Angry Rastas do exist!

Caye Caulker - Go Slow!
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Caught a chicken-style bus from San Ignacio to Belize City. It wasn't long before enough locals had disembarked that we could all have our own seat, which was a bonus considering we had three hours to go. We arrived at the Caye Caulker water taxi terminal with an hour to spare so decided to get in the party mood by starting on the beers. We have been drinking local beers wherever possible, which means Belikin when in Belize.

It took us 45 minutes by boat to get to Caye Caulker, an island in the Caribbean. We were welcomed by a sign saying 'Caye Caulker: Go Slow', followed by a bloke on his bicycle saying 'Share the street, mon' (think we plus our backpacks were taking up quite a lot of space!) :o) There are three main roads on Caye Caulker, inspiringly named Front Road, Middle Road & Back Road. Our hotel was on Front Road, with great views over the sea. We cracked into the rum & then headed out to explore our surroundings & do some tat-shopping. We went over to Back Road to watch a beautiful sunset & then headed back to our hotel to get ready for a night out...

Caye Caulker - view from our hotel
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We started off with a BBQ on the beach & were joined by a couple of American lads (Eric & Scott) we'd befriended earlier in the day. In the course of the evening we went to several of the bars/clubs & had much fun riding up & down Front Road on Eric & Scott's bicycles :o) I can't believe I managed to reach my 30s without ever having ridden on the handlebars of a bicycle! One of the clubs had a load of swings inside, which were great fun, but somewhat dangerous (Vicks & I swung at such force that we managed to smash a bottle that was on the bar - oops!). We also met a very angry rasta (long story, hard to explain) who we had to run away from!

Caye Caulker - view from our hotel
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The next day we were supposed to be going out on a boat - snorkelling etc. However, the weather was FOUL so the trip was cancelled :o(  To cheer ourselves up, Rod, Vicks & I hired some bicycles & went peddling all around the island - sploshing through all the puddles on our way. The locals (& other tourists) were looking at us like we were totally crazy (no idea why!), but it certainly did the job in putting smiles on our faces. An hour later we dropped the bikes back, soaked to the skin & covered in sandy mud, but feeling totally rejuvenated!

Caribbean sunset
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The following day we finally got to go out on our boat trip. During the course of the day we saw loads of cool stuff including a family of nurse sharks, stingrays, spotted eagle rays (which are totally gorgeous) & a peacock flounder (one of those fish that has both of its eyes on one side of its body = very bizarre indeedy!). We drifted back to the island whilst watching the sunset & drinking some kind of rum punch. In the evening we went out with the lads again... Scott & I got ticked off by the police for riding two per bicycle (& there we were thinking that Belize was a chilled out place to live/visit!).