Worried about January weather

I recently saw a forum post from someone who was worried about January weather in Belize. They were concerned about the forecast, wondering if it was jeans and sweater weather as well as if they would be out of luck on activities.

This morning was a prefect example of how bad forecast looks like with showers one minute and do a 360 not long after. I had every intention to walk to town and go to the Tuesday morning farmers market. Unfortunately, Chaac the Mayan god of rain, water and lightning had other plans. He opened the flood gates and poured full force over the island causing me to abandon ship on leaving the house.

I got busy with work and cleaning and before long the rain stopped which led to a Plan B opened up. Barb  messaged me that when the rain let up, she was going to the corner store on a potato hunt to cook Joe’s lunch. I asked if she wanted to go a bit farther and hit the 2 closest fruit stands on the main road and Super Buy south. We scored decently but I still think the veggies at the lagoon side market are the freshest. I had to pass on carrots due to their unpleasant old look which where at the first place we stopped. I eventually made up for it with a rare find of peaches. The second stop had no carrots, but their limes were bigger than the first – it is rarely one-stop shopping in San Pedro. By the time we were done shopping, the sun was shining and the temperature was warming up.

I will leave you with a few pictures from last week’s shopping trip and 2 cents from a tour operator.

After the farmers market I had a short detour before heading home. I needed to stop by and see Kendall at Ecologic Divers to get the pesto I had forgotten at Greenhouse, which he so graciously picked up for me. I asked him to weigh in from a business owner perspective on the Belize forum weather post I linked to above, knowing he would have good input for those in Belize vacation planning mode.

As a tour operator on the best island in the world, Ambergris Caye, in the amazingly spectacular country of Belize, we are often asked about our weather and it effects on tours.  We, Ecologic Divers, operate tours all over Belize; from touring Mayan ruins, to cave tubing, to zip lining with a focus on marine activities like sailing, snorkeling, and diving. Let me begin by saying that weather forecasts are scary and the reality of the situation is that it does rain, but eventually it stops. Just because the weather man shows a rainy cloud, it doesn’t necessarily mean it will rain the entire day…and it’s never cold…never ever.

The overwhelmingly vast majority of tours go no matter the rain and weather. There are times we have to adjust; but it’s easy in Belize.  Just last week our tour guide for a mainland trip called because the cave for our cave tubing was flooded and we had to reschedule – in 5 minutes we had everything set for the next day; the guest came out on a snorkel to Hole Chan with us that day since they now had the time.  

Even this very morning – my alarm wasn’t needed as I was awoken by wind and very heavy rain.  We had a full slate of divers and a full day sail to Caye Caulker on deck.  We made the calls to push everyone back an hour; and sure enough the winds calmed, the rain died and we were diving and sailing just an hour later.

If you have the opportunity to come to Belize, don’t let a rainy cloud in the forecast stop you…and leave your long pants at home.