Caye Caulker, an island located in the Caribbean Sea, was the only place I visited in Belize.
The ferry from Chetumal transits in San Pedro (the island made famous by Madonna in the song "La Isla Bonita") for immigration purposes before arriving in Caye Caulker. A supposedly 2hr journey, the entire journey took us about 4 hours, including immigration clearance.
It was on the boat that I met Martin (German working in Amsterdam), Eduardo (Argentinian, a professor in digital media and also works in his sister's travel agency) and Jason (Urologist based out of Melbourne).
We quickly became best of friends and spent most meals and having drinks together. Even more time with Martin and Eduardo, when they became my bunk mates for the last 2 nights I was on Caye Caulker, when beds became free in my room at Yuma's Hostel after the 1st night.
Caye Caulker is quite different from what I had imagined it to be. I was looking forward to lazing under the sun by the beach, but there aren't really any beaches in Caye Caulker where one can laze on.
There are no sections of soft white sand, and access into the water is best via boardwalks available in front of some hotels, although the water immediately surrounding the island isn't the best for swimming.
I was also surprised to see many Chinese staying on the island, operating provision stores scattered across the island.
According to Lonely Planet, the most serious thing one can do on the island is to relax in hammocks, and that best summarizes the chill and laid back feel in the air, with its infamous tag line "Go Slow" found across the island.
Things on the island are on the expensive side, with meals easily costing about USD15. Lobsters on the contrary were more decently priced than the rest of the other food items on the menu at average USD20 per meal, and I took the opportunity to consume some wonderful lobster dinners while in Caye Caulker.
The most amazing thing that I did on Caye Caulker was going on the full day snorkelling trip. There are many companies which offers the tour, though most of them are via small speed boats.
At the recommendation of Suzanne, the owner from Yuma’s Hostel, I went with Carlos Tours, which uses a beautiful catamaran for the trip.
We sailed out to 3 different spots for snorkelling. The first spot was called Coral Garden. The tides here were very strong, and I had to work really hard with the flippers to prevent from being drifted by the tides. We didn't see too many marine life here, other than spotting a turtle, a lobster and some fishes.
The 2nd stop was my most favourite stop of the trip, called Shark and Ray Alley. The moment the boat arrived, we saw a large number of huge nurse sharks gathering around our boat. One of the guides started feeding them fish, which attracted even more sharks and sting rays. We were then told we were going in to swim.
Everyone hesitated for a long while as we didn't know whether it was going to be safe. At the insistence of the captain, one by one we went in. It was an awesome experience, being surrounded by the huge nurse sharks as we entered the water, yet they totally ignored our presence.
Seeing that, I became more brave and started swimming even closer to the magnificent creatures. At one point, one of the guides even swam after one of the shark, held it in its arms and turn it around for us to touch them. It had a rough texture on its skin, with a smooth underbelly.
We also saw a few manta rays and many schools of fish.
Lunch was shortly served after we got back up, comprising stewed chicken with rice and frijoles, salad and pasta. And to accompany that, we had free flow of rum punch throughout the entire snorkelling trip. Yum!
The last stop was Hol Chan Channel. Hol Chan is the 2nd largest reef in the world, after the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. We took extra care in making sure we didn't touch any of the reefs in the marine reserve, while we went snorkelling and exploring the waters.
We saw many different schools of fish, an eel and more sting rays.
I was amazed how the guides managed to free dive deep into the sea without having any problems with the pressure in the ears, as I struggled to get further down in the water without feeling the pressure in mine.
We then slowly sailed our way back to Caye Caulker. The waters around the islands were known to have spotting of manatees too, but unfortunately we didn't see any.
I felt very lucky though, because it rained most of yesterday and even up till this morning. However the moment we boarded the boat, the sky miraculously cleared up and we had great sunny weather during the entire time we were out, before the rain started again in the night.
Definitely a highlight of my trip!
The ferry from Chetumal transits in San Pedro (the island made famous by Madonna in the song "La Isla Bonita") for immigration purposes before arriving in Caye Caulker. A supposedly 2hr journey, the entire journey took us about 4 hours, including immigration clearance.
It was on the boat that I met Martin (German working in Amsterdam), Eduardo (Argentinian, a professor in digital media and also works in his sister's travel agency) and Jason (Urologist based out of Melbourne).
We quickly became best of friends and spent most meals and having drinks together. Even more time with Martin and Eduardo, when they became my bunk mates for the last 2 nights I was on Caye Caulker, when beds became free in my room at Yuma's Hostel after the 1st night.
Caye Caulker is quite different from what I had imagined it to be. I was looking forward to lazing under the sun by the beach, but there aren't really any beaches in Caye Caulker where one can laze on.
There are no sections of soft white sand, and access into the water is best via boardwalks available in front of some hotels, although the water immediately surrounding the island isn't the best for swimming.
I was also surprised to see many Chinese staying on the island, operating provision stores scattered across the island.
According to Lonely Planet, the most serious thing one can do on the island is to relax in hammocks, and that best summarizes the chill and laid back feel in the air, with its infamous tag line "Go Slow" found across the island.
Things on the island are on the expensive side, with meals easily costing about USD15. Lobsters on the contrary were more decently priced than the rest of the other food items on the menu at average USD20 per meal, and I took the opportunity to consume some wonderful lobster dinners while in Caye Caulker.
The most amazing thing that I did on Caye Caulker was going on the full day snorkelling trip. There are many companies which offers the tour, though most of them are via small speed boats.
At the recommendation of Suzanne, the owner from Yuma’s Hostel, I went with Carlos Tours, which uses a beautiful catamaran for the trip.
We sailed out to 3 different spots for snorkelling. The first spot was called Coral Garden. The tides here were very strong, and I had to work really hard with the flippers to prevent from being drifted by the tides. We didn't see too many marine life here, other than spotting a turtle, a lobster and some fishes.
The 2nd stop was my most favourite stop of the trip, called Shark and Ray Alley. The moment the boat arrived, we saw a large number of huge nurse sharks gathering around our boat. One of the guides started feeding them fish, which attracted even more sharks and sting rays. We were then told we were going in to swim.
Everyone hesitated for a long while as we didn't know whether it was going to be safe. At the insistence of the captain, one by one we went in. It was an awesome experience, being surrounded by the huge nurse sharks as we entered the water, yet they totally ignored our presence.
Seeing that, I became more brave and started swimming even closer to the magnificent creatures. At one point, one of the guides even swam after one of the shark, held it in its arms and turn it around for us to touch them. It had a rough texture on its skin, with a smooth underbelly.
We also saw a few manta rays and many schools of fish.
Lunch was shortly served after we got back up, comprising stewed chicken with rice and frijoles, salad and pasta. And to accompany that, we had free flow of rum punch throughout the entire snorkelling trip. Yum! The last stop was Hol Chan Channel. Hol Chan is the 2nd largest reef in the world, after the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. We took extra care in making sure we didn't touch any of the reefs in the marine reserve, while we went snorkelling and exploring the waters.
We saw many different schools of fish, an eel and more sting rays.
I was amazed how the guides managed to free dive deep into the sea without having any problems with the pressure in the ears, as I struggled to get further down in the water without feeling the pressure in mine.
We then slowly sailed our way back to Caye Caulker. The waters around the islands were known to have spotting of manatees too, but unfortunately we didn't see any.
I felt very lucky though, because it rained most of yesterday and even up till this morning. However the moment we boarded the boat, the sky miraculously cleared up and we had great sunny weather during the entire time we were out, before the rain started again in the night.
Definitely a highlight of my trip!
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