CAY CAULKER, BELIZE 2/25 - 3/3/2018

Surprise! Remember me? I'm the guy on a sailboat in the western Caribbean who used to send out blogs on a semi-regular basis. Now with no visitors for the upcoming weeks, I'm going to make a legitimate effort to get back into it. No promises though.

I'm currently in Roatan, Honduras, where I've been for the last two and a half weeks. Dayton and Kristy left just over two weeks ago, Delana just over a week and half ago, and Nita, Al, Natasha and Jonathon last week. I liked both Cay Caulker, Belize and Isla Mujeras Mexico, but Roatan, along with the other Bay Islands, offer much much more (i.e., they're much larger, more interesting, have some serious hills; even clearer water; great snorkeling and diving; lots of different types of anchorages; many day sail destinations; multiple towns; a convenient international airport; really good grocery store; cheap taxis; tons of bars/restaurants; easy and inexpensive check-in and out processes; etc.). 

Now before I forget, if any of you are interested in a short notice adventure, I will be sailing from here to Guatemala later this month. If interested, I think you'd want to allow at least seven days (i.e., two half days for travel; two in Roatan; one to four for the trip, depending on whether we want to sail overnight or not; and two in Guatemala), though if you have time, you'd want to spend extra days in Roatan and/or Guatemala, especially the latter. You would fly into Roatan, Honduras and out of San Pedro Sula, Honduras. I could go anytime from mid-May on, as long as I'm in Guatemala by June 1st.

Ok, back to where I left off two months ago. During the week of 2/25 to 3/3, Harpo, Jaynece, Pete and Elaine arrived. Chip left early in the week and Ted left late. In between, we tried new restaurants; went snorkeling at the nearby reef, swam with rays and nurse sharks, as well as through some nice coral; spent time at the Lazy Lizard and KoKo King beach clubs; bought Belikin Beer directly from the dock; swam off the boat; sailed to San Pedro and back; and went to the mainland to visit the Mayan site, Altun Ha. It was a fun and busy week.

Other stuff:

1. Belize, formerly British Honduras, received it's independence in 1981, but still has strong ties to England, as well as the US. As a matter of fact, the Queen is on it's currency.

2. It's about the size of New Hampshire, is actually underpopulated with a population of just 370,000/36 people per square mile and has a 90% literacy rate.

3.Mestizo, Creole, Spanish, Garifuna and Maya make up 90% of the population.

4. The Belize dollar has a constant value of two to the US dollar. US dollars are accepted by pretty much everyone and you often get back change in a combination of Belize and US currency. There are plenty of ATM's, and credit cards are accepted at most places.

5. The official language is English and most speak it, but Spanish and Kriol are dominant.

6. Cay Caulker is very laid back, has a somewhat Rastafarian feel to it, there are a lot of kite boarders, a lot of European tourists and the average visitor, not counting me or my guests, is probably in their low 30's.

7. There are more inexpensive places to stay, in Cay Caulker, than real nice ones.

8. Belize is great sailing, especially for shallow draft boats. The reef keeps the waves to a minimum, while allowing the easterly winds through, which usually makes north to south and south to north sailing pretty easy.

9. We've heard a lot of bad things about Belize City, including they have 8-10 shootings per day, in a City of just 60,000.

This is the view from the boat while anchored in Cay Caulker. The water is really pretty and around 5' deep. The light areas have a sand bottom, while the darker ones, have turtle grass. On the shore is the Lazy Lizard beach bar, which is located on the canal that separates Cay Caulker's north and south Islands. The north island is largely undeveloped now, but some condos are being built.

All the action on Cay Caulker takes place on the right half of what looks like the horizontal part of the island. Most of the local housing is on the left half of the horizontal part, as well as the vertical part. I anchored about where the "S" is on the compass rose, which is good considering the winds are almost always 15+/- knots from the east.

I've been told that the definition of cruising is fixing boats in exotic places. Here I'm just changing the gear oil in my starboard saildrive/transmission.

This is Chip, Harpo, Ted, Jaynece, Elaine and Pete.

There are no paved roads in Cay Caulker and only a hand full of Village owned vehicles, as well as some small trucks used for deliveries. There are quite a few golf carts and bikes, but you can walk about anywhere pretty easily. Sand streets sound pretty charming, but with the constant wind there is dust everywhere, including on all the products in the stores. I'm sure it's the same inside the homes, though the west side of the island is much better than the east..

I'm not sure if they were playing, or if this was transportation. Regardless, there are no life jackets on anyone, including the real little kid just in front of Mom.

As you can see the price is right. I think Pete had at least four massages and quite a few other visitors had at least one. A few weeks later I was talked into having my first professional massage ever. It was terrible. I felt fine going in, but afterwards I was sore all over. It took me days to recover. Never again.

During this week there was a super duper blue blood full moon, or something like that. It was pretty spectacular.

A picture of me taking a picture of the moon. 

This photo really doesn't show it, but the moon was so bright, you could actually see color in the water at 1:00 in the morning.

Harpo stretching out on the deck. I have no idea what Ted is doing.

This is the beach at the KoKo Kings' beach club. It's more or less across the canal from the Lazy Lizard. You can only get there via their water taxi, or in my case, the dinghy. It has a very nice beach with inner tubes, some water toys, showers, chairs and shade; as well as a bar, restaurant and outdoor movies. It's the only good beach around, plus it's out of the wind.

Harpo and Jaynece enjoying KoKo Kings.

Elaine and Pete on KoKo Kings' rooftop terrace.

Movie night at KoKo Kings. 

This is KoKo Kings' water taxi at their dock. I just thought it was a cool photo.

Harpo at the wheel on the 12 mile sail to San Pedro. We went there for the afternoon and evening, just for a change of pace. San Pedro is a very noisy, busy place with a lousy anchorage, but does have a lot more going on than Cay Caulker.

Card playing was a pretty popular with this crew,

This is the Lazy Lizard beach bar, which seems to be the most popular bar on the island, until sunset anyway. Then the wind gets too cool.

Cay Caulker's finest keeping an eye on the Lazy Lizard crowd. Mexico, Belize and Honduras all have a pretty strong police and/or military presence, but I haven't seen any type of trouble or felt unsafe. Maybe that's why.

The tattooed guys are young British marines from a base on the mainland. They come to Cay Caulker for rest and relaxation. I bet they get more of that at the base. The one on the right cut his hand somehow. After Belize's independence, the British military kept a base to discourage any expansion ideas Guatemala may have had. The base is still used for jungle training.

This is the swimming area at the Lazy Lizard. Note the kites in the background. Cay Caulker is VERY popular with kite boarders from all over the world.

At first we first thought this was a shark being landed inside Lazy Lizard's swimming area. But it was something called a Cobia (sp?). It ended up breaking the line and getting away.

This is food is being cooked for a restaurant, but there is a lot of good cheap street food, as well as some pretty inexpensive restaurants. However, food in the grocery stores is pretty limited and expensive. Chinese own all the grocery stores, which are even called Chinese instead of grocery store.

This is Wish WIlies, a restaurant that has no menu, no prices and no service, It seemed  that no matter what we ordered or how many of us there were, the bill was always $100 Belize ($50 US).

This lady not only sold excellent home made desserts, but claimed to have "special brownies" for sale too.

People on the Lazy Lizard's wall waiting for the sun to set.

STARSHIP as seen from the Lazy Lizard's sunset wall. Weirdly enough, we would often go to the wall to watch the sun set, when the view from the boat was just as good.

It looks Like Pete and Pat had a good time, but maybe not enough sleep.