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You'd Better Belize it! So after our traumatic last night in Playa del Carmen being eaten alive by bed bugs we found it very easy to get up for our early start trying to get to an island in Belize called Caye Caulker. We got the earliest bus we could to the boarder but then had to wait a couple of hours for a bus to cross. We really didn't want to spend a night in Belize City because its not supposed to be that nice but because of our delay we wouldn't make it to the water taxi in time which was another 4 hour bus journey away. This meant that the only way to avoid this was to fly. We quickly took a taxi to the airport and arrived 10 minutes before the last flight of the day. The plane was a tiny 8 seater and the runway was pretty much a dirt track. It was a very bumpy take off! The flight was beautiful over, lagoons, marshland, mangroves and reefs in the Caribbean Sea. The flight was only to San Pedro on Ambergris Caye and so we spent the night there. We took a walk on the beach, watched sunset and then went to a bar where Aidan drank himself to sleep to aid the suffering of all the bed bug bites. We both looked like we had chicken pox. We made sure the place we stayed that night was spotless!The next day we caught a water taxi to Caye Caulker which is like a dream. There are no roads or cars, palm trees stretch the beach and reggae plays from all around. If you walk too fast the locals tell you to 'chillax' andthat 'ya got ta slow down man'. A rasta told us we should look at Bella's hostel, so we walked down and found a cute little yard with music blaring and loads of kids running around, one of which was gorgeous little Bella who runs up and says 'Hiye' in her creole accent. We had a cool 2 floored cabana with a hammock.That first afternoon we went swimming at the split which is where the beach is. The island used to be bigger but a hurricane tore her in 2 making a cool little beach and a falling down pier to chill on and jump off. In the evening we went and had yummy bbq barracuda and shrimp on the beach with the palm trees swaying in the wind above us.The Blue HoleThe next day I went and dived the great Blue Hole and loved it. I don't want to go on too much but it was amazing. In the dive we descended down to about 15m on a sandy bank where we sorted ourselves out. Then we headed down over the edge into the darkness. The water dropped by 4 degrees and looking down all you could see was black. At 40m we leveled off and swan under an overhang which had stalactites falling down which we could swim between. As we slowly came up, at about 25m a school of sharks was circling and so we swam up between them. As we ascended they followed us up to our safety stop where they got braver and braver and closer and closer until we exited the water. I won't lie, I was a little bit scared. The other 2 dives were pretty cool too. While I was having the best time ever Danni started her PADI open water course and had to watch videos all day. That night 4 Canadians arrived at our hostel with a crate of beer and we sat out on the balcony with their guitars and sang songs. Canadians obviously can't take their beer because one of them threw up in the sink. Late into the night we went for a walk to explore the island and all the dogs on the island just roam the streets in packs and followed us everywhere we went. We gave them all names. The WaterfightThe next day we just chilled, swam, lay in hammocks, and generally did nothing as Danni waited to start her course with the Canadians. That night we had met some guys who were staying at another hostel and we challenged them to a water fight. We took it far too seriously buying every pack of balloons we could and even getting paper plates which we fashioned into helmets and armor! Walking down the high street banging a drum, in our costumes on the way to the other hostel we kinda looked like we were part of a cult. We soon gathered up lots of local children who mainly threw the balloons at each other. The other hostel was also pretty well prepared although they didn't have the costumes and a full blown water fight erupted. It was pretty cool. One of the kids after we had run out of balloons asked 'what do we do now, use our fists'. I think they missed the point!The rest of the days were spent chilling during the day and at night hanging out, playing volleyball and having toga parties. The hostel had free canoes and so one day we fashioned spears out of broom sticks with nails attached with duck tape. We didn't catch anything and generally just swallowed water. We did do a good deed for the day in our canoe, when there was a guy stranded on the wrong side of the split being eaten alive by a swarm of mosquitoes, and we rescued him. Danni 'I'm now a qualified scuba diver' PooleI loved doing the course, doing it with Brian and Steve was hilarious. Underwater Brian kept adding air to Steve's BCD so that he would slowly rise to the surface without knowing! The instructor was also very funny and thought it would be best if I split up with Aidan and moved to the island to live with him! We saw loads of cool fish including parrot fish, moray eels and the coral was beautiful.Danni's last word on Caye CaulkerI loved it sooooooooooooooooooooo much. I know I've said this a lot but this is definitely my favorite place so far. The chilled island life is so good I might have to go and live there!The Road Trip BeginsWe got on soo well with the Canadians that they asked us to come with them to Guatemala They are driving from Canada to Buenos Aries and have a people carrier/van (dodge caravan called Sadie) which normally seats 7 but they have taken a seat out. Another Canadian girl also came with us and so one person had to sit on the floor! We are planning on going all the way through Guatemala with them to Lake Atitlan so we'll let you know how that goes??.
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