"The Bachelor" TV show would be filming a special date in Caye Caulke

[wadethegringo]

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Scooparazzi's First Gig: Operation "Bachelor"

WARNING: IF IT IS GOING TO DEVASTATE YOU TO SEE A PICTURE OF A BACHELORETTE BEFORE THE SHOW AIRS. DO NOT READ THIS POST!

 

So...I got a tip a few days ago that "The Bachelor" TV show would be filming a special date in Caye Caulker. The "Bachelor" has been filming in San Pedro, Belize for the past few days but Caulker was my chance. I secretly love the show. It's a very guilty pleasure and when it is on, I watch it pretty religiously on Monday nights. (FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, it's 1000x better than "Dancing with the Stars".)

 

Caye Caulker is the perfect place to get my picture, the one I've been dreaming of. It's a tiny island off the coast of Belize and close to San Pedro. It's beautiful and VERY laid back. If they were going to film on this island, there are not too many places to hide. Scooparazzi was on the case.

 

Word on the Belize street is that the current Bachelor, Ben (who started with 25-30 girls) is down to 6 ladies. Obviously this show does not air until he has proposed to one...they are in the middle of filming it now and it is QUITE a big deal. Lots of money, huge crew, boats, helicopters and best of all, great publicity for our country.

 

As I was eating lunch, two boats from Ramon's Village of San Pedro pulled up at the dock, 4 golf carts pulled up and the boats unloaded lots of camera equipment and crew members.

 

I pretended to talk to a tourist couple that was relaxing on the beach. With my little crappy camera, the crew paid me no mind. The little crappy camera was a good thing (I didn't get in trouble until later in the day) but a bad thing...to be a true paparazzo, I'm going to need a better zoom.

 

Ok...not so interesting. But wait...there is more. I knew that the Bachelor's lady friend would be flying in to Caye Caulker so I took the 10 minute walk down to the airstrip. I passed this cheery sign. (We could use a few of these in San Pedro).

 

The whole crew was setting up at the air strip. I tried to hide out at Tropic Air but the guys there wouldn't have it. They didn't want to get in trouble and had all signed confidentiality agreements...so I went outside. I was the only one there. Belizeans really didn't seem to give a crap about this whole "Bachelor" thing one bit. Most thought it was some sort of boring documentary. I tried to explain...but the mostly male group looked sorry for me...gave me that "poor crazy gringa" look.

Pictures and the rest of the story here.

 

SAN PEDRO SCOOP

 

http://www.sanpedroscoop.com

[theampres]

thanks, wadethegringa (-a, right? or is it -o? you have me a little confused...) no matter, I always read your very informative posts - good job on this one, too!

[megmno]

What a cool blog! I just spent the last hour or so reading stuff from her archive. I am so jealous of someone who can just go and move to paradise like the author did...

[sanpedroscoop]

Awww...thanks. It was easy really. Belize rocks.

[Cruise4Sunshine]

Thanks for the scoop! The Batchelor is my secret pleasure too. It will be fun to see how Ben's relationship with this girl is edited. A friend of a friend is Chantal's mom in Brad's season, and she told everyone that Brad chose her (when he really chose Emily). In watching the show, they pretty much edited out Chantal until the last few episodes. It will be fun to watch the show and see how this Allie look-alike will surface as they go along.

Thanks for sharing!

[tweety33]

Love the show, thanks for sharing. I will be there in April. Can't wait to see the show now before my trip.

[Mom2B&Z]

Love it, thanks for sharing! Especially the one producer in your last two shots ;)

[thecruisers723]

I love "The Bachelor" and Ben is a great guy. Thanks so much for the scoop you pulled off and shared with others. I enjoyed your blog. I'm gonna check back and read more as I enjoyed the posts that I read while making my way down the page too. The water levels are interesting. Glad we won't be in Belize on our cruise for another 6 weeks after hurricane season is over! I'll be looking forward to watching this seasons Bachelor show and this episode will have new meaning. Especially the Lobster scene. lol

[ibcnusoon]

I don't watch "The Bachelor" but will look out for this episode to air! We will be in Belize early next month and super excited! I even DVR'ed an episode of "Family Jewels" from last season which was shot in Belize. I love watching episodes of places I've been to, or plan on going!

[kcparrothead]

Thanks for the scoop!! "The Bachelor" is a guilty pleasure of mine, too. Even though I was unsure if I wanted to see who one of the "Final 6" was, I'm glad I did because your blog is very entertaining! It's now in my favorites and I look forward to returning to Belize (via cruise ship) in about 15 months (it doesn't sound that far away if I say it that way...;))

 

We're thinking about a flight to San Pedro, but would we be as happy at Caye Caulker? Nah, I think I definintely need to go to San Pedro!!! :)

[crewsweeper]

Wade, you devil....this belongs on SurvivorSucks' Other Shows that Suck board!

 

Nice updates on how Rina is affecting you.

 

Crew

[kcparrothead]

Wade, you devil....this belongs on SurvivorSucks' Other Shows that Suck board!

Crew

 

Actually, I believe Wade just shared it - the blog was written by "sanpedroscoop" from what I can tell. He doesn't seem to be "The Bachelor" type fan to me! :D

[kcparrothead]

FYI - The Bachelor is taking 6 of his remaining gals to Belize NEXT Monday..... 8:00 eastern on ABC.

[Melismass]

I am so excited to see this episode of the Bachelor! Im a huge fan this season and Im going to be on Caye Caulker next month! I saw the previews last week showing they were going to Belize and I thought " Oooo I hope they go to Caye Caulker!" And they are! I cant wait to see it! Thanks Wade!

[mitsugirly]

The bachelor show is one of my guilty pleasures too (I guess this episode it's nothing but yelling at the t.v to Ben about how stupid Courtney is...but that's a different subject). :D

 

I'm really looking forward to watching it on Monday night. Woo Hoo. A little of Belize. Can't wait. :)

[nzdisneymom]

We were in Belize in December while sailing on the Carnival Dream. We (ok, I) watch the Bachelor and enjoyed seeing Belize in HDTV in last night's episode. We did the Xunantunich ruins and while Ben/Courtney were at a different Mayan site (I wonder which one?), it brought back lovely memories to us!

[Armedaneian]

My wife and I were planning to do the shark/stingray tour, but after seeing it on TV last night, my wife is having second thoughts! I told here they were just Nurse Sharks and they don't bite, but that didn't matter to her. I want to go anyway... I hope that doesn't make me the next bachelor! :(

[Monkeylala]

I told here they were just Nurse Sharks and they don't bite, :(

So you lied to her? That doesn't seem cool. Many people are bitten by nurse sharks under that same pretense. Sure, they do not have large teeth and are not known as the maneaters but they sure can and will bite if they feel threatened .

Personally I prefer to come across the critters in their natural habitat AND natural behavior and not some feeding zoo like the shark and stingray dives/snorkels that are put on for profit becausesomeone will pay for it

[tweety33]

"The nurse sharks have never bitten anyone (they couldn't even if they wanted to)."

 

That is the quote given to me in an email from the operators of the tour we plan on taking to shark alley. So did they lie to me also?

[mitsugirly]

Since I usually watch the show online after it has already aired...I just managed to watch this last night. I was so happy to actually see a lot of the island and really enjoyed it.

 

We did cave tubing while we were there instead of the Mayan Ruins and I have to say WOW :eek: I did not realize they are THAT HUGE! I think I would have had a heart attack if I had to climb that thing. :p

 

Great show and coverage of the different parts of the island.

[Monkeylala]

"The nurse sharks have never bitten anyone (they couldn't even if they wanted to)."

 

That is the quote given to me in an email from the operators of the tour we plan on taking to shark alley. So did they lie to me also?

 

If this is what they told you then it's a resounding YES, they lied. Maybe no one on their tour has been bitten but nurse sharks certainly can and have bitten people. They are one of the less dangerous but they can still cause serious injury

[wadethegringo]

I have never heard of any nurse shark bites in Belize in the six years I have been here.

 

FROM http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/nurse-shark/

"Nurse sharks are slow-moving bottom-dwellers and are, for the most part, harmless to humans. However, they can be huge—up to 14 feet (4.3 meters)—and have very strong jaws filled with thousands of tiny, serrated teeth, and will bite defensively if stepped on or bothered by divers who assume they’re docile."

[crewsweeper]

I have never heard of any nurse shark bites in Belize in the six years I have been here.

 

FROM http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/nurse-shark/

"Nurse sharks are slow-moving bottom-dwellers and are, for the most part, harmless to humans. However, they can be huge—up to 14 feet (4.3 meters)—and have very strong jaws filled with thousands of tiny, serrated teeth, and will bite defensively if stepped on or bothered by divers who assume they’re docile."

 

 

Sounds like what the guide told my SIL last week when she "jumped" back in the boat after seeing several huge ones swimming about. Dw was filming rays underwater at the time and you can hear SIL's screams on the video. Too funny.

[Monkeylala]

I have never heard of any nurse shark bites in Belize in the six years I have been here.

 

FROM http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/nurse-shark/

"Nurse sharks are slow-moving bottom-dwellers and are, for the most part, harmless to humans. However, they can be huge—up to 14 feet (4.3 meters)—and have very strong jaws filled with thousands of tiny, serrated teeth, and will bite defensively if stepped on or bothered by divers who assume they’re docile."

 

Thank you for verifying my post, As I mentioned, The guides in Belize may never have had a reported attack, YET, the guides in Belize probably never had a great white attack either. Nurse sharks can and do bite, they kill/eat fish and other critters often with hard scales or shells, Human skin is soft. While not maneaters ant maybe not dismembering, they have strong jaws with a lot of very sharp teeth and mouths full of bad stuff to get introduced to your body. Many divers are bitten every year because of this same misconception so when they see a nurse shark laying on the sand the feel it is harmless, they poke it, prod it until it turns and bites, then they cry that they were told they were harmless.

Its a hudred or so pound fish, with very sharp teeth, much better in the water than any human, If anyone thinks they cannot cause damage then they are an idiot. Do these people realize the deadliest river creature is not a croc, Gator or pirahna but the big fat slow hippo which only has a few teeth?

[Armedaneian]

IF you molest a Nurse Shark, it MAY try to suck you into its mouth and crush you with its tiny little teeth. IF that happens, it will bruise and leave a rash-like scab. :rolleyes:

 

This is much different than the shark bite my wife and others imagine. Sharks that bite humans, or "man-eating" sharks, are known to attack even when unprovoked. They often remove limbs or large chunks of flesh from their victims. :( Their bites cause rapid blood loss requiring immediate medical attention. When this happens, the best case is a trip to the hospital, the worst case is a trip to the morgue.

 

So did I lie to her when I said Nurse Sharks don't bite? While it is technically a false statement, so is saying tropical fish don't bite. Neither will hurt her. So, if I tell her tropical fish don't bite, please don't call me a liar! :eek: