The Family is Born

Caye Caulker = Paradise!!

Belize, was not even on the radar when I left on this trip.  Katherine was planning on going to Mexico to meet friends and I was to be going to Honduras.  Her plans fell through and we decided that Caye Caulker would be the place to be.  We knew of two people that would be there, Cheyney and Rachel so why not us!!  We arrived on the boat and realized that the right decision was made!!  Crystal blue waters, white sands and no need to wear shoes.  It took us all of five minutes to find Cheyney walking down the main road, followed by Rachael a few minutes later.

Silk Snapper caught by me

The island is beautiful and has a relaxed atmosphere like no other place I have ever been.  During the day most people go do an activity, i.e. snorkeling.  The other choices are pretty much limited to going to the split.  The split is the north end of the island where a hurricane split the entire island in half.  It is the only area to sun bath and swim, as they have hauled sand onto the area for this purpose.  The evenings are spent eating and relaxing over a few beers.  There are only two night spots on the island, the I & I Reggae Club and The Oceanside. I was excited about the reggae club, but soon realized that it was far from a reggae club.  False advertisement!!  They played crap club music.  The good thing about this club is that the bar stools were actually swings.  Best idea ever, swinging at a bar!!  The Oceanside was not much better, same crap music, different setting.  Since this was the only two options, one deals with it and makes the best of things.

Cheyney´s fishing style

That is pretty much how the two weeks I spent on the island went.  But of course there were highlights.  On the third day, Tim arrived.  On the fifth day the Great Danes arrived, Linda and Bella.  Our family was born, seven of us from all over the planet.

Captain Dice

Katherine´s catch...WOW!!!

Jordi´s sting ray friend

Cheyney getting sting rayed

Day four was magical, we went snorkeling with the man they call The Fish Whisperer.  His name is Jordi, he is about 70 years old and has been taking people snorkeling since the early fifties.  He is the captain of a small sailboat that he built himself.  He only allows a maximum of seven people on the boat and requires that no smoking or drinking take place on his boat.  He also requires that there be no talking while in the water so that the reef can be absorbed and seen for it´s beauty.  We made three stops, while Jordi was in the water he would make snapping noises and the fish would come to him.  The whole time he was in the water, a school of fish would follow him.  He didn´t bait them, they just knew him and came to him.  A large sting ray also followed him.  He would call to it and it would come to him.  He would then grab it and have it swim across our bodies, coolest thing ever.  At one point he called a huge moray eel out of it´s cave.  There were sea turtles, nurse sharks and amazing coral structures.  Thousands of different kinds of fish littered the corals in dazzling colors.  This man was legendary and the trip has become one of the greatest things I have ever done.

We also went fishing, Belize style.  No rods, just fishing line, hooks and hands.  Dice was a local resident at the hostel we stayed at and one of his scams was to take visitors at the hostel fishing.  The scam is that he owns a restaurant, so we were paying him to go fishing so that he could sell the fish at his restaurant, clever little fellow!!  It was a great day on the water.  Most of us caught a few fish, Dice caught many and Kathrine, well Kathrine caught a baby fish with Dice´s help at the end of the day.  She was a broken woman!!  We caught red snappers and silk snappers, in total about thirty fish.  We did this twice, once during the day and once at night.

Sea turtle!!

Nurse shark

All these things took place on my first trip to Caye Caulker.  You see, the family actually left Caye Caulker on day seven and went caving, sadly without Cheyney who had to return to Canada.  About eleven miles south of Belmopan is a resort known as Caves Branch.  They offer amazing caving opportunities.  We grabbed the bus and we were off.  We were dropped off on the highway at the entrance of the resort.  We walked up the mile long road with our packs, through the jungle and howler monkeys in the background doing what they do best.  We knew it was spendy, so we also packed our own food.  We knew it was a resort, but we did not know the it was a RESORT!!!  We approached the guard house and our packs were swiftly put into a cart and carted to the front desk.  By the front desk were two pools and a hot tub.  There were seven of us, so we had two cabanas.  The cabanas had clean sheets, nice pillows and oil lamps for lighting.  There were hot water showers and locks on the bathroom doors.  We were in heaven and instantly decided that we were staying two nights not one.  First a swim, than hot tub, then a plunge and back to the hot tub.  This went on for hours, we didn´t know what to do with ourselves!!

Kathrine swimming under me

This is how Canadians burn

Naturally formed pools

The Family

alot of swimming and heavy mist in the cave.  The first waterfall was the tallest and we had to climb it like a rock wall.  Another waterfall was climbed by going behind the water to the top.  We were all wide eyed and our adrenaline was pumping.  We got over the fifth and final fall and it was time to turn back.  This is where it got a little scary, particularly for me.  You see I think that jumping off of things into water is rather stupid, therefore I steer clear of these activities.  Kathrine is the queen of jumping, so she was pumped, the first to take the first leap, about 20 feet.  I got up there, received my landing instructions and did not hesitate.  There were two more leaps, the last was the tallest, about 30 feet.  I did it without pissing myself and it felt great!!  We than had a burrito lunch in the cave with fresh veggies.  This may have been one of the coolest things I have ever done.  Imagine following a river in a cave and then jumping off the waterfalls in the cave, insane!!

Family hot tub time!!

We got back to the resort and guess what...hot tub for the rest of the night!!!  The next day it was time for the family to part ways.  We all got the same bus to Belmopan.  Kathrine, Rachael and Tim got off and headed for San Ignacio.  I had been traveling with Kathrine for three weeks, and it was sad that we had to breakup, I miss her with her funny Australian ways.  I do hope to see her again one day, I am sure that I will!!  The Great Danes and myself headed back to Caye Caulker.  You see I needed to kill a few days because I was meeting my friend Nicole in Flores in a few days.  Why not kill that time in paradise?  It was an easy choice.  Got back to Bella´s, Dice could not believe it and the owner Jeff said that he knew I would be back.

Manatee hunting

Hostel fun - Fiona on a kid´s bike

I am going to tell a story, a story that became legend on the island and no fault of my own.  I had already made a name for myself, you know that whole friendly thing, so most of the locals knew me by name.  But the first night back on the island, I became a legend.  I in no way wanted this, but it happened.  One of the greatest scam artists on the island are the island police.  The scam is to hassle drunken male tourists, shake them down and arrest them.  They then extort them for all the money they have.  We figure one out of every five male tourists gets arrested and pays a ¨fine¨.  Unfortunately this happened to Tim on my first stay at the island, a story for him to tell.  I was leaving The Oceanside, fist bumping and shaking hands with the locals that were in there.  I made the friendly mistake of fist bumping an officer of the false law on the shoulder and was arrested for assaulting a police officer.  Really, me assaulting a police officer?!?!?!  I was taken to the police station and thrown in the cell, a very, very dark cell.  This is when they start in on the scam.  ¨Where is your ATM card, you are gonna need alot of money to get out of this.¨  I was well versed on the scam, so I told them that I had not done anything wrong, they didn´t like that and back in the cell I went.  After about an hour, Jeff showed up at the police station to spring another tourist.  The officer told him that he was staying and going to Belize City to court for a real violation - possession.  Then the officer told him that the Grampa looking guy at his hostel was in the other cell.  ¨Hobbit?  why would you arrest Hobbit?¨ ¨¨Assaulting a police officer.¨ ¨Hobbit?¨ They let me out of the cell, I saw Jeff and gave him a big hug.  The officer I ¨hit¨told Jeff that I hit him so hard that his chest still hurt.  I began to chime in and Jeff told me to shut up and sit down.  Jeff bailed me out for $150.00 and we went back to the hostel, had a beer and went to bed.  The next day on the island locals were waving at me and giving me high fives.  Being infamous is much worse than being famous!!

This is where you don´t want to be on Caye Caulker

After the incident, the next morning the Great Danes and myself joined Dice on a boat trip to the manatee island.  While we were preparing, Fiona walked by on her way to the split, I invited her to join and she did.  So the four of us went manatee hunting in the mangrove islands.  It was a beautiful day, clear skies, hot and we were on a boat.  Great way to forget how crooked the police are in this paradise!!  We saw manatees, a special tour through the mangroves.  They are rather large, like big swimming cows, really cool.

Well, that was pretty much it.  After my little run in with the police, I played it cool, well until Tim showed up again!!  No more arrests.  I had taken part in most of the activities offered.  My last few days on the island were spent in this manner....fry jacks for breakfast with fresh fruit juices, then off to the split, long swims and mermaiding, lunch, back to the split, sunset, dinner, a few beers at the hostel, maybe a check on the bar and to sleep.  This exhausting schedule of activities was spent with Fiona, as the Great Danes left and Tim was generally not awake till after twelve.  It was great, loved every minute of doing absolutely nothing.  But all good things come to an end and Fiona and I returned to Guatemala and left Tim with a beer in his hand in paradise.