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Published: December 8th 2013
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The day after Tikal we woke up early (4:30ish) to catch our shuttle to Belize City. There we met up with Dan's friend, Charlie, and the 4 of us took a water taxi to Caye Caulker ( Key Cock-er ), an island about 45 minutes (by boat) from the city. We spent Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday on the island just loving life. Our hostel was a not-so-fabulous place appropriately named Dirty McNasty's (I seriously couldn't make this up if I tried). They weren't TOO expensive, but there were bugs everywhere and it was really... ick. Luckily we really didn't spend too much time in the hostel room. There were hammocks we took advantage of once or twice. Most of our time was spent at a place called The Splits. It's a super touristy area at the end of the island. Hurricane Hattie, in 1961, actually split the island in half! So there's a bar now at the "end" of the island, a dock area, and then just about 200 ft across a clear blue water-way is the other half! I didn't go out on the other half but apparently it's mostly just residential places, whereas we were in strictly touristy
areas.
For those of you who really know me, you know my deep, never-ending love for trying out new foods and really, just eating in general. Xela doesn't have a huge variety in foods and there's practically NO sea-food so I was especially excited to eat a bunch of sea-food while away. The very first meal there, I had LOBSTER (mmmmm) and a ceviche made out of conch. Yes, conch, as in those big shells you blow in to make a horn-like noise. I ate whatever it is that lives inside of them. And it was delicious. Conch reminds me of scallops a lot. Same texture and appearance, taste, etc. Anyways, I proceeded to eat lobster for pretty much every meal while on the island. In a million different ways - lobster fingers (like chicken fingers but way better), lobster omelet, lobster and eggs, and finally whole grilled lobster. I am so spoiled. I ate more than enough to last me for a long while.
Most of our days were spent lounging around, drinking Belekin beer (Belize's beer) but a few days we actually went out and did stuff. We borrowed some bikes one day to check out
the whole island and learned that half the island is pretty much just residential - it's a lot smellier than the touristy area, but the views are a lot nicer too. We went swimming near the Splits one day and met a boy named Franklin. He gave us some sea shells and chatted with us every time we saw him after that (being a small island, we saw him often ha). He and Roger kept singing that, "Huh-WAR-What is it good for... absolutely nothing!" song.... I don't even know. Weird bonding on the island. Monday, Roger and I went snorkeling. It was so awesome! Hard for me to get used to, but once I did, I had such a blast! Our first stop was over coral reefs and just checking everything out. We saw a tiny sting ray and a huge lobster! Those things are scary when you're not expecting to see it ha! The next stop was at a place called "Shark Ray Alley" --
WE SNORKELED WITH SHARKS AND RAYS! I have no idea what type of rays they were but some were HUGE. The little ones were cute though. The sharks were called Nurse Sharks because they only
suck or something. I'm not really sure but a few swam right past our legs!! There was a HILARIOUS Irish guy on the boat and he was WAY too afraid to even go in the water when he found out there really were sharks. Our snorkel guide was throwing in parts of dead fish to attract them towards us! I was a bit scared but they really didn't care about all the people so it was just a really new, exciting and awesome time! After that we just explored another coral reef area and saw so many different types of really cool fish and spikey things (urchins?). We also went to an area where Tarpon fish lived and fed them some fish too. TARPONS ARE HUGE. Giant, huge massive fish and they would jump out of the water to get fish pieces from your fingers! yikes.
We met so so many other travelers and have actually talked to few since leaving the island, which is always fun! Lots of Canadians and Australians were there - we even met another couple from Minnesota! It's really a small world 😊 We have a ton of stories from nights spent at the
bars (like the morning after when a Belize cop pointed at Roger and said, "You're the dancing white boy!" bahahahahah-- so so funny!), and sitting on the beach with new friends. Traveling is such a crazy experience - anytime you meet another traveler, you have an automatic bond with them. Conversations are always easy to come by, because everyone has something new to talk about.
Tuesday morning, we woke up crazy early to catch the water taxi back (if you follow me on instagram, the sunrise picture is from that morning). We had a hell of a time traveling back to Xela, but that's for a different blog post 😉
Gracias para leyendo mis amigos!! besos!!
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KjtotheUK
Kelsey Jane Stewart
Beautiful!
This place is gorgeous!!! Your travels sound so exciting!! :)