Caye Caulker...

Is the name of the most beautiful place I have seen in my life.

The island can only really be realised properly either first hand, or really with some good photos.
Although I doubt it, I hope the photos will look half as good as it did in person.
Driving up on the boat we knew we had now REALLY reached the Carribean. There were a lot of plank wood docks leading up to the ocean, one of many we got off at. The ocean below was a clear slighty minty green, I almost lost a jandal looking down because the gaps between wood were large (some of the docks are quite ´rustic´, one very weathered one has a 4 person maximum. The Island ´Captain´(aka one of the laid'back young guys wearing the CC Ferry tops and jandals, with ´Captain´printed on) said ´Don´t worry, we got plenty o dose here (Jandals)´ as he easily threw my bag onto the trolley that he would later pull down the dock to the mainland..¨Go slow, you´re in Caye Caulker now¨ (this is the islands catchphrase).

I stood on the dock for a few minutes (I take pictures of everything) as my Irish Parents had various Golf cart taxi drivers and hostel owners keenly (but not aggressively, or pushy ..unlike their Mexican neighbours). The three of us sat on the back seat of the cart, which gave us a great view of all we passed. This took us down the main road, where the Basketball court is (miniature... i don´t think even half size), along with the resturants (none are fancy, all with swing seats and plastic chairs), some shops (a tourism shop, 2 togs shops, a book shop'internet cafe.. about $7 NZ an hour!), about 3 small Chinese'run supermarts (this is what I am now calling the small supermarkets... even in Mexico there are either the small ones, or the huge Americana beasts), then various accomodations...the best of which being stilted, wooden, colourful and classic Carribean. The island really caters from camping to a fenched in modern place with a pool.. the first place, hotel-pizzaplacebar, we stopped at didn´t have available rooms for us (A Canadian guy had taken over the place and was just opening... he literally put up the sign later that day, we went there in the night and all they had was two types of beer, which they were sending a local stoner to the supermart to buy).

The next place was where we ended up. I haven´t managed to taken in any of the names of the places we have been staying, but it was basically on the beach, the family lived upstairs and then have extended to have a quite tacky looking wooden building - something you would expect on a trip to Colorado. I didn´t mind where we were at this point, the Irish wanted to stay somewhere nice and my birthday is the one day I let the money flo´a lil. People who pass me on the street on Oct 21 are like, ¨Hey, Big Spender!¨.

We dropped the bags and headed for ´´the split´´ where there isn´t much beach, but awesome water with beautiful fish you can see from the bay. At around midday the stoners and hangers'around come from the Chinese supermart to here.. i think in the hopes tourists will buy them drinks. I wondered why these guys spend all day at the Supermart (always saying ´Where´s the party at´), one of them even has a permanently placed chair. I think it they take advantage of the fact that the Chinese people are too scared to tell them to leave, but also they have the attitude ´This is my country!´. One of the supermart owners can´t really speak English either, so even if he tried - I think he is stuck with them.

When one of them (David) learnt it was my birthday, he was all ´Well the party must be somewhere´ but then asked me the next day.. ´Where the party at, Birthday Girl´´
I replied ' ´Dunno. My birthday was yesterday´, he said ´Ohhh Sorry, I may have taken some drugs´.

My favourite person on the island was a guy we encountered quite early on... I don´t think we ever learnt his name, but he was only known as ^The Tamale Guy^.
I still don´t really know what tamales are, a bit sad seeing it is one of the most popular street food here. BUT, it is made out of corn (the is the bit I don´t really get... how corn becomes this soft, heavy texture) then with herbs through... or chicken and veges apparently. It is wrapped in a banana leaf. I had only had it with herbs in Mex, but theis had more going on. I meant to try one of the Vege ones on the island, but forgot .. but I tried some of Padraic`s on his first Tamale encounter. It was very good, mainly thanks to the sauce.

We spooted this guy because we werhearing a very long-winded tour explanation (an AMerican lady who has married a Belizean), she talked for ages... giving detail to the sillyest things.. I made the mistake of mentioning Steve Irwin(which everyone does at on hearing ``Swim with the stingrays``) and she went off on a huge tangent about how you don´t grab them from behind, the location of the stingers, it is sad because he has a family....saying all this with no sympathy I might add. She didn´t really have emotion at all now I think of it.. but anyways, she was then droning about cheap eating option (which we discovered, don`t actually exist, in comparison with Mexico) when she mentioned the Tamale Guy - don`t worry, you won`t miss him.
Within seconds we heard the loud and enthusiastic boomb ``HAT Ta-ma-LES get your HAT TAmaLES.
He swaggers up the road in his blue shirt, cap, sneakers with his socks pulled up, pushing his cart. ``Hey guys!!! - I got Tamales... Chicken AND Vegetarian`` we didn´t know this at the time, but this is really all this man says. Apart from a few other words, he really puts a lot of energy into making te Tamales sound hot, chicken, vegetarian -and boy, does he do it with enthusiasm. He also does hilarious rants, before we talked to him, somewone was waving him down off a pier. He was like ``They betta be buyin sum`ìn, you donçt make the Tamale walk retrace his steps fo nuthin``... when he was selling to us he mentioned Ì come out 2 times a day, at about 12.30, I walk the main road then pause at the split for 30 mins, then walk back to my house. I walk out of my house again at 5.30 - with Hot TamaLES`
Later on he was like ``Hot Tamales, quick before I leave`and I was all `You don`t leave! I have seen you 8 times today`` (not in a rude way). He replied `You only see me twice actually. Once at 12.30 and then at 5.30`.

After watching a beautiful sunset, taking photos of myself infront of the sunset of this glorious 21st.. some holding the camera and others dancing around (providing a comedy show for the fishermen - note: they fish and eat and sell CONCH here, which I found interesting. Mainly because I didn´t know conch had meat... not sure it is legal in NZ because of the cultural value...), then hit up the main local stree. Again, not much there.. .another Chinese Supermart (named China Town), a-the bank and the bakery. I looked for something that resembled a cake, a return with a cinnamon loaf - with the softest, freshest bread ever. This was my first birthday without a Chocolate cake, but I will have one - that is the joy of the word `Belated`.. we could technically all celebrate our birthdays all of the time.
In desperation, I stopped off at a Burger Bar place for a cupcake.. any kind of CAKE was necessary. It was a takeaway restaurant, but as the Americans outside told me, they were ``out`` of all the other items on the menu (aka either someone had not bothered to do the shopping, or the boat hadn`t arrived with the food).
My Irish parents found a great restaurant on the beach with a vege menu, although they didn´t actually bring me what I ordered, I was happy to eat it because it was the first time I had seen Broccoli and Cauliflower for months. It was a deep fried pita wrap with lots of veges, hottish sauce and runny beans.. i splashed out (Hey, BIG SPENDER) on a side of mashed potato (no existe in Mex) and a fizzy drink because they have the cool, big glass bottles...may as well celebrate the decade in which I was born.
I then felt bad with my erratic spending as my Irish Parents insisted on paying the bill. The restaurant also brought out an Ice Cream sunday for me - very nice, good news is that Belizeans make ice cream a HELL Of a lot better than the Mexicans. Mexican´s mean well, but miss the `cream`element of it. Although we can´t really blame a country without real milk, can we?

This is when we went to the `bar` with the two beer types, the crazy Canadian gave us his life story (classic overworked and divorced.... moved here to chill out) he told us that Cocaine is okay if taken infrequently and insisted we wrote on his wall - if we return, he promised, we need to point out our wall scribbles and he will give us a free drink (to which I said I only wanted if he had more options.. they couldn`t even give me lemonade.. or water).
He wanted me to draw something, so I put a few sad looking flowers, `Maria 21 on 21-10-10`and `Arohanui ` on the wall, for some New Zealand Flava.
Glad I got to leave my mark in Belize!