Caye Caulker Go Slow

We chose to spend our last full day on Caye Caulker, a smaller, far more relaxed island than Ambergris Caye where San Pedro is. We had designs on renting a kayak, or a jet-ski, or even try our hand at para-gliding. So would you know it? We woke up Friday to rain. We pressed on, surely this rain will stop, after all it’s only been spurts of rain the whole week so far.

We had breakfast at Estel’s Dine by the Sea and caught the 9:30am shuttle to Caye Caulker. It was 15 minutes late due to the rain. We arrived at a wet, gloomy Caye Caulker, unlike two days prior when we lunched here as part of our snorkel sail. It was even quieter now. We decided to wait an hour or so but the rain never let up. So we got out our ponchos and explored the island in the rain. Everything watersport related was closed. Drats!

We headed to the Lazy Lizard at The Split for drinks and to watch a group of young men (tourists) enjoying a swim and tomfoolery in the rain. Another tourist (older man) was snorkeling and reported seeing quite a bunch of fish and starfish. But no seahorses. The water was remarkable warm especially as the rain had made it feel cold that day. The Split is where Hurricane Hattie in 1961 split the island of Caye Caulker into two. The south side where we are is developed and the north side is still mostly swampy mangroves. The channel offers a nice little sandy beach for the above mentioned swim & tomfoolery. I would have liked to go over to the north side for an ecology hike and bird-spotting. But it was not to be.

M’sa and I continued our sea almond harvesting and eating. After walking around the island for a few hours – there weren’t that many people about – we returned to our hotel, Popeye’s Beach Resort – it was the only one with vacancy at the time – for a short relaxation. At this point, the rain had let up to a slight drizzle. We headed out again, doing the same loop as it’s a small island this time stopping at Barrier Reef Sports Bar where they were having a Guitar Jam. They had quite the crowd…of older Americans. The idea was to have a drink or two, enjoy the music, before heading out for dinner. But the crowd was not the business and there were too many smokers.  Not cool!

So we headed off to Rose’s Grill and Bar where we planned to have dinner.  The place had been recommended by our neighbours at the hotel. It was still early yet but the idea here, as at quite a few other restaurants, is that the fresh catch of the day is laid out on display and the patrons get to choose what they want to eat.  We were early enough to see them laying out the catch of the day. Great! But that meant waiting a while salivating with rumbling stomachs for the grill to get going.

But the grill was soon hot and our chosen meal cooking. Choice of fresh whole lobster varying in size from 15USD to 40USD, whole snapper, snapper fillets, whole conch, and shrimp skewers. They also had rock crab claws (to be steamed), pork chops, T-bone steaks, filet mignon, and barbequed chicken. 

Dinner was delicious. So much so that we had a round two of whole lobster and we didn’t even mind the torrential downpour of rain around us!

It was an early night. We fell asleep to the soundtrack of raindrops. But with all that rain, I would definitely visit Caye Caulker again!