Caye Caulker – 
The Mosquitos here may be small… but really really mean and their sting hurts quite a lot. Although… those are actually sand flies, I think. At “Pause”, our accommodation, the cats living here are quite early on their paws and hunt for some small crabs. We get up and have breakfast at the café “Brisas del Mar”: Delicious omelettes with bacon. Add a frappucino with vanilla ice cream to that. Yum ! We check-out at Pause (unfortunately It’s been booked out for a few days), pack our things and go to the bungalows of “Tropical Paradise”. It’s a cool place, right next to the beach too with a pier (Pause = sunset. Tropical Paradise = sunrise). The cemetery next door is completely overgrown and with all its palm trees it just looks like an old pirate’s cemetery.
We wander through the city for a bit and look for snorkeling and diving opportunities. We won’t do Blue Hole yet, but book 2 dive trips at the divebase “French Angelfish” and will go snorkeling with Carlos today (65 BZD (32.54 USD)). We get ourselves each a fresh coconut on our way to the north of the island and find us a boat under a palm tree to sit in the shade. Delicious – and fruity. The Rastaman who sold the coconuts, seems to have a little side business: “Magical” herbs. Thanks, but no Ganja for me today . We meet Ben at the beach bar “Lazy Lizard” right at the split. He’ll go spearfishing with Kate tomorrow. That kinda sounds cool too. I heard that there is a Lionfish plague going on here – those critters should also be quite delicious.
At 2 pm we are on Carlos’ boat to go snorkeling at the local reef. As the sea is really calm this is very relaxing and you see a lot of the reef and the marine life. On our 2nd stop there are seem to be already a lot of stingrays and nurse sharks waiting for us. As those get chummed by many other scuba diving and snorkeling operators they seem to gather around approaching boats hoping for a free meal. The nurse sharks and stingrays follow us quite some time while we snorkel in this area but seem to lose interest eventually as they won’t get fed by us. Unfortunately we dont manage to see any Manatees during our trip – Maybe tomorrow during our scuba dive with French Angelfish? Back on the boat, we have some fresh fruit and coconut rum as compensation (Kuknat Rum, very very delicious!). We are very exhausted when we arrive at Tropical Paradise. After having a quick shower it is already getting dark outside.
We have dinner at “Roses”. Barracuda Kebab. I didn’t know that you could actually eat those. The fine print on the menu says “12% Tax added”. A little later one of the guests leaving the restaurant shouts at us that we should watch out, because they automatically add some sort of tax here (Well, more like service fee). Yeah, not cool and we noticed it way to late on the manu too. I’m really thinking they made this tax up, since I haven’t seen any tax at all at other restaurants. The barracuda is really tasty, but… no tip this time. On our way back we get us some ice cream and sit down on a bench at our private pier. It feels strange for some reason. We get up early and go to bed very early aswell. At 22 pm we are already totally spent.
10 comments
Cool post and very detailed I actually just recently thought I should get more into diving and maybe even get a license so I’ll definitely come back for future posts as well! The Mosquito thing though kinda freaked me out I hate those beasts haha
Scuba diving is a fun “sport” – you get to see a lot more of the ocean than someone w/o license. Also, it is extremely relaxing and you get to trust your partner (if you dive with him/her) even more – as a diving-buddy. But doing a course for diving is not everywhere the same – try to find a divebase you feel save in, where the divemasters are responsible, but also fun – you should never have the feeling that you got your license just for paying some bucks.
It sounds like a dream day isn’t it? Snorkeling, beautiful beach, underwater wildlife and RUM who needs more? And as it’s getting cold in London – I have to say I HATE YOU for having such a good time in Belize. I think I wrote it before but I will repeat myself – I really enjoy the way you tell you stories!
ps. 12% tax? I wouldn’t leave the tip either. I heard Belize is quite expensive and it only confirms it!
It really depends where you go eating. We saw the fine print in this restaurant after we had ordered – the prices were okay-ish… yet there were some other locations which were cheaper & got better food (but quite slow on cooking.. good things take time). I guess ill summarize the itinerary with adding the costs per day soon
“The Mosquitos here may be small… but really mean and their sting hurts a lot” – I love this line, haha! Such a great read, I love your conversational style of writing. Snorkeling seems like such a great experience at Caye Caulker. Amazing underwater pictures too!
Not so sure about the sharks but it sounds like a great destination and like you had a great time, even if you were in bed a little early.
Mario, that Barracuda kebab sounds interesting.
Snorkeling is such great fun but I’d be on edge around the sting rays! The cemetery sounds really cool too useful post, thanks!
I loved snorkelling in Belize, it was way better than I’ve experienced elsewhere. Did you try One Barrel rum? That stuff is amazing. I swam with nurse sharks and rays too!
I had to look that up – I’m not that sure, but I remember a bottle with a drawn barrel on it… so it could be? Guess I’ll have to order a bottle of this one too (about to rekindle memories of my Cuba-trip with some bottles of Mulata Rum)