"Caye Caulker Visit" Caye Caulker Travelogue by grandmaR

We paid for most of the trip as a package, so I'm not sure what some individual items cost.

Landing in Caye Caulker

The plane was late from Miami, so we didn't get to Belize until 1:30. The Belizian we sat next to on the plane (who was originally from Scotland) told us that the water taxi did not run after 1 pm. So after we got our luggage and cleared customs, we walked across the airport and bought a ticket on the plane to Caye Caulker $42 each. I figured that it was not that much more than it would have been taking a taxi to Belize City and the water taxi to Caye Caulker, especially since the water taxi might not be running.

We got on the plane right away - just the two of us - and flew to the Municipal Airport where we got onto a smaller two seater plane and flew to Caye Caulker. The pilot did all the pre-flight talk himself, and I got to sit in the co-pilot seat. The flight was 12 minutes. There was someone waiting at the Caye Caulker airstrip to go to San Pedro when we arrived.

It was hot and hard to move the wheeled luggage in the deep sand. The people from Belize Diving were there taking someone on a golf cart tour, and they rescued us - they took our stuff on the golf cart to the edge of the beach.

We checked into Ignacio's Cabins with Ramon's mother and dropped the bags on the bed. We decided that we needed to check out the next day's activities, so we walked slowly in the heat to the Post Office. I was barefoot which was a mistake. It made my heels very sore. The Post Office gave us directions to various places.

We went up to Driftwood Dive shop where we were to go on a snorkeling tour the next day, and they said "No problem". We also talked to the folks at Belize Dive. Thought about renting a golf cart, but they were $15/hour and we didn't think it was worth it. We stopped by the bookstore "Seeing is Belizing" and bought a map for BZ$18.00, and Bob bought some water for BZ$1.50.

We had dinner outside at the Sand Box (BZ$43.00). The food was good, but there were some flies. Then we walked back to the cabin. It was windy. Bob went to bed early.

Total expenses today:
.$470.00 - plane fare (half of two round trip tickets with 20% employee discount)
.. 10.00 - A taxi to the airport including tip
........ - Bag Breakfast on plane to Miami
....... - Hot Lunch on plane to Belize
... 84.00 - Plane to Caye Caulker for two
less then 23.00 - Ignacio's Huts
.... 9.00 - map
... 21.50 - dinner
0.75 water
$533.25 in US$

Elkhorn coral

Bob got up at 5 to take a pill (my notes don't say why). Note: We didn't drink the tap water here.

I got up and sat on the john for about an hour to write in my journal because it was still dark and there was a little light in there - I didn't want to turn on the ceiling light in the main room. Then I went back to bed.

We had breakfast at The Other Side of the Moon because all the other normal breakfast places were closed that early. Then we went down to Driftwood Dive Shop to do the manatee and snorkeling tour. This was the second one of our vouchers. (The first one was for Ignacio's Huts).

We were in an open boat with eleven other people This was more than usual because one of the other tours that was supposed to go - didn't. The people included a tour group of nine - Colleen from British Columbia, Alexandra from Germany and the other seven from the UK (Clyde, Mary and her husband, Phil, Heidi and two names I can't read) plus a little girl and her mother from Austin TX who were supposed to go on the other tour. Madon and Rocque ran the boat.

It was hot in the boat and somewhat crowded. There was no canopy on the boat. We went first to the manatee area and did see one or two of them. See the manatee tour things to do.

Then we were supposed to go to Goff Caye, but Rocque thought there were too many people there, so we went to Seargent Caye instead. Roche dove down and showed Bob what fire coral was, and then we snorkel circled the island I was astonished at how much branching coral there was. I got a photo of a big baracuda, but I can't find it.

Leaving the caye with the 18 palms

We had no lunch because we hadn't known to bring any, and they didn't know that we wanted it. When it was time to go home, Roque had to borrow fuel from another boat to be sure he would get us back to Caye Caulker.

Rocque dropped us off at Ignacios. Then we walked (18 minutes but with shoes this time) back to the Driftwood Dive shop (which is at the other end of the island). Driftwood will fill a container for you for 50 cents US, which makes water much cheaper.

Rocque has girls working on commission to sell snorkel trips and fit people with fins and snorkeling gear (we had our own masks and snorkels so we didn't need that). But since none of the people on Caye Caulker had known that we were coming, we decided to ask them to call Ruby's in San Pedro to be sure that our reservation for there would be OK.

Then we went down to the Other Side of the Moon and had wings and drinks ($16) before we went to Seaing is Belizing for a slide show on the "Reefs of Belize" ($10 for two).

Then we had dinner at Rocque's house - this was coupon #3. It was very good even though he didn't know that he would be doing this - this was another coupon where the Belize Transfer Service person hadn't told someone that he had sold something to us.

He cooked lobster and we had a baked potato and a side salad. It wasn't the lobster season, but he was a lobster man so he had some that he had gotten during the season. His wife was off with his children on the mainland investigating schools, because people in Belize have to pay for their education, and secondary schools are not available on Caye Caulker.

Today we spent

$15.00 Breakfast
1.00 water
. 10.00 tickets for slide show
. 16.00 wings and drinks
unknown amount for dinner at Rocque's
L.T. 23.00 Ignacio's Huts
$42.00 US.

Piles of conch shells

Today was diving day.

Bob is sunburned inside his elbows, and I have a rash in my armpit and a scrape on one finger.

All the breakfast places were closed because it was Sunday, so I got cereal and juice at the market ($3.64). Bob went to Castaways to get a sandwich for my lunch ($5.00 and he had breakfast there after I left for $6.00) while I got fitted for a BC and got my dive computer mounted. This was coupon #4 which was one 2 tank dive with tanks, weights and belt included. I paid $1.00 to the decompression chamber fund.

A man came by and said that he thought the weather was too bad to dive, but I don't know what he is thinking - the weather is fine. At that time they had an old WWII boat, but it worked. According to their website, they now have a new boat. As we left the dock we saw heaps of conch shells in piles on the shore, and I saw two CSYs (boats like ours) moored or anchored on the backside of the island. One was a ketch with a blue stripe, and one was a standard rig walkover with a maroon stripe.

Fellow Divers

In addition to the bad weather man, Vicky and David, a couple from Alaska were to be diving with me, while Nick and Margo from Holland and Chris were doing the PADI Open Water Dives three and four with Kathy.

Vicky was about my size and impressed me because she said that being our size was like walking around carrying 100 lb sack of flour all the time.

On the first dive I had a problem with my depth control. Dawn (dive master) took us on the first dive, but she had a migrane and didn't do the second dive. We anchored between dives, and they supplied oranges and water. They let Oscar (who was driving the boat and a lady who was with him go in and snorkel while we were anchored.

The second dive I did better but I didn't manage to get together with David and Vicky and Oscar. I ended up coming up with Chris. On the way back, we saw two blue sharks chasing a baby eagle ray.

When we got back, we rinsed off the equipment, and I walked back to Ignacios. Bob was there.

About 5:30, we walked back to Popeyes to buy pizza. It cost $19.00. We couldn't eat it all, but they wanted extra money for a box to take it back to the Hut, so we carried it back in napkins.

Spent today in US$
$3.64 cereal and juice for breakfst for me
$6.00 Bob's breakfast at Castaways
Unknown amount for dive trip
$5.00 sandwich for me
$4.00 water and juice
$1.00 decompression chamber donation
19.00 pizza
23.00 Ignacio's Huts
38.64 in US$

Sitting at the end of the dock waiting for pickup

We have a clock radio with us, and we have found BCB (Belize Broadcasting) on the radio and the weather forecast said 10 to 20 knot winds. The fan was on all night, but there was some breeze.

When we got up, the bed was completely de-sheeted. We packed, and ate a couple of pieces of pizza for breakfast. Bob walked to the bakery and back and took pictures of the tanks and the gas station and generating station (at the time he was an above ground oil tank inspector for the Department of the Environment).

We walked out to the end of Ignacio's dock at 10 a.m. in an open boat named Baby Blue. Note how straight the dock is.

Ray and someone's fin

We got our flippers and I got another water refill, and we loaded all our luggage onto the boat including the breakfast rolls that Bob bought, because we aren't coming back here.

There were eight other people. There were two couples. One Spanish speaking and one a man and woman traveling together who had met on the trip. There was also a pair of men, and we picked up a single man at the Split. Julio led the dive.

First we went to the where the rays and sharks and moreys were. They had the dive ladder over the side of the boat and I almost pulled Julio in when I tried to get out that way. We used up the other snorkel camera, and I finished up the dive camera film. Julio pets the grouper and plays with the sharks. He also feeds the green moray a fish at the end of a long pole.

Then we went to Hol Chan and paid the ranger $5.00 BZ.

The rest of the story will be under Ambergris.