The former fishing village of San Pedro is the biggest city on the islands of Belize, located on the largest caye. The city have a population of more than 9000 and even paved roads and cars. 🙂 The main reason for us to go here was that the dive sites were a lot closer, instead of one hour on a boat it is maximum fifteen minutes. We stayed at Hotel del Rio, a little bit out of the city center, quiet but right on the beach. We had two bedrooms and a big balcony. Luxury! Two days we got up early and went out for two dives with the dive shop Chuck & Robbie’s. 
Since the dive sites were so close we went back to the shop between the dives for some fruit and snacks. Professional, fun and laid back people! The visibility was great on all dives and we saw several turtles, moray eels, groupers, nurse sharks, eagle rays, stingrays, dolphins, lobsters and lion fish. The reefs were also really nice with narrow channels, canyons and steep walls.
The third day we went snorkeling in the famous Hol Chan Marine Reserve in the morning. It’s on the southern tip of Ambergris Caye, and means “little channel” in Mayan. The site was nice, but we really regretted that we were snorkeling instead of diving, especially since we were with an unexperienced group and had to wait a lot. We also stopped at Shark-Ray Alley, where they were throwing food in the water to attract nurse sharks and stingrays. Not sure we like that, but have to admit it was interesting to see sharks pile up for food, and actually touching a stingray. 
In the evening we went back to Hol Chan for a night dive, and that was a completely different experience! We were a small group of six people where only one had tried night diving before. And we got kind of a challenge. Not only was it pitch dark, but we also had a very strong current. In the beginning it was quite narrow and everyone were staying close to the instructor, so we crashed into eachother a bit when trying to avoid hitting the reef. We all got a hang of it very quickly though, spread out a bit more and had an amazing dive. 
We saw hundreds of stingrays hiding in the sand, several moray eels (both green and spotted), sharks, eagle rays, large lobsters out walking, large groupers and snappers out hunting, a turtle and so much more. We ended the dive by kneeling at the bottom close to the boat and turn off all flashlights. We waved our hands around to make bioluminescence plankton light up. Really fun!
We walked into the city center a couple of times, but normally ended up in one of the beach bars instead. Too much people, cars and noise around the main square. Our favourite bar was probably Hurricane which was located over the water with great views, 
had good food, great drinks and often live music. It was the kind of place where they remembered your name and people kept coming back. We also bought fresh breakfast from the local bakery, and food in the evening from the Chinese fast-food place. This we enjoyed on our balcony while looking at the palm trees, the sand and the ocean. Wonderful!