A week on Ambergris Caye leaves plenty to come back for. Mayor Wally Nuñez shares his favourite escapes, explains how visitors become familiar faces and reveals why another holiday can turn into plans for a longer stay.
Mayor Wally Nuñez on the island that brings people back—and gives them reasons to stay longer.
The first trip to San Pedro comes with plenty to look forward to. Fishing along the reef, snorkelling, lunch by the water and an afternoon you’ve deliberately left empty. Then someone tells you about a western sandbar or a place farther north, and the week starts to look too short.
When we asked Mayor Wally Nuñez why visitors keep returning, he talked about those attractions. But he also talked about what happens while people are enjoying them.
“They get to know our people on a one-on-one basis,” he says.
A day on a boat gives you time to talk. Back in town, you find places you like and start recognising people. By the next trip, you have someone to contact about the fishing, somewhere you’re looking forward to eating and a few suggestions you haven’t tried yet.
San Pedro gives you more than enough reason to come once. Getting to know it makes the next visit an easier decision.
Start with the island you came to see
Ask Wally where he would take someone visiting tomorrow and he chooses a sandbar on the western side of Ambergris Caye. Somewhere to relax, enjoy the water and feel away from everything for a while.
It’s a good recommendation from someone whose working days involve both flying planes and running the town council. For his own time off, he also likes the Secret Beach area, or a trip farther north towards Bacalar Chico and Rocky Point.
These are different afternoons from the reef excursions that bring so many people to San Pedro. You can spend a day fishing or snorkelling, then head west for shallow water and a long break by the shore. Give Wally’s sandbar suggestion its own afternoon with a local guide, or settle in at Secret Beach for lunch and a swim.
That variety makes returning appealing. You have a favourite day you want to repeat, and another part of Ambergris Caye waiting for you. Even the mayor has several places in mind when he wants to get away.
Come back to people you know
Wally believes the welcome visitors receive is a large part of what brings them back. They get to know residents personally and leave feeling comfortable here.
He describes people waving as they pass through town and saying hello before they have even been properly introduced. If he doesn’t know someone yet, he expects they’ll eventually meet. Conversations in San Pedro have a way of continuing beyond the first introduction.
For a returning visitor, that changes the holiday. You already know a guide you enjoy spending time with. You have people to ask about what’s happening while you’re here. The town becomes easier to get to know between the trips you’ve booked.
Wally points to the Mundialito football tournament, where children are excited to join their teams and families look forward to watching them play. Market days and other events bring residents together and give local vendors more business. There’s an afternoon to be had on the sidelines or around town, alongside the days on the water.
Stay longer and there are ways to take part yourself. Wally describes residents from overseas sponsoring sports, helping with food banks, supporting activities for women and children, and joining beach cleanups. Neighbourhood watch groups in the north and south also benefit from residents getting involved.
“So we welcome that,” he says, “because that’s what makes us a community.”
The friendships made on a holiday have somewhere to grow. There are people to see, things to join and reasons to be here beyond the dates of an excursion.
Then you start looking at San Pedro differently
Once you’re thinking about spending more time here, you begin noticing the town around your favourite holiday places. Where would you shop? What would be close to home? Could you build a business here, or make the island your base for part of the year?
Wally hears from people asking about San Pedro’s future because they want to become part of it. He also sees their plans taking shape through the business applications that come before the council.
He describes more cafés opening around the island and supermarkets in the north that save residents a trip into town. As people build homes and settle in, businesses open nearby to serve them. For someone exploring a home in San Pedro, that is worth seeing firsthand: the island is developing around the everyday needs of the people choosing to live here.
Healthcare is especially personal to Wally. As a pilot, he has flown patients off the island at three in the morning. During COVID, he remembers how difficult those transfers could be. His enthusiasm for the new general hospital being built for San Pedro and Caye Caulker comes from having made those flights himself.
More healthcare services on the island matter when a longer visit becomes the thought of a home. So do the shops, businesses and community activities growing around its residents. The idea of spending more time here becomes easier to picture in practical terms.
A reason to make the next trip longer
When we asked Wally what made him proud to be part of San Pedro, he talked about neighbours helping after fires and coming together when someone faced a serious health problem. He had seen it happen repeatedly, including among people with different political views.
That is the community he wants newcomers to know. A visitor first encounters it through a guide, a restaurant or a conversation around town. Over time, there are opportunities to become part of it.
Asked what he loves most about San Pedro, Wally puts it simply: “You get to appreciate life as a community.”
The reef, beaches and western sandbars give you a holiday worth repeating. The relationships you build give each return visit something more. Eventually, you’re planning around people you want to see and a life you want more time to enjoy.
That is a good reason to come back to San Pedro—and an even better reason to stay longer next time.
