Arriving in Belize and Caye Caulker

Today was about getting to Belize.

I left Los Amigos in Flores at 7:30am and we collected a few others on the way to Belize. Interestingly (for the umpteenth time) as soon as I got on the bus people started to speak to me in Hebrew – to which I protested at not knowing the language; the response being “Oh…I thought you were Israeli”. For the past 2 weeks, I have been called Israeli about 20 times!

There is a large number of Israelis in the area and perhaps it’s just that which leads people to believing that I am Israeli.

On the bus, then, over half the people were Israeli – and for parts of the journey were playing some games with each other in Hebrew.

When we arrived at the border of Guatemala and Belize, we were made to get off the bus and take off our luggage as we passed immigration. The process didn’t take too long – we had to line up to get our passport stamped and pay the $5 fee to cross the border.

 

By the time we arrived in Belize City it was 1:45pm. Many of the people on the bus were continuing on to Mexico and so did not get off the bus in Belize City.

Those of us who were getting off took our things and made our way to the Belize Express boat service where we booked our boat ticket to Caye Caulker. The journey across took about 40 minutes.

On arriving, I saw why people recommended going to this place. It was an island with palm trees and clear water surrounding it.

  

I had already booked a hostel room and so made my way to Bella’s Backpackers. I settled into my dorm and walked around the island for a while.

The island itself isn’t very big. The main tourist area is pretty small – but I walked past this to an area at the back which seemed to be where a lot of the locals lived. It seemed a much poorer area and lots of children were running around.

I later asked someone at a restaurant about this area but they suggested it was an area that was being developed and that’s why it was in the condition that it was. I’m not really sure if that’s true though …it seemed like many of the places were dilapidated rather than on their way to being built up.

The other area was “the split” – which is where the island was split during a hurricane not so long ago. This area is where most people go to sit around and swim during the day.

Whilst walking, I saw lots of “kungu” trees. I’m not sure what the fruit is called in English but I managed to find some kungus on the ground which were clean and not bug infested! I took them with me and ate them for iftar along with my dinner.

I spent the evening meeting people at the hostel and having dinner.