A Day Trip to Caye Caulker

Caye Caulker is a bit like Ambergris Caye's little brother--the island is smaller, it has a smaller population, the streets are all sand, the buildings are smaller, etc. It also has a different vibe--Ambergris Caye feels a lot more Spanish, Caye Caulker has more of a Rasta vibe, and is (for lack of a better word) more backpackery. We stayed on Caye Caulker for several days back in April and really enjoyed it, and when our friends Cathy and Tara (Aiden's moms) invited us to join them for the day, we happily accepted.

Cathy and Tara on the water taxi

Liam & Amy enjoying the ride

Caye Caulker has a lot of colorful handpainted signs, which I couldn't resist photographing. Even the palm trees are painted!

Aiden, Lochlan, and Liam at, er, Gilligan's Island

The trip over on the water taxi is pretty quick, it only takes about 40 minutes. This is still 'slow season', so the streets were pretty empty and it felt a bit like we had the island to ourselves. We spent some time perusing the few shops that were open, then went for a swim at the Split and a had beers at the Lazy Lizard.

The boys at The Split

Eventually everyone got hungry so we walked down to Bambooze, where we ate delicious food while sitting on swings at the bar. The boys played Quiddler at one of the outdoor tables.

Unorthodox seating at Bambooze

We grabbed the next water taxi to San Pedro and made it home in time to get our chores done. It was a fun, low-stress trip.

Snorkeling off Ramon's Dock and at Boca del Rio

Twice last week I took Liam snorkeling off the dock at Ramon's Village (Lochlan did not want to go). A surprising number and variety of fish hang out there, primarily because they feed the fish, but also because they've expended a fair bit of effort to create artificial reef structures that provide some habitat. On our first trip, we saw two enormous southern stingrays fighting over the remains of a dead jack. We watched them from just a few feet away until a barracuda arrived, at which point we promptly got out of the water.

Two massive southern stingrays

On our second snorkel, we saw a lionfish! Unfortunately these beautiful fish are native to the Pacific and Indian oceans and are devastating the reef habitats here in the Caribbean.

Lionfish!

Last weekend we took the boys out on the Hobie for a snorkeling trip to the reef. This time we sailed to Boca del Rio (mouth of the river) which is a pass through the reef near a channel that connects the lagoon side of Ambergris Caye to the ocean side. We out-sailed an approaching squall (try that in a monohull!), tied off to a mooring buoy on the north side of the channel, donned our snorkeling gear, and plunged into the turquoise water.

The great thing about snorkeling here is you always see new things--on this particular trip, we saw an octopus (!) and several spiny lobsters. We also got a really good look at some juvenile French angelfish, which are quite striking and look entirely different from their adult form.

Running from the storm

Lochlan wearing goggles so the spray from the bow doesn't get in his eyes

Tied off to the mooring

Brain coral

Sea urchin

Liam with his new underwater camera

School of small blue-striped grunts

Unfortunately we see far, far too many of these plastic bags, the scourge of the sea!

This is the octopus! He is hard to see, hiding in this hole, but you can make out his eye (surrounded by pink) in the middle of the tan/brown portion in the center of the picture

Liam spotted these spiny lobsters not too far from the octopus' hiding place

Juvenile French angelfish

The Route to School

Many aspects of life here in Belize are much different from life in Seattle. Most of these differences I like, but one that I am especially fond of is riding to school with the boys in the morning. Here is a pictorial tour of the route we take each day.

At the gate--ready to ride!

Starting down Mullet Street

Farther down the street

Our street comes out near the Banyan Bay resort

We pass a scale model of a shipwreck and a 'buried treasure'

We pass Marina's, a 'locals' market (where we get beans and awesome coconut creme cookies from Trinidad)

Just pass Marina's we turn down an alley to the beach

We hang a left here

And proceed north on the beach

We ride past all of the boats at Caribbean Villas (also home of the sailing club)

Past the Sea Horse...

...Melt Cafe...

...and Crazy Canucks, a great place for live music, horseshoes, or just hanging out at the beach

Then we ride along the retaining/sea wall

...until we arrive at school! At the end of the day, we reverse the process.

The Belize Zoo

This weekend we left Ambergris Caye for a trip to the Belize Zoo. We've been on the island for five weeks now, and with the exception of a day trip to St. George's Caye, haven't left the island, so we were all looking forward to exploring a bit. We rode our bikes to the water taxi, got off in Belize City, took a taxi to the bus terminal, then rode a 'chicken bus' to the entrance of the Belize Zoo. All of the buses in Belize are re-purposed school buses from the States. Most of them are brightly painted and have unique names. There are no ticket counters at the bus terminal, no schedules, no website, and definitely no smart phone app. You just wait for your bus to show up (you know it's your bus because the hand-lettered sign in the windshield indicates the destination), you get on the bus, and then you pay the driver or the driver's assistant. Neither the drivers nor the helpers wear uniforms. There is no air conditioning, no bathroom, no television, no wifi--no amenities of any sort. However, it cost us US $1.50 a person to travel the 30 miles from the City to the Zoo.

On the water taxi to Belize City

Bus time

Our bus, just after dropping us off

We arranged to stay in one of the guest houses at the Tropical Education Center, and we were picked up by one of their managers, brought to the 'Pond House' and dropped off our things. He drove us back to the zoo, and we purchased an annual membership and toured the zoo. It was amazing! All of the animals in the zoo are indigenous to Belize and were either born in the zoo, rescued from the wild and rehabilitated at the zoo, or donated to the zoo by people who realized their 'pets' were actually wild animals that they could not control. The facility itself is very impressive--it is a world-class zoo, well signed, with great exhibits and fascinating animals. We paid an extra US $10 to have a Toucan encounter and a Tapir encounter (the national animal and bird of Belize). We were able to enter the animals' enclosures with a zoo keeper and feed them. Those were both really amazing experiences.

After seeing all of the animals, we went back to the TEC, relaxed in the Pond House, then had dinner at the main building. We then got another ride back to the zoo for the nocturnal tour. We were the only people on the tour and had the entire place to ourselves! Our guide took us to all of the nocturnal animals' enclosures and we were able to feed them treats and view them up close. The highlight of the nighttime visit was getting to pet a jaguar's paws! That really made an impression on the boys.

The next morning we hiked around the TEC, did some birding, had breakfast and attempted to catch a bus after settling our bill at the Zoo. Unfortunately, the bus blew right by us. Apparently on Sundays, they are much less likely to pick people up outside of the designated station stops, and they only run every hour instead of every 1/2 hour. Fortunately, not more than three minutes after missing the bus, Brendalee--the same taxi driver that took us from the water taxi to the bus terminal the day before--pulled off the highway and beckoned us into her cab. She gave us a ride into town (which is a blog post in itself) and we made it on to the water taxi just before its scheduled departure.

It was a fun and surprisingly smooth trip. We will be taking more trips to the mainland over the coming months, and it is encouraging to discover that it is fairly easy.

Scarlet Macaw

Feeding Indy, the tapir

Just look at that proboscis!

The boys with Runt the Toucan

Yours truly trying to feed Runt a raisin

Jabiru stork, the largest bird in the western hemisphere

Lochlan, measuring up to an adult Jabiru

A male Harpy Eagle. These birds are absolutely enormous, about 25% larger than a bald eagle

Aracari toucan, one of three species of toucan in Belize

Keel-billed toucan

Lucky Boy the Jaguar

Red-lored parrot

Chillin' on the deck of the pond house, watching the crocodiles and parrots

Puma on the night tour

Petting a Jaguar

Amy on our birding/nature hike at the Tropical Education Center