Discovering the Paradise of Caye Caulker

It's the leaving of Chetumal

We had an overnight stay in Chetumal after a 6 hour bus trip. A much nicer hotel so most of the group met around the pool.

We then had a quick walk round the town with RC ( the tour leader). The town.is a bit underwhelming until we hit the seafront which is great. From the statues looks like a lot of history about the town and Mexican independence but all in Spanish so something for me to read up on.

Belize Baby

The next morning, we headed to Belize. A shorter journey and interesting...our guide is a Mayan from Belize so gave us lots of interesting information. Really intriguing hearing about their believe in spirits and the consequences of not following the orders of a spirit. Things like haunting and curses but she believes this is true and sees evidence of the consequences.

We had to stop at an ATM and saw a man coming out with a shotgun. No idea if he was security but wasn't carrying bags of money so don't think it was a heist. Crossing the Mexican Belize border you get taken into a screen off room and charged $40 to cross....the Internet says you shouldn't be charged anything but to be honest, we weren't gonna argue with them. Also, after Belize entry you can change Mexico money into Belize with guys through the fence, very dodgy but actual normal rate so all good.

Ferry Across and Snorkelling in the Caribbean Sea

When we got to Belize City RC got us off the bus and onto the boat, where in fits of laughter she told us another person had got off the bus with us due to her instructions. Unfortunately, he wasn't in our group and was going to Guatemala so should have stayed on the bus!

Caye Caulker is amazing, a real tropical paradise, we enjoyed a look around and watched the sunset. We also saw a lot of really big birds which were Magnificent Frigates..... a girl on our trip is an ecologist. We had a meal us a group tonight and are all set for snorkelling tomorrow.

Have some sympathy for Karen as she's had a dodgy stomach all day and is asleep at 8.15pm.

The next day stomach issues had past (thanks to Immodium) and we walked to the harbour for snorkelling. I must admit to being slightly nervous as never done this before. In fact we have avoided it, encouraging the children to have a go whilst we watched.

Turned out, it is amazing. Talk about old dog and new tricks! That's aimed at myself not Karen. It was fantastic we did both opt for buoyancy aids so could concentrate on everything else. I was shocked by how clear the water was once you head is below the surface. We saw sharks, not dangerous ones, stingrays and probably the whole cast of nemo and loads more. So many colourful fish with a guy from the boat pointing and naming them. It was a full day on the sea on a catamaran stopping at three different snorkelling sites before copious amounts of alcohol on the cruise back to the island.

There was nearly an International incident when an Aussie (not in our group) insisted on touching the coral and sharks. We had been told not to do this as they want everything to be protected. He ignored this so a girl in our group, had words with him and the guide then also confirmed he needed to stop. The girl was from Yorkshire but it wasn't Karen!

A great day and although it wasn't tightrope walking across Niagara Falls we both feel proud to have done something new and put our nerves to one side.

The evening meal was a little interesting as people were still quite tipsy from the day trip. Drinking games with the young ones, complaints to restaurants for keeping us waiting and international claims on who invented potato salad.....(the German won). Another fab day, you better Belize it.