Caye Caulker, Belize Trip January 2004Part III: Wednesday - Friday
Dinner was at Marin's which is the only place we ate that I wouldn't recommend. The waitress got confused and brought us (and charged us for) an extra meal and the food wasn't even very good. Maybe we caught them on a bad day? We did manage to talk her into turning off the boom box!
  Thursday, Jan 8. It was raining some this morning and the sky was cloudy. John had booked an all day snorkel with Pirate but all the others cancelled because of the weather. So he went down to Mario's and there was a German couple there interested in going out so the 3 of them went with Nathaniel (Mario's cousin). By 11 the sky was lovely, the clouds had passed and I'm sure the afternoon trips were all full. He had a good day - saw barracudas and sea turtle among other things.
Friday Jan 9: The trip home was relatively uneventful. Dave had lined up two golf carts for transportation; you don't have to be at the airstrip until 15 minutes before flight time. We took Tropic Air this time and they got us to BZE early enough that we were able to get exit row seats for both of the long flights which fit John's legs a lot better. See my last view of Caye Caulker (below left) from the plane! The only downer was going through Miami immigration. I will never do that again if I can help it. There were huge crowds and the lines "reserved" for US citizens weren't. Everybody just lined up wherever they wanted to and nobody enforced the "US Citizens Only" designations. So it was a good thing we had plenty of time between flights. Other than that, it all went smoothly for which we were grateful. And below right is my favorite sunset - a fitting farewell to Caye Caulker! 
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After
lunch we went to the split. Visibility wasn't as good as usual,
apparently because of the rain earlier, but John snorkeled a bit and
saw giant angel fish, lots of smaller stuff and a giant puffer fish. He
swam over to the other side, wandered a bit and saw a hummingbird,
picked up shells and a number of hermit crabs (one of them made friends
with Mr. Penguin at right). I was planning to swim, too (it is not very
far across the split) but it was pretty windy and I wimped out - just
decided I didn't want to get wet! I walked back to the hotel and spent
some time on the porch reading. Below left is our local iguana who
perched on the rooftop next door every afternoon for his sun time!
It
was fun hearing about Katie and Gail's day. The trip to the Blue Hole
is long - about 2.5 hours - and pretty rough. They also had some
dolphins playing with the boat but their camera equipment was stashed
in backpacks and they had to all sit in the back of the boat to get
over the rough waves. Not a fun ride. And we have no dolphin pictures
among us! However, they said the snorkeling was great - the guides
divided them into groups and took them around pointing things out. The
boat went on ahead to where they would finish. Then they went to Half
Moon Caye which is a bird sanctuary - had lunch there and saw the red
footed booby birds (at right) and lots of frigates. Below left is a
frigate in flight. See the little red spot under its "chin?"
Now look at the picture on the right! Yep - same bird, deciding to be
"attractive!" 
I
shopped and got a couple of small water colors by a local artist, a
Christmas ornament, a painted t-shirt (for "art" not to wear) and a
pair of carved dolphin earrings. Then came back and sat on the deck and
read (with the iguana) for a while; had lunch w/ Katie and Dave at
Glenda's. At 12:30 she was out of everything except the chicken w/
beans and rice. But for $3 each we all had that and it was really
great. Two pieces of chicken, beans & rice plus excellent
potato salad. I laid around for most of the afternoon, talked to Katie
and read on the deck and then took a walk down the beach. A nice lazy
"soak up the sun and stare at the reef" afternoon. At left is all of
us, except Dave who took the picture, in front of the sign at our
suites. All week we've been watching people stand their families in
front of the sign and take
pictures and I couldn't figure out why since they aren't staying here.
But it DOES say "on the beach" and Caye Caulker, Belize (behind us) so
I guess it's just a neat sign for a souvenir.
For
our last dinner we went back to Habaneros. Here are Gail, Dave and
Katie apparently listening intently to John (as I try to use up my
film). I had seafood canelloni and kaluha fudge brownie for dessert
(oh, I will be sorry no doubt….) It was quite wonderful.
Originally we had planned to take the water taxi back to Belize City as
one more "Belize
experience." But, after much discussion I was outvoted - it was decided
we had spent enough time on the water and the hassle of the water taxi,
then cab to the airport was just too much.
It's quite a bit more expensive to fly ($46 each compared to around
$19) but admittedly it is quicker and easier. And Dave volunteered to
make all the arrangements so I was won over!