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Hotel Luxury & Queen Elizabeth in the Caribbean
Day 42, Flores to Caye Caulker
We had a choice between two different buses this morning; one at 5:30am or one at 7:30am. Being normal human beings, we chose the later, but it still required an early wakeup. Also, as we'd hear mixed reports about whether we should wait at the hostel to be picked up or go to the office of the shuttle company (just round the corner), we decided to play it safe and go to the office.
As luck would have it, the shuttle company, which used to not do hostel/hotel pickups, now does do them, so by the time it got to its own office, its final stop, the bus was packed and we had to squeeze on the small bus with no legroom as best we could. Crazily, each pair of seats appeared to be child sized, so whereas one pair of "seats" would fit one adult in comfort, they squeezed two adults into these half-sized seats.
However, apart from being insanely uncomfortable, the good roads and problem free routes meant the journey was pretty uneventful. Even the border crossing went smoothly; we paid the unofficial border fee to leave Guatemala ($2 straight into the border guard's pocket), and were quickly on our way.
Just before we reached the Guatemalan border, a money changer jumped on the bus, managing to beat the competition at the border. Conveniently, the Belize exchange rate is fixed at B$2 to US$1 so we knew we were getting the right rate.
We were quite excited about getting to Belize, after 6 or so weeks or travelling through a Spanish speaking region, we were about to enter a former British colony. Belize's former name was British Honduras; as the Spanish were at first unable then unwilling to capture the territory from the natives, the British managed to squeezed in,. The remnants of its heritage can still be seen, beyond English being its main language, the money still portrays the British monarch. I was excited to find Queen Elizabeth II smiling at me from the dollar denominated bill. But strangely, they use a much younger image of her, perhaps 20 or 30 years younger!
Of course, the journey ended up taking much longer than expected and we eventually reached Belize City (the former, but not current, capital) in the late afternoon, about 3 hours after our stated time of arrival.
We intended to continue straight on to Caye Caulker, one of Belize's islands in the Caribbean, perfectly positioned for amazing scuba diving and probably the most visited place in the country. We'd read that Belize City has little to offer tourists and accommodation is very expensive, so there was no reason to hang around. However, as I went to hunt for an ATM (there are none on Caye Caulker, so I needed to stock up on cash first) I did have a quick glimpse at the city.
From what I saw of the city, I liked it. The place was clean and bustling, but with a relaxed Caribbean vibe which threatens to pull you in and make moving on seem too much of a hassle. The locals were friendly, relaxed and far too cool, the instant kudos that comes with having Caribbean heritage. People greeted me with smiles. Even the taxi drivers were helpful, one of them turning down my request to be taken to a cash machine as he just led me round the corner to one in walking distance. Maybe trying to take advantage of tourists is just too much effort when you're in the Caribbean?
After I'd secured some money, a small, fast boat whisked out to Caye Caulker in about an hour and the flat waters meant there were no casualties to sea sickness.
Knowing that we were arriving late in the day and that our packed boat meant that accommodation hunting would be fierce, Parki and I arranged for her to look after the bags while I set off to find a room. So, as soon as we docked, I jumped off onto the small pier and hurried into the small town.
Caye Caulker is a beautiful island, the streets are covered with white sand, palm trees line the roads and the shore and the bright, bright sun gleams off of the turquoise blue waters. The layout of the island is simple, two main paths (Front Street and Back Street) run the few 100m length of the island, with smaller sandy paths interconnecting them.
However, it still took me a little longer to get my bearings and after walking straight past 2 potential places to stay, I soon found a place recommended in my guide book. I stepped into the air-conditioned reception and waited patiently while the woman chatted at length on the phone. Eventually, she finished her conversation but seemed unsure about if there were any rooms or not. She flustered for a while until another, older woman came in and she explained that they had a booking for 4 or 5 rooms and if they didn't turn up, or only wanted 4 rooms, there would be a vacancy.
After waiting for a few minutes, a group of 13 people, from the boat I came in on, soon turned up and it was obvious they were going to need all the rooms. The receptionist suggested I wait a moment as I might still be able to get a room, but after the group faffed around for a few minutes, seemingly getting nowhere, I decided it'd be better to continue my search.
In the end, I decided to go for a place which was quite expensive (the most expensive place we'd stayed so far, at US$40 or £10 each) for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I'd be searching for some time now and as Parki was waiting on the pier in the hot sun and I was getting hot and sweaty from running around. Secondly, we were both actually feeling quite sick (suffering from Montezuma's Revenge - the standard upset stomach that backpackers get occasionally when travelling) so a bit of comfort (and a TV!) would be very nice. Thirdly, rooms seemed to be in short supply and fourthly, £10 each isn't actually that expensive!
By the time we were sorted out and checked into our very comfortable room it was getting later. The owner of the hotel was extremely friendly, giving us a map of town with dozens of highlighted restaurants and bars (in our price range and 99% likely not to get us ill) and other services, explaining everything in great detail), so we set out to try to force some dinner into our unaccommodating stomachs.
Afterwards, we did very little other than make the most of the nice hotel by relaxing in the cool room and watching movies (in English!) and allowing our stomachs to recover.
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