As is customary for every self-respecting newly married couple, we decided to have a little honeymoon on one of the gems of Belize and indeed the whole of the Caribbean: Caye Caulker.

If there is a motto to be had then this one is as good as it gets. Caye Caulker, a small caye off the coast of Belize commands you to Go Slow, and as soon as you arrive it’s really quite easy to obey.

Caye Caulker is the backpacker’s favourite of the various cayes off the coast of Belize, as most of the others are sadly out of reach of a reasonable budget. We did still find it quite pricey though. A caye is basically a san bar on the surface of a coral reef and this one is special due to its close proximity to the Belize Barrier Reef.

Caye Culker is only a 40 minute water taxi ride away from Belize City. We transferred directly from San Ignacio in the Cayo district inland to the unofficial capital of the county: Belize City (the true capital is Belmopan). We had originally planned to spend a couple of days in town to check it out but literally everyone we spoke to (including Belizeans) tried to dissuade from doing so as the city has a seriously dodgy reputation of violence and crime, so we chose not to spend any time there and go straight for the caye instead.

Caye Caulker is absolutely what you would expect from a Caribbean island, benefitting from scorching temperatures, mangroves, turquoise waters and a friendly beer-drinking (strictly Belikin, the national brew) Rastafarian on each corner. If this wasn’t enough to warrant a visit we also wanted to take in some Caribbean culture (not just the beer-drinking!), explore the reef, discover its marine life and visit the wonder of the world that is the Big Blue Hole.

Life on the Caye.

Caye Caulker is actually quite developed for tourism but we didn’t feel that it was overwhelming. Frequent and organised water taxi connections with Belize City, Ambergis Caye and also Chetumal in Mexico mean that it’s incredibly accessible. There is a multitude of accommodation ranging from small-scale resorts to hostels, and despite being a little pricey compared to other central American attractions, there is something for everyone. We chose to stay in a small self catering apartment that we found on AIRBNB and it was easy to get the basics from the fruit and veg stall and the small supermarkets (mostly Chinese, weird!).

That said we ate out a few times and enjoyed some BBQ lobster, barracuda and chicken with a more than appropriate reggae soundtrack in the background. Check out Terry’s Grill for good food and warm service. When we were there it was lobster rather than conch season but it is possible to eat the mollusc that lives in this beautiful giant shell.

Activities

Renting a golf cart

You can enjoy a few activities on the caye with minimal effort (you are meant to be going slow, remember!). We rented a golf cart for a couple of hours and just drove around on the sand roads, stopping here and there for pictures, ice cream (check out The Creamery) and iced coffee (Best we found was at The Art Cafe-the mocha!).

Swimming in The Spit

The main seaside drag is where there are souvenirs for sale and most of the tour companies are situated here. If you walk right to the end you will find The Spit which is a gap between the main town and the north island. There is a lively bar here and it’s a good deep place to swim (be warned though, it’s infested with drunken gringos and trustafarians!). Unfortunately swimming around most of the island is not that pleasant as it is shallow and full of muddy sea grass beds.

The Caveman Snorkelling Tour

We took a full day snorkelling tour with a company called Caveman (run by a friendly local chap called erm…Caveman!) which promised to have us in the water no less than 6 times during the day, with a total of 8 points of interest. Most tours have roughly the same itinerary, but Caveman seems to really pack it in! Expect to pay around BZD 260 for two. Lunch, snacks and drinks are included, groups are no more than 8 people and remember to keep applying sunscreen to avoid being mistaken for a lobster and devoured at dinner. You have no idea how burnt Jess’s arse cheeks were!!!

The day went as follows:

• Our first stop was a break in the barrier reef where it is common to see manatees feeding. It was a little chaotic there with several boats but we were lucky to see the giant manatee right where we all jumped in. They are quite strange and ugly creatures on the surface but the way that it moved through the water was wonderfully graceful. Absolutely a highlight of all of our travels so far.
• We were then taken on to snorkel at the Coral Gardens where we had a decent amount of time to explore the coral outcrops. We particularly enjoyed seeing juvenile yellow tailed damsel fish with electric blue spots. Exploring a sunken barge was also interesting, as many corals had had the chance to grow upon it. Before lunch we jumped in to swim with a local celebrity, a loggerhead turtle called Scarface!
• The second part of the day began with a lengthy guided snorkel in the Ho Chan marine reserve. Here we were guided around the corals and got to see a graceful eagle ray and a green moray eel dancing up from his hiding place. There were some nurse sharks here but we really saw a huge amount at the Shark and Ray alley. Here the boat crews feed the sharks and rays sardines and you are underwater watching them take the bait.
• The last two stops were from the boat only where we were shown seahorses who live in the mangroves, some huge fish called tarpons and gave the left over sardines to the frigate birds.

The Great Blue Hole

Both of us really wanted to see the Great Blue Hole on the Lighthouse Reef atoll. The hole is a sinkhole, circular in shape, over 300 m (984 ft) across and 108 m (354 ft) deep. Popular with divers, (In the 1970s, it was famously named by Jacques Cousteau one of the top scuba diving spots in the world) it can be reached by boat in about 2 hours from Caye Caulker or you can book a fly over in a small charter plane. The price is fairly similar so we decided to be extravagant and treat ourselves to the over flight so that we could enjoy the full spectacle. It seemed that the boats were mainly diving oriented, so we didn’t want to get stuck on a long day, being the only snorkelers, and only having a limited view.

Booked direct with Tropic Air, it turned out that we were the only 2 passengers on that day so we ended up with the super small 172 Skyhawk, a 4 seater plane with just us and the pilot.

The take off, flight and landing were super smooth and we had excellent visibility for the entire flight, even the pilot was snapping some pictures with his smartphone, and he does it about once a week! It took about 20 minutes to reach the great Blue Hole and on the way we got to see the Caye from the air the snorkelers on the reef, and the other cayes.

We circled the hole 3 times and got to marvel at the deep blue chasm against the myriad of turquoise hues of the waters and mangroves around. It was an excellent choice to do the flight and although it was pretty expensive we didn’t regret it at all.

Caye Caulker was our last Central American stop before moving north to Mexico, and there couldn’t have been a better place to say goodbye to this extraordinary continent that we loved so much. Of course we will always remember the island as the place of our honeymoon, making it even more special. But what can we say other than when we thought Central America couldn’t possibly surprise and delight us any longer we discovered yet another magical place. You just can’t beat going slow in the Caribbean!