Well we are now in Guatemala but this will be about our short Belizean experience. On sunday 4/5 in the afternoon we caught a water taxi from Chetumal (mexico) via San Pedro to Caye Caulker an island about 1 hour off Belize City. After about 100mins on the water - dead flat and calm thank goodness - we stopped at San Pedro (on another island) to let off passengers and go thru immigration. We had to wait for the imigration officier to turn up so the whole process took about an hour in a tin shed with a sand floor.Then duely processed we motored on in a smaller boat to Caye Caulker. It is a smallish island with the main traffic on the sand/dirt impacted roads being pedestrians,bicycles and golf carts. It had a laid back beach shack type caribbean feel. In fact at the end where we stayed it was a 2min walk to the surf side of the island and a 2 min walk back to the lee side side of the island.In a hurricane the whole island is evacuated to the mainland. WE stayed 4 nights/3days. Day 1 saw us on a sail/snorkelling trip which was one of the highlights of our trip so far. No sailing (only motoring) as it was still calm and flat but the water was crystal clear. This meant we were able to see manta rays from the side of the boat on the way to snorkel.In 3 separate snorkel spots we saw green turtles feeding,green moray eels,3 types of manta rays,many colourful fish and corals and had a chance to swim near grey nurse sharks, The crew enticed these beside the boat with a feed ( not us) and you could get in water near them. Gary got too close at one stage and had to scurry away. The crew pointed out and named everything in the water for us and fed us a nice lunch and rum punch on the way home. The next 2 days we relaxed by checking out the "town" - that only took a couple of hours of slow strolling-,a bit of swimming and canoeing on the lee side. On our canoeing trip ,after a few tense minutes of coordination problems with the paddles,we came across a scholl of tarpons (lge fish) in the mangrove area,a couple of starfish and a large manta ray.The island even had a chinatown area and in the supermarket in that part we saw heina baked beans on the shelf. In fact we had breakfast one morning in a cafe that had baked beans on the menu . Gary was an extremely happy boy at the end of that meal. The island is all bout sea based activities and tourists with plenty of places to stay. Only sorry we were not there in lobster season . It doesn't start till June.Anyway we enjoyed our time there and have now moved on into Guatemala which I will save till next time
