Relaxing in Caye Caulker

Christina and I were both still feeling lethargic.  We'd both been so busy before coming to Mexico (my road trip in the States and her packing up her life in Sweden) that we were happy to have a few lazy days on Caye Caulker, something the island pretty much insists on.  I was woefully ignorant about Belize before planning this trip.  I had a close friend who spent several months at a time here during her PhD as she attempted to study the movements of the ever-more-elusive manatees.  But our lives were going at tangents at that stage and I never managed to visit her, so I remained ignorant of the fact that Belize was not only English-speaking, but also still part of the British Commonwealth.  (I can hear her groaning as she reads this, mentally giving me a clip around the ear as she shakes her head in despair – sorry Nell!)  So it was something of a novelty as I sat outside the Amor y Café, eating breakfast and chatting to the lovely Caribbean owners, watching the golf buggies that are the islands only vehicles maneuvering their way between the huge puddles in the sand roads.  It was the first time I felt truly Caribbean, despite several weeks on Mexico’s Caribbean coast.

We explored the small town and found Belize Diving Services, a company we’d been in e-mail contact with already, to book our places on Monday’s trip to the Blue Hole.  Just the words call to mind the striking image of that deep blue circle in the tropical azure waters of the outer reef.  Most people would know it only from photos in a travel book, but we were finally going to see it for ourselves – not only that, but we were going to dive it!  The Blue Hole lies a couple of hours off the coast off Belize, so it was going to be a long day trip out there with three dives and lunch on a nature reserve island.  We tried on wetsuits and gear to get everything ready in advance.  A great idea as it would not have been fun doing that at 4.30am on Monday!

Caye Caulker is a long thin coral island, which was split in two by a hurricane some years ago.  The gap between the two islands is now known, rather appropriately, as The Split.  There’s a bar on the edge with a deck overhanging the water, popular with the backpacker crowd for its reggae music, beers and cocktails and the ever-present haze of dope.  The beach road is lined with bars and grills, so we stopped at Bambooze for more grilled snapper and the novelty of sitting on swings instead of chairs at each table.  We played cards until late afternoon, then headed up to the Split for a swim as we watched the sunset and the huge sting rays swimming below us.