Caye Caulker

Belize is also famous for its tropical islands located near the second longest barrier reef in the world. Of course, a visit to the tropical islands of the “Keys” is definitely on your “must-see” list when you get here. Caye Caulker is a small coral limestone island off the coast of Belize in the Caribbean Sea, measuring approximately 8.0 km north to south. The island is located approximately 32 km north-northeast of Belize City and is accessible by high-speed water taxi. So we safely parked the Nemo boat at the “Belize Old Harbour” Marina and headed to Caye Caulker, where we stayed for four nights. In recent years, the island has become a popular destination, completely dependent on tourism, with establishments selling tours to “attractions” or “activities” galore.

It must be said that, compared to the Mayan sites in Belize, which are little visited (most tourists go to the Mexican ones, the most famous sites being crowded with buses full of Instagrammers), the island of Caye Caulker, like other islands in the area, is very touristy. Unfortunately, the island no longer has corals around it (the so-called house reef). Global warming, tropical storms and probably excessive tourism have completely destroyed the corals that are close to the beach. Although the second longest coral reef in the world is nearby, there is not even a beach around the island where you can do decent snorkeling. To do snorkeling you have to take a "snorkeling tour", of course expensive (90 USD/person) and crowded, the boat fills up with as many customers as they want to come. If a turtle appears, all the restless tourists jump on it with their GoPro camera or mobile phone wrapped in a plastic bag, to film and post their special experience on Instagram! :) We only went snorkeling once. Although they told us that the boat doesn't go snorkeling with more than 8 tourists, the next day there were 11 in total. And they pretended to forget... Typical cash-makers business in a touristy place. Crowded boat... We didn't even try diving, when we felt the "vibes" around the dive shops we decided not to go. The real luxury is to say "I don't need this", even if you can afford it. Although it's hard to find peace in such places, the experience was undoubtedly interesting, and the time spent here was a little vacation from overlanding.Weiterlesen