78. Caye Caulker

After an incredible 4 nights at Itza Resort and 8 amazing dives, it was time to continue and explore the rest of Belize. After a two-hour, windy boat ride from the island, I arrived back in Belize City and caught a ferry to Caye Caulker. Most people, when they visit Belize, either stay on Caye Caulker or in a city called San Pedro on Ambergris Caye. I decided to check out Caye Caulker since I’d heard it had more of a backpacker feel, whereas San Pedro was a bit more touristy with large resorts. I arrived on Caye Caulker and was immediately given island vibes with the unpaved streets traveled by golf carts, colorful buildings, and palm tree-lined shore.

I found my way to my hostel and checked in, where I met my new hostel mate, Simon Paul, or SP for short. I am ashamed to say my initial impressions of SP were quite poor and judgmental. He was clearly much older than I was and I had some preconceived notions that he was probably just staying in a hostel because he was too cheap to pay for an actual hotel room or maybe was single and looking to mingle with a much younger crowd. He seemed friendly enough so I asked if he would like to join me in renting some bikes to go explore the island and maybe grab a bite to eat. He accepted my invitation and we took off on the bikes. I was a bit annoyed that he seemed to be causing a lot of traffic issues since he wasn’t as steady on his bike. He also kept pulling over to the left side of the road, which I now understand is because he is from the UK, where they drive on the left side of the road.

After seeing most of the inhabitable part of the island in about 30 minutes, SP and I stopped for lunch and I got to know him a little better. He grew up in Australia but had lived almost half his life in London and working in IT. I was surprised to learn he is married but his wife didn’t want to come on the trip because she was busy with other things back home. I was also surprised to find out that he has two sons from his first marriage, the oldest being 40, and also has two grandchildren. With my mental math, I estimated he was probably in his mid to early 60s. Since he was traveling alone, staying in a hostel was, in fact, the most economical option as well as an opportunity to meet other people. So, I was literally sharing a room with a grandpa!

So, why am I spending so much time talking about this random stranger that I happened to share a dorm room with on Caye Caulker? Despite my being a bit presumptuous and judgmental upon meeting him, I ended up traveling with him for most of the rest of my time in Belize. We traveled to two more cities together, staying at the same hostel each time, and I couldn’t have asked for a better travel companion. Since we ate together almost every day and shared groceries, people often assumed we had known each other from before. I think my initial assumptions about SP reflected my insecurities and fears of being too old to stay in a hostel as I approach my mid-30s. I will continue with the rest of my story now but just wanted to highlight how rewarding a friendship can be when you open up to someone that wouldn’t normally be in your social circle.

Part of the reason I decided to stay in Caye Caulker was to do the 3-day, 2-night tour with Raggamuffin Tours which departed from the island on New Year’s Eve. I will cover this in a later story. For this reason, I also booked a full-day snorkeling trip with Raggamuffin the day before, on the 30th. Most tour companies on the island offer a similar snorkeling tour, but I thought it easiest to just go with the same company for both tours. The tour includes Hol Chan Marine Reserve, Shark and Ray Alley, and Coral Gardens, all spots I was excited to see.

The tour left in the morning and we boarded the 40(ish)-foot sailing catamaran that had clearly seen better days and showed the wear-and-tear from having been heavily chartered. They instructed the guests to stow their belongings in the aft, starboard cabin and I lost my balance as it seemed the entire floorboard had broken through to the bilge below, which was full of water. I asked one of the crew members if he knew about it and he shrugged, saying they had struggled to get it fixed. This combined with the numerous frayed lines and barely attached lifelines, gave me the impression that this was probably not a suitable boat to be chartering. But hey, this is island life, right??

Somehow, they managed to cram 20 guests onboard, most of which were a group from Slovenia who didn’t seem to speak much English and spent the majority of the trip chain-smoking and getting ash all over the damp boat. I spent the trip with Rob and Sara from Germany and Luiana from Switzerland. It took about an hour to get to Hol Chan Reserve where we saw more rays, nurse sharks, and turtles. Despite the nice marine life that seemed to be unphased at the amount of tourism here, I had a difficult time enjoying myself since I was getting hit and kicked by the others in the group. It seemed like most of the people didn’t know how to swim, let alone snorkel. Just a couple of minutes after getting off the boat, some of the women complained they didn’t feel safe and wanted to go back to the boat. Every time the guide pointed out something interesting, like a turtle, the group surrounded it, carelessly kicking up sediment with their fins to the point where you couldn’t even see the animal anymore. Later on, I found out that SP had booked a similar tour for the same price with a different company and I was jealous to hear he only had 3 people on his trip.

Our next stop was at Shark and Ray Alley and I decided to be the first to hop in the water and last to come out to enjoy as much time alone in the water as I could. Unfortunately, it seems like the sharks and rays here are regularly fed to keep them around and just the sound of a motor is enough to attract them. Despite this, I still enjoyed swimming too close to the numerous nurse sharks that circled, some brushing up against me looking for a snack. A few days later, Luiana told me she talked to some of the locals who said that during the lockdown, the tour operators kept coming to feed the sharks just so they wouldn’t leave.

Our final stop of the day was at a place called Coral Gardens, but, given their swimming abilities, most of the guests decided to stay onboard for the free rum punch drinks that were being served. I dove in for some snorkeling but found it a bit uneventful compared to the other sites we had visited. Back on the boat, with drinks in hand and sails raised, we made our way back to Caye Caulker, a little tipsy but in one piece. The following day I left on the overnight trip with Raggamuffin and things started to go downhill really quickly, so stay tuned for next week’s post!