Thursday, March 31, 2016

3-31-2016 Paddleboarding and Kayaking in Caye Caulker


We got up early and caught the sunrise

After a nap we convened for breakfast

Mark and the kids decided to rent some stand up PaddleBoards

Zora got the hang of it

Annette, Cara and Eric got kayaks

There are a couple of caves under Caye Caulker and the Tarpon gather in the deep pools leading to the caves

Cara getting fancy

We hung out at the split (which is the channel on the north side of the island) for several hours, swimming and relaxing.

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

3-30-2016 Day in Caye Caulker cruising around on a golf cart

We decided to rent a golf cart for the day so we could check out the whole island.  We went to Buddy's Golf cart rental and he is a really nice guy.


Waiting for Breakfast and catching up on our devices

The tables seemed a little small and do you notice the bow in the seat

Nice solid breakfast

After that we took the cart and checked out the island.  We found this little mini reserve and decided to check it out.

You can see how the island would be if they hadn't cut down all the mangrove trees and developed it.

nice to see a natural area and it was nice and shady

This shows the mangroves islands in the near shore of the reserve

Water Taxi's land here

There is a swim up bar that is at the North end of the island.  They call it the split because there is another island north of the split

The sunsets are beautiful in Caye Caulker

The pictures are never as pretty as in real life

We ate at Terry's Grill which has a nice sunset view

Look there is Terry's Grill!

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

3-29-2016 Sailing and snorkeling at Caye Caulker


We got up early and went around the corner for a nice cheap breakfast

Luckily we got the only table

We departed for our full day sailing/snorkeling trip from Ragamuffin Tours. They have a few sailboats anchored and it is a
short sail to the snorkeling grounds.
The water was very blue and we relaxed on the way to the snorkeling grounds.


You can ride on the front or top or get some shade.  It was a fun trip.

Our first stop was an area of the reef known as Coral Gardens. You can barely see a blue fish with spots poking out in the
middle of the photo - that is a juvenile Yellowtail Damselfish, and it's electric blue in person!

Southern stingray at Shark Ray Alley

Here is a GoPro video from Shark Ray Alley:

Blue Angelfish at the Hol Chan Cut (a narrow channel where you can get outside the reef).

This sea urchin would cling to your fingers - you could feel when it sucked onto you.


Here we saw a giant Spotted Eagle Ray, and the guide took the GoPro for a video:


We finally got to see a green sea turtle just before getting back on the boat.


Here is a short video of the turtle:




Our captain and guide, Kevin, was really funny and had a lot to talk about.

That night we went out to a nice restaurant and ate fresh fish

Zora was very happy!

Monday, March 28, 2016

3-28-2016 Altun Ha and then Caye Caulker

The plan was to get up early, eat breakfast, pack, and move on. The plan was to drive to a big mayan ruin called Altun Ha.  This is the link to the Wikipedia entry for Altun Ha.  It turned out that the trip only took 30 minutes because the road was a lot better than last time.  and hike all of that and then head to an Caye Caulker which is an island where we would stay for the next 4 days.

Of course you start at an interpretive center.  They had a lot of good info.  The Jade head was found at Altun Ha and is very important to the Belizean people.  It is on some of their money.

This is the climb to the top of the first ruin.  Each step is much taller than a modern step.

The top affords a great view of the courtyard
Here is an interactive 360
Top of main Temple Ruin at Altun Ha in Belize - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA

From inner courtyard of Altun Ha - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA

They are actively working on restoring the ruin and they had excavated a new one sometime in the last year

Checking out a ruin is a lot like a hiking trip in hilly country with good scenery. 

It really makes you wonder what things would have looked like back in the day

This is a face

They lined an area in clay and created a pond to get water from.  It talked about this in the interpretive center.


Zac is 15 and tried not to act enthusiastic, but he admitted it was cool!

Zac and Zora got forced into taking a picture together


Cara was working on a good Facebook picture
 
After we landed we checked into the hotel and checked out the town

The sunset was very nice