Caye Caulker: Tum full of rum

---

With the disappointment of the Whale Sharks put firmly behind us, it was time to move on to our next destination. We caught the 6am bus which would take us directly from Placencia to Belize City. Thankfully, this time we were a little prepared and didn't have to venture beyond the relative safety of the bus and nearby ferry terminal. Four hours after leaving Plancencia, we arrived in Belize City. Knowing there was a 10:30am water taxi to Caye Caulker, we rushed off the bus, jumped into a taxi to take us to the ferry terminal and just managed to buy a ticket get aboard before it left. After an hour of pounding along over the small waves we had finally arrived arrived on the small island. A quick five minute walk from the terminal and we had arrived at the hostel; Dirty McNasty's. Safe to say, we weren’t expecting the Ritz. It wasn't glamorous, but it would do the job for the next few nights.Being Easter weekend, the island was far less of the tourist trap we were expecting and instead packed with locals, primarily from Belize City. As we mentioned in our previous blog, the people of Placencia were some of the nicest we have come across; unfortunately the same can't be said for the some of the people we encountered on Caye Caulker. With the large number of people celebrating, drinking heavily and partying all day, at times it did feel like something could 'go off' at any moment...luckily it didn't.That afternoon, after changing into our cossies on, we headed out to do a bit of exploring around the island. We had lunch, Rich booked a scuba dive for the following day and we also booked a fishing trip for two days time through a rather exuberant fellow who was working at the hostel...what a mistake that turned out to be.With our plans for the next couple of days sorted, we decided to go and make the most of the stunning weather by for a lay down on the beach. However, after speaking to the receptionist at our hostel, it soon became apparent that this Caribbean island didn't in fact have a beach! Instead, it had a place called the 'split'. The Split is an area where the island has been divided in two, with a flowing channel between them. This was the lively end of the island where there was a small boardwalk and bar playing loud music. It had a great atmosphere from all the people laying out in the sun drinking, sunbathing and diving in the water. We decided to get involved in the action, bought ourselves and few beers and kicked back in the sun. A few too many beers later, we headed back to the hostel just in time for the free rum punch which was served every night between 7 and 9pm. For some reason we decided not have dinner and keep drinking...this was a decision we both knew we were going to regret in the morning, especially as Rich was going to be heading out on a boat at 8:30am!...We did regret it. The next morning, with our heads pounding, we peeled ourselves out of bed and grabbed some brekkie. It was then time for Gem to wave Rich off on his day of diving before she embarked on her own day of lying about the island sunbathing, having lunch and browsing the gift shops. 10 minutes or so after leaving the tranquillity of the shallows and headed out into the typically rough waters the boat began to rock and roll about in the swell. This is not what he needed the morning after a few too many the night before! Having jumped at the opportunity to sit right at the back of the boat to avoid the worst of the rocking, it unfortunately meant that he got soaked by each and every wave the boat crashed into. "But who cares?!", he kept telling himself, he was about to jump in the water anyway, albeit without being fully clothed and with sunglasses on. An hour and a half later and he had reached the dive site. Today's three dives would be in one of the most popular dive sites in the area, and it didn't take long to see why. All three dives got progressively better, with more and more impressive sights, wildlife and under water landscape.With the three dives and lunch complete, it was time to head back to shore. Thankfully the sea had calmed down and we could hammer the throttle and head back full speed. Just as the boat was arriving at one of the small jetties in town, Rich was sat there on the boat with his head down just wondering what Gem was up to. Two seconds later, he looked up and there she was, sitting on the end of the jetty waiting for him! We headed back to the hostel whilst Rich blabbered on about the things he had seen that day.Exhausted from the night before and the long day, we grabbed a quick burrito from down near the Split, before treating ourselves to a coconut ice cream and heading back to the hostel for an early night.<br style="line-height: 21px; color:񬠜 font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" />The next morning, it was time for the 'fishing trip'. We were due to be picked up by boat from the water inlet at the back of the hostel at 10am. So once we had breakfast, we went out to get some cash and arrange our boat tickets to Mexico. With bellies full, tickets booked and cash in hand, we were soon back at the hostel and waiting on the balcony overlooking the inlet waiting for the boat to arrive. As it was 9:45 already, we were expecting the boat to be there already loaded with equipment, lunch and drinks and waiting for people to arrive...how wrong could we be?! We asked various people where the guy and his boat were and when he was going to turn up, to which we were assured that he would be there and that if he is late, it is just because he often works on 'Island time'. Things got a little bit more messy when by 10:40 there was still no sign and people started asking if we had paid already and if so, who. When we said we had paid a deposit of 50 belize dollars to a guy called Benedict, they looked at us with slight concern. It turned out that the 'rather exuberant fellow' we had paid the deposit had since been sacked by the hostel! No boat, no driver, no trip and no sign of the money. Pissed off pretty bad by this stage, we spoke to receptionist once again who advised us to give up any hope of going fishing today and to do something else. So we did...Being too late to arrange another day trip, we headed off to the sea front, sat down, grabbed a drink and sat in the sun listening to the music blaring out of the huge speakers. After an hour or so of chilling out trying to forget the mornings episode, we once again went down to Split to sit in the sun and had a few beers. We met a couple of guys from Holland who were staying in our dorm, so Rich chatted with them for a while, whilst Gem made a new little best friend (a 10 year old chubby local boy) who by the end had invited him and his family to the UK...I think she was in love.As the sun set, we were still chilling down at the Split. So before we got bitten to death by the mossies, we grabbed some dinner at a place along the street and made our way back to the hostel. That night we decided to go all out and got involved in the drinking action with the Dutch guys and few other people they had met. Before we knew it, we were drinking horrendously strong rum and mango juice and heading off to a club! Having been the first time in a nightclub for god knows how many years for Rich, it took him a while to get into the flow of things. With a load of rum down our necks, it didn't take long before the moves were being thrown about by us both...however, Gem certainly took the biscuit with her well renowned 'Helicopter hair' move. After shaking our booties on the dance floor for a good while, Rich got hit in the eye by one of the green lasers, to which he responded with "that can not be good for your eyes can it?!". It was at that moment, that he suddenly realised how old he felt in this place at only 26! It was time to call it a night and head back and try to limit the hangover that was inevitably going to come the next day.The next day, as you can imagine was a bit of a write off and we pretty much just trounced around the island drinking water and trying to recover. Having hoped to originally leave the island that day, we were disappointed to discover that due to it being Easter weekend, all the boats were already full. So we hung about, had dinner, an early night and set off the following morning.Despite having a good time, Caye Caulker didn't have any of the charm or pleasantries of Placencia. The people weren't as polite, the diving/snorkelling and islands weren't as spectacular either. All in all, if we were to visit again...it would be Placencia all the way.After a short but sweet 12 days in Belize, it was now time to board a water taxi to take us all the way up to the Mexican border town of Chetual where we would then take a bus straight on yo our final destination of the whole trip. Next stop... Tulum.

---