Caye Caulker, Belize

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  Caye Caulker, Belize Cayes, Belize
Monday, October 6, 2008

The trip to Belize was actually pretty smooth, with the usual surprise tax at immigration when leaving Guatemala. You can really see the difference between Belize and the other Latin American countries as soon as you cross the border. The houses look different, a lot of them were on stilts, the people were mostly black and English speaking. We arrived in Belize city and waited for the water-taxi to bring us to Caye Caulker (pronounce key cauka). There, we met Adrien and Marine, a French couple living in Montreal who we have previously bumped into in various places since Palenque. We are still travelling with them at the moment (11/10/08).

Our arrival on the island was so refreshing, the sun was splitting and the water was crystal clear. We were greeted there by Loulou, who took us to our cabana by golf cart (there are no cars on the island). He told us the motto of the island: No shirt, no shoes, no problem. It really did feel like that, it was extremely laid back. There are only 3 main streets: front, middle and back streets and you can cross the island by foot from one end to the other within half an hour. It didnīt take us long to get into the rasta mood. We found a place on the beach, Femis bar, which was really cheap and had great fish and it became our headquarters for the 4 nights we stayed on the island.

The bar had swings to sit on by the counter. We discovered a Belize beer called Belikin and listened to Bob Marley in every place we went. That night we went to the supermarket in order to grab some more beers to drink on our terrasse with Marine and Adrien, but that turned out to be more expensive that if we had stayed in the bar !! Never seen that anywhere else! While we were walking back to our place we were passed by a local on his bike who said "Beep Beep" to us, but which actually sounded more like "beeahp beeahp", in a slow Jamaican accent. We just couldnīt stop laughing. Another one told us "Go slow, you go too fast". I am sure you get the atmosphere.

We spent the following day (07/10) just sunbathing, reading, relaxing and drinking more Belkin. Sean got badly sun-burnt that day with his poor little Irish skin.

We wanted to go snorkeling the next day (08/10 - we just never know the the days of the week) but the weather was not nice in the morning so it had to be cancelled. The afternoon cleared up so we went for a little bike ride, on bikes provided by the owner of our cabana. The place we went to in the evening ran our of vodka for my Cosmo, so we put rum instead to create what we called a Rastapolitan. We were supposed to leave Caye Caulker the next day (09/10) but we decided to wait and see what the weather was like.

It turned out to be a gorgeous day so we asked our host if we could stay an extra day. It is great travelling during low season, as you are really able to work from day to day and not worry about booking stuff in advance. We went on our first snorkelling tour with Raggamuffin tours. They took us out for the whole day on a sailing boat, stopping at 3 different places. Our group was young, friendly and from all over the world. Our crew, Jermaine, Kevin and another one whose name I cant seem to remember were great and really informative. At the first stop we swam with some manatees. Apparently we were lucky to see some because it wasnīt really supposed to be the best season for them anymore. At the second stop, we swam with sharks, rays and various other fish (one kind looked like Doris from Nemo, as Marine pointed out).

We also saw the coral reef which I accidentally scratched myself off while swimming, which makes me a coral killer I suppose. The coral got me back well, though with a nice scratch. The 3rd place we stopped has been a natural reserve for the last 20 years. We saw 2 turtles, some barracudas, red snapper, Turbot, a green eel, etc  ... Each time the crew would tell us the name of a fish and then point it out under the water. A German couple on the boat, Andreas and Kirsten, told us they had snorkeled in many places before (Egypt, Thailand, Malaysia, Australia) and never saw that many species in one go. I guess thatīs set our standards pretty high now. On the way back, we were served some strong rum punch. The crew let their rasta hair down and told one of the group to drive the boat home so that they could have one or two scoops. We came back by sunset and everybody was absolutely delighted. We had our last drinks in Femis, Marine with her DEET mosquito repellent, and Adrien living la vida Jamaica still barefoot.!! It was time for us to say "Arrit, bye Caye Caulker!"

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Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

In Femis	Fishing	Colourful place	Our great cabanas
Warm water	Sunset	With Marine and Adrien in our headquarters	Our drink for the stay
Nice view	Pelican	Splash	Drink in the sea
Leaving on the sailship	Captain Sean	Snorkelling Sean	Sharks
Hungry sharks	Getting fed by the crew	Crew getting cosy with the ladiees	End of the day
Time for the punch	25	cming back to Caye Caulker	sunset on the caye   Comments!

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