Go Slow on Caye Caulker

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If you're looking for some great snorkeling while staying on an island paradise look no further than Caye Caulker in Belize.

Caye (pronounced "key") Caulker is a small coral island off of Belize's northern coast. It's well known to snorkelers and divers for it's proximity to Belize's Barrier Reef, and to backpackers as an all-around great chill-out spot as they travel around Central America. I and a group of thirty friends (old and new) spent five days on the little island relaxing and exploring. We arrived via Maya Air on a little two prop plane from Dangriga on January 3rd, and left via a water taxi to Belize City on the 8th. Unfortunately, the first three days there we got rained on, but that didn't stop us from having a fantastic time. Tropical rain comes down hard (and often), but it's not nearly as bone-chilling as the Oregon rain I grew up in, and it was simple enough to make the best of it.

The island is more or less a sand bar on top of a coral shelf. At its highest point, the island reaches a massive eight feet. You can easily see how a hurricane would cover the whole island in a matter of minutes. There's no pavement, just sandy lanes lined with conch shells and intermittent potholes. You can get around the island easily enough on foot (barefoot is the preferred modus operandi), but there are also bike and golf cart rentals for your leisure. As you walk the paths you'll encounter crabs making their way from one side of the island to the other. The three main streets are Front Street, Middle Street and Back Street, but if you need to get anywhere you won't be navigating with street signs. The island is small enough where you're more than likely to run into what you're looking for just by rambling about. If not, the locals are friendly and will be happy to point you in the right direction. The most common thing you'll see besides dreadlocked Rastafarians are signs emblazoned with "Go Slow," which is aimed at the golf carts but also somewhat of a motto for the island. It's pretty difficult to imagine a place more laid back than Caye Caulker.

According to several people, Caye Caulker is supposed to be similar to what Ambergris Caye used to be back in the 60s. Most travelers we met who have been to Ambergris Caye as of late speak of it with somewhat sour reviews, preferring the less populated, more rural Caulker.

Getting There
Unless you have the super-hero boat car you're not going to be able to drive to Caye Caulker, and I doubt you're an Olympian so you probably won't be swimming there either. A zip-line from the mainland would be pretty epic, but until that happens your two options for debarkation are boat or plane.

There's a small airstrip on the south side of the island with service from Maya Island Air and Tropic Air. It was about $70 US for us to get from Dangriga to Caye Caulker on Maya Island Air. They fly in and out of most major towns in Belize. Upon landing, you can walk north into town from the airstrip or catch a golf cart taxi if you're carting around heavy luggage.

Your other method of getting to Caye Caulker is to catch a forty-five minute water taxi from Belize City for about $15. Boats leave from the historic Swing Bridge in Belize City or from the pier in front of the Bliss Auditorium and let you off on the main dock in Caye Caulker, which is a fairly central location.

Both forms of transportation are easy to set up, just show up at the right place and time and book your flight or taxi, although you may want to book the flight a bit earlier than the day of.

Lodging
For our first three days on Caye Caulker we were living in luxury at the Sailwinds Beach Suites, just a few blocks north of the cemetery on Beach Street. Rooms were not cheap at $180 US a night, but split between four people per room it wasn't too bad. They were clean and came with a hot plate, cooking utensils, dishes, and a private bathroom with hot showers. Each had a bedroom with queen size bed and a living room/dining area with a fold out couch. They were adjacent to Auxillou Beach Suites, and Diane's Beach House and our crew of thirty travelers pretty much ended up taking over all three. They are all fairly similar and so are the prices. Each room has a nice porch out front with chairs and hammock and views out across the Caribbean.

Directly next door to Diane's is a cute little hostel on the beach called Tina's Backpacker's Hostel. We didn't get a chance to stay there ourselves (booked solid), but the people we ran into who did had nothing but good things to say about it. It's got a "vibes garden" for chilling out under the stars with fellow travelers, and a little dock on the water with some hammocks to lounge about in. I would recommend showing up early if you want a bunk, because it seems to be a popular place.

If the hostel is booked, and you're traveling on a budget (baller's on a budget represent!), your next bet might be to head further north along the beach, past where Beach Street joins Front Street and hit up the Tropics Hotel. This is living at a bare minimum, nothing much more than a place to crash out, but it's cheap and a lot of our crew ended up there after our three day stint of luxury at Sailwinds/Auxillou/Diane's. No one had anything really nice to say about this place other than, "I slept there," but there weren't a whole lot of complaints either. They've been working on fixing up the place so it may be better once you show up. They have some nicer rooms too if your willing to spend a bit more.

If you just so-happen to be traveling in a group of six-ish, the best deal for lodging on the island (that we found) is at Sandy Lane Guest House and Cabanas right near where Front Street meets Beach Street. Actually, after looking at some other pics around the internet, it may not even be called Sandy Lane Guest House, but it's right by the Sandy Lane office, and they are probably associated some way or another. It's a couple little blue houses separated by a courtyard with picnic bench set back just a bit from the road. The lady who runs it lives in the building next door. We were lucky enough to call this place home for our last two nights on the island. It has a clean bathroom with a hot shower, a large kitchen, dining area/living room, and three bedrooms (two rooms with twin size beds, the other with a bunk bed) all for $75 US a night. It wasn't as clean of a place as Sailwinds, but for $75 bucks a night, split between six people, you can't go wrong. It has a massive porch with accompanying massive hammock and chairs with a view out over the sea (like everywhere else on the island). We threw a nice little dinner party (hooray for traveling with chef extraordinare Jason from Mamanoot's) and partied it up on the porch. Good times indeed.

If you want to stay in the upper echelon of style and comfort, you can book one of the nicest rooms on the island at Seaside Cabanas for around $150 US a night. The rooms are inviting and they have a beautiful swimming pool overlooking the Caribbean. However, when given the choice of a swimming pool versus the Caribbean Sea... I'm guessing you'll go with the sea. Who knows though, the pool does look quite nice, and if you don't feel like getting all salty again but want to take a dip, here's your spot. There's also a little bar attached called Uno Mas if you feel like slipping out for a quick drink.

Food
There's really some great options when it comes to eating on Caye Caulker. The full time residents of the village are mostly fishermen, so you can expect plenty of fresh and delicious seafood. Some of the more exotic tastes are conch and barracuda, but of course you'll also find the normal fare of lobster and other assorted fish.

Probably our favorite spot to chow down was Rasta Pasta Rainforest Cafe. I think we ate there four times over the course of six days. The two standout dishes were the curry and their coconut battered lobster (the coconut battered fish is equally good). Both were off the hook delicious. Those delicacies along with conch fritters, crab rangoons, a great staff (Mike and Shanti, you guys rock!) and burritos the size of your arm, makes Rasta Pasta the place to eat on Caye Caulker. Rasta Pasta also offers an incredible concoction that they call the Rasta Ripa. A Rasta Ripa is dark rum mixed with homemade ginger beer (which they make daily) and poured over ice. It's the best mixed drink I encountered in Belize. We were ordering the stuff by the gallon and bringing it back to our rooms. It's that good.

The most popular "high-end" restaurant on the island is Habanero's which, unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to try, but was told that their fish wrapped in banana leaves is incredibly good. They have a nice outside dining area where you can do some good people watching as well.

Right next door to Habanero's is Rose's Cafe. Rose's Cafe has a great breakfast but their big selling point is their grilled seafood dinner. They have a barbeque set up right out front where you can choose from an assortment of fresh caught fish and seafood. Lobster, snapper, yellow tail, take your pick directly off the grill and feast!

If you're looking for a good meal at a cheaper cost, Marin's was pretty good to us. The ceiling features a number of hand painted Kriol proverbs, such as "Wen teef teef fram teef, God laff," and, "Sea breeze blow pilikin same place 'e wan' go." Have fun deciphering and then pondering these deep thoughts from the Belizean book of wisdom.

Herbal Tribe had some mediocre food in my opinion, but for what they lacked in taste they made up for in atmosphere. Their restaurant opens right up to the beach. At night they had punta drumming and a couple of Guatemalan marimba players who were fantastic. If you happen to be a cute girl, they'll have no problem letting you get in on the marimba to trade some licks with you.

Don Corleone's was also pretty tasty, though it was a little pricier. We didn't get a chance to try this place for dinner, but their breakfast was fantastic. They had the best fryjacks that I tried on the island.

If you want to get some fresh baked goods to bring back to your room, the local bakery right next to the bank on Middle Street is great. I highly recommend going there in the morning and grabbing a good share of fresh made sugar donuts. The people you're traveling with will thank you plenty. Kitty corner from that is a great place to get fresh juices as well.

For grocery shopping, there are four little markets on the island that I know of. Chan's Market was pretty good, however the best selection was at Chinatown Market, which is a couple blocks further south from Chan's down Middle Street.

Oh, I almost forgot, the Barefoot Bar had some of the most incredible shrimp ceviche I've ever tasted. It's also a fun little bar to hang at as well with a nice rooftop area. You can find it just a bit south from the Split.

Entertainment
If you're spending any time on Caye Caulker, you will inevitably find yourself hanging out a lot at the Split. The Split is where the island was (supposedly) ripped in half by Hurricane Hattie in 1962. The channel is about twenty meters wide and deep enough for boats to make their way through. There's a long crumbling concrete pier which stretches along side of it where people lay out their towels and soak up the sunshine.

When you're ready to cool off with some good drinks (as you're apt to do while lying in the hot sun) there's a great little bar situated at the edge of the Split called the Lazy Lizard. The Lazy Lizard is owned and operated by one of the island's most well known residents, Ras Creek. Ras also operates a snorkeling tour on which you'll see rays, sharks and seahorses. His funky blue Rasta boat is usually parked right there in the Split. Creek has knowledge of the local marine life like no other, and will be happy to show you his great photo collection and tell you how he could have saved crocodile hunter Steve Irwin's life. The wooden high-dive over the Split at the Lazy Lizard offered some great entertainment as well.

During the day you can rent canoes and sea-kayaks from several spots along the island. We took a couple out and explored the mangroves along the north island where supposedly salt water crocodiles like to lurk. You can easily make it out to the reef on a kayak as well if you're up for it.

In the evening, the popular place to go is the I & I Reggae Bar. It's a three story bar, complete with swinging chairs, a good sound system, and hammocks on the roof. When you're done shaking your booty to some reggae, make your way over to Oceanside Nightclub for some entertaining karaoke with the locals. The Barefoot Bar and Herbal Tribe, which I mentioned earlier, are also both great spots for hanging with the locals and grabbing a drink.

The North Island
If you want to explore the more undeveloped north side of the island, you'll have to cross the Split. You can either swim it or catch a boat ride across. We didn't feel like swimming because it was a bit rainy on the day we decided to cross, so we caught a cheap boat ride over from Ras Creek.

We were trundling aimlessly along the trail looking at the many hermit crabs when some guy shows up out of nowhere with a Rasta colored bandana and says, "I think I'm supposed to be your guide mon," something that evidently was included in our fare to Ras for taxi-ing us across the Split. I'm not sure if that's a normal thing, or if they were just looking for something to do because of slow business on a rainy day. Anyway, that's how we met and befriended one of the coolest people on the island, Mandingo. If you're hanging out on Caye Caulker, meet and make friends with this him, he's one chill guy.

He led us up to the beach on the north island showing us a number of cool little things along the way and made some interesting items out of the local flora to pass along our group, including a kazoo from a reed and thorn, and a funky leaf head-dress. Like Ras Creek, he has a wealth of knowledge regarding the local wildlife on Caye Caulker. He also happens to be an amazing punta drummer and if you're lucky you'll catch him playing while there.

Sadly, the north half of the island is where most of the trash from the south side ends up. The large sandy beach which has been reclaimed from mangroves has the potential to be incredible but is littered with washed up garbage.

There's also some development happening on the North Island, including a fancy new restaurant that recently opened and a resort that's going in, but due to time constraints we explored neither.

Snorkeling
{Sadly not a lot of pictures for this one due to rain and lack of an underwater camera.}
You can't stay on Caye Caulker without going snorkeling at least once. It's impossible. It's like going to a concert and not seeing the band. If you blow the opportunity, you'll be missing out on one of the more incredible moments of your life. Caye Caulker has a large marine reserve with several preservation and conservation zones to protect the marine habitat which makes for some truly stunning aquatic ecosystems.

Seeing this wonderland under the sea cheaply is easy enough. You can rent a snorkel and fins for around $5 US a day from any number of places scattered about the village. Snorkeling right around the island you'll find a nice variety of rays and other exotic fish. In and around the Split we found rays, schools of yellowtail snapper, the biggest puffer fish I've ever seen, and of course, barracuda which are common throughout Caribbean waters. Don't worry about the barracuda, they're generally harmless. Just don't swim while wearing shiny objects like necklaces and such, barracuda may mistake them for the little fish that they feed on.

When you're ready to get a little deeper, and really want to see some amazing marine wildlife, you'll want to make your way out to the barrier reef and the infamous Shark-Ray Alley. We hopped a boat with Ragamuffin Tours who gladly took our entire group out for a day of snorkeling which included three snorkel stops, a lunch and a "happy hour." Ragamuffin's crew was fantastic and the sailboat we went out on (the Raga Queen) was beautiful. Belize's barrier reef is supposedly second only to Australia's in diversity and beauty. The color of the water looks like it came from the sketchbook of some 80s fashion designer; it's the most mind-boggling aqua you can imagine. Nevermind the fact that I was nauseous from the choppy waves (it was raining that day), it was still one of the highlights of my trip. And even though choppy waters can put a hamper on some visibility, we saw some epic wildlife along the reef. Rays (the most incredible being spotted eagle rays), nurse sharks, angel fish, moray eels, sea-turtles, snapper, you name it, were all darting in and out of the assorted corals and sea plants.

Overall
Plain and simple, I loved Caye Caulker with its relaxed style of living, great food, and out of this world snorkeling. It may be just a bit touristy, but at its heart, it's still a little fishing village adrift in the Belizean Cayes, and it's far less touristy than Ambergris Caye is supposed to be. Yes, it's loaded with backpackers, but I never really felt bogged down by them. However, if things like this worry you, and you want to get really secluded, I recommend hitting up Tobacco Caye which is further south, not far off the coast from Dangriga. I stayed on Tobacco Caye a couple years back and it was extremely relaxing. You could walk the perimeter of the island in less than fifteen minutes, but the snorkeling was not quite as good and because of its small size you won't have the selection or variety of things to do like you have on Caye Caulker. If you're looking to relax but still partake in all of the great restaurants and activities available while in Belize, make your way out to Caye Caulker and "go slow."