The Tropical Backpackers Paradise that is the Belizean Island of Caye Caulker
 
Heading away from Belize City the ocean started to resemble a slightly more turquoise appearance and the many remote lush green cayes we passed were beautiful . The ocean wasn't what the taxi driver had described as 'smooth' and we bumped along hitting some waves which felt like concrete slabs at times giving you a pretty sore 'ass' to say the least! Our destination was 'Caye Caulker' a small island with lots of cheap cabanas and hopefully lots of sun. After the rollercoaster boat ride we arrived at the small jetty, having no reservations we followed the lead of the Dutch couple, Martin & Steffi, from our border bus and headed for Lorraine's. It was just what we wanted a cheap quiet basic place right on the beach, our yellow wooden cabana on stilts had a hammock across the balcony, inside the shower looked like someone had grabbed a few plastic tubes, bit of sticky tape and concocted what should resemble a shower then made a large hole in the bottom for the water to go 'somewhere' we were highly amused by this and wondered who would dare try it first!

The kiwi couple, Sandy and James who we had met on the bus journey into Belize also followed the Dutch duo and we all checked into our Cabanas then hit the 'island' after finally finding out each others names! What a great evening was had getting to know everyone, drinking a few pitchers of beer at a sports bar based on the beach then retiring back to the rather broken wooden chairs on our beach, and amongst the howling wind we supped on a good ole cheap bottle of rum for four pounds till the early hours! Joined of course by some local friends that we made, HUGE CRABS, that decided to side step near us for the entire night with their bizarre blue shells and pincers, eeek!
 
The next morning with somewhat bleary eyes we first of all experienced our 'ensuite' which when turning on the shower tap I thought that someone had poured the water straight out of the sea, it absolutely ponged and got worse the longer you stood in it! Hilariously you came out the shower feeling smellier then when you went in but that's backpacking! Next we ventured outside to properly explore the island and god it was hot, we had a nice breeze blowing in from the ocean that helped but it really was warm . We found a cheap wooden café called 'Marins Café' a third of the previous nights price and sat there taking the ambience of the island in, Jamaican style music blared across the radio, the Belizean DJ dude doing the whole 'hey man' style with service being as laid back as the locals, this was definitely a wicked place to chill!
 
After eating and checking on the internet to see if Sasha was in labour yet / exchange emergency numbers we explored the island which took about an hour, such is the size of the place. A few sandy lanes grid themselves throughout, with bright coloured shacks amongst a limited white beach and many jetty's plus a few hundred stray dogs and locals whizzing round on golf carts for transport! That afternoon was spent lying on an old broken down concrete jetty soaking up the sun and swimming in the gorgeous blue water. This area is called the spit and separates the north from the south part of the island. One of the biggest things here is the use of colour everything seems to have a coat of paint on it some vivid vibrant colour . The art and craft reflects this and we have seen loads of things that we could find a home for. After a beer at the spit where a local dude kept putting his grass hat on us we returned back for some home cooking to save dosh!
 
Our food for the evening was to be Lobster tails cooked on an open fire, James and Sandy the couple from New Zealand had mentioned the idea earlier in the day so why not. Back at Lorraines cooking was to start but no lobster was to be found so we went for sausage casserole! Borrowing a big old cast iron pot from our landlady we set about trying to get a fire going in an old washing machine drum which was highly amusing, it took a long time for it all to be ready and finally after nearly two hours we had our meal washed down with a local delicacy A&P Anise and Peppermint. It was such a success that the next nights meal was planned definitely Lobster. But first we had a full day's snorkelling trip to get ready for which James, the kiwi guy, had bartered down for us all to go on one boat which was cool...