We heard about a tiny island in the south of Belize where you can snorkel straight from the beach called Tobacco Caye. We took a few buses to Dangringa, via Belmorpan, and took a motorboat to Tobacco Caye. The ride was so bumpy it left like my boobs were going to slide off - sports bra is deffinitely reccommended! Saw an island in the distance, and then we drove right past it - what?! Tobacco Caye was smaller than I thought! I could spit across the whole island if the wind was right, it´s about 5 acres. We arrived and everyone was so chilled. No-one had change on the island, so we were running tabs with everyone. We camped right on the beach, under coconut trees (but away from the deadly coconuts) and enjoyed the day.
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| Our little Island Paradise. |
This island is a must-see. The vibe is so relaxed, no-one is in a hurry and the only thing with a wheel on the whole island is a wheelbarrow. No roads or paths, just sand, with a few docks jutting out from where you can hire a boat for fishing, diving or snorkelling. We saw a massive stingray swim right in front of our tent, and a beautiful green turtle (that had a rusty red shell) swimming under the jetty. Wow, paradise!
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| Our neat little tent. |
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| This little guy came to greet us 2m from our tent. |
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| Great spot to camp, right on the beach. |
Met some really lovely girls from the States - Tal and Amy. Had drinks for happy hour on the beach bar and watched the eagle rays jump high in the air, to evade predators. It was picture perfect beautiful, calm beach, an island in the distance covered in mangroves with the sun setting, watching tons of eagle rays jumping and swimming. Wow...Words can´t describe it. I saw an eagle ray jump bloody high, and a huge shark fin follow behind. Eek, zambezi (bull) sharks aren´t calming when I´m snorkelling.
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| Tobacco Caye is right on the reef and is frequented by eagle rays, turtles and tons of marine life. |
The next day we decided to go fishing, just for you Mick & Kyle! It was $20 per hour for the boat, but we were 4 people, went out for 2 hours so it was a good deal. We trawled a little on the way to the island, then used sardines to get some fish. Amy caught a big baracuda, and I caught a small one, so threw it back. We entered the mangroves and AC our guide threw in his net to catch tons of small sardines that we used as bait. We fished for a while, when a massive storm went over tiny Tobacco and we didn´t put our rain sheet over our tent. Zoomed back to the island to see some kind semaritan had covered our tent. Waited for the storm to pass and went out again.
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| On the boat with the blue water behind him. |
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| AC throwing the net in the mangroves to catch sardines for live bait. |
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| Beautiful Mangroves. |
Were fishing in deepish water. I caught a fish on a hand line, yay! We all pulled out some fish, no massive ones, but big enough to eat. Rob caught some, so did Amy. Went back and made a massive fish braai. Rob climbed coconut trees and we were taught how to open coconuts with machetes efficiently. Rum and coconut water is so refreshing, the best drink ever! We were also taught how to make coconut milk - so easy, grind up coconut, let it soak in water for about an hour, strain it and voala! Had a fantastic braai (barbeque)!!
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| The fish we caught and were allowed to keep! |
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| The end product - Robbie prepared them and I made the braai. | |
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| The clever little machine to grate coconut. |
The next day we did the typical - snorkel, relax, open coconuts and play with the machete. We saw a scorpion fish, tons of colourful ones, rays...lovely fan corals etc. Very nice place. One of the girls on the island made us delicious empindadas with fish inside, served with a homemade spicy relish - delicious! We packed up our tent in the morning and relaxed all day. A group of kayakers went from Corozol all the way to Placencia on their kayaks, sleeping over on the thousands of islands that are scattered throughout the reef. Wow, what an amazing trip, and what amazing people. Said good-bye to them and the island and took a bumpy road back. Great place,definitely recommended and if you go - bring your own booze and snacks!
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| Some fishies taken with our underwater camera. |
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| Corn empinadas |
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| Beautiful sunset. Adios! |
Reminded me just a little bit of Lady Musgrave Island in the Barrier Reef. Do you remember the turtle, what was his name, Mr T or something? Why is it called 'Tobacco'?
ReplyDeleteIt was awesome - but not like Musgrave as there weren't 1000 00000^3 birds falling on the island! Was absolutely gorgeous! I think it's called Tobacco because it was an important trading spot - there is a break in the reef which allowed boats to enter the mainland...this tiny island was a trading spot, but I guess it's so small it only could supply tobacco (my own interpretation!)
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