Caye Caulker * 05 - 08.11.2016

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Caye Caulker is a very nice island, with various great snorkeling and diving spots. The people have an overall take it easy and slow - mentality, which makes it a very relaxing place to be. I must say that it is quite expensive and that was one of the reasons I didn´t stay too long.

The first day I met Kate, Emily and Amara. We had some food and went for a drink afterwards.

The next day I watched the sunrise from the dock until it started raining. It rained a lot in the morning. Kate and I stayed at the same hostel (Yuma´s House) and we chilled there until it stopped. Then we went to the Lazy Lizzard bar where we met Emily and Amara again and another girl: Alina. Some time later, we all got invited by locals to come on their boat to the reef. All we had to bring was a bucket of beer.
They brought us to a place with a lot of sting rays and nurse sharks. One of the guys just jumped in and invited us too. I was scared at first, but when he hold up a sting ray like a pet and told us to stroke it, I wasn´t anymore. He even let us hold the sting ray ourselves. It was so cute! Just an animal who wanted to be pet. It was a great experience.

The following day was a beautiful day. Emily and Amara were going on a day tour with a sailing boat with lunch and snorkel gear included and I wanted to join them. I didn´t have any cash anymore and somehow my card didn´t work at the ATM´s. Even at the bank they couldn´t read my card! So I couldn´t go..
I borrowed some snorkeling gear at the hostel and went to the Lazy Lizzard bar. I was a little sad bacause I would have liked to go on that tour and worried because my card didn´t work and I didn´t have any cash anymore. Then 2 of the 3 guys we went with the day before arrived. I told them what happened and they both said I couldn´t leave the island without seeing more things at the reef. So we went with the boat to different snorkeling spots. I saw the coral and beautiful animals. We went all the way to San Pedro, because they don´t have a tourist license and they told the police at sea that they were just bringing me to San Pedro. On the way back we went pass the reef (I think to avoid seeing that same cop) It was a really nice day and it ended up even better, plus I didn´t pay for an expensive tour.

The next day I took the watertaxi back to Belize City to get a bus to Flores in Guatemala. My plan was to do the same again: take a bus to the border, cross the border and take another bus to Flores. It is so much cheaper than going with a company!
Unfortunately, my card still didn´t work. A taxidriver drove me to a lot of banks and it didn´t work anywhere! I got stressed out because without cash I couldn´t even cross the border to Guatemala and Belize City is not a place I want to be stuck at...
Eventually, the taxidriver drove me to the buscompany he worked for, where they could read my card. They also took off extra money from the card and gave it to me in cash. I had to hurry to take the bus bacause it was about to leave. The taxi driver asked for a lot more than he was supposed to and in the bus I saw the ticket seller gave me $10 to less. Also the bus was way more expensive than when I would have gone by the original plan. I was really angry. In stead of the people trying to help you, they just used the situation to rip me off!

Caye Caulker was beautiful, but I was happy to arrive in Guatemala. Oh, and my bank card works here normally...

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