Caye Caulker

View from the plane
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INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT CAYE CAULKER

1. It is actually two islands since a hurricane split the island in two

Diving the Blue Hole and the worlds second largest barrier reef

2. The blue hole is 400ft (122m) deep and 1000ft (305m) wide. When diving it you descend to 130ft (40m) and swim beneath stalactites and with black tip, bull, lemon and hammerhead or tiger sharks. All except the black tip are in the top 10 most dangerous sharks.

My cabana
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3. The Cayes are nestled in the Caribbean Sea

On the day I arrived in Belize City I got through customs at 13.10 and by 13.30 I was on a seaplane to Caye Caulker which I bought when I got there, it was brilliant!

When I got to the island golf carts are the mode of transport here, or bikes or walking. I got a golf cart with my luggage to the cabanas and spent the rest of the day wondering around the island. I walked up to the split where the hurricane came through and sorted out some dives for the next few days.

My cabana
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Day 2 I went diving most of the day. Our first site was Jackle Box just off Ambergris Caye. It was 18m/60ft and was 45 mins. It was great I saw 5 sharks, of which one was massive and this little yellow fish kept following me, there were also some big groupers there too! We then sailed to Ambergris Caye for our surface interval and I got to look around there. It is much bigger than Caye Caulker and to be honest I am glad I chose this island and hotel the other is a bit too developed and couply! We then sailed again and dived Cypress which was 15m/50ft for 45 mins. Again I saw sharks (nursing sharks) one followed me for a bit which was cool. I also saw a huge ray and a turtle! The coral on the reef is great - mum/dad there was one the same colour as I spray painted mine!! We then sailed back and I needed a hot shower, it was warm in the water but on the boat was freezing. I was really glad I did this dive as a warm up for the blue hole as that will be scary. 40m deep!!

Shells
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We set off at 5.45am and I was super super excited. We travelled on the boat for 2 hours to the blue hole. AS you arrive you can see the shape of the hole as the reef surrounds you. Wejumped into the water and swam out to the reef at one side. We then descended quickly to 40m we swam along the coral at first then over a shelf and dropped off down and down and down. It was like falling off a cliff, you just let yourself fall watching the depth all time, we had a maximum of 10mins at that depth. We got to 40m and levelled off and it was just spectacular swimming through the stalactites that used to be in the cave. The stalactites grow so slowly and they are so big that they must be millions of years old. To my left and straight down there was nothing but blue ocean, the surface was a million miles away and fish swim upside down at that depth. There was also a few sharks swimming overhead. All too quickly we had to ascend up towards our safety stop- On the way up there was a school of 8 sharks they were magnificient. you know how i love sharks! all circling just nearby! I could have spent all day down there, it was worth every penny! We then did two other dives on the barrier reef that were spectacular, on one of them we got to swim through a canyon in the coral which was cool, we saw more sharks and some huge rays that hide in the sand when you swim near them. We stopped for lunch on Half moon caye and visited the bird reserve there where we saw frigate birds mating (with the red chests like in the galapagos) and blue footed boobies.

Pelicans
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On the evening when we got back me and some people I met on the boat when to the "fat man´s barbecue " which is essentially a very fat man who has a little barbecue and cooks fish and lobster and you sit on a picnic bench and eat out of a takeaway plastic carton the fish, garlic mash, garlic bread and you get a free rum and coke and a free cheesecake for 6 pounds! Bargain!!