Caye Caulker, Belize Jan 2004

Friday Jan 2: We left from Minneapolis around 8:30 in the morning. But Katie's friend Neil got us to the airport the required two hours early, bless him. Flew to Dallas where we were delayed a couple of hours due to scheduling problems with other flights. However, we arrived at BZE in time to get the last Maya Island Air flight to Caye Caulker. (Plane at left; Airport at right - I kid you not! We actually arrived just after sunset - the pictures were taken another day.) It was actually a nice, 10 minute flight. The nice man who was closing up the airport called the taxi (golf cart) for us. Later in the week we walked to the airport a couple of times but as tired as we were and with our luggage, we happily accepted the ride (for $2.50 US each), arriving at Auxillou Suites shortly after 6 PM. Long day of travel but actually it all went fairly well - especially considering the US was on "Orange Alert" at the time. The views below are from our second floor balcony - the left looking north along the beach, on the right looking straight out towards the reef. Ahh yes, this is why we came here!

     

We got superficially settled in the two suites and then went to the Sand Box, which was close by, for dinner. We ate well - fish, chick burgers, burritos, steak - it was all good. I was interested in the service since we had read lots of warnings to expect "SLOW" food in Belize. Actually, while I guess it was slow relative to US standards, it certainly was consistent with what we've experienced in Mexico. And that's what we found all week. It's really rather pleasant to be able to sit and chat and just relax without feeling like we have to hurry up and eat to vacate the table. The service levels varied a bit from place to place but in general we didn't find them slower than we were used to.

Sat Jan 3: We had a good night's sleep and managed to ignore the construction next door for a while so we got started around 8:30. John went back to the Sand Box for some breakfast (great) and I made mine in the suite. Then we headed off to see the town. What an interesting mix of cultures. There is more Hispanic here than I had guessed. Even though the official language is English, many residents are native Spanish speakers and we heard a lot of a creole-type mix of language.

We wandered a bit - over to the west side of the island and up to the split which was created by a hurricane that divided the island in two. The gap has been widened by subsequent storms and the south side is now a local "hang out" place for sunning, swimming and some snorkeling. Some lovely gardens in town; amazing to me how much they can grow in sand.

We met the others for lunch but had (minor) trouble finding a place to eat. Many places were closed - some just don't serve lunch, others aren't open on the weekends. And some that ARE open sell out quickly so we learned you have to get there early. We finally had burritos at Hannah's and then split up for the afternoon. John went beachcombing; Katie and Gail headed south; Dave napped and I sunned and read on the balcony, then took a walk out on the new municipal water taxi pier. On the left is the view of the shoreline looking back from the pier; below, right is the taxi "scene." It's busy and chaotic while the taxis come and go, then totally deserted for an hour until the process starts over again.

We had dinner at Habaneros, relatively expensive (for us), but GREAT food. I had coconut crusted snapper served with citrus shrimp, fruits, garlic potatoes, carrots and salad. And I ate just about all of it, too! Dave and John determined that Belikin stout (darker version of the local Belizean beer) is pretty good.

Sunday Jan 4: The power went out just as we were leaving this morning. We learned through the week that the power seems to go off (in different parts of the island) for an hour or so each day at unpredictable times. The businesses all have a "plan B," the restaurants cook with bottled gas, and nobody pays too much attention to it. I like the laid-back attitude! Dave was off diving with Paradise Down and the rest of us signed up for an afternoon snorkel tour and then went to Vespucci's Table for brunch. They couldn't make smoothies without electricity but the meals were good and reasonably priced. Did a bit of shopping then headed off for snorkeling.

Our captain was "Pirate" (at Johnny's Tours) who was a classic with not only a gold earring in his ear but pierced nipples as well. Perhaps it's time to introduce the sixth member of our group. Besides the 5 real people, we also brought along Dave's friend, Mr. Penguin. He is rather fond of travel and has enjoyed our trips. You'll see him pop up in our pictures here and there (full disclosure - the ones including Mr. P. were all taken by Dave). Here he is meeting Pirate. We spent the afternoon with Pirate (and about a dozen others) on his sailboat, the Sexy Chicken. The first stop I stayed in the water the whole time. Blue and yellow fish, the yellow and black striped ones, lots of little white ones, some pretty fan coral (see coral garden picture below left). Next stop was shark and ray alley where we swam with the nurse sharks and rays (below right) - some were huge! The sharks moved too fast and were not interested in posing for me. I'll add one if Katie got a nice shark picture - haven't seen hers yet. The guides feed them so they have learned to hang around the boat making it easy for us! The last stop was at the channel - I stayed on the boat in the sun but Katie, John and Gail saw angel fish, parrot fish, blue fish w/ yellow dots, among others. We sailed back which was very pleasant.

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The underwater pictures were taken by either me or Katie (so far these are mine) with cheap, disposable waterproof cameras. Great fun. Here are a few more pictures from the afternoon. John, as he emerges from snorkeling (the sail is all rolled up at this point); Barb and John posing nicely. :) The white "breakers" you see behind us is the barrier reef; Pirate, John and Gail as we motored to the last stop.

        

We had supper at the Rainbow that night. Dave had conch and the rest of us had snapper prepared various ways (mine was garlic butter). Very good food. The power went out in the middle of the meal but they had emergency battery lights they put up on posts very quickly. It's pretty obvious that this happens on a regular basis! When we got back to the suites, one of the other families staying there had been fishing - just off the "back pier" he caught quite a few snapper we were invited to share. John and Dave did. I was plenty full!