One. Two. Three. Four. Where do you want to explore? I jumped off the jetboat ferry onto the uneven planks of the dock, almost tripping over bags thrown everywhere as young people race to get to the beach. This is the young persons paradise of Belize, magical Caye Caulker Island.
I dove into the town with Martin, a local of Garifuna descent (a people of Creol-Jamaican-British mix with awesome music), looking around at all the poppin beach life. The sandy streets were lined with neon shacks, hostels and beach houses in every candy color, framed by chill green palms. Vendors with Jamaican-esque banter were hawking Jerk Chicken and miles upon miles of bracelets and trinkets. The overall pace of every person disembarking mellowed as we took off walking along the beach, volleyball games starting up with pretty smiling faces on our left, sailboats with Lobster and Conch on our right in the 85 degree sea. As we casually lumbered along semi-looking for my friends my horizon magically turned into Drew and Phil walking towards us along the beach. Big hugs, long talks, and before you could blink Bella´s Hostel was my new home and we had a crew taking off for the beach.
At the split the ramshackle three story bar was the hub of life on the south island. To its own funky Margaritaville beat the wild corner had open air everything where you ate on teeter totters in the water. A near defunk but somehow still operational ´ol man of the sea boat-turned-kitchen pumped out all kinds of seafood delights. The split literally is a divide in the Caye to let boats through, and give adventurers destinations across the water. Great place to snorkel and pull of acrobatics.
I´m writing from the city of Xela, Guatemala, and for all the hostels we´ve stayed at, Bella´s was my favorite so far. At every hostel you go to you meet people from all over the world, Bella´s in particular had a strong Aussie and New Zealand draw. Drew, Phil and I spanned the age range pretty well, perhaps a little on the older side of the spectrum, but the energy of the young 20-ers was alot of fun. We initiated Christmas dinner potluck, and that was great family time for all of the travelers far from home. Lots of dishes from all over were represented; Linda-Australia, Rachel-Eugene Oregon!, Alex-Finland, Laurence-Germany, Hayden-New Zealand and so many others threw down their Christmas favorites. Even though we typically ran on hungry, Christmas was a feast!
Since we had a community kitchen we cooked the freshest veggies from the market each day and on occasion would splurge on rum and Lobster. Rum is so cheep here, its almost cheeper than water... which can lead to interesting nights. I ended up being the one trying to calm down the crazy asian girl who came out one night. No one had ever heard anyone yell so loud... apparently she had never been intoxicated before. Lots of wild ones there, but she won by far.
Our crew went on the Raggaemuffin snorkel tour of the Caye marine reserve and saw sea turtles, eagle rays and played with sharks! Whereas the rays feel like velvet, the sharks feel like sandpaper. The dudes on the boat fed them to attract them over to our side of the reserve and the rays and sharks (nurse sharks - no teeth) acted almost like docile puppies scrambling for dinner. Mmm and they fed us delicious Ceveche and, ha of course, more rum on the way back. :)
Parting Caye Caulker came too soon but we headed back to Belize City and the Zoo. The zoo was more open aired than those in the states and as we started on the trail a red Macaw flew right up to Drew and said "hello!" The Jaguar was my favorite and since he was brought up by the zookeepers he was like a bit pet cat, playing with the keeper for treats. They even had a Quatchi there! At least that´s what the sign said, though I didn´t see any cute little Sasquatchies.
Their birds were lovely and colorful, one of my favorite parts. They had Howler monkeys, Chimps and all kinds of odd little local animals. Great zoo, definately visit if you can.
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