Caye Caulker

And so here I am in sunny Belize after a long, hot, journey involving two boats and a bus. Caye (pron. key) Caulker is a post-card pretty island in the Caribbean, with white sand streets, colourful buildings and the odd coconut palm tree. It is quite strange being in an English speaking country after so long, and it takes a while to adjust to the accent here – but it is beautiful. I wish we all spoke with a laid back Caribbean accent. Another weird thing is understanding what people are saying when you overhear conversations - it really has been a while.

Caye Caulker is great if you like diving, snorkeling, sailing, fishing or just lying around in the sun. There aren’t really beaches to speak of but around the island there are long docks where you can jump off the end to swim. There is also what is called The Split which is in the middle of the island, well the north of the island now. A few years ago a hurricane came through and cut the island in two so the area called the split is quite a nice spot for swimming and sun bathing now. The bar there, Lazy Lizard, is the perfect spot to have a cool beer if you’re a little overheated. Most things are on the island south of The Split.

My friend Nick from Puerto Escondido and Oaxaca turned up the day after I did which was a great surprise. We spent that first afternoon lounging about in the water up at Lazy Lizard, followed by a lobster dinner, a couple of drinks and a karaoke number at the Oceanside. I have to say that out of the eight or so performances we witnessed at the bar, we were the only ones to get both audience participation and applause!

To celebrate spending International Talk Like A Pirate Day in the most appropriate of places - Belize - we went out for a day of snorkeling, opting for the sailboat rather than a little speedboat. Instead of listening to the drone of an engine we had reggae. Yeah.

It was such a magnificent day – perfect weather, unbelievable coral and marine life. We got off quite literally to a rocky start with the ship beaching itself on a small reef not long after setting off. Sails down and after a little rocking of the boat we dislodged ourselves. I couldn’t help but laugh.

We went to three different locations. At the first, North Channel, we were lucky to see and swim with two manatees. They are the giant creatures that are sometimes called sea elephants or sea cows. It was just amazing to watch them play with each other, only a few metres away.

The second stop was Shark Ray Alley where we jumped into water full of nurse sharks and sting rays to then swim over to some more beautiful coral and see even more amazing fish.

The final stop was Hol Chan Marine Reserve. This area has been a protected marine reserve for 25 years so all the fish there have grown really big and there are just so many of them – large schools of all kinds of fish. It was great to see really large snapper and grouper, as well as all sorts of brightly coloured tropical fish in huge numbers, sea turtles, eagle rays, sting rays, starfish and an eel. Our guide was the super-cool Kevin – he would just jump straight in the water with his full length commando pants and then free-dive down around 20 metres, swim through underwater caves and pick up sharks and rays in his arms to bring them up for everyone to see.

I think I'll be here for a few more days...