Chilling in Caye Caulker

Now the next leg of our journey continues into Belize. There is a boat which can take you from Chetumal in South Mexico direct to the islands of Belize without passing through Belize city and avoiding buses and long waits. We booked the San Pedro Express Water Taxi boat which goes from a private pier in Chetumal.

To get there from Bacalar you first have to get a bus to Chetumal and then the only option is a taxi to the pier. We arrived early to give ourselves enough time to fill out the immigration forms for Belize.

Still on land, we officially left Mexico then boarded the boat to Belize. And whilst we waited we think we saw some bottlenose dolphins in the water, or it may have been a pilot whale… We only saw glimpses of it, so we’re not sure!

It took 2 hours to get to the first stop of San Pedro Town on Ambergris Caye, where we had to get off the boat and go through immigration. Many of the people were also getting off here too. After breezing through immigration and laughing with the border control – we’d ticked “yes” to the question about “are you bringing in food”, because it was true when we filled out the form, but by the time we got to Belize, we’d eaten all our snacks and actually had none left 🤣

The boat was at 3:30pm and ended up setting off a bit late (standard Belize time, it seems) so by the time we re-boarded the boat to Caye Caulker, it was the perfect timing to see the sunset as well and the journey was quite enjoyable.

We checked into our hotel and then headed straight for food, since we hadn’t really eaten all day with all the travel. We went to Bare Foot Caribe, which was one of the only places on the island which serves tofu, and had a delicious coconut curry!

The next day we then found our absolute FAVOURITE on the Caye, and ended up coming here every day for  breakfast – House of Errolyn’s Fry Jacks. Fry jacks are basically deep fried flat breads which puff up and are incredibly delicious (although not very healthy…). Here, the fry jacks are HUGE and stuffed with whatever you want, we kept going for the eggs and beans. Beans being blended red beans, which is a staple here in Belize. They were only B$5 each!

Our hotel was very basic, with a tiny room, but it did have a great rooftop with hammocks, perfect for chilling in the heat as it was SUPER breezy up here.

We’d booked to stay 5 nights on Caye Caulker as I heard great things about the place, but if I’m honest we found it a little boring in the end… These islands or ‘Cayes’ (pronounced ‘Keys’) as they are known here are basically just above water reefs/coral or sand bars within the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef system here off the coast of Belize, Mexico and Honduras.

Caye Caulker is known as the “backpacker” Caye as it tends to be more budget friendly, and has a more relaxed and slow-paced vibe. There are no vehicles, only golf buggies and bicycles, so it is very pretty here, and all the houses and buildings are brightly coloured in a Caribbean style.

However, there are no beaches, and no reef systems accessible from the shore here, so you can’t just jump in and go snorkeling… There was also a strong current in the water most days, so even just swimming can be tricky, so if you want to access the reef it’s basically all about the day trips…

Other than day trips out to reef sites, the only other thing to do on the island is visit one of the many bars! Our favourite was called ‘Sip n’ dip’, as it was slightly cheaper, not as busy, and had better swimming than the more famous ‘Lazy Lizard’ bar.

We did also visit the Lazy Lizard, which was next to “the split” an area of Caye Caulker well known to all who live here. There are 2 islands here really, North and South, but they used to be connected… It was a Hurricane (Hurricane Hattie in 1961) which basically devastated the island and split it in two… Since then, the split has only got bigger thanks to other hurricanes and seasonal winds eroding the region.

The water is deeper here at the split, suitable for diving and swimming, but we found the current to be quite strong most days.

In the evenings the West side of the island is most popular as people look for somewhere to watch the sunset, and of all the spots, Iguana Reef bar is the most popular because they feed the sting rays here, which attracts LOADS of them. Southern sting rays are quite calm rays and not aggressive, they are actually quite friendly. So people stand in the shallow water and they come up and touch you.

Some people were petting them like dogs which neither of us did and weren’t sure was “right” to do really, but honestly the rays seemed to enjoy it and would loiter for a while next to the people who petted them and often circle back to those people in particular, which seemed quite cute really. Perhaps they did really like it!

There are also seahorse and eels here too, and we came back here one day much earlier in the day, and did actually manage to see one seahorse, which was MASSIVE!! (Relatively!) So cool!!

On one of the days we did a full day snorkelling trip out to the most popular sights in the reef. We booked with Salt Life Eco Tours which was highly rated for its smaller boats and for not feeding the animals or interfering with them, there was only 6 on our boat which was great!!

The itinerary for the day was:

• Tarpon Point
• Coral Gardens and Turtle Point
• Hol Chan Marine Reserve
• Lunch stop at another Coral Garden
• Shark and Ray Alley
• Shipwreck

Tarpon Point is an area still within Caye Caulker which has huge Tarpon fish, and other boats feed them, but in our boat they said just put your hand out over the water and the fish will jump up to you. They were HUGE fish, but they don’t have any teeth, so it’s not dangerous. Dave stuck his hand out and said it was like getting punched! Haha

At coral gardens, we did indeed see a turtle, and a couple of nurse sharks too! Then we headed over to Hol Chan – definitely the highlight of the whole trip. The marine reserve is highly regulated and you’re only allowed 45 minutes there. It was super busy and a streamlined operation really, in and out in a bit of a circuit through the region, but you could see why. There were so many schools of massive fish, all different types of jacks, barracudas, snappers and tonnes of eagle rays too.

The time seemed to fly at Hol Chan, and soon we were back on the boat moving to our lunch spot. After eating we jumped in the water and there was loads to see here as well. Loads of Southern rays again, and also more eagle rays, which are so cool, flying through the water with their super long tails!

Then it was shark and ray alley… As soon as we pulled up in the region TONNES of sharks were circling us. Our skipper started playing the jaws theme tune 🤣 and genuinely I was thinking, what the hell are we doing! But nurse sharks are just like big puppies, they are gentle giants and not interested in humans at all. They actually eat the huge conch you get here, which are in the big shells scattering this whole region, they latch on and actually suck out the conch, so they don’t even really have teeth!! Haha. But still, getting into the water with about 20 sharks circling you is still a rush. It was so cool!!

Then the final stop was the shipwreck, but the sea was quite choppy at this point, so we didn’t stop long!

We did like Caye Caulker, and particularly loved the snorkelling day trip. Had we not been on a backpackers budget we would have gone on a trip to Hol Chan every day I think!  But since we were, 5 days did seem like just a tad too long here. Still, the longer time gave us the opportunity to embrace the islands mantra of “Go Slow“, and we were able to chill after the last 2 weeks of backpacking and travelling a lot. This might be one of the last times we get to chill properly for a good few weeks as the travel and distances start to ramp up now.

Thanks for reading and catch you soon! Our next stop is a totally different Caye we can hopefully snorkel from directly, so we hope that one will be a better fit for us!