I am a webmaster and writer and have been doing computers for the past 30 years and this is my first Apple product. The new iPad 3 from Apple landed in Belize this Sunday hot off the road from Dallas Apple Store for testing and I am keeping it. This is a review from a first time Apple user.

I have been looking at the iPad from the first version but decided to wait until version 2 or 3 to see what all the fuss was about. The iPad 3 is a modern-day slate, you know like the real slates that once were the mainstay of kindergarten – the dimensions are almost exactly that of a slate but it is thicker and definitely heavier.

The first order of the day was to run down the battery which was at 54% out of the box. This to fix the iPad heating problem. I first set up the iPad which was relatively easy. Then using Safari to browse the web and played several YouTube videos – took about 5 hours to kill the battery by disabling the sleep function. The iPad definitely runs hot to the point of being uncomfortable to hold in a certain area at the back. This is more pronounced in a tropical country such as Belize where it is the start of summer and temps are in the nineties.

After fully discharging the battery I hooked it up to the wall charger and let it charge unmolested for 10 hours. During charge up the back gets slightly warm then it cools down completely when charging is finished. On running the iPad again the heating problem had disappeared. This overheating fix worked for me.

What I like about the iPad:

The new Retina branded display is gorgeous – simply the best I have ever seen.  Our website images simply pop out as if they were printed on the highest quality glossy paper. I work hard to take the best images of news and cultural events and the iPad 3 renders them better than any other device I have seen.

The iPad 3 has a dual core processor now and this drives the Safari browser plenty fast. Cruising the web is snappier than on any of our other Windows or Linux based machines.

Interacting with the iPad 3 is very intuitive and easy for a first time user. The browser, settings, reading documents – most everything is easily accomplished with the touch screen that is more responsive than I had imagined.

What I Do Not Like About The iPad:

It is heavier than I thought and this makes it a little uncomfortable to use as an eBook – a case to hold it slightly tilted may address this.

The Safari web browser has no way to permanently adjust font size like Firefox or Internet Explorer. You can resize individual web pages but go to a new page and you have to resize again and again. The default Safari font sizes are too small for me. The fonts in the other iPad applications are O.K.

The WIFI radio in the iPad is claimed to be not as good as those on Windows laptops, and tends to drop signal according to some users. Rob Enderle a U.S. based technology writer building a home in Belize, wrote a piece on this topic in PC World. He suggests users get a Mac router. Rob does not state in his article which iPad, 1, 2 or 3 he brought on his trip to Belize. He did say he stayed at a local resort here. In our experience many resorts are clueless about WIFI service and use off-the-shelf routers with the cheapest ADSL service available which is not surprising as Internet access in Belize is outrageously expensive. In our tests we find the iPad 3 works great on our WIFI network. On our Cisco router the iPad 3 performed like a champ – even through two concrete walls 100 feet away from the WIFI router it kept its link and the WIFI icon was at 1/3 power. Now granted we had gutted the Cisco router’s standard firmware and replaced it with  custom software some time ago but it is running at factory default power.

Conclusion: The iPad is ideal for consumption of media, browsing the Internet, research, reading and for showing media or web pages to folks. It particularly lends itself to wasteful occupations such as playing games or haunting Facebook. But the the form factor makes it easy to have in a meeting or business call and hand around for others to see your project or whatever.

But this is not a productivity device. Typing on a glass screen will quickly wear out your fingers. The Siri voice-based assistant that is popular on the iPhone 4S is not on the iPad 3. Perhaps it will be incorporated later in an iOS upgrade. Quien sabe? Yes you can do contortions trying to type with thumbs or two fingers or buy an add on keyboard but really, a laptop or desktop computer will remain my mainstay for work or creating media. The iPad 3 I can more easily carry around so it will come with me on trips.

Many readers have written and asked where they can purchase an iPad in Belize . Most any large computer shop such as Fultec and Gscom (Belize City based) have them. Courts Belize also carries them. The price is about twice what you will pay in the U.S. For this you would expect excellent support and warranty but this is not always the case.

You can also get the latest Apple iPad from Amazon: Apple iPad MD328LL/A (16GB, Wi-Fi, White) NEWEST MODEL
Amazon at this time does not ship electronic items direct to Belize, but most residents and expats have a U.S. address where it can be shipped. There are also freight services in Belize (Sterling Freight for example) that will pick up your items from the U.S. and deliver it to you in Belize. A few even offer a U.S. address to facilitate purchases.

We are monitoring a test case with GS COM where a defective laptop was purchased. Their procedure is to, after some foot dragging, return the laptop to their supplier in the U.S. After a month or so the unit is expected to be returned to the customer. This is unlike what most customers expect: defective items are promptly replaced with a new unit and the defective unit becomes a problem for the manufacturer or distributor to address.

- By Manolo Romero – Belize.com Ltd.

Dr. Dorla Rosado and expat friends Doug and Lynn at Placencia Belize.

Left Belize at 2:00pm as planned on Thursday and arrived in Belmopan at 3:00pm where we hooked up with Hugh Leyton at The Pizza Place. Had a cold one with Hugh and a short but  interesting discussion. We were running late so Hugh agreed to drop off Manolo’s Sour Sop Seedlings for me and Dorla and I pulled out of Belmopan at 3:30pm.

We arrived at Laru Beya at 5:30 pm. just as dark was settling in. After settling in we had dinner with the owner, Ian McField, who is a cousin of mine and one of Ian’s friends -  Norman Francis who is a guest at Laru Beya. The Quarter Deck Restaurant is first class as is the rest of the property – Laru Beya was ranked #1 out of the 21 hotels in Placencia. Dinner was a real experience – the chef personally gathered info from each of us as to what we wanted and how we wanted it done. I let Dorla choose and we had grilled grouper with sauteed onions and vegetables – yummy!! We settled down in our suite for a much needed nights rest about 10:00 pm. The suite was all that I expected and even more – I would recommend Laru Beya as the best accommodation that I have experienced in Belize -  Auxillou Suites, Jaguar Reef and Turtle Inn were good but Laru Beya is #1 hands down.

We were up at 5:00 am. to have coffee and a sandwich before leaving on our fishing trip. We joined fishing mates Ian and Norman at the Laru Beya beach to wait for Captain Cagi to pick us up in Lacy. (photos of pre departure attached). We set out in choppy conditions at 6:20 and after a rough ride arrived at Roberts Caye about 7:10 where we anchored alee to prepare the gear. Lines were in the water at 7:15 with Dorla and Norman manning the lines.

At 7:20 Dorla got hooked up and brought in a small Bonito – 5 minutes later she hooked up again and brought in a small Mackerel – we were confident that the fishing was going to be very productive so we released the mackerel as being too small. During the next hour Dorla brought in 2 sand barrows which we released. Norman was still to get a hit and the wind was picking up. About 9:00 Norman brought in a small Barracuda and Dorla lost a lure to something big. The waves were 3-4 feet by this time and we decided to head to Hatchet Caye ( a really beautiful resort – photos attached) for a bathroom break and for Norman to get a bite. By the time we left Hatchet Caye the waves were 4-5 feet so the captain decided to start heading in. After a rough 45 minutes we pulled up under Long Coco Caye and trolled the area under Long Coco and Mosquito Cayes – no luck so we decided to continue trolling while heading back to the peninsula.

About 1:15 Norman was getting despondent and suggested that we call it a day and head back in. While we were deciding both lines started singing and Dorla and Norman had battles on their hands. Dorla’s battle was short as she lost her second lure but Norman brought in a large Bonito. Dorla was fired and Ian took over her line. The captain circled again and again the two lines started singing at the same time. Norman brought in another large Bonito and Ian brought a monster Bonito within gaff’s reach before he lost it. After another circle we decided to call it a day. When we reached the beach at Laru Beya the Chef was waiting for us with a plastic dish – he took instructions as to how we wanted the catch prepared for the night’s dinner.

Later Dorla and I went into Placencia Village where we had dinner at D’Thatch – Dorla had fillet snapper and I settled for a Conch Fritters platter.

ADO Bus information – prices shown are in Mexican pesos.

Autotransportes De Oriente (ADO) has provided the following bus schedule for their runs between Belize and Mexico. ADO links Belize and Mexico’s southern Yucatan Peninsula with economical first class rapid transit runs.

This service introduced in late 2011 has become popular with travelers who use Cancun as an air hub into and out of Belize to achieve substantial savings over the regular air fares on flights originating in North America.

The bus runs connect to Cancun, Merida and points in between including Playa Del Carmen and Tulum. Merida is not only a major commercial and tourist destination, but also has several tertiary medical care centers used by Belizeans.

UPDATE: A Belizean-American recently wrote an excellent trip report on the ADO Bus To Belize. Check it out to see what to expect on this run.

We have more information on how to buy tickets. At this time ADO does not have a terminal or permanent presence in Belize. This is in the works. A lady who did a recent trip says:

“Here are the details.  The representative arrives each evening at the Belize City bus station from 5 to 7 pm only.  When I arrived at 4.15, another gringo couple was there too.  You can buy tickets up to 7 days in advance at this kiosk during this time period.

“At about 5.15, the rep showed up and about 8 people scurried in front of me on line.  The process is very slow and very manual.  If you are there first, I suggest you line up at the kiosk before 5 pm to make sure you are first to be ticketed.  It takes about 10 minutes for each ticket to be processed and you get an assigned seat.  But 6.15pm, I had my ticket.  You pay BZ $10. at the counter and the rest of your fare (mine was another $69, Tulum and Playa are cheaper) when you cross over the Mexican border.”

You need to be ready to board 15 minutes before you bus leaves.

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The Belize Tourism Board says that tourist arrivals are picking up 3rd according to projections in the 3rd Quarter Tourism Report for the period ending July to September 2011. Belize has welcomed an increasing number of tourists to its shores via the cruise ship port, land border points and the international airport as the statistics obtained from the Immigration Department illustrate below.

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The well known Mexican bus company ADO has launched a much needed daily bus service linking Belize with the southern cities of Cancun, Tulum and Merida on the Yucatan Peninsula. This long awaited service will have a positive impact on trade and passenger service between Mexico and Belize, but more importantly, will facilitate tourism arrivals in Belize via Cancun. ADO (Autotransportes De Oriente) is the leading bus company operating in southern Mexico.

Belize is a popular tourism destination but air fares are high compared to other countries. Cost conscious travelers from North America and Europe use Cancun as hub from which to travel to and from Belize, as air fares to that city are reasonable. But the transfer between Cancun and Belize has until now being somewhat tedious involving bus and taxi transfers. The new service is an express run with air conditioned Pullman type equipment with no need to change buses or hop between bus terminals in taxis. The press release from the Mexican Embassy:

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One of our contributors recently pointed us to a Belize Regions Map that was produced by a Wiki Travel contributor, based on the Belize Map produced by Perry Castaneda Collection at the University of Texas.

Wiki Travel at one time was an independent and rising site developed by a devoted community of volunteer contributors. However it was recently sold to Internet Brands and commercialized. Contributions appear to have fallen off along with the quality and accuracy of its material.

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