Caye Caulker, Belize

I've just arrived back in Belize City, after taking the water taxi from Caye Caulker, where I spent my last night of vacation back in paradise.  The caye is where this vacation both began and ended.

Ashley and I arrived in Belize City mid-afternoon on December 6.  Got a cab to the water taxi, where we found Sarah and Robin waiting!  That was awesome, as we'd been planning on somehow finding each other on the island.  The water taxi office is a pretty busy spot, every time I've been in there since (with the exception of this morning), I've run into people that I've met along the way.  Pretty cool.

Anyway.  We arrived on the island just as the sun was setting.  As soon as we got there, as I mentioned in 'The beginning', I knew I didn't want to spend my whole week there.  It was unbelievably beautiful, but my dream vacation has always been to hike through the Australian outback, so while the beach was great I didn't want to sit around in the sand for 7 whole nights. 

We spent our first full day, Tuesday the 7th, on the island soaking up the sun and swimming in the Caribbean sea.  So amazing.  The evening brought much, much rum, and we ended up at the best reggae bar on the island, the I & I.  By 9:30pm we were all so plastered we stumbled back to our room, me and the girls chasing a random kitty down the road, hahahaha.

Wednesday we went on a snorkelling/manatee adventure.  I wish so much I'd taken a waterproof camera.  Manatee watching sucked, they barely come up and you can only see their snouts.  We did manage to see a few dolphins though.  Snorkelling was GORGEOUS.  Loved it.  Everyone had a great time.  Thursday, Ashley and I left Robin and Sarah for a day of ziplining through the rainforest, and then we went tubing through a Mayan cave.  The best part of this day was how many times Ashley looked at me and said "I can't believe this is our life.  we're fuckign HERE!'.   Thursday night was our last night on the island, so we went out to get SMASHED.  I succeeded in a big way, as we stumbled out of the I&I at closing time, I made a new friend, J, a boy with an adorable smile, and we grabbed my bottle of rum from the hotel, drank it in a boat, then rolled around in the sand til about 330am.  Best way to end my time on the island!

Friday we hit the cat santcuary to roll around in kittahs before catching the water taxi off the island, so we could head to San Ignacio.  But since I ended up back on the island eventually, I'll skip ahead to the last day of my trip so I can wrap up my island experience.

My last full night of vacation was my first night travelling alone.  Since I had to fly out of Belize City, and there is NOTHING there to really see or do (except maybe get murdered), I decided to head back to Caye Caulker for one more night.  Sadly, J, the cute Brit, was gone, but I ran into E, and American we met in San Ignacio, at the water taxi office, so I at least had some company on the trip to the island, but we split up as soon as we got off the boat.  

My night was fairly relaxed.  I arrived with about 3 hours left of sunshine, but it was terribly windy, so rather than swim I sat in the sun and dipped my feet in the sea.  At sundown, I sat on a swing at a restaurant and met a fantastic couple from Texas, who were back on Caye Caulker for their upcoming wedding.  Jealous!  I wanted to go out that evening, but a morning of traveling combined with an afternoon of drinking made me pass out by 9pm.  LAME!!! However, falling asleep so early finally gave me the chance to do what I'd wanted to do all week last week: I woke up just before the sunrise, and joined a few others for yoga on a rooftop, with the sun rising above us.  Absolutley AMAZING.  Something I will never, ever forget.

As I left the island this morning, I didn't feel any of the same sadness I felt when leaving Guatemala yesterday.  Despite the fact that it was a tropical paradise, and I had some of the most amazing experiences of my life there, I'm not sad to leave it.  I need to adventure more.  Sitting in the sand and drinking is great, but I'm ready to get out there and explore! 

I'm on my way back to Montreal today, and once I'm back in Ottawa tomorrow I'm beginning to plan my next big trip, and my first solo vacation:  Australia.  I'd been thinking of doing a month, now I'm already thinking of going to New Zealand as well, and only buying a one-way ticket so I can stay until I feel ready to come back.  We'll see what happens.