CAYE CAULKER

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Maybe learning from my Semuc Champey – Flores experience, I decided on this occasion to go with the shuttle service (San Juan Travel - $20 – 6 Hours) direct to Belize City, picking me up at the door of my hostel and dropping me off at the door of the Caye Caulker Water Taxi / Belize Marine Terminal. From there it was a $10 boat ride (45 minutes) out to Caye Caulker northeast of Belize City.



Caye Caulker is a tiny little beach town with a real Caribbean vibe and just a couple of “main” streets running from north to south lined with the usual array of chill out bars, discos and seafood restaurants. In fact, in less than an hour it was easy to wander around the whole town. Disappointingly though, there wasn’t really a beach as such, only a small over-crowded area of sand at the north end of town called “The Split" – so called due to Hurricane Hattie literally splitting the Caye in two.



I didn’t stay too long in Caye Caulker as in all fairness there isn’t a whole lot to do there. As with Flores and Semuc Champey in Guatemala, this is a place that people come to for a very specific reason – to dive the famous shark-filled “Blue Hole” sinkhole, apparently visible from space! In fact, my original plan (way back in January) was to do exactly that, but at this stage in my journey my funds were beginning to run low and at a cool $200 a dive it was impossible for me to do it. A slight shame although I had heard from other travelers that perhaps it’s not the greatest diving spot anyway.



So with the diving out the window I decided instead to do the next best thing. For $40 (Tsunami Adventures) I did a snorkeling tour of the Belize Barrier Reef – the second largest in the world after Australia’s Great Barrier. The price was actually pretty good as the tour lasted a hefty 6 hours and included a good lunch, water, rum punch and dives at four different locations – Hol Chan Marine Reserve, Shark Ray Alley, Coral Gardens and one other I can’t remember the name of!



We were able to see quite an impressive selection of marine life including a family of three manatees, a bunch of stingrays and turtles, a whole heap of fish, a few lobsters and a good number of nurse sharks. Annoyingly my camera isn’t waterproof and I wasn’t able to steal anyone else’s photos. The tour ended with my back suitably burnt and a nice gentle cruise along the mangroves on the west side of Caye Caulker, eating fresh fruit and getting fairly merry on rum punch. It was a tour I would definitely recommend and it made for a decent substitute to diving the Blue Hole.



On Monday 30^th May, and with my June 6^th flight to Cuba edging ever nearer, it was time to head up to Mexico, first stop Tulum. Note for other travellers: after a little bit of investigation, I opted to go by water up to Chetumal on the Mexico/Belize border, stopping briefly at San Pedro on Ambergris Caye to get my exit stamp and then taking a local bus to Tulum. The total cost was something like $54 ($37 boat, $12 bus, $5 exit tax), less than going by shuttle bus from Belize City due to the much higher exit tax if leaving Belize by land ($10 boat, $30 shuttle, $18 exit tax = $58).



Overall I really liked Caye Caulker even if there wasn’t a whole lot to do there. It was a cool place to relax a little by day and party a little by night.



Photos of Caye Caulker (Pages 3&4):



http://www.flickr.com/photos/14643121@N05/



See ya’ll

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