Sometimes there is nothing better than spontaneity. That’s how on Saturday morning I found myself on a bus to Belize, instead of heading further north into Mexico.
We were headed to Caye Caulker, an island off the coast, involving a bus and boat – and technically a water border crossing.
(Kinda small for international travel…)
I have been trying to work out how to describe Caye Caulker… Laid back… Chilled…. Caribbean…. Rasta… Stoned….. Backpacker central… I’m still not sure. There are 3 main streets – ‘Front’, ‘Middle’ and ‘Back’ streets, which might give you an indication of how tiny it is. None of the roads are paved and everyone gets around on bikes or golf carts.
There are only 1300 residents and probably the same number of tourists at any one time. You can walk most of the island in under half an hour and in that time find lobster for under $10 on every corner. After eating Mexican for the last 3 weeks I was so happy to have fresh seafood!
(Our little house!)
(It’s not a house unless it has a hammock)
The beaches here are average at best, as there are mangroves and sea grass around the island, but it doesn’t detract from it’s beauty. Plus, it is on the 2nd largest barrier reef in the world (after ours of course!) meaning there is plenty of snorkeling and diving.
It also has the infamous Blue Hole, but without traveling 2 hours out to see and diving to 40m, there really isn’t much point in visiting it. So I didn’t.
Instead, we did a day snorkel trip and saw some amazing sea life – turtles, fish, 3 dugongs, nurse sharks (heaps!! And we swam with them!) and stingrays. The marine life was incredible as they have protected a large part of the park so animals are in abundance. The rest of the reef you are free to fish… Hmm…
(The pub on the beach)
(Thanks for the photos Bree!)
We also spent a night on San Pedro, a slightly bigger island to the north. After the simpleness of Caye Caulker, this was like a big town. They had cars! It is more developed and has the resorts that Caye Caulker is missing.