Friday 3rd June to Tuesday 13th June 2006: BELIZE – Caye Caulker

We left Playa Del Carmen on a bus headed for Chetumal on the Mexico/Belize border and then took another bus through Belize to Belize City. We arrived late in Belize City late Friday night and spent the night in a hotel overlooking the river. We woke early the next day (Oliver’s birthday) to catch the 9am water taxi to the Caye Caulker, one of the many Caye Islands off the mainland of Belize. Caye Caulker can only be described as a tropical island paradise. There are three main roads made of white sand and seashells called Front, Middle and Back Street (life there is uncomplicated!) and the island is surrounded by crystal blue waters teeming with a huge variety of aquatic life. There are no cars on the island apart from the occasional golf cart and the maximum speed limit on the island is 10mph!!! Celina had visited the island seven years previously with her sister Sarah and was eager to show Oliver the place that is unlike any other carribean holiday destination. The island was much the same as seven years before except for the many more homes built in that time – when arriving at the island seven years earlier the island had looked deserted from the water taxi port, but arriving this time it was clear that quite substantial development had occurred as ocean front homes can now be seen from the taxi port. Still, even with the development of the island, the island still retains the most relaxed and friendly vibe and Caye Caulker is definitely the most chilled out place we have found on our journey so far. We arrived at the water taxi port with everyone saying “Welcome to Caye Caulker!” and to the sight of a tiled floor mosaic saying: “Caye Caulker: Go Slow!”. Having found a room in a guest house we headed for the split, the swimming part of the island. The split is at the north end of the island and is called ‘The Split’ as it is the place where the island was literally split in two by a Hurricane back in the 1960s. At the split is The Lazy Lizard Bar where everyone writes their name and message on the wooden poles and roof of the bar. Celina did look for her message from her visit before but sadly it was no longer there – the bar had been rebuilt in the year 2000 after a Hurricane destroyed the bar! We continued the tradition and added our names to the hundreds.


The views from our guesthouse on Front Street

The writings on the wall at The Lazy Lizard Bar

As it was Oliver’s birthday we celebrated the day at The Lazy Lizard drinking rum punches and swimming and snorkelling in the beautifully clean and warm waters and making friends with the locals and other visitors. We met a small group of two Americans men and one woman who were holidaying for a week from the States and it turned out that one of the men, Cartwright was also celebrating his birthday on the 4th June so all we ended celebrating together at Maurice’s restaurant and Maurice even made a birthday cake!



The happy couple on Olivers birthday


Our nine days on the island were very very chilled as we followed the island motto; GO SLOW! The most strenous thing we did was watch England beat Paraguay!!!!! However we did also manage to exert enough energy to go on a snorkelling tour. We were hoping to take Ras’s tour but sadly his boat wasn’t fixed in time so instead we took a half day tour (couldn’t take the full day one as now the World Cup is on our timetable works around that!) of the reef with Raggamuffin Tours – (great name!). We had a great afternoon out snorkelling by the reef which is the second largest barrier reef in the world at 165 miles long! We saw a huge quantity and variety of fish; barracuda, parrot fish, puffa fish and so many more we can’t name! We then got back in the boat and went to a spot called ‘Shark & Ray Alley’ because this is where you get to swim with the Nurse Sharks and Stingrays! It was quite mad swimming with these fierce looking creatures and we didn’t stay in the water too long ‘just in case’!!!! We took some great pictures with the disposable underwater camera so we’ll try and post these on to the blog once we find somewhere that can develop the film!