Un-BELIZEABLE, Part 1 - Caye Caulker

Let me preface this series of blog posts by confessing that I had no idea what to expect before going to Belize. Everyone who had ever been that I spoke with before going told me that I didn’t know what I had coming for me. “Belize is INCREDIBLE,” they’d say, an almost dazed look overtaking them as they thought back on their own time there.

And I can see what they meant. Being constantly surrounded by the crystal blue Caribbean waters, not having a single bad meal or drink throughout the week, and seeing and doing things I had never thought I’d ever do, it’s a trip I doubt I’ll ever forget.

In addition to Miami and NYC, Belize is the fifth country I’ve visited so far in the past six months.

I think it’s fair to say that it’s sitting right at the top.

Caye Caulker – Day 1

As always, I used momondo.com to book my flights to and from Belize. And – as always – they gave me an unbeatable price when compared to other discount airline websites. We left from DC at 7AM, had a brief layover in Miami, and found ourselves in Belize City shortly after 11AM.

Initial thoughts of Belize City – it’s small. For being the capital city, that surprised me. When talking with the cab driver on the way to the water taxi that would take us to Caye Caulker, he told us that the entire country of Belize is home to only around three hundred thousand people – four hundred thousand less people than the city of DC alone.

So no wonder I thought it was tiny.

We got to the port where our water taxi would take off from, paid $15USD for our taxi tickets, plopped down at the neighboring bar and grabbed ourselves some Belikin’s – the official Belizean beer.

Which brings me to the first of many things I loved about the country, which is that it’s a cheap country to travel to.

Like, really cheap.

Like, the inner backpacker within me was screaming with joy from the start of the trip to the finish.

Most of the drinks we bought throughout the week were never more than $6BZE, which translates to $3USD. Belikin’s were never more than $2BZE, or $1USD.

As you can probably already tell, this may or may not have translated into trouble for us later in the week when we found out that shots of Jose were only $10BZE.

I mean, YOLO, amiright.

REGARDLESS. We’ll talk more about prices and booze later. We boarded our boat at noon and immediately what struck me was how blue the water is. And while I’m sure we’ve all been to a place where the water has left us speechless, this was by far the clearest water I’ve ever seen. And it stretched for miles.

I was in literal paradise.

We docked at the island, grabbed our stuff, and made our way down the main street to where our airbnb would be. All along the route, locals greeted us with, “Welcome to the island,” or, “go slow.” Go slow was a favorite of mine – there were signs posted all over the island telling you the same thing. And coming from DC where you’re constantly running at mach ten, walking around the island at a leisurely stroll with no real plan or even a final destination was a nice change of pace.

Our airbnb was a cute yellow cabana that was towards the end of the island with more restaurants and bars. It was a one bedroom, one bath, and included air conditioning (PRAISE).

And while it may not have been the most luxurious of places we could’ve stayed on the island, my thought with lodging has always been that I simply need a place to sleep and shower each day. Outside of that, I won’t be around much to truly enjoy it.

So why pay hundreds of dollars for a hotel room that you’ll spend less than a third of your day at?We made our way down the road to a place called “the split.” It’s the portion of the island where it’s cleaved in two, the more inhabited island on one side, the less inhabited on the other. We plopped ourselves down at a bar called the Lazy Lizard and chilled there for the remainder of the day, basking in the sun and taking a dip in the warm water.

Most first days of travel are stressful with all of the commuting, checking in, and getting to places on time. This first day wasn’t. The rest of the trip would prove to be the same.

Day 2

The evening of our first day, we had decided that we would try to go snorkeling the next day. We had had a pretty full day of beaching it the day before and figured we may as well make the most of our second day. The nice thing about excursions in Caye Caulker is that most of the excursion companies have little tents or buildings on the main drag of the island where you can walk up and ask questions about each.

And going with the “go slow” mentality, most of the time you don’t have to book these excursions weeks in advance. We set up our snorkeling the night before we went after stumbling into a guy named Steve who owned a sailboat and told us he’d take us out to snorkel the next day.

We were more than a little excited.We met up with Steve and his deckhand David that morning, sunscreen in hand, prepared for a full day of sunshine. Steve had a smile on his face, telling us that some of the other passengers had cancelled and that it would only be Alli, myself, and a woman on holiday from France on the boat that day, essentially meaning that we’d have the entire boat to ourselves.

And to think the day would only get better.

First up was shark alley – something I had been looking forward to. Pulling up to the channel where we’d be snorkeling, we already saw countless brown moving things beneath the boat. It was only as we looked closer that we noticed they were sharks.I didn’t know whether to freak out or be excited. But I did it.“Swim with sharks” – check that off the bucket list.

Yet this raises a point of contention for some, myself included. The sharks were attracted to the boat because they knew they’d be getting fed sardines in exchange for swimming with tourists. The sight of the boats signaled to them they were about to get a free meal.

There are some who think this could lead to an ecological disaster. That sharks will simply stop feeding altogether because they can get their meals without having to hunt at all, allowing the prey which they usually hunt to become vastly overpopulated. Some are also afraid that their actual hunting skill will become diminished, especially amongst younger sharks. And while there were only a few remaining snorkeling companies who refuse to tempt sharks with food to attract them to their boats, the majority of companies do. As one captain told me, “we have to. It’s either we offer this as a part of our excursion, or we lose customers to other companies who do.”

And as cool as it was to swim with them, I would’ve rather swam with sharks who chose to approach our boat simply because they were in the area, not because of the free food the captain was throwing to them.

Certainly something to consider for those of you who do one of these excursions in the future.After shark alley was the Hol Chan Marine Reserve. And let me tell you, this was the best part of the day. The fields of coral stretch as far as the eye can see, as do all of the varying species of fish. You can dive as low as thirty feet in some areas, swimming below reefs, getting an up-close view of them.There are plenty of different coral reserves around the island, though Hol Chan is the one I’d recommend. When researching which snorkeling or diving company to go with, a few questions you should be sure to ask are:

1) How long is the trip? Some companies offer half day and full day trips.

2) How many people do you take on each excursion? For me, I prefer to have smaller groups. Makes the experiences less stressful/annoying. But others prefer larger groups. Completely up to you.

3) Do you serve meals? Or better yet, drinks? Many companies do, but make sure regardless.

4) Where do you stop throughout the day? Hol Chan was a non-negotiable for me, so it made it easy to rule out various companies if they didn’t even offer a stop there.

We made our way back to the island around four that afternoon, having spent a solid five hours out at sea. They fed us a delicious lunch and kept our glasses full of tropical punch.

As we were leaving, Steve and David gave us some recommendations for places to eat that night, one of which being a place called Sports Bar. We were contemplating it until David told us that since it was a Thursday, it would be karaoke night.

So obviously we had no choice but to go. My routine karaoke song choice of “Wannabe” by Spice Girls wasn’t going to sing itself. We ended up meeting some really awesome people from Switzerland and the Netherlands while we were there and had an incredible time.Just goes to show that anyone, no matter who you are or where you’re from can bond over a good drink or two.

Day 3

We woke up that day feeling a little meh. I think that the full day of travel followed by an entire day out in the sun snorkeling had caught up with us. We spent the morning at the Lazy Lizard sipping on some drinks, reading a book and took off early afternoon to go for a stroll around the island. Just as we were wondering what we should do the rest of the day, we ran into Steve – our boat captain from the day previous. He recommended that we go to Koko Beach, a resort on the other island that offers free transportation to and from. We didn’t have anything else to do (*see “Go Slow”), so we figured why not.

We boarded the boat, headed over to the resort and spent most of the day lounging around in some inner-tubes and swings. The stipulation for the free shuttle to and from the island was that you had to purchase $10BZE worth of food or drinks while there to get back.

That wasn’t a problem.

We got back to the main island later that night and while walking back to our airbnb, ran into Steve.

Again.

After asking us how we liked Koko (we LOVED it), he asked what we were doing next on our trip. We told him our plan was to go to San Pedro the next day, an island just a few kilometers further out into the Caribbean. We figured it would be fairly similar to Caye Caulker, so it was a little bit of a surprise to us when Steve told us that we should go somewhere – anywhere – other than San Pedro. “I tell people I don’t like to go to San Pedro,” he told us. It makes me laugh to this day.

So we shifted our plans entirely to go to the mainland instead. We had been told by several people that we would have more to do there and that we’d enjoy it. “It’ll be an adventure,” they said. And an adventure it was.

All of this just goes to show that making friends with the locals oftentimes gives you the best outcomes for any trip. No matter the amount of research you may do, nothing compares to asking a local or two what their favorite things to do are and what things they’d recommend you do before leaving.

Chances are, you won’t be disappointed.

Day 4

This was our last and final day on the island. And while it made us sad, we were ready to move onto the next leg of our trip.

We woke up early that morning to catch the sunrise. It was on my bucket list to have seen one sunrise and sunset, all in the same day. And while I’ve seen plenty of each, it was never something that I purposely sat down to do. I’ve never woken up at 5:30 in the morning just to see a sunrise like I did that morning and then sat down, drink in hand that evening to catch the sunset.

But we did it. And it didn’t disappoint.

Per usual, for the rest of the day we grabbed a spot at The Sip and Dip, a bar right next door to the Lazy Lizard and sipped the afternoon away. It had swings in the water, in addition to some hammocks you could lay in, the warm Caribbean water lapping your back as you sipped on a drink.

I may or may not have fallen asleep for a bit in one of them.

We ended the day with another beautiful sunset, ready for the next day of travel.And while we were sad to leave, honestly, there’s only enough to do on the island for three-four days anyway. One of the things I loved most about Caye Caulker was the size of it. It was small enough that you felt you were truly living the island life, yet large enough to keep you busy for a few days.Caye Caulker was an absolutely incredible place – one that will forever have a special place in my heart. For those of you who love beaches, island life, sunshine, and endless food and drinks, this is your place.

And whenever you go, be sure to send an invite my way.

Pretty please.