Caye Caulker, Belize

Caye Caulker… what can we say? We could say we are selling everything we own & moving here like others we have spoken with. OR Caye Caulker is a Sh—Hol-. Somewhere in the middle lies the truth. For the two of us it’s probably closer to the latter.

The Split, The hangout at the end of the island

The Caribbean is beautiful, the winds rich, and our accommodations comfortable, beyond quiet & safe. But the ex-pats we have witnessed here drink all day & seem to do little else.

The sky looks gray but the only rain we have experienced has happened during the night.

I have nearly finished my third book sitting by our personal pool under beautiful vegetation watching geckos come & go & being bitten by tiny little sandflies~ ‘teeth with wings’.

We have bikes at our disposal and we have ridden around the island a couple of times stopping to watch kite surfers fly across the turquoise blue water. Most of the crowd hanging on the beach are in their 20s, beautiful skinny bodies with colorful tattoos.

This wind surfing dude is amazing! Every turn he makes he flies through the air.

Prices are sky high on this island. Luckily we have a kitchenette so we have yet to eat out, but tomorrow, our last full day on the island, we will eat some local food at an eatery suggested by the property manager, Jeff.

‘Live slowly’ is the motto of CC and that we are doing that very well!

We are missing our Ariel Dale... in the meantime meet our Caye Caulker friend!

On to Caye Caulker in Belize

Keith with our new friends~ Alex, Austin & Stephan

Valerie & little Maya

Our last evening in Bacalar was spent chatting with Stephan & Austin while Alex prepared for her parents & sister to arrive sometime after 8 pm from Savannah, Georgia. We also enjoyed a walk to La Playita for Christmas dinner, pizza & a big bowl of guacamole.  Once we were all packed up we spent some time getting to know Alex’s parents as they finished up with massages next door on Al & Faye’s upper floor balcony overlooking the lake.

Pelicans resting after diving in the water for fish

We arrived at the waterfront in Chetamul right on time, traded in our ticket for a boarding pass, went through immigration & waited for the water taxi to load. There were 40 others on the speedboat for the 1-½ hour bumpy ride to San Pedro where we went through immigration & customs to get into Belize.

High spirits as the boat leaves Chetamul

The sun was setting as we boarded a smaller water taxi with around 20 others for the last 30-minute ride to Caye Caulker. 

The sun setting over San Pedro 

Keith waiting for our ill-fated second water taxi

Not ten minutes away from the dock the motor sounded like we were in trouble and the boat slowed way down. They pulled into a different dock where mechanics looked the engine over and directed the very young driver to take us back to San Pedro for a new prop to be installed. It was pitch dark & the unlighted boat blended into the midnight blue waters. 

Leaving San Pedro

Luckily the repair was quickly made & we headed for Caye Caulker where we were met by a golf cart taxi; there are no cars on the small island. Sullivan, our driver, stopped first at the bank so I could pull out Belizean dollars ($2.00 BZ to $1.00 US) and then at a nice sized market for a few breakfast supplies. Since it was late & we hadn’t eaten he also took us to the prepared food stand just outside his front door for ‘take out’~ chicken, mashed potatoes & a big serving of rice & beans.

Jeff met us at the Sandcastle house where we will spend the next four nights. It’s quite nice and quiet. Tomorrow we will get our bearings & explore the island.

Iguana at the Chetumal dock

How We Love Casita Carolina, let us count the ways!

From inside the palapa at the local beachfront Mexican 'resort'- Great Huevos Rancheros!

Once again we have found Bacalar enchanting, made even more so by our stay at Casita Carolina.

Casa Chica our home here at Casita Carolina

 Last night, Christmas Eve, we fully participated in a great party. Carolyn provided ham & scalloped potatoes and local ex-pats, most originally from Canada, brought all sorts of yummy salads, veggies & desserts. When I offered to help I was put in charge of glazing, cutting & arranging the ham for dinner. It was a simple job except for the extreme heat in the kitchen. The day had been unbearably warm with no wind off the lake so the added 10-15 degrees that the oven added made sweat literally flow from my face into my eyes. 

Alex, Austin & Keith on-stage at Casita Carolina

After some Christmas entertainment provided by a band consisting of a resident guitarist, mandolin player & bassist, karaoke was open to everyone. Talented Austin who had performed his one-man Christmas Carol a couple nights before, got the show rolling. That kid has an amazing memory & has no fear whatsoever in front of a crowd. In many ways he reminds us of our own Thomas Hoskins, great enthusiastic energy.

Austin in full action; note Keith behind resting & singing.
 Luckily there were two microphones because he held tight to one nearly all night!

Keith soon displayed his singing talents & helped pull in some others who obviously wanted to join in the fun. By the end of the evening we were all on our feet dancing & singing until the plug was pulled on the mics & the party moved to the other patio space for conversation.

Helena, our new French Canadian friend with a great dancing partner behind her.
As hard as he tried to teach me to swing, I cannot be led. He resorted to expressive dancing with me.

Keith stayed up until the wee morning hours talking in Spanish with a friend of Carolyn who hates Americans. Because of the heated tone of the discussion other people stepped in to check that there wasn’t a physical altercation coming, the Mexican gentleman had clearly too much tequila to drink. Keith reported that the long discussion ended with handshakes & a hug.

Our wonderful hostess, Carolyn. It was simply an awesome party thanks to her generosity!

We only left Bacalar once during our five days here. We took a taxi ride into Chetmal to buy our water taxi tickets on to Caye Caulker, Belize on the 26^th. A young German had to return to Bacalar to spend an additional night after reporting to the pier for a sold-out journey.

Part of each day here has been spent in the 'hammock club' reading.

We have heard mixed reports about Belize. Some claim it’s very beautiful while others didn’t completely enjoy their experience. As close as we are and seeing that it’s the only Central American country that our passport hasn't been stamped for, we are on our way tomorrow around noon.

The conversation area outside the main house
We have met interesting people here in Bacalar! 

The weather has varied from very windy to extremely hot & calm. Today it was mostly cloudy and a bit cooler which was nice for a relaxing Christmas day full of reading, sunning & napping. 

The lawn is extensive running down to the lakeside palapa.
No person runs, a slow jaunt is well-considered before any movement is made in this humidity!

We needed to take this break from our regularly busy ‘go-go-go’ lives. Keith melts right into the do-nothing mode; I have a more difficult time just letting days go by. That said, Bacalar has certainly slowed life down & is good practice for the lazy Caribbean lifestyle soon to come on small Caye Caulker.

The noisy geckos help keep the mosquito population under control.
The cats keep the gecko population down, the circle of life at play here in Bacalar. 

The Fort in Bacalar

Back in Bacalar for Christmas

Sunrise right out of Casa Chica here at Casita Carolina

Izamal was a perfect place to relax for a couple of days after being in Merida & Campeche, two cities with lots of people & traffic. There are no stoplights in Izamal, it is a small town and our accommodations were like living in a jungle paradise. It was Shana’s favorite stop on her trip to the Yucatan.

We spent our last morning shopping for little Christmas gifts for Shana to give to family & friends. One jewelry designer/craftsman stole our hearts with his love of his stones & his incredibly positive energy. He quickly created a necklace for Lindsay out of a beautiful polished stone that he had found. Shana bought a few pieces from him and when she went to pay him he put some ‘magic beans’ in her hands and demonstrated how the Mayans take stress away by rubbing and releasing negative energy. Keith spent quite a bit of time with him while Shana & I looked at other crafts. Keith reported that he said “I am not afraid to die, it’s life that I’m afraid of” at which point this man immediately looked at his Mayan friend giving Keith the impression that he had quoted Mayan philosophy. There was magic in the air that morning! I was I had a picture to display, my camera was out of juice, Shana took one which I hope to post when we return to SLC.

Crazy sailors on Laguna Bacalar, out way after nightfall with no wind at all!

We had to spend one night in Cancun so that getting Shana back to the airport in the morning would be easy. Cancun is an urban jungle! Beautiful landscaping, but overdevelopment is amazing! We sat on the beach enjoying a sandwich before the sun went down. I had made the sandwiches and walked away to help Shana purchase the drinks and a flock of seagulls nearly carried our lunch away. Luckily Keith fought them away, but it was amazing to see how quickly they moved right in. They must have been just waiting for the opportunity to grab a snack themselves because I wasn’t five feet away when Keith starting hollering. After the four hours in the car we were hungrier and luckily victorious in the struggle for food.

After breakfast Shana waited for her flight, we returned the rental car & boarded a bus first back to Playa del Carmen (one hour) and then on to Bacalar (another four hours). The ride wasn’t bad on the 2^nd class bus; we both had some interesting conversations. We arrived at Casita Carolinas happy to find Caroline here for the holiday. She has an event planned for every night we will be here. Last night we thoroughly enjoyed a one-man rendition of Dickens’ Christmas Carol very well done by the current manager of the ‘hotel’, Austin. Caroline throws great parties, we fondly remembered being here three years and were hoping for the same great atmosphere this season, which we are finding.

We have met other travelers from Oaxaca, Quebec, Ontario, the Yukon Territory, France, and Germany so far. Lots of traveling stories are being shared. We also renewed a friendship started on our last visit with a neighbor three houses up the lakefront, Jim Bacon from Wisconsin. He took us sailing last time and I’m sure we will be sailing again in the next couple of days.

Here in Bacalar there’s not much to do which is perfect. Yesterday I sat by the beautiful lake in the sunshine and read all day, finished the book this morning. Now that I am finished writing these memories I’ll start another book. The temperature is around 80 with 90+humidity so all is right in our world.

Izamal, Pueblo Magico

Izamal is one of Mexico’s Pueblos Magicos, a magic town. Everything in the 500-year-old city center is painted an egg-yolk yellow, a Mexican egg yolk that is. (I would consider the color more of a mustard, or golden yellow.) Izamal might be the oldest city in the Yucatan located right in the middle of the peninsula. The Spaniards captured the ancient Mayan center & their temples destroyed to build the immense church & convent we visited today. The courtyard is the world’s second largest, the first is outside St. Peter’s Basilica. The convent was founded by Fray Diego de Landa who burned all of the Mayan Indian scripts and then feeling remorseful he tried to rewrite all he could remember of the ways of the Mayans. I find it interesting that his statue is found right outside the church today.

Note John Paul where you would typically see Jesus.

Pope John Paul visited Izamal in 1993. It is a huge draw today to see the chair he sat in & the dress that the treasured Our Lady of Izamal, Queen and Patron Saint of Yucatan wore for his visit. 

The first Lady was dark-skinned, but she was burned after a spark destroyed the church.
This is her twin created over 450 years ago.

Saint Francis

We took a tour with a very animated guide who explained how the Spaniards converted the Mayans to their religion over 500 years ago. The story involves the beautifully carved statue, nearly 5 feet tall, changing her weight so that Spaniards could not move her as the Mayan began to believe that she was their queen of fertility.

Today there are only 10 monks living in part of the church that is closed off to the public.

We were interested to see the many wood pegs used to hang hammocks all through the huge structure in times past. Sleeping in hammocks is common for people living in cities & small towns today all through the peninsula.

Walking through the cobblestone streets of Izamal you pass Mayan pyramids, some small & others taking an entire city block. The history is as thick as the air.

Motorcycles are the way to get around this small town with one-way streets.
We parked our rental car & walked our feet until they were tired and sore!

Campeche, Yucatan, Mexico

One last darling picture from Playa

The morning of our departure from Merida we had a traditional breakfast prepared by our kind hostess Eugenia - eggs with chaya, avocado slices scooped out of a grapefruit-sized Yucatan avocado, warm tortillas & fresh squeezed orange juice. Her boyfriend, a honey wholesaler, dropped by for interesting conversation after which we went a block down the street to a liquor factory for a sample of an anise-flavored brandy. We bought a small bottle for our hostess, gathered our things and headed out of Merida for Campeche.

The Church of Guadalupe a couple of blocks from our home in Campeche.

It was here where we met the landlord & were directed to our lodging.

Campeche is a walled city on the Gulf coast. Within the original city walls the two story buildings are brightly painted in yellows, blues, oranges & red hues. It is very beautiful. The main square has a gazebo surrounded by Ceiba trees, which offer much-needed shade from the powerful sunshine. 

Shana in Campeche's main square completely decorated with religious & secular Christmas decorations

The humidity in Campeche is very high (over 90%) with intense sunshine, but luckily there was a constant breeze while we walked around the small city center from one guard station to the next. There were two hundred years of pirate invasions before Spain gave the money to build the protective city walls & guard stations. The walls also divided the people at the time, white Spaniards lived inside the walls while the Mayan & other slaves were out. Now most of the beautiful buildings house shops and government offices.

Great kitchen, great cooks

Our garden out back, a lovely place to enjoy a cup of coffee

Our lodging in Campeche was delightful, a darling colonial townhouse with a nice garden area only eight easily-walked blocks from the main plaza. 
Our first morning while Shana got ready Keith & I walked to the park and were quickly mobbed by middle-school-aged students preparing for their holiday presentation to the parents. They invited us to attend, which we did the following evening. The program was quite horrible really.

Can you find the two gringos in this picture?!

Across from that park was a preschool where we watched four Superheroes entertain the 3, 4 & 5 year olds for their Christmas party. 
It was adorable. The students loved Spiderman, Captain America, Elsa & some princess named Ana, which we couldn’t place. They had a guess-that-tune contest, a dancing lesson &, of course, broke the piñata. One of the teachers shared a piece of candy with each of us after helping the little ones gather their individual stashes in little Santa bags. Each child wore a red shirt & Santa hat, but I think we three had more fun than any child there, we giggled the whole time. It’s really fun being a kid in Mexico.

What fun we all had at this party with a DJ, super heroes, pinata & darling, well-behaved little ones!

Campeche's Catheral
They were setting up for a big weekend cultural program.

Our last meal in Campeche was enjoyed on the second-story patio overlooking the main square.

Shana with her pirate friend

In Campeche, Yucatan

Today, Thursday, we left our nice lodging in Campeche for the two-hour drive to Izamal, a small town with an enormous ex-convent/church that Pope John Paul II visited during the 1990s. We will attend a light show tonight & visit the church & small Mayan ruins tomorrow. We are staying in a jungle paradise with our own little house. It was so quiet when we arrived that we napped after a simple picnic lunch.

We have two more full days before we put Shana on the plane at the Cancun airport. At that point we will turn in our rental car & become backpackers on the bus.