On Tuesday, December 22nd we decided to take a day trip to Caye Caulker. We’d only been there as a stopover from the mainland to Ambergris Caye and then we’d only seen their tiny airstrip. We’d heard great things — that it’s a smaller, mellower island and the town is reminiscent of San Pedro fifteen years ago. It’s easy to get to by ferry, so we drove the golf cart into town to catch the boat. We had Jamma with us, so I was in back with the boys and took a few photos. Here’s the new road I wrote about before. Such an improvement!
And here are a couple more random shots from the drive.
The ferry ride was pretty good — a little tough for those of us who suffer from motion sickness but not too bad. The first thing we did when we got to Caye Caulker was find a store and buy some water. We were parched! Then we rented bikes and rode around town for about twenty minutes.
It was a little early for lunch but we went anyway, choosing to dine at the Lazy Lizard at the Split. It was a beautiful spot. We ate upstairs, but here’s our view including the sunbathers down below.
After lunch we got back on the bikes and went for a ride. We were told that there was a path that went all the way around the island so we tried to find that. Unfortunately, we either didn’t find it or we found it and it was too muddy and overgrown to cycle through. But we went for quite a while anyway and had a nice ride.
I think this was where we finally decided to throw in the towel and turn around.
By the end of the ride, we were very, very hot and sweaty and couldn’t wait to change into our suits and get in the water. We went back to the Split and I took a quick dip before sitting out with the stuff while the boys swam and snorkeled. Here are some pictures from my perch. Ezra snorkeled a lot.
The current was too strong for Finn, so Bruce rented an inner tube for him. He loved it.
Who wouldn’t love getting pushed around by your dad for an hour?
Ezra came out of the water after a while to enjoy his favorite drink.
After we were done swimming, we hit the little ice cream shop next door, returned the bikes, and headed to the dock to catch the ferry back to San Pedro. I took a few shots from the dock, which Google Photos helpfully stitched together for me as a nice panoramic.
That evening I tried to get some photos of Jamma’s Christmas lights. I’m not a very good night time photographer, but you get the idea.
She’d also decorated one of the palm trees and it looked awesome.
The next morning I went on my one and only walk. Between the weather and my laziness I just hadn’t gotten out. It was a super windy day but the sunrise was as beautiful as always.
I tried going north first because my path south was blocked due to beach erosion and a tide that seemed higher than I’d seen it before. However, I only got about a quarter of a mile before my path was blocked north, too. I headed back south, resigned to walk on the hot and breezeless road. We saw lots of people walking and jogging on the road and Bruce commented on how they all looked miserable. After a few minutes on the road, I just couldn’t do it and headed back to the beach. I got this shot going south. Like I said, it was really windy.
Sadly, this nice path quickly faded out so I only got a short walk. Two miles is better than no miles, but still it’s a bummer that it’s not easier to take a walk on the beach.
That night Bruce and I had date night at a new restaurant called Rain. It was just down the road at the Grand Caribe resort. The food was pretty good, but the view is the main selling point. Here’s a panoramic from our vantage point. Interesting how narrow the island is here — you can see both the sea and the lagoon sides.
We were, as usual, home early from our date, especially so considering our dinner reservations were at 5:00 so we could catch the sunset. (Unfortunately, it was too cloudy for any sunlight to pop through). We didn’t mind being early birds, since the next day was Christmas Eve and we had a snorkeling trip to prepare for.