Christmas in Belize (Part 2 of 2)

After a 10 minute puddle jumper ride we landed on a tiny, paved runway on Caye Caulker; a small island off the coast of Belize in the Caribbean. Luckily, ours was the only baggage in "baggage claim" (aka the cart they pushed over to the plane to fetch luggage) so it didn't take very long at all. We stayed at the Iguana Reef Inn, the place all the locals considered the nicest hotel on the island. Since we didn't know where it was, we approached one of the folks hanging out and looking helpful. Turned out he was a cabbie and could take us to our hotel via the golf cart he had parked next to him. We marveled at the cozy feel of the town as we rode through - people walking barefoot through sand-covered streets, golf carts and bicycles comprising the majority of the vehicular traffic, lengths of rope serving as speed bumps. Almost every restaurant had a Belikin sign advertising their name (we theorized that Belikin sold the signs cheap in exchange for free advertising. Belikin is the local Belizean beer and apparently quite good).


Once we got settled into our room, we pored through the tourist guest book as well as our own tourist guide book. It was almost disorienting having to plan our own meals and activities. Mystic River had served as an almost all-inclusive resort (we had the option of striking out at the nearby towns on our own but we didn't.) We were too hungry to fully appreciate the choices we had so we went with the hotel's recommendation, The Rainbow Bar & Grill on the beach. That was the lunch when I discovered that there were multiple flavors of Fanta and vowed to try all they had available.



That afternoon, we just wandered around the streets to get the lay of the land. It was a surprisingly short walk; probably only half an hour to walk the main areas. We spotted some of the restaurants and tour guide offices we had already read about in our tour book.

Later in the evening, we ate at Rose's Bar & Grill because they had fresh fish/seafood at the front of the establishment where we could pick out what we wanted grilled before we even sat down to eat. As we waited for our food in the back of the restaurant, we heard a commotion and some reggae Christmas music playing outside. Since most of the restaurant went to go look, we had to get up and check it out as well. And what to our wondering eyes should appear but a Santa Claus sitting in the back of a small pickup truck with some of his helpers waving to the crowd, spreading good cheer while a small parade of children followed the truck on foot. They even had a lighted Christmas tree in the back with them. Just another reminder that it was Christmas time in the Caribbean.

The next morning after brunch (had a delicious honey mustard chicken quesadilla with my Red Fanta - strawberry) we went on a manatee tour given by local legend, Chocolate (yes, he goes by that name). It was through his advocacy that the 9000 acre Swallow Caye Wildlife Preserve was established in 2002. While Chocolate's knowledge of the manatees was somewhat limited, his adoration for the gentle creatures was crystal clear and quite endearing. Manatee sightings were somewhat slow at first. We didn't see any at the first stop and even at the second stop where Chocolate and his apprentice would point them out in the distance, I wasn't able to differentiate water glare from sea creature. As luck would have it, a mother and calf took a liking to our boat for the last 40 minutes or so. They swam back and forth under our craft, surfacing on either side for plenty of closeup opportunities. I tried the underwater filming thing, but the Discovery Channel isn't hiring me for ocean footage anytime soon.



The following day was snorkeling day with Patrick and Rafael of Ragamuffin Tours. (Captain Patrick pictured below)



We were on the RaggaGal, a yellow wooden sailboat, for our 3 stop snorkeling tour. The first stop was the Coral Gardens, fairly shallow with plenty of interesting fish in the sea grass and coral. We were left to our own devices to snorkel around. Back on the 'Gal, we had some watermelon, papaya and pineapple while I noticed a chill in the air. One of our fellow snorkelers pointed to a horizon that had grown ominously dark to explain the chill (cue Gilligan's Island music). That same snorkeler asked with some trepidation if we were headed directly into that rainstorm. To which Capt. Patrick shrugged and replied, "That's how we roll," as donned his shorty wetsuit. The second stop was called Shark Ray Alley, where there was a proper downpour going on. Unwilling to brave the water when I was already shivering, I opted to stay on the boat while Rafael took most of the rest of the snorkelers on a tour just beside the boat. At least I didn't miss out on the nurse sharks and rays because Rafael picked one of each up, plopped them on his chest to point out their poor, confused features to the snorkelers. Meanwhile, Patrick was flinging sardines into the water to attract those sharks and rays and even a flock of seagulls looking for a free lunch. After Shark Ray Alley, we had our lunch and headed off to the crown jewel of snorkeling stops, Hol Chan.

That time, Patrick was our snorkeling guide. An accomplished spear fisher and free diver (he said he could dive 80 feet), he had no problems freediving down to the 20 or 30 feet to point out the fishes for us. Thankfully, the rain had stopped by then. We saw a giant grouper hanging out underneath the boat as soon as we got back in the water. It even came over to get a chin scratch from Patrick. We saw some green moray eels investigating a conch shell. The schools of fish were much bigger than the earlier stop, both in numbers and size. There was a tightly packed group of black margaritas looking very much like a black cloud underwater. There were also a few groupers trying to hang with the cool kids and blend in. Patrick showed us an underwater cave 20 feet down by freediving through it. Only Lee and one other snorkeler managed to make it through it. I was sticking close to the surface so I wasn't about to try it.

The highlight for me (and I'm bummed our camera glitched out so we don't have a picture) was when we swam to the shallow sea grass and found a grazing sea turtle. Poor thing had a stub in place of his right flipper, but seemed to have no trouble getting around. I swam alongside it for a while as it alternated between munching on the sea grass and getting gulps of air from the surface.

Back on the boat, everyone was treated to rum punch and shrimp ceviche. I had a Coke and chips and salsa. To our delight, the wind had picked up and Patrick and Rafael put up the sails to sail our way back home. I joked with Lee that he had gone native as he strolled through the sandy streets in bare feet, carrying his sandals and rum punch.

The rest of the time was low key. We tooled around Caye Caulker, spent some down time hanging out at the hotel "beach" which consisted of hard sand near a dock. I finished my Fanta tour of Belize - Orange, Red (or strawberry), Ginger Ale and Yellow (pineapple). We also made it a point to buy some foodstuffs from the wandering vendors as the tour book suggested. We had some of Charlie's Tamales, but my favorite was the Cake Man (The tour book tells me his name is Lloyd) who sold us a moist and delicious chocolate cake and oatmeal cookies on our way to the Lazy Lizard bar at the northernmost part of this half of Caye Caulker for some sunset viewing. We took in another half day snorkeling tour with Ragamuffin where I actually got to be in the water when we visited the nurse sharks and rays.



Christmas Eve was our final full day in Belize and we packed our schedule. We had breakfast and spa massage at Coco Plum Spa near the airport. It was a farther walk from the busy "downtown" but set in among a veritable jungle where it felt isolated and relaxing. I got a prenatal massage from a Mayan midwife who, in addition to providing me with the traditional Mayan womb centering treatment, found the baby's heartbeat and let me feel it too. We went back to Sobre Las Olas where I had my honey mustard chicken quesadillas again for lunch. We were befriended by a local dog who was happy to keep us company as well as a roaming band of neighborhood kids. One little girl, Teoni, took a liking to me, wanting to share my swing seat as we waited for our check. She grabbed my hand as we got up to leave and wanted to know where we were going. Then she was distracted by a jellyfish sighting by one of her friends and she scampered off to ooh, ahh and squeal in disgust at it. We found Cake Man again for our Christmas Eve chocolate cake and headed to the Catholic church for the very small Christmas Eve service. Besides us, there was a family from Chicago and a local family in the church with a service given by a Jesuit priest. We wandered back to our inn where Lee had some rumpopo (rum egg nog. Is there any liquid they don't add rum to here?) and rum chocolate fruit cake. I had orange juice and the white cake (and of course my chocolate cake from the Cake Man). For dinner we went to the Sand Box where I had the local favorite, stew chicken with rice and beans. Lee had his customary grilled lobster. Then it was off to the movies at the Paradiso Bar where for the price of a drink, we could watch a DVD being projected onto the side of the building by the beach. We watched Unstoppable with Denzel Washington and Chris Pine and I collected a whole lot more bug bites on my legs.

Christmas Day was a day of airports and family phone calls. Traveling went relatively smoothly, even getting through customs in Houston was palatable.

What a wonderful way to spend a tropical Christmas. We'll have do it again someday.