Corozal to Caye Caulker, Belize

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Woke up early today. Last night was the loudest it's been in awhile. Apparently everyone in Corozal owns a dog & they sleep outside & howl the night away. It was crazy noisy. That's why we brought earplugs! Thank goodness.
We woke up to an alarm again, or well actually the dogs. Walked to the pier to catch our "water taxi" & waited with everyone else. It was fun to watch the water taxi being loaded with supplies for the cayes. Bags of potatoes, pineapple, sugar, tomatoes, bananas. Local people waiting for the taxi to take them home & a handful of tourists, like us, watiing to get to the cayes. It looked like most tourists were heading for the day for snorkel tours. We were the only two with backpacks or luggage at all, other than the locals. The boat was different. We sat inside the boat & there were rows of movable seats that were all close together. It was packed! And super foggy. You couldn't see a thing out there. The ride took about 2 hours once we were underway. It's so crazy how the water levels vary out in the open ocean here because of the reef system. There were parts that were deep & we would speed along & parts that were so shallow we crawled through. You could see the coral reef looking out the window. The driver bottomed the boat about three times. It sounded as though it was cutting through the bottom of the boat. It was nuts. But we made it.

The ocean is the brightest clearest blue & green I have ever seen. You can see to the bottom everywhere, no matter how deep it is. It's so amazing to look out to the horizon & see forever. It's intensely beautiful. Indescribable really. (thanks robs!) 😉

Also, I've already decided I love the creole language even though I don't understand 90% of it. It's so caribbean & beautiful. Everywhere you go people want to talk with you & ask how you are doing & then tell you a story about themself, their country, their family, what happened to them earlier in the day. It's so different from us in the states.

We got off the boat in San Pedro, on Ambergris Caye & found out what time our next water taxi left for Caye Caulker. We had an hour to kill so went in search of breakfast. We found a little cafe in town. We had eggs & ham with tortillas & I had an egg sandwich made on the most yummy homemade roll. I took a photo. Soo good. As an example of the people I think it's easiest to talk about the children. Everyone says hello & how are you & wants to chat, but the kids are the best. We were waiting for our food in the cafe (with 6 tables) when two little boys, 3 year old twins came in with their mom. They were adorable & talking with us. They loved Geoff, everyone laughs when he tells them his name (in Mexico & Belize) because it's so difficult for them to say with their accents. The boys were tripping out on Geoff's beard & hair. They were climbing on him laughing & grabbing at his beard & saying his name then laughing. It was so sweet. Geoff gets a lot of stares everywhere because of his hair & facial hair so I think he may be getting used to it. 😊

We stood on the pier in San Pedro waiting by our second water taxi which was much smaller & more like a snorkel tour boat. While standing there we saw some teenage grouper that were about 3-4 feet long & beautiful. One of the local guys was telling us all about them & how big they get & how good they are to eat (this is true I now know). San Pedro is a huge town, lot's of resorts, homes, restaurants. And the streets were crazy busy with people on bikes, golf carts, small cars. Walk at your own risk is how I felt. The streets are super narrow & one way only (thankfully) & just bustling.

We caught our taxi & made it to Caye Caulker in about 25 minutes. The fog had lifted & the sun was shining & it was warm & beautiful. The water is stunningly clear. We hopped off the boat, put on our packs, walked about 10 steps & had Gilbert ask us if we knew where we were staying. We listed off the ideas we knew of & he said he knew some better places & that he would walk us there. He had dreads, a rastafari head rag on & no shoes (as do most people, including Geoff now). I still wear shoes. His accent was thick & full of rastafari/Creole/Islander slang. Love it! We learned about the Island from him & ended up walking for about 20 minutes looking at 3 hostels. He was right, the ones we were thinking of were cold showers (no thanks) & dingy. We are staying at Tropical Paradise right on the water. We have a hot shower & a bed & a fan. All you need really. It's so beautiful here. http://www.tropicalparadisehotel.com/restaurant.html

The town itself is a little bigger than I would have thought. Lot's of small hotels/hostels, a few swanky places that only have a couple rooms & many many restaurants. There's 3 streets, Front, Middle & Back. You can walk everywhere in about 30 minutes or you can rent bikes or golf carts. Everyone drives golf carts. The roads are made of sand & the beach is literally littered with Conch shells. Any dock you walk on & you see about 15 in the water. People use them to line their walkways, their porches. The main use I've seen is as ashtrays. It's crazy!
A little sidebar: we were snorkeling in Punta Allen & saw a huge conch shell with a ginormous hermit crab living in it. I do not know how he carries that shell, they are heavy!

After getting settled into our room & changing out of pants & shoes. Yikes it's hot. We headed out for a walk & more food...We had fish & chips which were amazing! & rum & OJ, fresh squeezed by the guy across the sand road, who was in the process of making pineapple juice while we were eating. Awesome! We found a do it yourself laundrymat & washed some clothes that were in dire need of soap. After that, to the store to buy a bottle of rum ($7 US, made in Belize) & Pineapple juice & ice & cups & off to the beach. The Split is where everyone goes to sunbathe & snorkel. The Spit was made by Hurrican Hattie & is literally a cut through the island. It used to be connected but now has about a 60 yard seperation that we were told by a local used to be knee deep but the current has made it quite deep over the years. The current is serious too.

We drank, talked with some locals. We met Soul & Mandingo who both claim fame in Lonely Planet & Mandingo said he's friends with everyone on facebook. Look him up. We talked & drank with them & learned more about the fish, the changes in the town, the changes in the ocean. It's all very enlightening. Living on this Island is an honor based on how the locals talk about it. It truly is paradise. Mandingo made me a purse (from palm leaves) & a necklace (called a sea heart from a palm tree seed) & we bought him some dinner. It was fun to talk with him. We met Erin & Ryan from Nanaimo, BC. I borrowed Erin's snorkel for awhile & saw barracuda, a small sting ray, a huge puffer (like 2 feet long he looked like) & schools of all kinds of fish. That was about 10 minutes of snorkeling. Yikes!

Soul talked to us about how the fish are dwindling & when he was a kid there were way more fish & the reef was more alive & how different & quickly things are changing. He's afraid that his kids kids won't have the ocean that he's always known. Oh, then he put a snorkel on, grabbed his small spear & came back with a barracuda for dinner. I wonder if it was the one I saw earlier? They have soooo many teeth. He said they're good eats though.

We talked with some people about diving. There's a few dive shops. Prices range a bit so we're still shopping.
We walked back through town & Mandingo was bit drunk & such, & talking to us about all kinds of things. It was a lesson for sure. We had dinner at Little Kitchen where we had a lobster burrito & chicken tacos & a Belikin beer & Mandingo had a whole fried fish. All for $14 US with tip.

And back to the room for a hot shower, reading & sleep. Much much needed after a hot day in the sun & the end of about 9 hours of travel time to get us here to Caulker. And a night in Corozal. Well worth the journey so far.

We've maintained our nightly lodging rate at about $25-35 a night for our own room. Tonight we have our own shower, always a treat & only have to walk about 25 steps to the beach. We're high rolling a bit but hope to save a little $$$ once we head inland. Otherwise we'll be home in a minute!

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Photos

Tropical Paradise
We've Arrived!

Caye Caulker Split
Barracuda!

Mandingo's Trinkets
Mandingo's Trinkets