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Journey's End

I look at my ticket. It says I'll take Tropic Air to where? San Pedro, Belize? Hmmm ....Once there, I distinctly remember they said someone would meet us and take us somewhere. Sure enough, a van marked Journey's End shows up at the little macadam strip, and someone calls my name. At last I know where I'm going, right?

We wind our way through the hard-packed dirt streets of busy little San Pedro, and the van stops at the water.

We here? I ask our driver, whose English is a damned sight better than my Spanish. He answers in the affirmative and heads off with my baggage down a pier and then hands them into a boat. I guess here isn't exactly here yet. But a 20-minute boat ride over Aqua-Velva-blue water brings me, fittingly, to my journey's end, where someone hands me a frosty rum punch as I step onto the pier.

The Journey's End Resort is a 47-acre/19-hectare barefoot oasis 7 miles/11 km north of San Pedro. The resort features an incredibly friendly and helpful management and staff, Japanese sekitei-like grounds under a canopy of coconut palms, good food and drink, beautiful views and several levels of accommodations, from a three-bedroom villa and 30 individual cabanas looking out on the second-largest barrier reef in the world to 40 spacious, tile-floored, balconied rooms with mangrove views.

You can choose to do absolutely nothing here - lounge in the sun, eat in one of the two restaurants (lunch is served poolside, complete with in-water seating if you choose; breakfast and dinner are served indoors or out at the oceanfront restaurant) - or you can avail yourself of the active life. A PADI dive center is located waterside, and you're within 15 minutes of a stunning spur-and-groove reef that descends down to the 100-foot/30-m level.

Though large fish are scarce on the outer reef (we did spot a huge grouper), this is more than made up for by the teeming life at Hol Chan Preserve, a 30-minute boat ride south, and Ray and Shark Alley, just another 10 minutes farther. Windsurfers, sit-on-top kayaks, canoes and Hobie cats round out the selection of water toys.

If landside action is on your agenda, a surprisingly good tennis court is available, or you can spike some volleyballs (if you can find anyone with enough ambition to play with). Failing that, you can hit one of the hammocks strewn under palm-thatched huts and watch others exhaust themselves while you suck down Carib Coolers. Daily excursions to both mainland sites (Mayan ruins) and blue-water offshore sites are also available. (Diving a blue hole from a seaplane was high on my list of things to do, but....) A water taxi runs to and from San Pedro day and night in case all the quiet gets to you. Check out the waterfront Rasta Pasta Pizza Amor restaurant.

For rates and information, call Journey's End at 800-460-5665.

Posted online 06/01/98.

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