Tobacco Caye Hotels
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Tobacco Caye
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We had to get up early to catch the bus back to Dangriga and it poured down rain on us while we waited for the bus. So, we were a little soggy for the 2 1/2 hour trip. However, once we were in Dangriga we quickly warmed up, dried out and then got soggy again from sweat. So, I guess it really didn't matter much. We took care of some money matters while we were here, not more freak-outs at the bank from Dave.:-) The water taxi left at noon and we were on our way to the island. The book says the island is 200 yds long and 100 yds wide at its widest point. We knew that was small but, we couldn't really picture how small that was until we got there. I couldn't believe they could fit six resorts on this tiny little island. I could probably walk the perimeter of the entire island in 5 minutes. It was picture perfect though. All white sand with palm trees for shade. A really tropical paradise. It is right on the reef so we were hoping it would prove to be great snorkeling. We stayed at Lana's resort. Lana was such a sweetheart. She was a great hostess. She and one other lady did all the cooking and the meals were great. Three meals a day came with the room rate and it's a good thing because there wasn't a restaurant on the island. They run generators pretty much all day because there is no electricity here. There is one place that rents snorkel gear and they also have a snack shack where you can get your typical snack foods. There are two bars on the island, hard to believe but, yes, one on either end of the island. Apparently, a lot of sail boats and a tour guide company that offers sail trips that come to the island to party at night, especially on the weekend. Something we weren't expecting. The Saturday we were there, we must have had close to a hundred people on the island. It got a little crowded for me but, the only people that got rowdy were a couple of the locals that had too much to drink and got into a big argument. The other locals were trying to smooth things out with the two guys because I'm sure when you live that close on an island, you have to get a long with your neighbors or life will become hell. We snorkeled all three days we were on the island. The highlight for me was when we saw three cuddle fish swimming together. It looked like, mom, pop and child. They kept the little one in the middle but, they were not really afraid of us. They let us float in front and above them and take pictures. They were changing colors constantly while we were watching them. I saw in a special before that this is how they communicate. Not sure what they were saying, maybe something like, "What the hell are they staring at?" but I couldn't get enough of watching them. The water was really warm, Dave's watch said 84 degrees on average. I also discovered that these large holes in the sandy bottom were inhabited by these fish that are long and narrow, maybe 12 inches long and 3 inches wide. I wasn't expecting fish in those holes. On our last snorkel trip I swam over this large green blob and was trying to figure out what it was I was looking out when the mouth of a huge green eel turn up to hiss at me. Scared the living daylights out of me because he was really close, maybe two feet from my face, and his head was about 10 inches wide with his jars flapping like eels do. I thought I was going to get my face bit! The biggest eel I have ever seen. Beautiful green though, really beautiful eel. I think I scared it as much as it scared me. It quickly dove under a rock and would not come back out for Dave to see. There was this one time when I was trying to see something in this big coral formation and I was putting my hand down in the sand to steady myself. I kept feeling little nips on my hand and arm but, wasn't thinking about it since I was concentrating on what I was trying to see on the coral. I finally looked down to see this little fish charging and nipping at my hand and arm. I can't remember what it is called but, I've seen them many times before. I was obviously in his territory and he was fiercely defending it totally unbeknown to me. He just cracked me up. I could almost draw a line around the perimeter of his territory based on when he would attack me. He didn't attack my hand unless I crossed into his territory. So if I held it just outside his territory, he just stared me down. As soon as I moved my hand across some invisible line, he was on me like flies on you-know-what. The prettiest place to snorkel was on the outside of this little jetty on the south side of the island. It gets a little choppy there sometimes but, it has the best coral formations.
As much fun as we had on this island, we decided we wanted to go back to Caye Chalker for the last part of our trip because we want to do a Manatee tour with the famous guide, Chocolate. So, we are heading there tomorrow.
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