Days 203-208: Caye Caulker - You Better Belize It

After completing 10 dives each in Australia and Thailand, we were hooked! Since we had already visited the largest barrier reef in the world - The Great Barrier Reef - we decided to check out the second largest barrier reef - the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef.  This reef runs along the coast of Belize so we chose the tiny island of Caye Caulker as our home base. Caulker has no paved roads or cars so people navigate the sandy roads with golf carts, bikes or on foot. 

Caye Caulker's philosophy is "Go Slow"

Getting There
We flew into Belize City, then took a 45-minute ferry ride out to the island.  The ferry then continues on to Caulker's more developed companion island, Caye Ambergris.  Another option is to take an 8-minute flight from Belize City. However, we couldn't do this because we arrived in Belize City after sunset and the last flight leaves well before dark, since there are no lights on Caulker's tiny runway.

OASI Apartments
We booked five nights at a place called OASI, a collection of four apartments owned by a friendly Italian lady named Luciana and her husband.  While the location was on the far side of the island from the central town area, it came with free bikes and nothing was more than ten minutes away. The apartment was perfect for us!

Biking Around Colorful Caye Cualker
Caye Caulker consists of  three major sand roads: Front Street, Middle Street and Back Street.  It's a really laid back island, full of small colorful beach shacks. There are really no large sand beaches on the island, but there is a local hangout called "The Split" where people gather to swim , drink beers and watch the sunset.  For us, it was the perfect vibe - not too developed but plenty of activities to keep us busy.  Here are some photos we took around the island:

Biking is the best way to see the island!

One of the few sandy beaches on Caye Caulker

One of the many docks lining the shore

One of the reasons they say "Go Slow" in Caye Caulker is because there are two cemeteries and zero hospitals!

Beer in lieu of flowers?

Traffic enforcement

Stunning Sunsets and The Split
We saw a couple of spectacular sunsets on Caye Caulker. Our favorite place to watch them was the little bar at The Split.  In Belize they say "If you haven't been to The Split, you haven't been to Caye Caulker". 

Waiting for the sunset supply ship to arrive

Beautiful Caye Caulker sunset

Hanging out at The Split

Sunset at The Split

Team B at The Split

Diving & Snorkeling
We spent the afternoon of our first full day snorkeling.  Our guide brought us to three different spots and pointed out several varieties of coral and local fish.  One stop was Shark Ray Alley, where we swam with stingrays and nurse-sharks. The guides jump in the water and feed them bits of conch and fish so there were swarms of rays and sharks thrashing around in the shallow water. While it was cool to see the animals up close, I didn't like the idea of the sharks associating food with people. 

Swimming with stingrays and nurse sharks

Storm clouds approached as we finished snorkeling

On our second day, we investigated several of the local dive shops and settled on a small operation called Black Durgon.  We went out the following day for two dives on a part of the reef called Esmerelda.  The coral here was much different than what we'd seen in Australia and Thailand, and as a bonus we got to swim with nurse sharks, as well as green moray eels.  Luckily we had another very small group in our boat, with Chris, me, a Korean guy named Lee, and our dive leader Mynor. Toward the end of the second dive, two dolphins joined us - a first for me and Chris!  While we really enjoyed our dives, the boat ride was a little rough. The wind was strong, the waves were large and we were on a small open-air speed boat so we had to hold on in order to stay in the boat. I'm so glad I brought my wind-breaker and hoodie along for the ride because it was cold!

Black Durgon Dive shop

Quick stop in San Pedro on Caye Ambergris

Our dives were on Thanksgiving day

It was chilly post-dive. I'm glad I brought a hoodie and windbreaker!

Amigos, indeed!

The Blue Hole
One of the most famous dives in this area is the Blue Hole, a perfectly round abyss in the middle of a coral shoal, which drops straight down 450 feet.  On the way down, you can supposedly see caves along the side walls full of stalagmites.  If you're lucky, you can also see hammerhead sharks swimming in the middle of the pit.  So badass.

Sadly, we missed out on the Blue Hole for a few reasons:

1. We discovered that a worthwhile dive in the Blue Hole requires a descent to about 40 meters, which was a bit beyond our comfort level as novice divers.  
   
2. It was about a 2.5 hour boat ride each way through rough seas.
   
3. It was wicked expensive - too much money to spend when the weather conditions for diving there were less than ideal.

For all these reasons, we decided to back burner the Blue Hole until we get some more diving experience under our belts.  Here's an aerial photo of the Blue Hole that we found online:

One day. Photo courtesy of United Academics

Roses Grill
We found a tasty seafood spot near Front Street called Roses Grill.  The menu is simple - you choose your seafood from the ice tray out front and they throw it on the grill for you.  We couldn't decide so we tried a little bit of everything!

Roses Grill

Yum!

We loved Caye Caulker and definitely want to come back one day (especially to conquer the Blue Hole!). We'd recommend this place to anyone who likes to dive/snorkel and wants a really laid-back vacation that doesn't offer your typical chain restaurants and hotels. It's truly unique!