Guatemala to Belize

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I left the American girls in Flores as they were heading south and I headed to Belize and Caye Caulker to meet a friend and her new travel buddies. I took a 5am bus to Belize City, which drops you right at the dock and there is a fast boat to Caye Caulker which takes about 40 minutes to an hour. It was strange driving just a few hours and then being in a country where English is also spoken albeit with a carribean accent and a mix of the kriol language. Getting the boat from the dock gives you the first view of cristal clear turquiose waters and the white coral sand beneath the waves.

I met Kelly on the dock of Caye Caulker, had a Belizan breakfast with her and her two new friends on the shore and the four of us headed out in the afternoon for a snorkeling trip to Caye Caulker reef. We made three stops the first to see coral reef and seagrass, the second to shark and ray alley and the third to a larger and more intact reef where we could just wander off by ourselves for a while. I had never seen coral reef before and a lot of it looked bleached but there were still rays, fish, eels and sea slugs to see and green sea turtles feeding on the turtle grass! In shark and ray alley the tourist boats all stop together, feed the nurse sharks and rays in about 1m of water and encourage tourists to swim with the sharks and rays, it is an amazing experience, but I didn't like the tour guides picking up the nurse sharks and turning them over so they lie motionless in the water, however they are conditioned to it, as it occurs every day. Caye Caulker has a relaxed rastafarian vibe with plenty of bars, reataurants and places to chill out with a rum punch whilst overlooking the caribbean sea, however there isn't exatly a beach anywhere on the island. Kelly and I did another snorkling tour with Ragamuffin Tours to Hol Chan Marine Reserve, it has been a marine nature reserve for longer than Caye Caulker reef and consequently there is more to see. The tour was great, sailing out on a boat with the skipper playing reggae tunes over the speakers and conch and coconut curry for lunch and then plenty of rum punch and cerviche on the return journey as the sun was setting on the Caribbean for another day. We made good friends on the trip so all headed out for dinner and more rum punch drinking late into the night...

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