Little Britain

  Belize, Belize
Saturday, July 12, 2008

Caye Caulker

We crossed the border into Belize, or as it was formerly known British Honduras (I preferred this name), via the  Mexican border town of Chetumal where we got stung on a departure tax of $10 - we only found out afterwards that we only needed to pay this if we were returning to Mexico.   Our bus dropped us of in Belize City at the water taxi terminal and we didn't stay too long in Belize City after hearing it was one of the most dangerous cities in the world.  So dangerous in fact that we heard from one girl we met later on a boat, that Ross Kemp was in the city filming 'Ross Kemp On Gangs'.  It must be a bad place for the king of all bad muthers to be here in the city.  The girl we talked to actually went eating, drinking and karaokeing with him and said he was a top bloke, gutted I missed out on that though as would have been good to go drinking with Grant Mitchell and I could have perhaps have got to the route of his aggression problems and see if he really liked his brother Phil or not.

Familiar Face

From the water taxi station it took 45 minutes on a boat to reach our destination which was the island of Caye Caulker.  This was a really cool little island with hardly any cars and like Isla Mujures, the golf cart was the favored method of transport.  And for the first time in 3 months I was in a country whose main language was English, a throwback to British Honduras and the colonialism days.  When I say English it was more Caribbean English and sometimes took more deciphering than the Spanish did.  And the notes and coins carried the face our beloved queen which was also weird to see after so long.

The Sacred Motto

The official motto of the island is "Go Slow" and its a perfect phrase that encapsulates the laid back feel of the place - I think it would be impossible to be rushed or stressed here.  The place has its fair share of characters too including the guy who shouted at us "What are you looking for a hotel or a yellow submarine?" when we were looking for our hostel - think that guy had had a smoke too many.  I didn't do too much while I was there apart from chill and read and drink but it was blissful.  The food was great too, especially the seafood and most places did lobster dishes for less than a fiver.  The only major recreational activity I did there was some snorkeling.  We had intended on going on an all day snorkeling tour which included seeing sting rays, turtles and best of all sharks,  unfortunately the weather put paid to that as a huge storm from the night before had not settled so the boats weren't going out until the afternoon at the earliest.  Bit disappointing as it was our last day here, but we managed to get the afternoon session in and saw the sting rays in ray alley but no sharks unfortunately.  We saw about 15-20 of them all hovering around our feet and our guide even picked one up and looked to be feeding them or playing with their mouths, one or the other.  It was pretty cool and I was very attentive not to join Steve Irwin in the "Killed By A Sting Ray" list.

Dog Crossing

Easy Life note guy sleeping on the bike

Beer And Sunsets

Reggae Boat

Main Nightclub

After 3 nights on the island we headed back to Belize city where I noticed signs and banners up advertising this week as being 'National Police Week'.  I hadn't seen Sting and his motley crew of musicians anywhere, maybe he'd been spending his time drinking and karaokeing with Ross Kemp.  From the water taxi terminal we took a bus through the lush green countryside of Belize through to our destination of Guatemala.  With its tropical trees and small communities it reminded me a lot of Laos and with more time I might have stopped of at a few of these places but Guatemala was calling.

Now remember next time you're in a rush to get to work or stressed with a traffic jam - breathe deeply and Go Slow!