Caye Caulker

Today we are travelling with a private van to our final destination for 4 nights,

 

Today we are travelling with a private van to our final destination for 4 nights,  Caye Caulker.  They organized fresh fruit and toast for breakfast at the hotel for us.

At 8:30 we leave and drive for about 30 minutes and stop at Mary Sharp hot sauce factory.  Her hot sauce is on every restaurant tables that I have been at so far.  They are not processing today but they give us a tour anyway.  After the tour we gets crackers and sample bottle to taste and she has about 20 hot sauces and jams.  The hot sauces are mode with habanero peppers.  They are 10 times hotter that jalapenos peppers.  I got a 10 ounce bottle for $2.  That should last me a couple of years. 

We now drive an hour to the Belize zoo.  It was $15 but well worth it.  We spent 2 hours there.  It was very natural.  Even the signs were hand painted.  It was just the right amount of time to see everything.    Some of us got our pictures taken with a snake when we got there.  I took lots of good picture as some of the enclosures were set up to take pictures. Today ice cream for lunch as it is noon and no other choice at the zoo.  That’s ok with me. Yes it is once again about 30 degrees in the sun.  There were only native birds and animals.  Not like our zoos.  My favourite were the howler monkeys as 2 of them were having a competition to see who was the loudest.  I got a great picture of that. 

Another ½ hour drive and we are in Belize City and at the ferry terminal.  Only about ½ before the next ferry gets here.  Belize City has a very bad reputation so we are told not to venture into town. I just hung around the terminal and took their advice.  The ferry ride took about 1 hour in a high speed 40 foot boat.  They had 3 200 HP motors on the back. We could not see much from inside the boat.  The walk to the hotel is about 10 minutes and dirt road but not really dirt.  More like pack limestone. No cars are allowed on the island.  Only battery powered golf cars for taxis and bicycles.  There are lots of small hotels and restaurant. For more info on Caye Caulker:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caye_Caulker  

We are at one end of the island (Caye) and we decided to hit the beach for a quick dip.  The water was a very much needed refreshment.  It felt great. The beach bar there sells frozen drinks called the green lizard.  I just had to try one for $5.  They come in a fish bowl and had many ounces of liquor and some green liquid to make it green.  Everyone had a sip and came to the same conclusion as me, lots of liquor.  I do not think I ever got so drunk on 1 drink.  It kept me happy for the next 2 hours.  I would not have wanted to have a second one right away, that’s for sure. As we leave the beach area, we are asked if we want some coke, not the beverage kind.  Caye Caulker used to be have lots of hippies.  I guess they moved on to coke.  Of course we all said no.  No a great sunset tonight but still beautiful. 

Group supper is next door at a place called Wish Willy at 7.   I am almost recovered from my green lizard now.  It is a family style BBQ buffet tonight.  Fish, chicken, pork chops, rice and vegetables.  It was $12.50 but also included unlimited run punch. Team Germany and I liked that concept.  The other 12 people probably had less than we did between the 5 of us.  When we were done supper, my plate was full of fish bones as the fish was whole. One of the girls from team Germany is willing to try anything. So I challenged her to have the fish eye which I then said I will do it if you do it. Each time we do something that we have never done before on this trip we say CHECKED as if we had a bucket list of things we wanted to do in life.  Eating fish eye CHECKED. We finally left the table at 9:30 or so. 

We headed out to the grocery store to grab some real coke for the rum.  Had a couple R&C and called it a night.  We are going snorkeling tomorrow so I have to be in somewhat good shape as I am looking forwards to that.