16th – 21st July, 2023
‘Go slow’ is the motto on this island. There are placards dotted all around the place reminding you to do so, and many establishments feature it as part of their name. Once during my stay I found myself legitimately in a rush to get somewhere and paid the price of being heckled the entire way by locals telling me off for pacing too fast. “Where you goin’?” several of them asked me rhetorically.
The journey here was an uncomfortable one (which I covered at the end of my last blog), but one good thing that came about it is that I made some friends, and some of them turned out to be staying at the same hostel as me. The others weren’t too far away. This is a small island so you are never too far away from anywhere, and everyone seems to know each other. On the evening of my arrival the island was bustling with activity as it was the last day of the Lobster Festival and the well-known ‘Sunday Funday Sunset Cruise’ was due to set off: an event where young backpackers board a series of party boats that they can swim between whilst drinking an unlimited supply of rum punch. Despite not being an exactly ‘young’ backpacker anymore I was briefly tempted until I found out the price and realised that it was very much what I would consider a ‘flashpacker’ event.
Caye Caulker used to be a single island, but Hurricane Hattie divided it into two when it devasted the area in 1961. When the people recovered they filled the gap between the island with bars, loungers and diving platforms and named it ‘The Split’, and it is now a popular place to hang out. Boats pass between all day long, but you can swim across it if you are strong enough to outmatch the currents. This was where me and my friends passed by much of our free time in the coming days; drinking in the shallows, chatting, and occasionally doing some – perhaps unwise – halfcut snorkelling.
It was also here that one of my friends got talking to one of the local boatmen and negotiated a day trip for us to the nearby Hol Chan Marine Reserve (part of the world’s second-largest barrier reef). Many tour companies offer snorkelling trips here, but they were a bit more expensive than we would have liked, and this worked out a bit cheaper. I will mention now that there were some positives and negatives to doing this the way we did, and I will cover that in my Practical Information section at the end of this blog.
We numbered five, but there was room on the boat for one more. At first it seemed it would stay vacant as everyone else we knew already had plans but as we were preparing to leave the following morning I happened to bump into Mara – someone I hiked Acatenango with a few weeks ago – and the serendipity of this encounter seemed to be a sign. I asked her if she wanted to come, and she said yes.
As our boat was cruising towards the marine reserve we noticed that some of the other boats heading that way had stopped and went to investigate. It is the breeding season for manatees and I was hoping that luck was on our side, as I had never seen one before. We asked our boatman to stop, put our snorkels on and jumped into the water.
I could see why people call them ‘sea cows’. Despite his size, he was a very relaxed creature and didn’t seem bothered by the swarm of people who had suddenly leapt from their boats to swim around him. At one point he even turned to me and swam close up to my face, seemingly curious.
I know this sounds a bit jaded, but this was the main thing I wanted to see that day. Over the years I have seen dozens of sharks, turtles, rays, and other creatures, but this was something completely new. Everything else that I saw from here was a bonus.
When we reached Hol Chan Marine Reserve a few minutes later it certainly did not disappoint. It had beautiful coral, rock formations, and plenty of fish.
We spent quite a lot of time in the water here and during that time saw rays, sharks and all other kinds of creatures. The water was crystal clear, and the currents were calm. It was the best snorkelling I have done in quite some time.
By the time we got back onto the boat, the guide told us that we only had enough time left for one stop, and this was to a place called Shark Alley.
Now, I do have some opinions about this place, so forgive me, but I am about to get onto my soapbox for a while.
This has become an essential stop for the snorkelling trips at Caye Caulker. I believe that it has always been a place where sharks can be spotted if you are lucky but now sightings are guaranteed because some of the tour companies are feeding them, and, trust me, this is not good for the animals. When you feed wild animals, they often forget how to feed themselves as they come to rely upon it, and creating an association of humans with food can be dangerous, too, because some animals will become aggressive when they do not get what they expect. There have been cases of this happening in places such as Sharm El Sheik in Egypt.
The boat we hired for the day did not do this – it was something we specified when we hired it – and some of the tour companies at Caye Caulker have also adopted a more responsible stance and do not feed the sharks (I will mention a couple of them in the Practical Information at the end of this blog). However, even if you make sure you choose a tour that is not engaging in this behaviour, they will still probably visit Shark Alley, and you can’t blame them for it as they would lose a lot of business if they didn’t. It is still – in my opinion – worth going with an agency that doesn’t feed the sharks as it helps to discourage the practice but bear in mind that there seems to be no way of completely disassociating yourself.
And unfortunately, Shark Alley is not the only instance of this behaviour going on at Caye Caulker. When we boarded the boat we did so at a place called the Tarpon Feeding Dock, where tourists are taken to watch them jump out of the water to catch fish.
And every day, at sundown, people gather at Stingray Beach because they too are being lured there with food.
I don’t blame people for being curious. We are all human. When I passed by Stingray Beach and the Tarpon Feeding Dock, I couldn’t help but take a look and watch for a little while, but someone tried to sell me fish to feed to them I said no and I did not buy any drinks at the Iguana Reef Inn (the place that is feeding the stingrays).
I am unsure if the creatures here have been humanised to the point of dependence yet, but it is concerning. The tourism industry at Caye Caulker is creating a problem that will likely come back and (quite literally) bite them at some point, and I am not qualified to know what the answer will be when it does. I just want to mention it here so that those visiting are aware, and I hope some of you consider being discerning about which activities and tours you take part in. If enough people boycott Iguana Reef Inn and the companies feeding the sharks it will send a message and force them to be more responsible.
And please don’t let everything I have mentioned in the last few paragraphs stop you from going from Caye Caulker because it is a great place full of wonderful people. If you are looking for either a short holiday or a Caribbean interlude during your trip around Latin America, this is a great and unforgettable place to do it.
The underwater photos were kindly donated to me by Milz who is also on a trip around Latin America. They are doing a lot of scuba diving and also own a GoPro so you should give them a follow on TikTok (@ADHDbackpacker)
I will now give some Practical Information for those who might be visiting, so keep reading if that is you.
Practical Information
Accommodation
If you are a budget-conscious traveller there are two options on Caye Caulker; Bella’s Backpackers or Tropical Oasis. They are of a similar price, but Tropical Oasis has much better facilities. They have a great social area, a communal kitchen, and each bed has an individual fan. At present they can only be booked on Hostelworld so make sure to reserve early as they have limited spaces. Also, try to get into the eight-bed dorm instead of the four-bed dorm if you can (they are the same price, but the eight-bed dorm is cooler).
Food
Check out Wish Willy. It doesn’t look like much when you arrive – just some benches set up in a dude’s garden – but I think that is part of the magic. Willy does enjoy a bit of banter, so it might take a while to get around to telling him what you want to eat, and the food might take a while, but once it comes; it is delicious, authentic, and much cheaper than the other restaurants. Have a couple of beers and remember to go slow.
Tours
As I mentioned in this blog, the tours (like many things in Belize) are expensive. Me and my friends did manage to independently hire a boat and saved some money because of it, but bear in mind this came with some drawbacks. We had to bring our own food and drinks, and our ‘guide’ was in a bit of a rush to get us there and back as quickly as possible, so we did have to renegociate our itinerary a bit. I do not regret what we did because we still had a good day and got to see everything we wanted, but if you do have the money you will almost certainly get more perks and have a fuller day if you splash out on one of the conventional tours. This will also ensure you have more certainty about the service you will get as the companies rely on their reputations (whilst a boatman has other means of income). I spent some of my first day on this island scouting out the different companies and saw many of the boats whilst we were on our trip (as we went to most of the same spots). Salt Life Ecotours and Ragga Sailing are two that do not feed the sharks, and they are the same price, but Ragga Sailing has a much better boat with fewer people on it. Also, if you go with Ragga Sailing your guide will probably be Captain Shane who is an absolute legend. If you end up staying at Tropical Oasis you will probably meet him as he is friends with the people who run it and often hangs out there.
Ragga Sailing can be contacted by WhatsApp at +501 627 7273.
Tej Turner 