From the cool Guatemala highlands we flew to hot, humid Belize on the Caribbean. Once a British colony (and a haven for English pirates), Belize is a primarily English speaking country. The Maya were the first inhabitants and together with an interesting mix of Creoles (African/European), Mestizos (Spanish/Maya) and Garifuna (African/Caribbean) plus a few Chinese, Indians and Mennonites make it quite a different country to the rest of Central America.
.
We spent a night in Belize City [1] before catching the water taxi to Caye Caulker [2], a super laid back island 3 blocks wide and 3 kilometres long with sandy streets and only a few cars.
.
Belize has the world´s second largest barrier reef dotted with some 200 islands or cays. We took a 3 day trip on the 40 foot gaff rigged, traditional Belizean wooden sailing boat, Ragga King, heading south from Caye Caulker to Placencia [5], reggae music blaring. There were 11 of us tourists, plus 2 crew on board. Patrick, the skipper, was an expert spear fisherman while the first mate and cook Shane kept us amused with his antics and singing. Sailing between islands through aqua blue water, we stopped every couple of hours to snorkel on shallow patches of reef. Under water was a different world – beautiful corals and fish we´ve not seen before. We were thrilled to see a manatee glide by. The first night we pitched our tents on the deserted Rendezvous Caye [3] a tiny sand patch with 5 coconut trees, the second night on sandy Tobacco Caye [4]. Dinner was the fish caught each day washed down with a few rum punches whilst sitting around a campfire.
.