to help with NAFTA.

About the time that Tim and I were making our way through College, Dad decided to open a Consulting Company. This Company would concentrate on political campaigns. Dad hired two of his friends that were about his age to run this new venture. It was a natural for me, and a year or two later, Tim, to join this Company.

We were instrumental in gaining the confidence of the Republican National Committee and the Ronald Reagan group in California. This resulted in the Stacey Consulting Company being hired to run the Reagan Campaign for the 1980 Presidential race. We made a half heart-ed attempt to win the 1976 primary, however, our main objective was name recognition for Ronald Reagan nationally.

The Primary attempt was successful for name recognition, and we were ready to go for the 1980 Presidential race, but first, we needed a vacation.

~~~

CHAPTER 1.

It was November, 1975 and our Campaign for the Reagan nomination for the Republican Presidential Candidacy was over for now. Sitting President Gerald Ford had won the nomination and he selected Bob Dole as his Vice President running mate.

The Stacey Consulting Firm had done an excellent job of building Ronald Reagan into a National candidate. The people in the business knew what we were doing and we could tell that they were impressed. Our work wasn’t finished, but we could take a little time off and relax. Ronnie Reagan, Nancy and his team were very happy with our performance. They were anxious to hear about the next step(s). The race for the 1980 Presidency would be most exciting.

Tim and I had been working non-stop for almost three years. We were ready to take a break, so we decided to do one last whirl-wind trip to all of our main Reagan Headquarters Offices. Our objective was to thank them profusely and pick their brains concerning the immediate public relations steps to take and the overall steps for the next 4 years. Then we could take all the best suggestions and add ours and our 4 year strategy would be close to complete.

It would take us almost a month to get around to everyplace, so we ask Barry Seals if he would fly us. Barry agreed and would only charge us his expenses. He did have a couple pre-existing commitments, but we could work around those. We were really glad that he could help. The convenience of flying private was too nice compared to flying commercial. Barry, Tim and I had become good friends and he knew we wouldn’t mind if he made a short hop while we were in one of our day long meetings.

Needless to say, the trips went well. We usually were able to meet with two Headquarters per day and the ideas and support came forth freely. Perhaps the free food and Champagne helped. Susie and Willie were able to join us on a few legs, especially to Cities that they had helped, or had old friends there.

The kudos and accolades flowed freely from Tim and I for everyone. They (and We) were winners. We had catapulted Ron Reagan from a California regional politician to a National Presidential Candidate. We were positioned perfectly for the real race, 1980!

When we finished our whirl-wind trip, we were able to formulate our future plans. 1976 was an easy year to plan because we all wanted to transfer our support to the Ford Campaign and we wanted to help get out the vote. Tim was good at delegation, we had a staff meeting and we assigned all the tasks we wanted to accomplish for 1976 concerning Reagan.

We were beat, but finally we could take a little time off. First, we each took the wives and kids to Naples, Florida to enjoy Christmas with Mom and Dad Stacey. They had a nice house on the beach there and we always booked 2 rooms at a little motel down the road for we two couples and let the kids stay with Mom and Dad. This was a great plan, because we could spend the day with the folks and the kids, then after dinner we could go out for a drink and/or back to our rooms.

We were back in Oxford in January in time for the kids to go back to school, but more importantly in time for Tim, Susie, Willie and I to go on a much deserved vacation of our own.

While we were at Mom and Dad’s Florida home, Dad had asked us where we boys were going to take the girls on our vacation. Dad was newly appointed to the head of the U.S. Export-Import Agency and Tim and I had been equally busy, so we did lots of catching up on our few times together. We were dying to tell Dad that we were going to Belize. Oh, good! Dad said, You can check on our money! Ha, Ha! We all laughed, but Tim and I knew that was a big part of our decision to go there. Dad wanted the exact dates and the Hotel that we would be staying. He told us that he had a new acquaintance, about our age, that he wanted us to meet. He would make a few phone calls and let us know soon if it would be possible. Also, he said he would get the names of our Belize Banking people, etc. We told Dad not to say too much about business around the girls, we all laughed, and he understood.

The next day Dad had everything for us. He told us that he had met an up and coming young man through George Shultz ( Secretary of Treasury and Chairman of the Council on Economic Policy under Nixon-Ford, 72-74, and now President of Bechtel.) Dad told us that Bechtel was the most powerful International Engineering Corporation and did a tremendous amount of business with another friend of Dad’s, Charlie Main. Mr. Main owned Charles T. Main, Inc., an international consulting firm. He told us, confidentially, that MAIN kept a low profile and did studies for various banks, i.e., World Bank as to whether to lend a Country money, or not.

The young guy’s name was John Preston and he was a Vice President. However, Dad said, they call him an EHM. We, of course, asked what’s that? He said an Economic Hit Man. We searched our minds and made a few feeble attempts at what that meant, but we all ended up laughing. Dad finally said that he didn’t know exactly either, so he had his N.Y. Law Firm fax him a definition. Here’s what it said: Economic Hit Men are highly paid professionals who cheat Countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency of International Development (USAID), and other foreign ’aid’ organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet’s natural resources. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization.1

Wow! Tim and I almost said in unison. Tim said, I like it. It’s like James Bond, 007. We all laughed and Dad said, I think you might like this guy. John is an accountant type and a real likeable fellow. Seriously, He said, I think he could help you down the road with anything you or we might get into on an international realm. Then Dad gave us a list of our Trust and Offshore Banking contacts.

We all took our coffee and went for a walk on the beach. We talked about how pleased we were doing with the cash we were sending with Jake to Belize. We had doubled our monthly amount and I think Dad had sent a few large amounts from his N.Y. Law Firm.

So, we were triple excited about our Belize vacation. We were going to meet our Offshore Trust/Banking people, we were going to meet this so called Economic Hit Man!, and we were going to get some time off with our wives/lovers in an exotic country. However, it wouldn’t be long and I would learn of my brother’s deeper and darker secrets!

~~~~

CHAPTER 2.

Our Belize vacation was fabulous. I let Tim do the planning and un-be-known to me he turned it over to Susie and Willie. They did a great job! All of our friends thought we had been appointed Ambassadors, we were promoting Belize so much.

The vacation started with the alarm going off at 3 a.m. We had to drive to Columbus and fly to Charlotte, North Carolina, from Charlotte we flew U.S. Air non-stop to Belize City. We were so tired we hardly talked until our second cup of coffee on the way to Belize City. It was a cool, clear January day and our flight was smooth. The excitement was starting to build the closer we came to Belize. Our flight was only 2 hours and 45 minutes. When we arrived, we cleared customs, which was easy, then we made our way to Tropic Air. While we waited, we shopped around in the little shops in the waiting area, ordered a fish basket lunch with a Belikin beer. Belikin is the only beer made in Belize and we were surprised that we all liked it. It came in glass bottles only and 10oz instead of 12oz.

The girls had booked us for the first part of the trip on a Belize Island called Ambergris Caye. We were flying Tropic Air to a Town on this Island called San Pedro. Tropic flew twin engine, 17 passenger, Cessna’s. We boarded with just a few other passengers, took off, climbed to only about 1,000 feet. By then we were out of the City and over the crystal clear water. Neat! Our faces were glued to the windows. The bad news was that it was only a 15 minute flight. We were out over the Great Barrier Reef, which the girls taught us was the longest reef in the Northern Hemisphere, almost 200 miles long. The contrast of the deep water, the breaking waves over the reef and the shallow water inside the reef was simply spectacular.

The first Island we came to was Caye Chapel. The pilot told us that it was privately owned and they were building a championship 18 hole golf course, pro-shop, restaurant and a few villas that would rent for $600 US per night. Quickly, we came to another Island, we asked if it was Ambergris Caye and the pilot said not yet. This one was Caye Caulker, and it had a few restaurants, shops, hotels in the very small beach village. We liked it, but now we were over Ambergris Caye. It was bigger and the pilot said it was 26 miles long and about 1.5 miles wide. It was only separated from the Mexican Yucatan Peninsula by a river canal that the Mayan Indians dug out.

San Pedro was bigger than Cay Caulker, but not much. There were more resorts and businesses. After we landed and taxied to a stop, opened the doors, the pilot told us that this Island was Belize’s largest tourist attraction and our Hotel would probably be picking us up right over there and he pointed to a sand road about 1 block away. We all grabbed our bags and scuba bag and walked over. Two nice looking Belizeans met us half way. One was for the other couples and one was for us. We said to them, Where are you parked? and the girls started laughing. The men pointed to a couple of 6 passenger golf carts! The girls said, We haven’t told you, but this Island only has golf carts and bicycles. And bare feet!, our driver said and he pointed to his sandy feet. We all laughed and Tim and I said, Fantastic!!

We loaded up the golf cart and headed to our Hotel, The Victoria House. It was about 5 miles South of Town and the airport was right on the South edge of Town. We all peppered our driver with questions, which he expertly answered while navigating around pot holes in the sand road. We turned into the Victory House driveway and it looked perfect. The palm trees, tropical flowered gardens and the sand driveway were groomed to perfection. Our driver said, Let’s get you checked in and then I will drive you to your room, so, just leave your bags in the cart. The 4 of us hopped out and followed our driver to the small lobby.

By now we were all perspiring. We were not used to the tropical heat and humidity, however, the lobby was air conditioned and felt wonderful. The walls were off white plaster and the doors, trim, wood work, check-in counter was mahogany, polished to a high gloss sheen. Beautiful! Tim and I checked in and the girls walked out toward the Ocean. We could see them not too far away and they looked around, then back at each other, then jumped and high five’d each other. Tim and I laughed at them and said, They like it!

We were back in the cart and the driver drove us down a small lane to our place. He helped us in and showed us around. The girls had out done themselves, it was a two bedroom house. Kitchen, living room, bedroom, bathroom, and two double doors leading out to the veranda on the lower level. Upstairs was the second bedroom, bathroom and another set of double doors leading out to an upper veranda. We all stood there in awe. The house was right on a beautiful white sand beach overlooking the Caribbean Sea. About ¼ mile out was the reef and we could see and hear the waves crashing. Just gorgeous!

Our driver mentioned that on the Ocean side there is always a nice breeze and most people leave everything open. We agreed. We tipped him generously and I think we were getting into our swim suits and tee shirts before he drove off.

We were tired from our already long day, but the excitement of being on a tropical island kept us going. Tim asked the girls to take us on a guided tour of the Resort. They giggled because they didn’t know any more than we did, but the Victoria House was small. They acted like tour guides and Willie said, Now behind us is the crystal clear Caribbean Sea and to our left and your right is a slightly larger guest house. Susie took over and said, And to your left and our right is a single story honeymoon suite with a very large deck over-looking the fabulous white sand beach dotted with palm trees. Willie started again and said, We’re walking, we’re walking this way. and Tim and I followed our tour guide brides through the sand where we stopped in front of the pool. The Resort was almost full, but hardly anyone was out, so the girls stayed in tour guide mode. Susie said, Here is our semi-Olympic size swimming pool decorated with gorgeous Honduran tile. Still giggling, Willie said, And behind the pool area are our 6 Tiki style huts with thatch roofs. We almost rented these. She injected. Susie then chimed in with, We’re walking, we’re walking. We all laughed.

We headed for a nice patio area where a family was having a late lunch. But the girls were in full swing now and Susie continued the narrative, Behind me is our outside dining area and beyond that is our inside evening dining area, which is where we would like reservations for tonight. More giggles. Willie then said, And on my left and your right is the Hotel Lobby, gift shop, and offices, above which are 12 hotel style rooms. This is the original Victoria House. ( And under her breath she said, she thought? And she was right). Tim and I were getting into the act now and were becoming bitchy tourist. We said, We are hot and thirsty. Ha, Ha! Susie started the We’re walking, we’re walking and Willie, Tim and I chimed in with, Yes, we’re walking!

We proceeded down a well groomed path and gardens past a four plex building. Susie said, We had thought about a couple of these, but decided on the house. Tim and I had no idea what our rate was and we had given them an open check book, but Tim told them we could have saved some money if they had just rented one of the hotel rooms! We laughed, but the girls gave us the raised eyebrow look. We kept walking and soon we were at the Beach Bar and Restaurant. It was very casual, rustic, good taste and all wood. There was a couple of guys and a girl at the bar. The girls were still in tour guide mode and were pointing out pictures on the right and maps on the left, bar stools, tables, and a bar tender. Everybody was laughing at them. I asked if we could come in with our suits and bare feet? The bar tender laughed and said, No shirt, no shoes, no problem!

~~~~

CHAPTER 3.

Tim asked us what we wanted and we all agreed that he should order us a Belikin. We were in Belize. We were delighted that everyone we had met were very friendly and this bar tender and the guest were no exception. So, we started asking questions. Susie inquired about dinner reservations and the bar tender said, definitely. and picked up the phone, reached the right extension and handed the phone to Susie. She made our reservations at the earliest opening for 4, which was 8:30 p.m. Great! We asked why we hadn’t seen too many people and one of the guests told us that during the day people are busy fishing, snorkeling, scuba diving, shopping, sailing, napping, sight seeing, but the Island is really full of tourist. We knew that Belize was a British Colony and the bar tender told us that it was planned that Belize would gain it’s independence in 1983, not too far off. He continued telling us that even though English was the #1 language, most people spoke Spanish also, and some, especially in the South speak Creole, too. Then the bar tender told us a joke. He said, What do you call a person that speaks 3 languages? No one caught on and he said, Tri-lingual. Then he said, What do you call a person that speaks 2 languages? Now we knew and said, Bi-lingual. Ha! Then he said, What do you call a person that speaks 1 language? We were stumped again, and he said, in his Spanish accent, Un-Gringo!" Lots of laughing.

Tim bought another round and one for the 3 guest at the bar, too. They were from Austin and came to the Island every year about this time. The bar tender had to fill an order at the pool, so the 3 guest told us about some of the activities. We had not been to the dive shop on the pier yet and we laughed about the inefficiencies of our tour guides. Anyway, they told us all about the fishing, scuba, snorkeling. We decided we better snorkel at 9 a.m. and then go shopping in the afternoon. Willie had an idea, We should go for a walk on the beach, which would give us a little sun, then go back to the house and take a nap! A big applause! Even the 3 guest and the bartender participated. Willie continues, with a pink face, Then we could have a cocktail on the veranda and then go to eat at 8:30. Great plan., we all agreed.

Tim asked the bar tender if he could do up a room service order for us and deliver it to our house, The Reef House? The bar tender had a big grin on his face and said, You guys haven’t even looked in your fridge, have you? Of course, we shook our heads, No. He said, Somebody, not telling who, called the office and I think you will find I did a job for you! Belikin? Tim asked. Our bar tender said, You bet!

We thanked everyone and headed for the dive shop to make our snorkel arrangements. Tim asked if we could take a Belikin on the beach and the bar tender opened two, the girls had enough. Our new guest friends bought. What a wonderful afternoon, so far. Oh, Tim said, Is that house to the South of us part of the Resort too? The bar tender said no, It belongs to Jerry Jeff Walker, but our manager takes care of it for him. However, he’s here and you can thank him for the beers that he just bought you! Jerry Jeff had a big grin on his face and we all laughed and shook hands. What fun!

~~~~~

CHAPTER 4.

The girls were in awe as we headed for the dive shop and were trying to remember some of his Country and Western songs. I had to admit that I didn’t know one, but for me that wasn’t unusual. I could barely remember an Elvis song... Oh, Blue Swede Shoes, Love Me Tender, and You Aint Nothin But A Hound Dog. I’m on a roll, I better stop. Ha!

We walked