Resort Crush: Matachica Resort & Spa, Belize

We landed in Ambergris Caye just off the coast of Belize on in a tiny airport surrounded by ramshackle houses and island poverty typical to the Caribbean. The slew of sunburnt tourists waiting for their departure made us weary that perhaps we had chosen a destination too discovered for our liking. Luckily our intuition was dead wrong and a quite stylish resort lay just out of reach from this ragged airport crowd.

Our hotel pick-up spotted us quickly and whisked us away via golf cart and speed boat to Matachica Resort & Spa, a resort boasting 22-thatched roof casitas on the Belizean barrier reef. A place we had a very hard time leaving for the next week.

We were greeted upon arrival at the dock with decadent coconut milk mojito cocktails (this is how we like to travel). It was just after sunset and loungy world music piped from the lobby ablaze with burning candelabras with red dripping wax, stacks of well curated TASCHEN coffee table books, curios selected from around the world and shells to remind us where we really were – an auto-free little speck of an isle located directly off the coast of the world’s second largest great barrier reef.

We quickly checked in and were shown down a sand path to our beachfront casita, titled grapefruit.
Our grapefruit casita, painted the perfect pamplemousse yellow is a single room cabin with a thatched hut roof. It is simplicity at it’s finest. In typical Central-American style they used cement to design everything from the multi-level flooring, to the counter tops and even our mattress frame. The thatched roof, minimalist local furniture, delicious white bedding, minimalist walls and local art created an atmosphere of simple luxury. The mosquito net above the bed worried us, but we were relieved to find out that the trade winds had swept away the mosquito from our thoughts.

We quickly changed and headed to the resort’s only restaurant Mambo and were pleased to find that we had arrived on the final night of lobster season. We were served mixed grilled seafood including local snapper, scallops, shrimps and of course lobster tail over coconut milk infused rice. We ordered another round of those decadent mojitos from check in. It was the first of many delirious meals (perhaps some that we will try to create in BIKINICLEANSETM approved versions for the blog … more on that later).

Retiring to bed it seemed past midnight, but alas it was just after 9:30pm. Our bodies settled into island time quickly.

We woke up to the sound of the wind rattling our plantation shutters. After laying in bed watching the light cascade through the cracks and listening to the howling wind we lazily put on our beach clothes and made our way to the complimentary continental breakfast. Like most islands, the local food was fresh and everything else, we skipped. The simple breakfast consisted of homemade banana bread, a hard boiled egg, sliced island fruit and then an entire menu of extras if that wasn’t enough. We found the the breakfast totally satisfying and quite delicious. The Belizian coffee was dark and helpful in recovering from our morning daze.

We chose to spend the first day reading by the pool, set back from the beach. We enjoyed watching the iguanas in the grass just beyond our chairs and the attentive service of the Matachica staff. We spent the afternoon on bikes graciously supplied by the resort and followed the Belizian “rush hour” of workers riding to and from work on the hard sand at the waters edge.

Over the next few days we took advantage of the island’s main offering, the world’s second largest great barrier reef just off the beach. We rented small family owned boats and skippers to take us fishing and snorkeling; we caught and ate a baracuda; we swam with sharks and giant leopard rays and snorkeled to our hearts content.

While the sea life is really the reason to hit this island, our favorite memories were made back at Matachica where we always returned for a fresh meal from the sea and to sit on the steps of our pamplemoose casita, looking for leopard spotted rays jumping from the sea, reconnecting with nature and each other, coconut mojito and good book in hand.

Mandatory beach reading borrowed from the lobby library. Great book!

Mandatory beach reading borrowed from the lobby library. Great book!

Personal touches throughout the property

Personal touches throughout the property

A treasure hunt on the beach

A treasure hunt on the beach

Road to nowhere because who would event want to go home

Road to nowhere because who would event want to go home

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