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'Welcome to Paradise'
Caye Caulker is like something out of a disney film. People had said to us beforehand 'it's a pretty laid back place, if you want to chill out for a few days' - we had had a pretty hectic run since we got into Mexico so chilling out sounded perfect..
'Chilled out' is not the right way to describe the island. We got off the water taxi in a haze of blinding sunlight to the standard reggae beats and were met instantly by a load of rastafarians welcoming us to paradise. We sorted ourselves out with a room in the nicest hotel on the island then headed to the beach. Caye Caulker has no roads, just open stretches of sand, and no cars - their main mode of transport is Golf Cart (including taxis) or excellent bicycle. The locals are so fond of their 'excellent' bicycles they might even let you ride them.. then they are so chilled out they seem a bit confused about who owns the bike when you try and give it back to them.
Spent the afternoon taming pelicans on the beach with an Australian guy called Jack (aka Josh)who we met on the boat out, then went out for a meal, and, as usual, crashed and went to bed by 10.
The next day, predictably, the clouds rolled in (they are following us). There is not a lot to do on the island if you are not out on the reef doing various kinds of waterpsort. We still managed to get burnt whilst walking round the island at a chilled out pace. The boys bought a ball but were forced to keep their games low-key after causing uneccessary concern to the locals when they started running down the road (they naturally assumed such fast movement must indicate some kind of emergency).
Chris has made lots of friends, all canine. His particular friend was a blond male called Callum who followed him loyally everywhere, including to restaurants, for the full 2 days. The last evening saw us utilising the free flowing Caribbean rum at a karaoke nightclub on the beach. Lauren broke the hearts of a few admirers - one American, all the rest locals (they LOVE her), and I witnessed some of the best lunges I have ever seen, performed by a Londoner who knew how to lunge.
Many fantastic dance moves were performed.
Later in the hotel room I had a small oats catastrophe resulting from the fact there is no fast food outlets or late-night supermarket opening hours on the island.
Aside from that one hazy nights sleep later we were back on the water taxi for Belize City. It is notoriously dodgy there so we didnt hang about but made our way to the bus station (via some of the most treacherous pavements known to man: part concrete, part wood, part massive hole) and then caught another local bus over to San Ignacio on the Guatemalan border.
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