Day 8 - Friday

I woke up around 7am, finally at 8am Lincoln suggested we get up and figure out what we were gonna do. We had NO PLANS today at all which was nice. We decided we'd take the Water Taxi to San Pedro on Ambergris Caye, a neighboring island which is larger and has much more on it.

I had planned to do 'research' before we went over - that never happened. I love to plan...I'm beginning to learn to "Go Slow" and "Let Go". Its a concept and will add years to my life if I can embrace it!

I fired up the laptop to see what the water taxi schedule was. Later I found out  the Internet was incorrect. What I saw was that there was a taxi at 8:45am or 11:15 (there was also one at 9:30 that wasn't listed which we would have relaxed and taken had we known about it). We wanted to make the 8:45 one because 11:15 was just too late.

Its now 8:15 so we quickly shower, dress and leave. We walk up the beach to the water taxi and arrive just as its pulling up. Great - except we don't have a ticket yet. Lincoln has to go over to the office on the street to get the BZE$22 RT PP tickets. Fortunately we make it on the boat. This is one of the smaller ones (though newer & sleeker) that you have to sit inside. Its hot, so I'm bummed. Luckily its only about a 20-30 minute ride. The good news is I still have not had any sea sickness here. YAY!

We arrive at San Pedro and disembark. We walk up the half block to the main drag and are assaulted with 6 Golf Carts in a row FLYING down the very crowded (carts parked on the sides) streets. It was mayhem compared to Caye Caulker. I looked at Lincoln and said "get me the hell back on that boat". Seriously, it was like going from Kansas to NYC. Its also hotter than on CC, which I didn't think could be possible.

                        This picture really doesn't depict the "BIG CITY" feel
We walk a few blocks and find a store that is air conditioned. We go inside but its not local stuff, its clothing we could buy at home. That's fine, I linger to get cool. We walk to the other side of the island (at this part you can do that). Lincoln asks someone for a restaurant suggestion and then we walk back to the beach to find Lily's.

Lily's Restaurant

Once we get back on the beach side, its not so bad, though it is much more crowded than CC. Both people and business wise. We order breakfast, which is good but its also basically American prices (resort prices). I decide to try a Cinnamon Roll that seems to be on most menu's. Its warm and yummy. The fruit plate, though I order the small, its very large. We each have watermelon juice. Lincoln gets an Omelet. Bill is BZE$40.50. I think the most we've paid for breakfast yet.

Cinnamon Roll & Fruit Plate

                                                    Linc's Omelet & Fry Jacks - USD$10

View from our Table

After we eat we start walking up the beach. We stop at one of the jewelery tables and I start picking out necklaces. We found 6 that we liked. I also bought 3 anklets. I can't wait to get back to CC, we got good buys here, I'm thinking we can do even better on CC!

                                            The gal/table where the necklaces came from

As we wait for a the gal to add beads to make a couple of the necklaces longer, we see a couple (around our age) that we noticed were also on the water taxi, Lincoln says Hello and they stop and talk to us. They live on CC, ex-pats from England or Australia (I'm not sure).

Barry & Lindsay have come over to San Pedro to get their Passports stamped, pick up supplies and spend the night (a mini getaway). We have a nice chat, they tell us where they live and that we should stop by and check out their house since they are thinking of selling it. They tell us about a restaurant, The Blue Water Grill, further up the beach where you can get Blue Cheese crumbles (but you have to know about it and ask for them) on a Turkey & Cranberry Pita Sandwich (Western Food). Lindsay's eyes light up when she tells me about it!

                                      The Blue Water Grill

We get as far as the Blue Water Grill, its hot and I'm thirsty so we decide to have a drink. Lincoln just orders a Limeade, I order a Panty Ripper (sometimes called a Panti Rippa') which is Coconut Rum with Pineapple juice. Since we just ate breakfast, we don't order food. When the server (who once again is as hot as the air) brings the bill he asks Lincoln if he likes Rum. Linc says yes, but I didn't feel like a rum. The server laughs and says next time you will and leaves the bill. As you can see, the rum is basically free! LOL!

    Virgin Limeade BZE$6 / Panty Ripper BZE$6

As we walk on the beach there are lots of people selling there wares. We notice someone is selling hammocks. Lincoln has been negotiating with a guy on CC for a couple of days for a really special hammock. Its made out of nylon and crocheted so that if one thread breaks the hammock will stay in tact, it won't unravel. Miguel's first price was BZE$280. He's dropped it $20 or so each time we see him. Now we are in San Pedro and Lincoln walks up to the hammocks and Miguel swings around the corner and smiles. SMALL WORLD! They negotiate more (in Spanish) and Miguel finally gives Linc his rock bottom price of BZE$150. We tell him to find us at the Sports Bar at 5pm on CC and we'll buy it then. He does and we do!

Its noon and there is a water taxi back to Caye Caulker at 1pm. I want to be on it. While I'm sure there are things to see here, I didn't do the research and I don't want to wander around aimlessly, its way too hot for that. We are gonna come back in the future so I'll check this Caye out next time!

We do need to kill some time so we keep going down the beach and come across a really nice resort that is geared towards divers. The hotel rooms have thatched roofs, it looks cool.

        While we wait for the taxi I notice a truck out in the water...on a barge.

We got back to the Water Taxi dock and hopped on the 1pm taxi. We were happy to dock on Caye Caulker. Barry & Lindsay had told us that the Barrier Reef Sports Bar & Grill have a Guitar Jam every Friday from 3-6pm where they play good music from "our era". So we head back to the room to shower & relax. Linc takes a nap while I try to catch up on my blog.

Finally just before 4pm we head down the beach towards the Sports Bar. The band is in full swing. They sound good and people are having fun. We grab a table, order drinks and chips & queso since the kitchen isn't fully opened yet.

Once again, a fabulous CC day!

Day 4 - Monday July 2, 2012 - Caye Caulker - Belize

Day 4 - Monday July 2, 2012 Caye Caulker (CC)

First I have to say that we are getting plenty of exercise on this trip and have easily cut our food consumption in half. We walk everywhere and its a sauna so I think it counts double! I know Dr Anne, my Chiropractor/Health Consultant/friend would be proud!

We woke up fairly early, probably about 7:30. We are going out on a snorkeling trip at 10:30am so first we had breakfast at Glenda's. I assume they open at 8am, they opened at 7am so by the time we get there she was out of her 'famous' Cinnamon rolls. She doesn't have fruit on her menu and the thought of eating eggs in this heat is not appealing to me (plus we are going out on a boat and I've been known to suffer from sea sickness), so I just order orange juice. Linc orders eggs, ham, beans and a biscuit -- PIG. I end up eating the biscuit with homemade jam which is awesome. The juice tastes "funny", Linc tastes it and tells me its I think it tastes funny because its actually FRESHLY SQUEEZED from oranges...like the real thing baby! Its not real cold but its really fresh...squeezed moments ago!

We are going to Shark/Ray Alley and two other 'dives'. Its a small boat and the other guests are a group of young Israeli kids you just finished their tour in the
Army. Five girls and one boy. They are very nice. Mario is the Dive leader and Juan is his helper. Mario is a very funny man who has been on CC for 25 years. Between dives they serve us fresh fruit (watermelon and later pineapple which they cut on board) and later we get special punch (rum). We only motor about 10 minutes off the coast of CC to the Belize Barrier reef to Shark/Ray Alley. They are EVERYWHERE! The water is very shallow so I sit on the edge of the boat waiting for the area to be clear so I can slide off the side of the boat and not step on any rays or sharks when my feet hit the bottom (yuck!). The first time I go in, I didn't wear my water socks so I'm afraid to touch the ground. Its sandy with sea grass...but mainly there are rays EVERYWHERE.

                                                    The boat we took out to the Reef

                                                                    These are MY feet

                                                                     Nurse Sharks
NOTE: Our plan is to buy a program at some point that we can use to edit our videos, I'm sure you are wishing we had already done that, or you will be wishing so by the end of this trip. Unfortunately you are gonna have to deal with me wondering if the video is working or with extra time on the end of videos...sorry!

As you see from the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63nyUTBd6oo, Lincoln hands me the camera. Its an awesome video! I can't tell if he's handed it to me with the video going or if I'm supposed to take pictures, its hard to see the screen. I assume the video is on. Unfortunately there is a point where he comes up to me from my blind side and scares the living sh*t out of me! I mean REALLY???????? You do not TOUCH me when there are sharks and rays swimming around my feet. I FREAKED OUT! Fortunately the things I said did not end up being recorded. Those of you that know me...can fill in the blanks! I could not get out of the water fast enough. I panicked. Silly I know, but that's what happened. I hyperventilated, the whole nine yards. Juan tried to get me in the boat and couldn't. After a few moments, I was able to calm myself enough to get out on my own. Once back in the boat, I started to calm my breathing. One of the Israeli gals also freaked herself out and came out and joined me. I could then concentrate on calming HER down. Eventually we both calmed down enough and we both went BACK in the water.

Lincoln later told me how proud he was of me. First for getting in the water in the first place with the sharks & rays and then even more for getting in the second time. That was nice. He didn't scare me on purpose, he wanted the camera and thought I knew he was next to me.

Oh...we saw a BARRACUDA (he's in the video above)! Scary looking fish. He was pretty big too! Even freaked out Lincoln who doesn't get phased very easily. While the Nurse Sharks and Rays are docile, the Barracuda is not. We saw him at the first location and then again at the third location. All locations were fairly close to each other so it made sense that we kept seeing him. I of course start to wonder if he's stalking me and wants a chunk of my lily white flesh!

The next two places were fun as well, coral reefs to explore, hundreds of different fish to see and Lincoln saw a bunch of huge Lobsters in the rocks. We even saw a lost Ray. We were always in sight of CC.

                                                       Looking towards the island

We got back to the room about 2pm. The A/C still hasn't been fixed. The repairman should be on the Water Taxi from Belize City that arrives at 4pm. We take ice cold (the only smart kind) showers to get the salt water off us and cool off.

We are hungry and thirsty so we decided to try a restaurant, Tropical Paradise, around the corner & through the graveyard, that's having a Happy Hour (all day really) special of a bucket of 6 beers (9.6oz each) for BZE$20 (USD$10) with Chips & Salsa included. We order that and the girl gets all embarrassed and giggly when we tell her the bucket is just for Lincoln and I want the Banana Colada special 2 for BZE$10. We ordered dinner and hung out for awhile hoping that by the time we got back to our room it would be a cold room.

                                 The graveyard we walk through multiple times each day!

                              Lincoln and his bucket of Belikin Beers

My Love & Me

                             The Fish Fillet Special (yummy potatoes)

At about 5pm a storm came in and it started to pour and get really windy. We thought it might just pass through but it looked like it was going to stay. We have paid for a trip to the Blue Hole tomorrow. Fortunately we have plenty of time and if we don't go tomorrow there will be other trips we can go on. The rain comes and goes but the storm is sitting over us. The good news is that it does cool things off a bit.

                                      After the first rain shower

When we headed back to the room we found that our room was still a "hot room". Doris set us up in room #2 on the first floor while the repairman worked on the A/C unit for our room. Within a short time our room was cold and we were happy campers.

We only ate twice today (I really only ate once). But neither of us are hungry. Its going to be an early morning, we have to be at the pier by 5:45am to go to the Blue Hole so our plan is to go to sleep early but of course its almost 11 before we finally get there.

I'm so far behind in this blog that I spend time typing it instead! Adding pictures seems to take even longer than typing it. Gotta please the fans - LOL!

I'm thrilled so many people, friends and people I don't know, from all over the world are reading my blog! Thank you!!!