Advertisement
Beach at Tulum
Aqua waves on the beach, plus some pretty cool Australian guy whose name I don't remember.After the disappointment of the previous entry of being stuck in Belize City, Caye Caulker was such a contrast, it's unbelievable. Juan and I got up fairly early to catch the first boat-taxi to the island at 8:00. The boat was a fairly rough ride, but we made it to the dock in plenty of time. Our first objective was to try to find out where Juan's friends were staying so we could meet up with them, because Juan had been trying to catch up with them for several days. They had emailed us saying that they were staying in a place called Bella's Guest House, which was in neither of our travel guides, and we asked several people who said they'd never heard of it. That was strange because Caye Caulker is such a small place that it seems that everyone that lives there should know exactly where everything is. Eventually, though, we found a guy that knew where it was, and it turned out that the place had changed its name recently so that's why no one had heard of it.
It turns out that the same guy who was able to tell us where the guest house
Ruins of Tulum
The ruins of Tulum. John and Juan at the left. was ran a pretty cool snorkelling tour, which is basically the main thing to do on this island. He seemed pretty legit, so we got Juan's friends up from the guest house and signed up for the tour that day.
The tour itself was pretty nice. Our guide - "Big Steve" - used a sail boat for our tour, which was pretty neat because I'd never ridden on a sailboat before. He took us out to the reef, which is probably around a mile out from the eastern shore. The water there was relatively shallow, around 6-8 feet at the most. Luckily, I'd gotten some experience snorkelling in Tulum, so I was able to jump right in here and check out the reef. The biological diversity of the coral and the fish was absolutely incredible. We snorkelled for quite a bit of time, just swimming around the area on the surface. We then sailed to another spot which is know for being a favorite for stingrays and nurse sharks. There was a multitude of stingrays around, and we were able to swim with them, see them up close, and I was even able to hold one in my arms.
Temple
Some random temple I was also able to swim right behind a nurse shark, not more than two or three feet away from it. I liked the tour a lot; it was very laid back. There's not a lot that's better than hanging out on a sailboat on a beatiful sunny afternoon in the Carribean with reggae music in the background.
Last night, the four of us drank a case of Belikin beer, the beer of Belize. Dane, the handyman here around the hostel was able to hook us up with his friend to get it for only $58BZ ($29 US). Relatively expensive, but better than anywhere else on the island. We checked out the night scene in the town, but it is pretty dead. We did get to hang out with a couple of locals and participate in a limbo contest at some bar, but everything is pretty much over with by 12:00 around here. The better night scene is supposed to be on the island north of here, Ambergris Caye, in the city of San Pedro.
Today, another beautiful sunny day, we went out on the canoe they have here at the guest house and just basically relaxed on
Oceanfront
Ruins of Tulum on the oceanfront the beach. All of us got sunburned during the snorkelling trip yesterday, so no one was really ready to take on another trip like that. Today has basically been a day of relaxation, and I really can't think of a better place to do that right now than here.
Note: This update includes photos that I should have included in the last update.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.103s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 11; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0565s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Sanjay aka Sponge
non-member comment
Yo Man
Hey what's up man, the internet is awesome, how else could I make sure you're still breathing thousands of miles away? Looks like your trip is off to a really, really good start. I'm definitely a bit jealous now that I didn't book that plane ticket with you. It also looks like you've made some friends that can watch your back. Keep up the blogging and picture taking, don't forget to call your mom every so often, I'm sure she's freaking out on a regular basis. I have the utmost faith that you will come back alive with many cool experiences. Happy very Belated Birthday. First round on me when you get back and get your ass down to Austin. Keep living the dream man.