Caye Caulker (Belize)

Our first morning in Caye Caulker, Jared woke up early to catch his scuba boat out to the Great Blue Hole. After a bit more sleep, Nicole and I got up and did some laundry...in a sink! It makes it so much easier when there is a sink, plus all of our clothes stunk and were still wet from Tulum, so we were able to give them a relatively good soak. Clint woke up around 10am and headed off to one of the backpackers hostels we had heard about to see if they had room for us; staying at hostels allows for a certain amount of socializing that hotels do not. Bella's Backpackers had a cabin for us, so we packed up all our bags, Clint threw Jared's entire pack on his back along with his own (quite the feat), and we walked over to the other side of the island. The accommodations were pretty standard: hammocks, grilling area etc so we were happy. After fully sweating ourselves through, we headed out for brunch at a small Labanese place. Clint headed to the beach area, while Nicole and I went back to the hostel to use a FREE canoe!! We started out great, very calm waters. Then we hit the area with a small passage to the other side of the island and the wind and waves kicked in. After a couple minutes, we paused and nearly got brought out to sea by the strong current, so we had to high-tail it into rowing gear and get ourselves through the channel. Finally making it over, I jumped out and strung up the canoe allowing for a bit of easy swimming. We opted to head back to the hostel and return the canoe instead of attempting to continue as the wind and waves were really giving us a beating. Then we just walked back over to the beach area and laid out and relaxed a bit in the sun. Jared came back from his scuba trip around 5pm, and apparently they served rum punch on the boat ride back! He had a great time, and was not at all prepared for the rapid-fire interrogation Nicole and I gave him. After gathering himself a bit, he was able to describe what he did and showed us some of his awesome pictures. That night we went to dinner with a fellow hosteler we had actually initially met in Mexico City. We got talked into a buffet, which ended up being pretty lackluster, but we did at least get our money's worth! That night we went to bed pretty early in preparation for our snorkeling trip the next morning. Belize is an hour ahead, and we have been pretty early risers thus far, so we had no issues the next morning. We grabbed a really yummy and cheap breakfast on our way to the meeting area, where we found that Jared and Clint were basically the only guys in a slew of girls...apparently snorkeling is a women's sport. It was probably the most excited they've been about any venture thus far. We loaded up our sail boat and headed out. It was an absolutely perfect day for sailing. We hit three sites along the way, the first chockerblock full of sealife and really colorful coral. The second was with reef sharks and stink rays (which everyone loved, but sacred the be-jesus out of me), and the third a guided tour around the channel area, where the captain showed us all the different types of fish and sea life, and we got to swim with turtles! The whole thing was AMAZING!!! (I feel like I'm using the word "amazing" a lot, i'll have to reread this). They gave us lunch after the first snorkel, and then ceviche and unlimited rum punk the way back, so needless to say it was great fun. The group we used, Raggamuffin, we all highly recommend! After the long day, we were all pretty pooped, though all of us were super sun-conscious, so luckily we were safe there. We headed to bed pretty early.