Caye Caulker, Belize

"Taxi? Boyfriend?"

"Conch fritters! Conch fritters! You're missing out!"

"I'm looking for a girlfrieeeeend!"

After a somewhat haphazard day consisting of multiple forms of transport and unorganised border crossings, the team set foot on the island of Caye Caulker, Belize some 10 hours later with much emptier wallets. Immediately after stepping off the ferry, we realised how friendly the Belizean people in this island are, striking up a conversation with anyone and everyone that passes them in the street. There are a lot of bold personalities here that's for sure. Pretty strange to be back in a predominately english speaking country again but this is only a fleeting visit for us to Belize. Expensive living and no real outstanding attractions compared to the other Central American countries means the island of Caye Caulker is the only stop for us in this country.

Accommodation options were somewhat limited for the five of us when we got around to trying to book somewhere so we ended up in an animal sanctuary come hostel for our first two nights. Unfortunately it lived up to most of the poor reviews, giving us dirty, boiling hot rooms and a lingering smell of cat pee. Probably not surprising considering there are probably at least 40 cats within this property. Perhaps the original idea was nice but the place has got out of hand and is well in need of some TLC. Thankfully after walking around and asking almost every hotel/guesthouse on the island, we found a new place to stay for our last two nights. Much cleaner, with fresh towels daily and almost half the price too. Upgrade would be an understatement.

"Go Slow" is the motto around here so that's mostly what we've been doing. Starting the day with fry jacks became part of the daily morning routine. Fry jacks are a traditional belizean dish, consisting of deep-fried dough and filled with any combination of cheese, eggs, beans, chicken or ham. They don't look appetising at all but they satisfy the stomach each morning. After that most of our days revolved around where to eat next, punctuated with drinking, swimming, kayaking, sunbathing and reading. Tough times out here.

We did make an exception to venture out for a full day snorkelling trip with Caveman tours which was definitely a highlight. Multiple stops, including one to Hol Chan Marine reserve allowed us to see a range of sea life, beginning with one of the biggest turtles any of us had ever seen. We also managed to see a few different stingrays, sharks, a shipwreck, sea horses, tarpons, eels and an abundance of other smaller fish. Unfortunately we missed out on seeing manatees due to it being the wrong season, but everyone really enjoyed the day regardless. Amazing visibility and being able to swim in such close proximity to the stingrays, sharks and the turtle was epic and our guides showed us a good time.

Given that we'd walked past Fran's Grill every night with her hollering at us to come and have dinner, we thought we'd better give her food a shot. This establishment literally consisted of a small shack about twice the size of a London telephone box for food prep and a handful of picnic tables on the beach. The usual deal involved a main with two sides, unlimited rum and dessert for 25 Belize dollars each (£10/$17NZD). This particular night they had no dessert and this was by no means a cheap meal for us so we we bargained for extra sides as a replacement! At one point Rich also tried to bargain for more rum as well, to which we had to remind him we were already getting unlimited servings... The food was pretty good, we had a mixture of jerk chicken and variations of shrimp between us and a few laughs with the staff in between.

A post dinner chat with one of the locals that helped served us gave us a bit of insight to life on the island and in Belize in general. This was definitely one of the perks of the locals speaking English here. So many times in Mexico I found myself wanting to ask more about things or the culture but the language barrier stopped me from being able to do so. Got to brush up on the Spanish some more for the next few countries as we are heading back into primarily Spanish speaking places again now.

We're headed to Guatemala next. This is one of the countries I have been looking forward to most, so let's see what it has to offer!Read more