Go sloooooow

---

---

After a smooth and simple border crossing from Guatemala, and with our alcohol stash thankfully still intact, our surroundings changed dramatically. Belize looked, well, totally Caribbean. All the pastel-coloured houses stand tall on stilts and the vast majority of locals speak a raw creole tongue that sounds a world away from English, even though English is at its core. Others speak with a strong North American accent. It soon became apparent that our four weeks of studying Spanish in Guatemala were not going to be put to good use anytime soon. Our good friend Becky from back in Brighton came to meet us just before the border crossing and was joining us for our first few days in the country and a four day Christmas jaunt on Caye Caulker, a tiny coral island 20 miles off the coast of Belize.



Caye Caulker couldn’t be anymore chilled out if it tried. The island’s motto is GO SLOW and one morning a local barked at me, “I shud giv you a speedin’ ticket coz you walkin’ too fast man”. Endless reggae rhythms float on the constant onshore breeze and battered old push bikes and personalised golf carts are the only vehicles you have to occasionally give way too as you bimble around barefoot. The roads are nothing more than sandy tracks separating three blocks of homes, guesthouses, restaurants and an open-air cinema. In the late afternoon, people converge on The Split, the most northern point of the occupied part of the island which was separated from the remainder by a hurricane in the early 60s. As soon as the sun goes down, local vendors set up along the waterside offering freshly caught BBQ treats including cheap lobster, conch and shrimps on a stick.



We thought we would treat ourselves for a few days either side of Christmas and hired out a nice little private cabana in the peaceful end of town. I was looking forward to the luxury that is air-con. Kate was looking forward to having cable TV and access to a seemingly endless stream of Christmas films. Becky was looking forward to sharing our amazing company. Soon after checking in we had our first taste of just how expensive Belize was in comparison to Guatemala; $20 for a five gallon container of water. In Guatemala we were paying less than $2 for the same! And, as with everywhere else we had been, tap water was out of the question. Great.



I’m really not complaining when I say there is not a great deal to do on Caye Caulker other than relax, soak up the locals’ positive vibes and sink cocktail after cocktail. That is unless you dive. Two and a half hours off the coast of Caye Caulker is what Jacques Cousteau called one of the greatest dives in the world; the Blue Hole. A 124m deep and 300m wide underwater sinkhole that was a cave above sea level more than 150,000 years ago. At a depth of 30m, the wall turns inwards and there begins a grand cavern that goes down to 50m, within which a series of huge stalactites hang, remnants from a time when the cave was terra firma. Some people dive the Blue Hole and have a life changing experience. On a good day you can see hammerhead and bull sharks circling overhead as you make your ascent. Needless to say, we had high hopes and the $240 price tag suggested they were justified. As we were having three dives in a day we had to make the first dive as conservative as possible to ensure we had a decent amount of bottom time (the maximum amount of time you can spend at a particular depth) remaining for the dives that were to follow, and so, we planned to spend just eight minutes at our maximum depth – 40m. Immediately after these precious few minutes weaving through the stalactites we were going to start our ascent, make a three minute safety stop at 5m and reach the surface, making the whole dive around 20 minutes. Don’t get me wrong, the formations were absolutely breath-taking, as was the knowledge that we were exploring a place so unique, but the dive was so rushed it was all a bit of a blur. AND we didn’t see a single shark! We both surfaced, removed our regulators and masks and agreed; the next two dives better be something special.



The dive that followed did not disappoint. Sinking down at Half Moon Caye was like ascending into a tropical fish tank. The reef was full of colour and the marine life was in abundance. Within a minute or two we had crossed paths with a turtle and a big grouper and then we noticed two huge Caribbean reef sharks out in the deep blue. It wasn’t long before they noticed us too and headed towards us to take a closer look. Inquisitive by nature, we spent the next thirty minutes with the sharks weaving in and out of us and getting close enough to touch. Sharks of this size, of any size, are simply mesmerising, and I don’t recall seeing much else on that dive as, quite simply, nothing else really mattered. For the surface interval we moored up on an uninhabited island that is a bird sanctuary and home to an extremely healthy population of frigate birds and boobies. I took my camera out of the underwater housing to get a few shots of the nesting birds, an action that turned out to be a bad move. When we descended for our final dive of the day, I began to set the white balance and prep the camera. A few minutes later the flash started firing without my say so and it soon became clear that the housing was flooding. I’ve got no one to blame other than myself as I foolishly didn’t check the seal for sand and clean it before putting the camera back in. Sadly, that means no more underwater photography for me on this trip.



We had a very pleasant and tipsy, albeit sweaty, Christmas day. After the expected morning of Christmas films we headed down to The Split with a bottle of Baileys and a bag of ice to join friends we had made on the island and over the past few weeks travelling north through Guatemala. We ended the day with a big group buffet-style meal at a sandy little restaurant called Wish Willy’s, right by the water. Plenty of rum was consumed and the offer of a second run through the buffet was gladly accepted. Come Boxing Day, Becky departed to head back to England for new years and we headed to the mainland to meet our friend Duncan who was landing from London for a three week whistle stop tour of the Caribbean coast. Our rendez vous at the Belize City bus station went as planned and we just about managed to get on the next chicken bus west to our next stop and Duncan’s first – San Ignacio.



San Ignacio is small settlement 10 miles from the border with Guatemala. There’s not a great deal to see and do in the town itself but it’s a good base for exploring the Cayo region which offers the finest of country’s outdoor adventures. With Belize being considerably more pricey than the rest of Central America, we had to be picky about what activities we indulged in and decided to go for the most unique excursion on offer; a trip to the Actun Tunichil Muknal Cave (the Cave of the Crystal Sepulchre). Discovered in 1989 and open to the general public since 1998, these caves are home to one of the most important Maya discoveries of this century. Within the caves are ancient ceremonial ceramics and sacrificial skeletal remains of young adults and children, many of which are completely calcified to the cave floor. Historians have dated the remains and ceramics from 1 to 1000 AD. It is thought that the sacrifices were made to appease the gods and bring rain during times of drought. In the main chamber, aptly named The Cathedral, there are colossal sparkling stalactite and stalagmite formations and a swirling pathway of grooves cut into the floor from hundreds of thousands of years of water passing through the cave system during periods of heavy rain. Some of these natural formations have been sculpted by the Maya to form altars and project images of animals, people and objects against the cave walls. To enter the caves we had to hike for 45 minutes through a tropical rainforest before reaching an hour-glass cave entrance from where we swam, squeezed and climbed our way into the depths and darkness for 600m to the main chamber. The whole experience was utterly fascinating. Real life Indiana Jones fascinating.



After San Ignacio, we headed back to Caye Caulker for New Years Eve as we knew it was the only place in the country to see in the new year, and our best shot at finding a party. As expected, the party was at The Split and everyone on the island seemed to be in attendance. Three litres of rum between the three of us turned out to be plenty and there was even a little spare to share around. Thankfully, our intoxicated state helped numb the pain caused by the shockingly bad DJ who appeared to have little or no understanding of how to beat match one tune to the next, not that anyone else seemed to care. Needless to say, the following day or two were spent rehydrating and swinging in hammocks on the dock at our digs of choice, the breezy and delightful Yuma’s House.



Halfway down the coast of Belize is the Garifuna village of Hopkins. The Garifuna are descendants of Carib Indians and Black African slaves that were pushed out of the Caribbean islands by European colonists in the late 1700s and ended up scattered along the coast of Central America from Belize to Nicaragua. Hopkins is a small community of around 1000 people. A single, dusty coastal road lined with tin roof huts and potholes, the town serves as a cheap, more genuine Belizean experience than the resort heavy town of Palencia just along the coast where most visitors choose to stay. While in Hopkins, we decided to try some traditional Garifuna food. Their cuisine is primarily based around fish, chicken, cassava, bananas and plantain. I gave Hudut a go, fish in a coconut broth served with mashed plantain and cassava bread. It was pretty damn good and I fancied eating it again but sadly Hopkins was the only and last place we found it.



There not a great deal going on in Hopkins and, sadly, the only hostel option was in a state of disrepair. Regardless, we spent a few nights in town and while Duncan went on a jungle hike (we were having some hike-free downtime) we hired bikes and rode along the coast in search of toucans, which were not to be found. Our brief stop here was made more than worthwhile by a great day snorkelling around the outer cayes and the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef that protects their waters from the open ocean. The hour long crossing from the mainland in a 5ft less-than-capable vessel wasn’t the nicest but as soon as we reached the crystal waters of Tobacco Caye, the waves and wind died down and enjoyment resumed. The snorkelling was class and we saw stingrays, trumpet fish, a nurse shark and an eagle ray as we got our heads under at a few of the skipper’s favourite spots, all to ourselves. For lunch we stopped off on a deserted corner of South Water Caye, a luxury private island well outside of the reach of our wallets.



After just two weeks in Belize it was time to move on. It didn’t feel like we had spent a great deal of time there but we knew our money could go twice as far elsewhere an so we hit the road. A fortnight exploring was enough time to leave satisfied that we saw a lot of what this little country has to offer and enjoyed the hospitality and sunshine-fuelled happiness of the people that call it home.

---