Day 18-19 Caye Caulker
Trip Start
Jun 26, 2007
1
48
60
Trip End
Ongoing
Caye Caulker,
Belize
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Day 18 - From Belize City we said goodbye to Bobbie who was heading back to Guatemala to catcha flight back to England and the rest of the group caught a 45 minute boat trip to the small islands of Caye Caulker. It used to be a bigger island but hurricane Hattie in 1961 passed over the island, creating a channel between the northern and southern halves. The North remains undeveloped compared to the touristy, developed southern island which can be walked acrossed in 25 minutes. Despite being a Caribbean island, I was disappointed not to find a typical Caribbean sandy beach however most tourists come here to experience the Caribbean lifestyle and to go snorkelling.
The first day on the island was spent walking around the island, where you get to admire the laidback lifestyle, get to see a variety of wildlife, dropping off my laundry and the clothes that are starting to stink from my Rivercave exploration earlier that week and finally capped off by a seafood barbeque in the evening. Although it was a good relaxing day, today will probably be remembered for Jenny (our tour leader) telling us off like school kids because we (the group) were 5 minutes late for meeting up for dinner and then giving us a spiel about how she had more important things to do rather than be left waiting. Lets say her tirade left the group speechless which is ironic since our patience had been tested by her bad timekeeping.
Day 19 - I woke up to a glorious sunny day, ideal for our snorkelling trip, an activity included in the Trek America price. This 6 hour trip ended up being one of the highlights of the trip as we stop off in 3 locations where we had the chance to snorkel for 45 - 60 minutes at each location.
Caribbean bird 01
The first stop was at stingray alley, home to some nursery sharks but by the time twenty or so snorkellers had jumped into the water they had quickly scarpered but that didn't disturbed the stingrays that swam beneath us. Although personally I found the large shoals of fish the most fascinating especially when you free dive alongside and then watching them scatter. Second stop was in deeper water, home to a different type of stingray, a few corals and more colourful fish. However the biggest challenge at this stop was trying to swim/free dive through a short rock tunnel 5 metres below the surface. A few people managed this successfully and I got as deep as the entrance but the water pressure ended up playing havoc with my ears and after that I couldn't free dive that deep. Preceding the final dive we stopped at another island for lunch (but the name of it eludes me!) for an hour before re-entering the water for our coral reef stop. Most notable for the sighting of a 7ft shark which I never saw and for me trying to show off to to Lina (the Swedish girl on our group) by swimming along the sea floor on my back, but I ended up looking like a right idiot when I scraped my back againt the abrasive coral.Back on Caye Caulker, we made the most of our final night in Belize with another seafood barbeque and a few drinks (the barbeque lobster is definitely worth trying). The following morning we were up early again to catch the boat back to Belize City and onwards to the Mexican border.
