Slow down, Mon

So, the last we left you we were on our way to Belize. The backpacker island of Caye Caulker to be exact (pronounced key). Well, we kept reading and hearing how incredibley expensive Belize is so we were a little worried when we ended up having 6 days left there instead of the planned 3 or 4 days.

We caught a bus from Flores that nicely avoided Belize City and dropped us off right in front of the water taxi. Rod and a couple of other people took off for the bank and managed to run back with mere moments to spare. Excellent timing. It was a beautifully hot day perfect for redeeming my tan on the hour boat ride to the Caye. After the boat we are now off on our very last hotel search. We had divised a system that worked fabulous until now. I would sit down in the shade on a beach somewhere with a drink and watch our bags while Rod walked around and looked at all the places. Somehow this plan was seriously overlooked this time. So, in the scorcing mid day heat we both go for close to an hour to try to find a room that wasn't going to be $50 a night. (doesn't sound like much for back home, but in Central america we have been finding really nice rooms with private bathroom for $15 or $20) We fiiiiinally find a great place to hang up our hammocks and call home for the week and head back to the beach for a well needed drink.

Within moments of sitting down your entire body relaxes. This island has a crazy relaxing effect on everyone. There are no roads here, it's more of a wide sandy path. The island is only allowed 20 cars/trucks every year. I think that is including the firetruck and police truck. Everyone else just walks, rides a bike, or drives a golf cart. Instead of the typical traffic signs they have signs that say Slow Down. Even if you're walking too fast a local will stop you to ask what's the hurry and tell you you need to "slow down, Mon". (I just love the Creol language. English..... but not quite)
We really wanted to do a snorkelling tour and maybe a cave tubing tour and there were other interesting ones too. Every day we would get up.... go for breakfast.... come back and read.... walk to the beach..... go for more food..... lay in the hammocks....go for drinks....This went on for 3 days before we had to force ourselves to be productive and talk to someone about a tour. It's just sooooo relaxing there that you don't have the time or desire to squeaze in anything that would take any real amount of energy.

So, after talking to a few places we decided on Ragamuffin tours. This ended up being the day of our 1st wedding anniversary. This tour would be a full day snorkelling tour on a sailboat with food and rum punch and reggae music that would hopefully lead to dancing finishing up with a sunset. Perfect. We had 3 snorkel spots that were about an hour long each. At the second stop there was a swim with harmless nurse sharks and huge sting rays. The last stop was at the Hol Chan Marine Reserve which is a corral reef park that has been protected for over 30 years. This provided a huge diversity of fish life and beautiful corral. The ride back turned into quite the fun party once the drinks got flowing, and we ended our tour with the beautiful sunset we were promised.

That night we were meeting up with a couple from Holland that we had met in Flores and had been spending time together here. They were late arriving and it turns out that they had stopped at a photo shop and had a photo of Rod and I from on the boat blown up for an anniversary present. Isn't that the most thoughtful thing?

Next we have yet another example of randomly running into people. Walking down the "street" to dinner I happened to peek in one of the stores and spotted our friends Colin and Rick. We had met them in Coban and ended up on the same tour to Tikal then parted ways and they continued in Guatemala. So, it was a nice very nice surprise and we invited our friends from Vancouver to the Sports Bar the next night to watch the Canucks game. That's right.... Canucks playoff games in Caye Caulker! We (heart) Belize.

Ummmm...... well Rod says that my stories go on forever and ever and I'm feeling like this blog is getting quite long already and I can just hear him laughing at me now in my head.
So, I'll just finish by saying that Caye Caulker was absolute paradise and we had the great luck of having 6 days to be there instead of 3. It was the most perfect way to end our travels.

We'll be home in a few days now. Can't wait to hear all of your stories. Miss you. See you soon.

Lots of Love.... Angela and Rod.

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