Hol Chan Marine Reserve, Belize
Caye Caulker – Snorkeling
Snorkelling in the Caye Caulker
Marine Reserve
we decided to do another
snorkeling trip, this time to the Caye Caulker Marine Reserve. Since it starts
at 10.30 – plenty of time to have a nice coffee and ride the bikes into town.
Then on the boat it goes and 5 Min later we are at the:
Caye Caulker South Channel:
here we go with the guys snorkeling through the Channel – and it was again a
good start with a sting ray – then we saw a lot of cool coral formations,
sometimes the channel was quite deep and sometimes it was quite shallow, he
pointed out a lot of different fish and corals (and no I can’t remember them
all) and then we went along on the outside of the reef and back towards the
boat. That was cool. Next stop:
Shark-Ray Alley: we
learned that as soon as the sharks hear the boat engine they already come,
since they know they get fed on the right side of the boat. Also here are a lot
of Stingrays. The water was not very deep – you could stand and there were
stingrays all around us (nearly too close and too scary) and there were a lot
of the nurse sharks – everywhere and lets not forget all the other fish coming.
Ramon petted some of the stingrays and had them in his arms, he says they know him
already really well.
Caye Caulker Coral Garden:
and our last water stop was in the Coral Garden – here we could snorkel around
by ourselves and there were some cool corals and some funky fish – it was super
fun. Such a shame that this is our last snorkel in a while.
Tarpon feeding: no, we
are not finished we went by the spit to the east side of the island to feed the
Tarpon. Paul did it – Gine chickened out (or let’s say, Gine took the
pictures): you had a Sardine – but because the Tarpons have such large mouth
you had to hold it between your fingers in a right angle, so that they don’t
swallow your whole hand. They are huge and as per Paul they totally bump
against your hand. I thought that was super amazing – and by the way those are
the young ones!!!
- The once we are feeding are baby-Tarpons, Tarpons can get up to 2.4 m long and weight 127 kg
- they have shiny silvery scales
- they can lay up to 12 Mill eggs at once
- they are air-breathers and if they are not allowed to access the surface they will die
- they often get caught because of their size and also because of the fight they put up and their spectacular leaping ability. They are bony fish and the meat is not good for eating.
- Here in Belize it is not allowed to keep them, it’s a catch and release only
Sea Horses ?? the last
stop was in front of a hotel, where they put in some mats with seagrass, so
that the sea horses can stay there (they don’t like the sun) – now the big
question is can we see them – Gine couldn’t see them... maybe we have to come
back tomorrow... or maybe they only want us to think that they are there…
The Belizean Coral Reef:
- it’s a series of coral reefs roughly 300 m offshore from Belize and 300 km long
- it is part of the 900 km long Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System which goes all the way from Cancun to Honduras making it the 2nd largest Reef in the world (after the Great Barrier Reef)
- in 1842 Charles Darwin described it as the most remarkable Reef in the West Indies
- It also has 3 atolls: Turneff Atoll, Glover Reef Atoll and Lighthouse Atoll, as well it is home to the great Blue Hole
- here you can find 70 different hard coral and 36 soft coral species, with over 500 species of fish
- 90% of the reef still needs to be explored so it is estimated that only 10 % of all species are discovered
- a large portion is protected as marine reserves
- because of it, Belize banned off-shore drilling for oil within 1 km of the Reef
- Scientist say that over 40 % off the reef are damaged since 1998 due to ocean population, tourism and global warning. Because of the low population in this area
- Coral bleaching: the first one happened in 1995 with 10% of the coral dying, again in 1998 after Hurricane Mitch with a 48 % reduction in live coral cover: when coral bleaching occurs a large part of the coral dies, the remaining part of the ecosystem begins a process to repair the damage. But the changes of recovery are low, as bleached corals are way more vulnerable to disease – which then kills the coral
Fun at the Spit
before we have fun, we had to bike
back to our place and back... and now we really deserve a nice relaxing
afternoon!! And we were super lucky and got a lounger and a chair right away.
And today there was also a lot to see (lets not forget it’s weekend): a kite
surfer who also jumped up on the dock- over some swimmers and also took a girl
with him to tandem kite surf. Then the boys were busy jumping from the tower
and we had a lot of fun watching them. A jet-ski came by with a dog in front.
And Then suddenly there was behind us a tiny grey cloud, but she gave enough
raindrops to create a beautiful rainbow over the ocean – Aren’t we lucky!! But
every great day comes to an end... and so we are heading back.
We get Pizza delivered
we decided to get some Pizza
tonight after all the Mexican food and rice with beans. We thought we stop at
the Pizza place to order but couldn’t find it. So back we rode our bikes and
see there – there is no sign they only deliver!! And they only start to make
pizza at 6.30 – so we wait for it. Paul later calls again and we know he is on
his way with a big flashlight, so we go outside the gate and wait: he comes
with a bicycle and a not so bright flashlight – but we get our super yummy
pizza home delivered.
The fizzing computer
when Gine wanted to take her
computer – which was charging – she got a fizzy feeling... that is when we
discovered there is no ground in this place – good thing we can turn off our
travel plug.
Good morning sunshine
our last full day in Belize – we
can’t “belieze” it that our time will be soon over and we are going home. And
again, we are greeted with beautiful sunshine... and what do we do on a last
day on vacation:
having a relaxing day – and
where else: the spit
we bike to the Spit and set up
for the day – today is Sunday and so there are a lot of locals here too. We met
some fellow travellers (even I have to say: most of the travellers here are in
their 20s and backpackers), we interrupt with several swimming and jumping
breaks, have a super nice smoothie, and some little girls come to high five
us... Otherwise we relax in the sun watching people. Did I mention Paul wanders
off by himself and right when he is at the bar section a Catamaran came by with
a lot of girls showing way too much!!
the Island of Bicycles
as where in San Pedro you are
overrun by golf carts – here everyone uses bicycles: and they are all the same
models except for different colors and showing of ages. And as we thought at
the beginning, that we live to far away – it actually is quite fast to bike
back and forth to town – and the beach path is a cool path to bike.
Oh and let’s not forget you
never can get lost on this island there are 3 streets and if you go north – 2
of them will end at some time and you end up at the spit and if you go south 2
of them will end at one time and you are in front of the airport: once there if
you would drive straight you are on the runway – so there is a cute sign: keep
left!! and at night there is a rope hanging across so you won’t drive into the
airport by accident.
we go in style for supper
with the golf cart
Abel is super nice and asked us
if we would like his golf cart to go to town tonight – wow that is so super
cool. We have a celebration supper and travel in luxury. And to top it off we
find a super nice table right at the main street in “The Happy Lobster” and
have a yummy classy dinner to celebrate our last evening (Yes Paul had shrimps
again!). When we left, Abel said that the golf cart has a light – guess that
light doesn’t really light up anything, good thing we brought the flashlight...
otherwise it would have been driving in the pitch black dark.... but now Paul
has Gine as a light!
We deserve breakfast
because this is not a fancy
hotel we stay, we couldn’t pay with visa – that means we had to go to the bank
and get our money in cash. Abel gave us again his golf cart so we also had a
nice breakfast in town: this time we parked right on the beach and had it at a
backpackers, it was warm the laid-back feeling and atmosphere (as it is
suitable for this island) – the food was backpacking style too. But it was a
lot of fun for the last day with water view. Coming back: shower and packing
and it is time to go: only 2 Min by golf cart to the airport.
2025-05-22