I love this sail to Caye Caulker and I love going with Seaduced. The boat is spacious with area in the back to hide from the blazing sun and good bathrooms. During the summer, my friend Jamie and I try to go at least once a week. Yesterday was a ridiculously beautiful day to be out on the water. It was crystal clear. I’ve actually never been to Hol Chan Marine Reserve with water so calm and perfect.My first picture is of a strange creature (some sort of jellyfish, I’m guessing) that we saw floating atop the water while waiting for our Seaduced pick-up. Does anyone know what it is? It had a white-ish middle about the size of a dollar coin and then little tentacles that fluttered around. The guys from Seaduced weren’t sure what it was but were quick to tell me NOT TO TOUCH IT. Yeah guys…I wasn’t really tempted.
If it hasn’t been named already and I, the Jacques Cousteau of San Pedro, am the first to discover this strange beast, I am naming it Purple Nurple right now.
Here are some pictures of the pretty, pretty, pretty water during the sail over to Caye Caulker. I love a trip with only 6 guests. Tons of room to stretch out on the big catamaran. It was just me and Jamie and two couples.
Here’s a photo at Shark Ray Alley. A few sharks came by the boat…I was more focused on getting a bit of sun. WHAT A GREAT DAY!
Oops…I almost forgot. See those black clouds on the horizon? We actually saw a water spout to the North-East. Coming down from the clouds but not touching the ground. I shouted TORNADO! Apparently, that is bad form on a boat. No storm cellar, I guess. I was quickly hushed by our guides.
I repeat, we had such a great sail to Caye Caulker…and we ate at Rainbow Grill on Caye Caulker AGAIN. Still my favorite. This time we walked away from the Split towards the Water Taxi dock. One of my favorite parts of Caye Caulker is how cute it is. The pastel colors, the freshly painted buildings, all of the handpainted signs. A nice change from the more commercialized San Pedro. (In particular Ramon’s neon atrocity across from Tropic Air that shouts at me “DEATH IS THE WAGE FOR YOUR SIN”. Welcome to San Pedro) Here are a few of my faves in Caye Caulker.
(We had great waffle cones with Key Lime ice cream at this place. Lime ice cream with real chunks of pie…crust and all. Delish)
There is also a very cute little art shop called Cooper’s Art Gallery. Here pieces are so tropical, so Belize-y…and very reasonably priced. I think they are the perfect souvenir. She does prints of her most popular so you can even buy a copy if you only have a few bucks.
http://www.debbiecooper.artspan.com/Last stop, my favorite music place/conch carver on the island. If you’ve heard any new songs in Belize (at the clubs or some old school reggae or playing by your hotel’s pool), just go in…give this guy a lyric or two…even hum one bar totally off-key and he will have the CD for you. It’s quite impressive.
He also does some conch shell carvings that are very cute including my favorites…
Conch breasts. They even come in all sizes. Are they for men? Women? Who?…What?….Why would anyone wear these?
Two hours in Caye Caulker (back to the boat about half an hour early to take a dip in the ocean…it was a scorcher!)
The way home? Special treat…since the water was SO calm. We went outside the reef and did a bit of fishing. There were lots of sea birds and boats out there…you could even see the smaller fish jumping out of the water. Fish were there and we were going to catch them. We got one pretty big barracuda and a smaller tuna. (And by we, I mean everyone else…I was busy shrieking).
Leonard with the barracuda.
If I hadn’t mentioned it before, GO ON THIS TRIP. Everyone who visits San Pedro must snorkel Hol Chan Marine Reserve and Shark & Ray Alley (I think they assign it with your ticket). Sure you can do it with a half day snorkel on a speed boat, but why not pay a bit more, snorkel, sail, have some rum punch, stop in Caye Caulker and make a day out of it?
