We were up bright and early to grab some breakfast before hopping onto the 7.30am tourist shuttle (Q160) to Belize City but unfortunately, the driver wasn’t. We lurked on the guesthouse’s doorstep for over an hour before our transport finally arrived – oh well, at least they hadn’t forgotten us. The weather was still grey and gloomy and we could only hope it would improve as we moved on to the 12th country of this trip. We reached the border town of Melchor by 10.30am where we were informed we would need to collect our luggage. The reason for this still eludes us as no one gave the bags so much as a cursory glance. We’d saved Q10 a head to leave as that is what we’d paid to enter but today the immigration officer decided the fee was Q20 each. There’s no information about this ‘fee’, and it seems to be hit and miss who pays it, but as I mentioned when we were entering for a couple of quid it’s not worth pursuing.
We were through Guatemala’s formalities soon enough, walked the short distance to Belize whereupon we were told we had to fill in a form for the tourist board. Again no explanation but at least it was free and to be fair the staff were handing out leaflets and answering questions. The immigration lady also didn’t want any money for us to enter and we even managed to coerce a smile out of her. All done and dusted in about an hour – excellent we’d be in Belize City in plenty of time for the 1.30pm boat. Ah, no we won’t the Russian contingent on our bus haven’t emerged from the formalities. In the end we waited well over an hour for them as they were having some sort of visa issues – not that they cared they were holding the rest of us up or offered any apologies. If they’d been on Tica bus they’d have been left to their own devices after about 20mins.
As we drove through the pancake flat countryside of Belize the weather worsened with occasion tropical downpours. It had cleared slightly by the time we reached the city which is no longer the capital. They built a new one, Belmopan, after Hurricane Hattie wreaked havoc in 1961. Belize City is still an important commercial hub but we were only here to get out into the Caribbean Sea. By 3.30pm we were on a boat headed for Caye Caulker; an hour later having spent BZ$15 each we set foot on white sand. A nice easy exchange rate for you this time (and us!) as BZ$1 = US$0.50. We’d heard that Belize was very expensive so we set off to discover which over-priced flea pit we’d be calling home for the next few nights.
By 5 bells we’d checked into Lena’s Guesthouse which is aged and quite basic but sneaks within the budget at BZ$60 a night. It’s clean, particularly the sheets and towels, has hot water but the ultimate selling point was its location – we’re right on the beach. The elderly couple who own the place are rather sweet too. Their small guesthouse is built almost longhouse style with the long verandah forming a communal balcony with plenty of space to sit. Some may say there’s a cooling, constant onshore breeze which nicely ruffles the palm fronds and waves. We would say it’s bloody windy and the fleeces have put in a reappearance of an evening! I really thought that being on an island in the middle of the Caribbean Sea I would finally be warm both day and night. Evidently not and we haven’t even used the ceiling fan!
Caye Caulker used to be bigger than it is but it got split in two by that horrible Hattie; however; there’s a silver lining to that cloud. The smaller northern section is virtually undeveloped and the authorities have declared a big chunk of it a national park. The southern section is only about 1km long and very narrow with development along much of the coast. None of it is ostentatious or on a grand scale but the native vegetation is struggling to survive. The small pockets of mangrove that are hanging on seem to be used more as rubbish dumps or have had waste washed into its tangle of roots. Litter is a big problem here but one I feel could be easily addressed as there’s a constant stream of boats to the mainland.
That said it’s still a pretty place but it’s not a beach resort – yes there is lovely white sand here but it’s packed hard. That howling gale doesn’t make you want to lie out there basking in the sun either! We spent yesterday morning relaxing and in the afternoon took a leisurely 2 hour stroll along the length and breadth of the island. The main draw is the barrier reef (the world’s second largest) a matter of a few hundred meters away from the shore. In fact as I type, Steve has gone off on a 3-hour snorkelling trip but once again I’ve stayed on terra firma. This time I was determined to conquer my fear of deep water and go and take a peek but, I’ve woken up with a cold and didn’t fancy coughing and spluttering into my snorkel. Steve returned a few hours later finally happy that he’d found some good snorkelling in Central America. They stopped at 3 different sites over the reef and each one offered a different experience with sharks, rays, some different fish and loads of colourful corals.
That evening, already our last in Belize, Steve felt the need to treat himself to some lobster as they were in season and readily available. We found as unassuming little place where the chef was rustling up a storm on an oil drum. We didn’t see the point of paying twice as much just to get posh tablecloths and our beer presented in a glass! Besides which these no nonsense places tend to serve up tastier food and this was no exception.
We liked Caye Caulker and were very glad that we’d decided to pop in. In the end we didn’t find Belize as extortionately expensive as we’d been led to believe and would love to go back one day to explore the mainland.
