Where to start…
We’ve been on Caye Caulker, a small island off the coast of Belize, for a couple weeks now. We’ve visited quite a lot on the island (it really is small) and I think I can sum things up by saying “go slow”. The main pastimes here all involve being in, or on, the ocean. You can snorkel, scuba dive, take boat tours, watch the sun rise and set, feed tarpon and other ocean life, and you can sit by, or in, the ocean drinking Belikin, which proudly announces itself as “the beer of Belize”. Often these activities are combined. Many of the bars along the shore have tables, swings and hammocks set up in the ocean, which is a great way to keep cool on a hot day. Although it has to be said that you can end up pretty “tired” after a day of drinking in the sun.
The first week we were here a couple from Iowa who we’d met at a music festival last year were visiting for the week. Their sister had been on Caye Caulker for a month and had made a number of local, and expatriate, friends here. We enjoyed a whirlwind of meeting really friendly people, learning all the local hangouts, and partying like we only had a week here. I really can’t overstate how nice we’ve found people to be here. I guess it’s hard to be a jerk on an island paradise.
As I alluded to above, “go slow” really does summarize our experience here. Which is convenient as “go slow” is the Caye Caulker tag phrase in much the same way that “pura vida” is for Costa Rica. You won’t hear people saying “go slow” as you’ll see it written damn near everywhere, including traffic signs. In any case, it makes a fine reminder that there’s nothing wrong with not racing through life. I can safely say that I have not watched the sunset this many times in a 3 week period ever before. To be fair, sunset is kind of a spectacle here, but it’s also just a great chance to slow down and enjoy some natural beauty.
What’s the island like? Glad you asked. Caye Caulker is 5 miles long, and not more than a mile wide. It is divided by a channel called “the split” separating the island in half. The split is narrow, only about 120 ft, and you can swim it if you don’t mind contending with a fairly strong current. The split was created by hurricane hattie in 1961. Prior to that time the split was a small creek that you could “step over” according to the locals. So, now there are two “sides” to the island, north and south.
The northside of the island is sparsely populated, and there is a ton of construction going on there. We were told more than once that the north side will be booming in 5 years. Right now the northside hosts a beach bar (which has apparently been foreclosed), two very nice, but small resorts, and a restaurant. The resorts also have restaurants, and bars, and poolside bars. One of the two resorts, Blue Zen, has a (pretty stupid) policy about not allowing anyone who doesn’t stay at the resort to use their pool, which cost them quite a bit of business from us. The other resort, El Ben, is much more friendly and allows any patron to use their pools.
The southside of the island is where all the action is. At the split, and just to the south is where you can find the majority of the businesses on the island. There are lots of beach bars, restaurants, tour companies, and local vendors. Kind of what you’d expect for a tourist driven economy.
There are a couple things that surprised me here. For one, we’ve had a tough time finding good live music. We were spoiled in San Marcos, apparently. Most of what we’ve found here is loud speaker systems blasting what seems like a standard island playlist, possibly Jock Jams ‘98? It was the same everywhere. Shaggy’s classic love ballad “It wasn’t me”, and “Land down under” both got an unbelizeable amount of airtime. And before you ask we’ve heard more reggae on our patio than around town. Anyway, the live music tends to be one person playing guitar and singing hits from one generation or another, mostly 90s and older. One local restaurant features a guy who I’ve dubbed “chord change guy” for his habit of calling out when there is a chord change in whatever rhythm he happens to be playing. He also tends to give Casey Kasem (anyone else remember American Top 40?) style commentary about each song before he plays them.
Our last week on the island it really felt like we were starting to master the pace of island life. We got up around 8, and then lounged around for 3 or 4 hours practicing Spanish on Duolingo, reading, playing the mandolin (Rich) and doing yoga (Farrah). Around 11 or noon we would wander down to Juicy, a local smoothie/juice bar where Smooth makes the best smoothies I’ve ever had. After our leisurely smoothie breakfast and chatting with the crew of locals who hang out there, we either made our way up to the northside to hang out by the pool at El Ben, or off to one of the ocean bars to soak up the sun and hang out with the awesome people we met on the island. Some time around 7 we’d make our way to dinner, and more often than not we’d make our way back home to relax before bed. It’s important to get a lot of rest with such a strenuous lifestyle.
For the last 3 days of our time on the island we had some friends down for our friend Colin’s birthday (Happy birthday Colin! Loved getting to celebrate with you!!) It was a lot of fun showing them around to all the gems we had found, and introducing them around to the locals. We also did a great all day snorkeling trip that took us out to the Hol Chan Marine Reserve. It turns out that I don’t swim as much as I once did, because my legs ached the next day. We swam with sea turtles, nurse sharks, stingrays (and other rays whose names I don’t know), tons of colorful fish, and even some manatees.
We had a great time on Caye Caulker, and it was predictably tough to say goodbye to new friends. Thanks everyone for making our trip wonderful and memorable.
