A slice of paradise.
I suppose it depends on how you look at it. For some people paradise is a 5* hotel on a white sandy beach but my paradise is right here on Caye Caulker.
Continuing with the Caribbean/Garrifuna theme, yesterday we caught a 20 minute boat from San Pedro to discover that actually, yes, it does get even more laid back than Caye Ambergris.
Caye Caulker was once one large island but a hurricane split it in two. Now, the village is on the southern island and you can walk from The Split at the northern end, where everyone goes swimming and snorkelling, down to the southernmost point of the village in about 10 minutes, as it's only just over half a mile long. To give you an idea of how small it really is, if you stand at an intersection of two of the roads you can see the sea on both sides of the island. And the roads here aren't actually roads as such, more like sandy thoroughfares.
There really isn't much to do here but in a really good way. The main activity is snorkelling, although you can also throw in a bit of swimming, diving or hanging in a hammock. Yesterday we did about 10 minutes of snorkelling and saw two fish before Ciaran sliced open one of his toes on one of the piers, so after that there was nothing else to do but make the most of happy hour! The rum punches are going down far too easily and after a shaky start, Ciaran and Belikin beer are now getting on like a house on fire!
As with the other places that we've stayed in, in Belize, there isn't much of a hostel scene here. We had been recommended Yuma's Place but it seems impossible to get in there and everything online warned us off the alternative, Bella's Backpackers. So instead we emailed a few guest houses from Trip Advisor and basically went for the best-sounding/cheapest one.
When we first arrived at Lena's Guest house I was slightly dubious as it looks slightly run down on both the inside and out. It's also at the southern end of the village, so pretty much as far away from The Split as we could be. Still, its rustic Belizean charm has quickly won me over. The beach front location is probably the best on the island, the building is so close to the sea, there is nothing to interrupt the view. And like I said, the island is so small that actually it's still only 10 minutes to walk up there. We seem to be the only people staying here though, which is a shame as there is a lovely verandah running along the front of our room and it would be nice if we had someone to share it with (other than each other, ha!)!
Ciaran described our room as "perfect", whereas I think it's more like "rustic", although we do have hot water! Either way it is a room with a view and life here is just beachy.
So, there's nothing else to really report on at the moment. Ciaran is off scuba diving right now and I'm just taking in the view from the verandah. The only other things we'll need to think about today will be where to have lunch and whether to sunbathe or snorkel it off after!
Our next stop will hopefully be Tobacco Caye, an even smaller island. We'll find out later today whether or not the 3 day sailing trip we want to do, from here to Placencia, will set off tomorrow. Fingers crossed!
Continuing with the Caribbean/Garrifuna theme, yesterday we caught a 20 minute boat from San Pedro to discover that actually, yes, it does get even more laid back than Caye Ambergris.
Caye Caulker was once one large island but a hurricane split it in two. Now, the village is on the southern island and you can walk from The Split at the northern end, where everyone goes swimming and snorkelling, down to the southernmost point of the village in about 10 minutes, as it's only just over half a mile long. To give you an idea of how small it really is, if you stand at an intersection of two of the roads you can see the sea on both sides of the island. And the roads here aren't actually roads as such, more like sandy thoroughfares.
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| Front Road on Caye Caulker |
As with the other places that we've stayed in, in Belize, there isn't much of a hostel scene here. We had been recommended Yuma's Place but it seems impossible to get in there and everything online warned us off the alternative, Bella's Backpackers. So instead we emailed a few guest houses from Trip Advisor and basically went for the best-sounding/cheapest one.
When we first arrived at Lena's Guest house I was slightly dubious as it looks slightly run down on both the inside and out. It's also at the southern end of the village, so pretty much as far away from The Split as we could be. Still, its rustic Belizean charm has quickly won me over. The beach front location is probably the best on the island, the building is so close to the sea, there is nothing to interrupt the view. And like I said, the island is so small that actually it's still only 10 minutes to walk up there. We seem to be the only people staying here though, which is a shame as there is a lovely verandah running along the front of our room and it would be nice if we had someone to share it with (other than each other, ha!)!
Ciaran described our room as "perfect", whereas I think it's more like "rustic", although we do have hot water! Either way it is a room with a view and life here is just beachy.
So, there's nothing else to really report on at the moment. Ciaran is off scuba diving right now and I'm just taking in the view from the verandah. The only other things we'll need to think about today will be where to have lunch and whether to sunbathe or snorkel it off after!
Our next stop will hopefully be Tobacco Caye, an even smaller island. We'll find out later today whether or not the 3 day sailing trip we want to do, from here to Placencia, will set off tomorrow. Fingers crossed!
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