World Belize Caye Caulker

Cancun to Cape Horn 2009

Central America begins - Belize Jun 13, 2009

BELIZE, Caye Caulker (Teneale)

After travelling for 30 hours from Cuba we were exhausted and we picked the perfect place to relax for a couple of days, Caye Caulker! Caye Caulker, is an island off the coast of Belize, where the island's motto is "GO SLOW"! I had to laugh as I was frequently told to "go slow" as I paced typical "Teneale style" through the sandy streets!

To accurately set the scene of the island, think of an island about 4km long and 200m wide, think beach sand streets where the vehicle of choice is golf carts, think beach roads lined with little beach bars and fruit sellers, think of the perfect place to lose yourself and that is Caye Caulker. Many travellers including ourselves, plan to stay for a night and end up staying for a week!

The main attraction of the island is that you can snorkel or dive the Blue Hole. After being hyped up as one of the best snorkel places in the world, we were not disappointed. We took a day trip out to the Blue Hole and also snorkelled in 2 other spots called Half Moon Caye and the "Aquarium" (given it's name due to the masses of exotic fish that you see). John and I were in awe as we swam with the Caribbean reef sharks, a "lifer" for the both of us! Initially, I was pretty scared of the whole shark experience, but by our second dive spot I had really started to enjoy it. So much so that I was so busy looking at one of the nurse sharks that I swam straight over another shark! This was much to the excitement of the other 3 (John, Patters and Rouxie) who are particularly enjoying my new nickname "Cabbage" (obtained through my constant head banging and ankle spraining)!

The Blue Hole was probably one of our best days so far as we just couldn't believe what we were seeing and the beautiful deserted island we had lunch on. John was a particular fan of Half Moon Caye as there are the endemic red-footed boobies (it is a type of bird!)! To top it last, at our last dive spot, we were treated to a turtle who kindly let us follow him for 100m and we even got as close as 1m as it came up to breathe!

As we hesitantly left Caye Caulker, there are a many special memories that stand out for us:

* Our morning runs and gym sessions on the beach, including me having to run 3 laps of the island to get to 10km and the boys being chased by the airport security dogs!

* Watching the sunset each evening on the Caribbean from our hammock which was literally 10m from the shoreline.

* The fruit sellers who we visited at least twice a day for fresh mango and papaya shakes. We got so friendly with the owners, that John was driving around their bicycle cart with their children in the basket!

* Bobby (aka Boggy) who looked after the cabanas we stayed at. He had smoked too much weed in his lifetime and he managed to find us wherever we went on the island!

* Lastly, all four of us learning Spanish at a little beach cafe whilst drinking beers and mango daiquiris. John tried very hard to up-skill all of us but we were a lot more interested in our cocktails than the lesson!