Ziplining in Belize

The number is arbitrary. Sometimes there are 5, sometimes there are 8, and sometimes there are 10 monkeys. She sings the song over, and over, and over. The monkeys jump on the bed again and again. There are hand motions of course. She pronounces monkeys, moon-keeeys. The cuteness is overwhelming. She is completely unaware that she has attracted an audience of boat passengers.

We are on the first boat of the day, traveling from Caye Caulker to Belize City. 

We probably would have been fine taking the second boat, but we want to be absolutely sure we arrive on time to meet our guide from Cave Tubing.bz  

Since we arrive at the water taxi terminal with plenty of time to spare, we peruse a shop in search of an early morning snack.

I never eat sugar wafer cookies at home, but for some reason, I end up eating them in Latin American countries. In Panama, I nibbled them while swaying in a hammock in Santa Clara. In Costa Rica, I ate them on our bus ride to Puerto Viejo, and now, I munch them while waiting for our tour to begin. 

Our tour guide is right on time. His name is Oscar. 

We climb into a van, then drive to a hotel around the corner. We pick up a family from Iowa who will be joining us for the day. 

Compared to the almost three hour ride we had for our tour in Mexico, the hour ride to Cavetubing.bz feels brief. While our driver Roach keeps his eyes on the road, Oscar shares all sorts of interesting information about Belize. 

I was slightly nervous about ziplining. I wasn't afraid of plummeting to my death, I assumed that they wouldn't be in business if they frequently lost visitors, I was just unsure what the sensation of ziplining would feel like. I was hoping it wasn't like the feeling I hate when I'm on a big roller coaster.

Our first stop is check-in, where we pay, 

use the restrooms, and have a quick photo op. 

We hop back in the van, then make our way to the zipline sight. We sign our lives away, then get geared up. 





I thought the gear would be cumbersome, but it is surprisingly comfortable. 

There's a bit of a hike up an incline, and then up several flights of stairs. We need to start very high up in order to make our way down. Our two zipline guides (whose names I forget) are enthusiastic and friendly. I volunteer to go last, mostly so that I can watch how it's done to gain confidence.  

I'm fascinated by the dance of the clips. 

There is a sequence to clip us before we fly down the line, a sequence to un-clip us from the line, a sequence to clip us to the line that keeps us from plummeting to our death as we walked across the suspension bridge, etc...  Click-click-clickity-click is the sound of the morning.

It is an intricate metal ballet. 

When it's my turn, I take a deep breath,and against my practical inclinations,I walk off of the edge of the platform until nothing is under me but air. A breeze plays across my face. I'm flying. I feel gloriously free. This is amazing! 

Since our group is not under a time constraint (unlike those coming from cruise ships) we are able to do all of the runs. 

Final Run 

We didn't get a lot of pictures. We only brought our phones because we could button them into our cargo pants pockets. Things move surprisingly quick. It's sort of go-go-go, so there isn't a lot of time to get the phone out and snap a picture before you are moving on to the next run. You don't really want to trust holding onto your phone or camera, because you are very high up, with dense forest underneath you. If you drop your phone or camera, you are not going to see it again. 

Ziplining is fantastic! 

I loved every minute of it. I would recommend that everyone try it once, provided you aren't super afraid of heights. It was so freeing flying through the air. It wasn't scary at all. The only thing that took a minute for me to get, was keeping my hand that hovers over the wire relaxed. My instinct was to grip the wire above me, but this will slow you down, or cause you to spin around, or even cause you to come to a stop, so I just repeated in my head,

keep your hand relaxed.

If you are in Belize, I highly recommend ziplining with Cavetubing.bz. They were fun, kept things entertaining, but were also extremely professional. Safety was their top priority. 

Now that we have been ziplining, we will definitely look for more opportunities to zipline in our future travels. 

Amor y Cafe - Caye Caulker

It is an ideal Sunday morning. Not too hot, with a striking blue sky.

At the funky, artist vibe, Amor y Cafe, we settle down at the counter that faces the road. We want to watch the hustle- and- bustle, or perhaps more exact, the lack of hustle- and- bustle go by. 

Couples hand- in- hand amble past, their flip-flops making a thwack-thwack sound against the dirt road. People on bicycles lazily glide;some stop to check out the menu before deciding to stay, while others move on to look for other edible prospects. We even see a family of children piled into a cart that is being pushed by their proud looking father. 

We order iced coffees. I make a mess of the cream pitcher, and I have to clean everything up so that my innate clumsiness isn't shown in the the pictures.  

The menu is simple and straight forward. Everything on it sounds delicious. 

Breakfast is often a conundrum. At dinner, you are rarely faced with the prospect of having something akin to dessert as your meal, but with breakfast, it's always a battle between sweet and savory.  

We both want fruit, so that narrows things down quite a bit.

Shannon goes with the waffle with fruit. It's crispy, fluffy, and comes with yummy things to put on top. 

I get his watermelon, yay, since he doesn't like it. 

I go with the yogurt, fruit, and granola. It is exactly what I was craving. 

The yogurt is smooth and creamy. The flavor is mild, with very little tang, which elevates the flavors of the fruit. The granola gives it a nice texture, though I'm a little surprised that raisin bran is considered part of the granola family.

Perhaps a little TMI, but this menu item packs a wallop of a fiber punch. I would probably avoid it if you are heading straight to a bathroomless boat for a day of snorkeling.  

Never rushed, we take our time, sipping, munching, and watching. Instead of  leaving feeling pumped up to conquer our day, we feel blissful and relaxed. If only more days could start out like a day started at Amor y Cafe. 

Roy's- Caye Caulker

I’m not a big fan of restaurant hustlers. I don’t encounter them often in the U.S. . When I do encounter them, they tend to be pretty timid, merely asking if you’d like to see a menu as you pass, or, like on the seashore boardwalk, simply shout out the deals of the day, or boast of their food’s tastiness. In other places however, they can be downright pushy.

On Caye Caulker, I witnessed one restaurant worker jumping in front of groups, blocking their path and joking that he wasn’t going to let them by until they went into the restaurant. 

I think those types of antics turn people off more than they encourage business. I know my assumption has been that if you have to go to those lengths to get people into your establishment, there must be something wrong. There must be some reason people aren’t going there in the first place. On this trip, my assumption was proven wrong.

We never asked his name, we simply called him “Roy’s guy.” 

Roy’s is a restaurant that is located down one of the island’s side streets. Roy’s guy stood at the corner of Front Street, attempting to drum up business by encouraging passersby to take a look at the menu and turn the corner to eat at Roy’s. Maybe we just had a look, but on our first night on the island, Roy’s guy tried to persuade us every time we passed him. He and Shannon started trading humorous quips back and forth. It was all in fun, and Roy’s guy was a pretty funny, nice guy.

On our second night, we really wanted to go to one particular restaurant, Aladdin’s. We noticed a sign stating that it would open at 7 pm, so after watching the sunset, we strolled around town until 7. Once again we traded comments with Roy’s guy as we passed. At 7, we went back to Aladdin’s to find the sign gone, and the restaurant completely closed. With no other ideas about where to eat, and finding that Roy’s guy’s humor and pleasantness had worn us down, we made our way to Roy’s.

We arrived at Roy’s just in time. There were plenty of open tables, but not long after our arrival, the place started to fill up.  

We started off with a couple of frozen mojitos. 

They were quite refreshing.

Being on an island, we were craving seafood, so I got the shrimp kebabs with coconut rice, and garlic potatoes. Shannon got the shrimp fajitas.

One of the server's at Roy’s was American. This seemed to intrigue the American customers. Since she had to repeat it several times, my ears couldn’t help but pick up her story. She was a medical student doing a semester residency on the island. It sounded like a pretty awesome way to spend a semester.

Our food was great, completely destroying my theory that a restaurant with a hustler will probably be bad. 

My kebabs were yummy, 

and I especially liked my coconut rice, and the sauce for my shrimp. 

Shannon's fajitas were really good. It’s hard to beat a dish that arrives to your table in full sizzle.

On our way back to Front Street, we stopped to thank Roy’s guy and let him know that we enjoyed our meal. For the rest of our time on the island, he didn’t persuade us to come to the restaurant, but he always smiled and said,

“Hey,” as we passed, and we always said hey back.

Caye Caulker-Helpful Hints

Drugs

In the words of Nancy Regan, just say no. Caye Caulker seems like the type of chill island that would turn a blind eye to pot smoking. During sunset there is even a guy who rides around on his bike advertising his “special brownies.”  My guess is that the island does not want to project a relaxed on drugs attitude and end up inundated with travelers who are there primarily to get baked. 

While we were waiting for the boat to San Pedro, two official looking guards escorted two twenty-something female backpackers into the waiting area. The girls looked a little off. One of the girls sat down, stood up, and immediately fell to the ground. The female guard laughed, shook her head, and helped the girl back on the bench. Fortunately we had a local sitting near us who got the skinny. The girls were caught smoking pot. Since Caye Caulker is so small, the girls were being transported to San Pedro to be prosecuted. They would have to spend a couple of nights in jail, pay a fine, and pay for all of the expenses incurred for their transportation to San Pedro. I’m guessing that something like that really puts a damper on your trip. 

Respect the island's rules, and don't ruin your trip, stick to the rum punch and lizard juice. 

Sunblock

I thought I calculated correctly, but as people on the island seemed genuinely concerned for the health of our pasty white skin, we applied and reapplied ample amounts of sunblock. This caused us to run out a few days before our trip ended. 

There is no shortage of sunblock on the island, but it comes at a premium. It’s expensive. 

What we found is that it was the most expensive on Front Street, the street that runs along the water. If however you go to Back Street, you will actually find that sunblock is a few dollars cheaper.

Juice

We get pretty addicted to fresh fruit juice when we travel in Latin American countries. We have a juicer at home, but it’s never the same. On the island, we found the stand-alone juice stands to be a better value than the juice at the cafes and restaurants. 

If you really need that glass of juice with your cafe/restaurant breakfast, then go for it, but if you are just addicted to fresh juice, then make your purchase at one of the stands.

At one particular juice place, there was the most polite, professional, little boy serving customers. 

Through the back door of the juice place, you could see the boy’s parent lounging in a hammock; parenting win.

You Might Become a Stalker

We had a nice chat with a guy on our initial boat ride to the island. 

He and his family were visiting his brother, who was a wind surfing instructor, currently living on Caye Caulker.

“See you around,” he said as we departed the boat. Little did he know.

That evening while we were seated at dinner, who shows up? Boat guy and his family. The next day while buying juice at a juice stand, who comes to buy juice? Boat guy and his family. On the boat to San Pedro, who is on the boat ? Yup, boat guy and his family. It started to become a running joke with comments like,

“hey….again.” 

It’s a small island so you are bound to run into the same people. You probably want to keep to your best behavior and not piss anyone off, because you will most likely run into them again. You may also want to choose your trysts carefully. You never know if that make out session will turn into a clinger, and now you have nowhere to hide.

Restaurants

Do not get your heart set on eating at a particular restaurant. I got my heart set on eating at a particular restaurant only to find that is was closed for an indeterminate amount of time. Apparently, the owners were having “legal issues.”

Island restaurants don’t operate on a normal schedule. 

Most take off/are closed at least one day per week. Sometimes this is a set scheduled day, sometimes it’s random, sometimes they are closed for several days. It became a running joke during the week, because it seemed like every evening we had a particular restaurant in mind to eat at, and almost every time, that restaurant was closed.  Just stay open and flexible. There are plenty of places on the island to eat. When you start to have a conversation with someone on Caye Caulker the questions tend to be, 

-Where are you from? 

-How long are staying on the island? 

-Where have you eaten? 

-Where else in the world have you been? 

Anyone who has been on the island for more than a day will excitedly tell you their favorite place to eat, so if you are unsure where to go, just ask. 

I hope you find these hints helpful, and I hope you get a chance to visit Caye Caulker 

Second Breakfast on Caye Caulker

Whenever we go on a trip, I try to find out the quintessential food item to get in that particular destination. I also try to find the best place to get said food item. For Caye Caulker, the food item was a fryjack. The popular place to get one, Errolyn’s House of Fryjacks.

Errolyn’s is a happening place. There isn’t a lot of seating. 

Most people get their fryjacks to go, but we were lucky enough to snag a couple of stools at the counter. It was a great spot for people watching. It was fun seeing all of the enthusiastic visitors ordering and receiving their fryjacks.

What is a fryjack? 

It’s a light bread that is fried and then stuffed with fillings. At Errolyn’s you can have your fryjack filled with anything from chicken, to beans, to bacon, in any combination you wish. Since we were there for breakfast (they are only open for breakfast and lunch), we both got a fryjack filled with eggs, beans, and cheese.

It’s difficult to describe the bread. 

The closest thing I can think of is that it’s sort of like a Taco Bell chulupa, but thinner, lighter, less greasy, and a thousand times better.

Fryjacks are fantastic. 

It saddens me to known that they are so far away and I can’t just wake up on a Saturday morning to get one. I would be forever grateful to anyone who wanted to open up a fryjack food truck near me.

If you are at Errolyn’s, I recommend adding the green sauce to your fryjack. 

I don’t know exactly what the green sauce was, but it made my fryjack even better. Try the green stuff, it’s delicious! 

We enjoyed our fryjacks so much, we almost ordered a second, but I didn’t want to spoil our appetites for our second breakfast, so we figured we would come back to Errolyn’s on another day. Sadly that day was Monday, the one day during the week Errolyn’s is closed, of course.

Everyone who recommended Errolyn’s House of Fryjacks, also recommended going next door to the Sea Choice Juice Bar for a fresh squeezed juice, so we made that our second stop. 

We kept things simple and got orange juice. The bottle was huge. More than enough for two of us, and it only cost $2.50. Our fryjacks were only $1.50 a piece, so two people could easily enjoy a breakfast for $5.50.

As nice as the juice was, we still wanted a damn fine cup of coffee, and what goes best with coffee…donuts of course, so we headed to Ice and Beans.

There was a bit of discussion regarding whether or not this was the best coffee view we have had so far. Shannon felt that a stop we made in Costa Rica was still the best view, 

View in Costa Rica 

but my vote was for Ice and Beans. 

The building is characteristically Caribbean with its bright blue paint color and white trim.

I got a caramel iced coffee, and Shannon got the specially- blended- for- that- day, iced mocha.  We also got an order of the freshly made mini-donuts. The donuts come in either cinnamon-sugar, or chocolate. We got the cinnamon-sugar. As our coffees were being made, we watched one of the café workers drop our donuts into the fryer, and then drop them into the cinnamon-sugar. 

So fresh. 

We took our caffeine and mini-donuts, and settled onto two stools on the café’s back deck. The coffees were perfectly blended, and the donuts were hot, light, and delicious. They reminded me of churros in donut form. Sharing one order was more than enough to get our donut fix.

The view at Ice and Beans was incredible. 

Oh, if only I could sit and have coffee there every day. I could see myself writing as the palm trees swayed overhead, and the vibrant, blue waters sparkled before me.

There was a couple sitting below us at the picnic table. 

They were soon joined by another couple that they did not know. The couples began to converse, mostly about their travels. I had to restrain myself from shouting questions at them over the railing. I was giddy as they traded information about their favorite destinations.

Also while sitting at Ice and Beans, we watched several  forlorn backpackers take what looked like a slow death march past the café. They were heading to the water taxi dock, towards their impending departure from the island.

Our forlorn walk to take the water taxi home

We sipped our coffees slowly, wanting to soak up every ounce of island life, enjoying the fact that we had nowhere we had to be and nothing we had to do. 

First breakfast allowed us to try something new, and second breakfast allowed us to completely unwind.