Belize Barrier Reef

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From Orange Walk I took a bus to Belize City and then a boat to an island called Caye Caulker (Caye is pronounced 'Key'). It was a quaint little island with three streets running down the narrow strip of land making up the island. Being out of the tourist season the place was pretty dead, which added to its charm, but there were a number of travellers staying in the hostel so plenty of people to socialise with. On the Thursday I took a snorkelling trip to three different sites - including one called Shark Ray Alley - where sure enough one of side of the boat we had (Nursery) Sharks and on the other Stingrays. i also saw a Manatee, also known as a sea cow. I had invested in a waterproof pouch for my camera so was able to get some good underwater shots.

Not really being a beach person I had decided that a couple of days on the island was enough for packed my bag on Thursday night, ready to leave the next day. That night though I got talking to some people who were trying to get enough people together to go on a 3 day/2 night boat trip along the Belize Barrier Reef to a town called Placencia.

On Saturday 11 of us set off on 'Ragga King' for 3 days of pure bliss 'sailing' (with the motor for much of the time unforunately, because of a lack of wind). On our first night we camped on Rendezvous Caye, which had previously been described to us as being the size of a football pitch. What the person had left out of their description however was 'Five A-side' football pitch! The place was tiny with only 8 palm trees and i really felt like we were ship wrecked on a desert island - the island had 8 palm trees and according to a person on trip could be walked round in 2 minutes 42 seconds! Here is a link to an article written in the Guardian recently about the trip - Guardian .

After the boat trip I spent a night in Placencia, which was even quieter than Caye Caulker.

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