Central American Cayes
Trip Start
Sep 23, 2010
1
322
366
Trip End
Jul 13, 2012
Where I stayed
Caye Caulker, Belize Cayes, Belize
Thursday, March 22, 2012
At 10.45am we boarded the boat that took us just out of the harbour and then broke down. Another boat came out and we transfered to it in the middle of the choppy coastal waters. We were soon on our way though and half an hour or so later than planned, we arrived on Caye Caulker. We then loaded up our bags and walked to one of the two hostels on the island, Tina's. Unfortunately, it was full so we walked further along to find the second one Bella's. Once we'd found it, we checked in and then had a wander to get our bearings. A lady we met in Seaside Guest House recommended a guy that runs one of the snorkel tours so we went to look for him. Unfortunately, he wasn't in but we were told to try him later around 4pm. As it was lunchtime we had a very nice Chicken Chow Mein that we took back to the hostel to eat. Whilst eating in the kitchen/dining area, two of the guys we met at Seaside arrived and checked in, so we got chatting to them. After lunch, we went back to Juni's to see if he was back yet, but we had to wait (eating an ice cream) until 5pm when he arrived back from his tour. His tour for tomorrow was fully booked however, so we booked another one along the strip. Tour booked we walked back to the hostel to relax for a bit and then cooked dinner around 7pm. We soon found out that this was a bit of a party hostel as the music had been turned up already! Over the noise of the music, we sat and chatted to a few people until it got too much for us around 10pm when we went for a nice stroll out on the now quiet street and returned to our room. I think we'll be sleeping with ear plugs tonight as there seems to be no sign of the music going down too early.
Fri 23rd Mar.
Got up around 8.30am from a not to bad a nights sleep as thankfully the music went down after midnight. After some breakfast (had to use our own cutlery and bowls as the dishes were piled high after last night) we got ourselves ready and wandered down to the tour office for our snokeling trip. Just after 10.30am the boat headed off with 11 of us and 2 guides out to the local reef where we had our first snorkel with stingrays and loggerhead turtles. There were other boats out baiting the sea life so that we could see them up really close and personal. We then moved off to the second spot on the Hol Chan Marine Reserve http://www.holchanbelize.org/overview.html where we swam with our guides looking at all the different fish including moray eels and a nurse shark! Once back on board we had some water melon on the way out to Shark Ray Alley. A soon as we got there we were straight in the water looking at more sting rays and nurse sharks and one of the guides handled both sting rays and sharks so that we could touch them! The sharks were quite rough like sandpaper, while the rays were smooth and muscley. When we were done there, we had burgers for lunch on the way to our last stop the Coral Garden where we had time to ourselves snorkeling round all the fascinatingly different types of coral. Back on the boat, we headed back to shore feeling happy from a great day out on the water but rather more sunburnt than before! We then headed back to the office to hand back our gear and then went back to the hostel for a cold shower and a well earned rest. Around 7pm we went down to the chinese to get some more chow mein for dinner as we were too tired to cook. After a tasty meal we settled in for the night which was looking quieter as the noisy crowd had left and the new ones were watching a film. Well, I spoke to soon, as soon as the film finished the music went on and as loud as before. Thankfully it went down around midnight but the night club up the road had just got going so another night with ear plugs!
Sat 24th Mar.
Got up around 8am, had breakfast and then checked out. We walked back to the water taxi terminal and waited for the 10am back to the mainland. Once back on dry land we walked down to the bus station and caught the 12.30pm bus to San Ignacio.
