Caribbean Style
After escaping Belize City on a water taxi, we arrived at the safe haven of Caye Caulker. Went to a Lonely Planet recommended hotel - Hotel Miramar- which was right on the beach. Room was nice and the island even nicer. All the buildings were wooden, lovely and rickety and on stilts. The internet was unbelievably expensive at 4 Bz for 18 mins (= 1 pound) We spent 7 nights here and so there would be a lot of long prose to deal with. So for ease we have split it into sections to make it easier to digest.
1. Swim Disaster
Caye Caulker was usually scorching hot and surrounded by beautiful azure sea. However, 99% of the shoreline was covered with hideous mangrove swamps (Charlie´s words - he also wanted to remove them so resorts had a nicer view.... tut tut), this made swimming difficult. We found one part of the island unaffected by biodiversity at the end where the island had been split in two in 1997 (not sure if this is correct but its an aesthetically pleasing number, so here it will stay). As we slipped into the cool water we realised there was quite a strong current and decided to swim back, but instead were washed over a sunken concrete beam covered in sharp barnacles (bastard barnacles). After a painful crossing we emerged from the water, Lisa bleeding from three places on one toe and Charlie had bloodrunning down his chest. Lisa´s fear of swimming with sharks the next day was not eased by the appearance of open wounds on her body! However both injuries turned out to be fairly superficial. Swimming off the beach was never attempted again!!
2. Diving (only by Lisa)
I decided that seen as Caye Caulker was right next to one of the most famous dive sites in the world I would have to indulge in a little underwater therapy. The Blue Hole is famous for its unique structure and the sharks that inhabit the Hole. After locating the only 2 dive schools on the island that own boats (there are about 15 non boat schools that use boat schools - I really don´t understand!). Anyway, I chose Frenchie´s. A bit reluctantly at first, for although it was the most professional, a name like Frenchie´s leads one to think its run by the French. Thankfully found out it is named after the French Angel Fish and the only French person on the trip was lovely. The Blue Hole was a 3 tank dive but only one dive was in the Blue Hole. We were the first boat there in the morning after an early meeting at 5:30am. The sharks stayed in the warmer shallows and we descended straight down to about 40m and swam through columns of stalagtites and stalagmites. Similar to an underwater cathedral. The sharks were Grey Reef Sharks and not scary at all, just amazing. Went to an island called Half Moon Caye for a wee surface interval. On here was an amazingly close colony of Frigate birds and Red Footed Boobies, which were not scared of humans at all. We were even treated to view their mating. Lovely!! On the other dives I saw eagle rays, turtles and the beautiful Nurse Sharks. Suddenly re-addicted to diving I went on a trip to Hol Chan (a 25 yr Marine Reserve), a night dive and a trip to the local reef. Met up with a group of people later on (this will e recorded in ´Quiet Night On The Town´) and went diving with them on some of the other dives. Only problem was leaving Charlie back on the island all the time - I believe he began the early stages of Cabin Fever. Soon He will be able to dive too. Hurrah.
3. Snorkel Trip
We went on a snorkel trip with a company called Raggamuffin Tours. This was Charlie´s first snorkelling experience. We had a lovely sail boat ride out to the location of our first stop. The trip soon began to fall into anarchy. Lisa got in and swam around, whilst Charlie was given a briefing. After Charlie jumped in with mask, snorkel and fins he tried to swim to join Lisa, who was watching a sleeping nurse shark. At this pont Charlie decides he does not like the feel of the fins on his feet or the feeling of snorkelling and Lisa has to carry all the equipment back to the boat. Oh Dear. We sailed to a second location and another attempt was made Charlie treid without fins. Success!!! Charlie now loves Snorkelling. The guide leads us on a tour pointing out various animals and manhandling Sharks and Stingrays (much to Lisa´s disgust and Charlie´s terror). When we swam back to the boat we realised that our snorkel group looked completely different. Turns out that we had become entangled in a different snorkelling group, much to our guide´s anger. We made it back to our group in the end and set sail for our third stop - Hol Chan Marine Reserve. We had lunch en route - Lisa´s ´vegetarian´ burger was just that - a burger bun with lettuce and a piece of processed cheese. Ha ha. The third stop began well, with us following our guide (at the back as usual) out to the coral reef. We saw loads of beautiful fish, rays and sharks. Just then Lisa spotted a most unusual fish, on closer inspection it turned out to be a child´s doll complete with pink and black striped dress. Alas, it was missing her head, legs and one arm. This caused much hysteria in the water causing both our masks to fill with water several times. Lisa then made the doll swim in a one arm front crawl style towards Charlie, with the same mask filling consequences. Meanwhile, our group and guide had swum quite a distance away, so we swam to catch up, facing a strong opposing current. When the guide realised we were some distance away he swam to us and assumed we were swimming poorly. He gave us swimming advice and tried to encourage us along, except as soon as we had made progress towards the group, one of us would think of the doll and laughter wouldoccur, setting the other one off. Mask fills, swimming stops and we drift back towards the reef. Guide getting angry again, so with salty mouths we compose ourselves for our return to boat. Made it back still giggling into our snorkels. ´Enjoyed´ the reggae cruise on the way home and observed the look of relief on the guide´s face as we left the boat.
4. The Fan Game
A new experience for both of us on our travels involves our ever increasing encounters with ceiling fans in our rooms. The aim of the game is to see how long various objects can survive before being destroyed by the rotating blades of the fan. Objects are thrown upwards from a standing postion beneath or besides the fan. The first contestants were some postcards (Mini and Fifi you will be receiving these contestants in the post, in varying states. Please do not blame the C.A. Postal Service, it was us (or at least the fan). The rescued doll also played and survived. A late entry contestant, the banana bread, suffered two fatal injuries, one from the fan blade and the second from the wall it splatted against. Even the adjudicators weren´t unscathed as rust fell from the decrepid fan into our hair and bed.
NB. It appears that some local inhabitants of Caye Caulker have now been playing this game with their own hair as contestants. Special mentions go to the ´Talking Umbrella Man´and Zeus, our delightfully arrogant raggamuffette (guide on the snorkelling trip).
5. Quiet Night On The Town
Met up with some friends, that Lisa had made on the dive trip, one evening. It started out nicely with a few drinks at a beach bar. Some people went home because they were getting bitten by mosquitos, whereas the remaining sensible people removed themselves to an indoor bar. First mistake of the evening. It was ladies night, so the girls bought the drinks for the group and received strange tokens. Charlie politely enquires to the square-headed american barmaid about them, only to be met with a reply of "There´s no need to be such an asshole about it!" and "if you don´t like it you can go somewhere else". So obviously we all laughed. Moved on to a nice cafe call Crippea (Caribbean) Cabin. We ordered rum and oranges for everyone and they arrived. However, the drink turned out to more closely resemble petrol and a lively discussion ensued. Charlie asked the waiter (who was no older than 10) to taste the toxic drink. Next the father of the child was summoned to explain what exactly was in the drinks. He pretended to take a sip and was met with calls of "DRINK IT!". When he did even he could not hide his disgust and agrees that we didn´t have to pay for the drinks. By this point there had been much stomping around and the cafe was exited quickly by all and never returned to again. This end of the island was now off limits to us. Ha ha!
Final Thought: Caye Caulker is a beautiful island, which was a delight to walk around barefoot on its white sand roads. However, all its inhabitants should be removed to make it a nice place for tourists. Jabberwoking by the locals in a language that was once english but now indecipherable at very very loud volumes and sometimes involving childer being pushed against rocking walls is not on. Removal or elecution are the only methods available.
Mark out of ten: 7.5
Books read:
The Happy Hooker - 10 out of 10
The Chocolate Cat Caper - 1 out of 10
