You better Belize it!

OK finally onto Belize on this stupid blog. Those of you who read have no idea how long this takes me and how frustrating it is to sit here with shitty internet trying to upload one pic. And then I get no comments! C´mon guys, give me a break! I can´t get no satisfaction...

Anyways, crossed the Mexican-Belize boarder at Chutemal, got scammed $200 pesos each to pay the exit fee, something we DIDN´T need to pay. So mad! There is a distinctive difference between Mexico and Belize. Firstly, the buses went from luxury AC, toilet on board with individual seats to old American School buses open windows known here as ´chicken busses´, although they never deliver what they promise in terms of chickens! I prefer the chicken buses...

This is EXACTLY what chicken buses look like.

The biggest difference is the sudden ethnic diversity in Belize, and English! Felt great to see blacks, whites, latino´s etc again. The best was their accent, heavy Caribbean accents and slang, loved it! Slept in Corozol for a night then took the ferry to Caye Caulker, a small island (6km) on the Barrier Reef. We spent 5 nights here ($8 pp) at Edith´s Guest House where Miss Molly and her boyfriend run the place like a nice family business. We met Steph and Doug, a sweet American couple and chilled on the island together, getting up to fun stuff like the never-ending quest to find more coconuts!

Opening coconuts with conch shells was awesome!

Doug, Steph, Rob and I drinking coconut rum that we made ourselves.

The island is cute, no tar roads and very touristy with all pubs and restaurant advertising ´Happy Hour All Damn Day´ or ´Happy Hour until Everyone is Happy´, that describes the vibe of the island! Sundowners were stunning, with the calm Caribbean swallowing the bright red sun. We could go snorkelling there, not that impressive but nice, and we all cracked open some coconuts, filled them with nice Belizean rum and had lekker cocktails.  

Happy people enjoying the sunset by 'The Split'

The next day we went on a Raggamuffin snorkelling tour. We set out onm the sail boat and watched Caye Caulker slip away in the distance. The reef is about 2km from the island, so we need to take a tour to go snorkelling which kinda sux. On our way there we saw a tail on a manetee! I was so excited, just wanted to jump into the water. We snorkelled, was pretty but the reef was quite overgrown with algae, which isn´t a good sign. No manetees. Summoned back onto the boat to go to our next destination, when we drove for 30 sec we saw manetees in the water. Slowly the sailboat swung aorund and we all slipped into the water. What a perfect spotting! These creatures had the expression like they were confused and too lazy to care. We saw two of them, suspended in the water with no sense of urgency.

Our awesome guide who speaks like a proper Rasta Mon!

'Sometimes I get the feeling I'm being watched'

Amped we saw manetees! off to the next spot - Shark Ray Alley were we saw tons of nurse sharks and stingrays (and fish!). It was lovely to see them, but it was highly unnatural as the tours feed them and the sharks and rays immediatley flock to the boat expecting a meal. They´ve completely disrupted the natural feeding cycles and the sharks are more like zoo-pets than wild. Pity. Nevertheless, got to feel a shark.

Last destination was another spot on the reef. Saw a beautiful Green Turtle grazing on seaweed. Stunning. We saw tons of fish and went on a 8m dive under a little rock cave thing, with large fish hiding underwater and a large morae eel. The tour was nice, but i´ve seen better (in the Philippines). On the way back we got tons of ceviche (prawn salsa) and rum punch (it packed quite a punch!!). Chatted with fellow travellers and had a great time. When we arrived we were allowed to take the rest of the rum. Saw kids feeding the huge birds with fish - fun stuff! Got pooped on by fish eating birds - not cool!

One of many bottles of Rum poured into our awesome punch!

Feeding the fish while snorkelling.

Rob and Steph trying to get the birdies to swoop down and eat their fish.

The big birds who shat all over me.

 That night was Miss Molly´s birthday and she told us to go to a Cuban restuarant. There were professional Cuban salsa dancers trying to teah me how to salsa. I suck, but it was tons of fun! Chilled the whole next day on the beautiful beach writing in my diary. The next day our Scottish mate organised a kayak for us and we explored the uninhabited part of Caye Caulker (the island was split in two by a hurricane in the 1960´s, leaving half the isalnd a nature reserve and thus mostly uninhabited). It was so much fun, we saw lots of birds and the mangrove trees left no space for sand, so the trees met the sea. Really Beautiful. We walked around a bit, saw huge iguanas. We went for a snorkel when I noticed a gogga (creepy crawly) on me - eeeeeeeeeew<! It looked like lice in the water, and they were all over me. Eeek! We decided to paddle back.

Chilling on the beach in the shade of a palm tree eating a freshly baked banana bread!

On our way back we saw a little cove with a small entrance between the Mangrove trees. Let´s explore! We were right amongst the leaves and spiders. ´David Livingston has nothing on us´ said Rob, when suddenly the calm pool errupted in buzzing and we were flipin´destroyed by a massive swarm of mossies! Never seen that many mosqitos in my life! Slapping the mossies and trying to paddle through a narrow opening wasn´t easy, but we escaped with about 100 bites each, at least! Hope they don´t have malaria.

This is the happy pic before we were mauled by mossies.

Caye Caulker was nice. Expensive and very touristy, but it´s a tranquil  place. If you go, be sure to wear insect repellent, and buy your beer at the docks and not in the shops on the beach (much cheaper!)