Lucie & Rhys´s Honeymoon Adventure: Week 46 - Placencia, Hopkins, San Ignacio, Caye Caulker (Belize)

Our alarm went off at 5:30am as we’d intended to head to Maya Centre to visit the Cockscomb Jaguar Preserve, an area of jungle forming a national park. After a brief chat we decided it was too early and too hot to be hiking through the jungle so we went back to sleep and woke again a couple of hours later. We left Placencia with a revised plan to head to Hopkins, a small fishing village further up the coast.

The bus took us most of the way, dropping us at the turnoff from the main road, 4.25 miles from the village. With our backpacks and the heat there was no way we could hike in so we hitchhiked, our first hitchhiking attempt of the whole trip and it went surprisingly well. Once in the village we set about trying to find somewhere to stay with not much luck. As it’s off season a lot of places were closed. Rhys ended up leaving me with the bags and following signs a couple of kilometres out of town to a little place called Kismet. It was a room under a house owned by a hippy lady called Trisha from New York who had been in Hopkins for 9 years. After we had settled in we had a swim in the Caribbean, although it was like bath water and too warm to really be refreshing, before walking along the beach back in to the village. It was quite dirty, not a beach you’d want to sit on with a washed up anteater and numerous chicken heads, it wasn’t really the idyllic little Garifuna fishing village the guide book had led us to believe at all. That night we ate shark cooked by Trisha at Kismet - there weren’t all that many other options nearby.

The next day we decided we’d take one of the canoes down to the lagoon where Trisha had told us we might be lucky enough to see manatees. We didn’t get very far. The canoe had a few holes in and we had to keep stopping to empty it out and the water made it so heavy to steer that we pretty much just zigzagged through the mangrove channels. We stopped and climbed a watchtower with views over the lagoon and the sea before deciding to call it a day and head back along the coast to the hostel. The whole time we were out two of the labradors from the hostel had swam beside us and we were a little scared they’d get eaten by crocodiles but they survived. Back at the hostel we traded the canoe for bikes and set out for Sittee River, a little village near by. The dogs followed us again and as it was midday the sun was relentless. We ended up stopping at a supermarket to buy a bowl and some water to give to the dogs, Taboo, the eldest was struggling so badly to keep up that I thought she was going to have a heart attack. We even had to stop twice to get her in the sea and in a ditch to cool off. We didn’t make it into the village itself but stopped at a nice little bar overlooking the Sittee Marina. After lunch we headed back into Hopkins, there were nicer places to stay with less chicken heads on the Sittee River side of town but nowhere easily accessible for backpackers without a vehicle and there aren’t many places on line so you can’t find out about them before you turn up. Just outside of the village my bike broke and Rhys ended up free wheeling it the last couple of kilometres. The dogs also abandoned us just as we got back into town and we spent the next couple of hours at the hostel worrying that we’d lost them until they arrived home safe tails wagging.

We left Hopkins early the following day to walk back up the dirt track into town to catch the bus to Dangriga. Just outside of Dangriga by the roadside a second bus pulled up and lots of people started swapping to the new bus. One of the locals was kind enough to ask where we were headed and suggest we jump on the second bus too as it was destined for Belmopan, the capital, and would save us an hour going in to and back out of Dangriga. We were surprised at just how small Belmopan was when we arrived, with less than half the population of Port Talbot. We didn’t hang around and after jostling at the gate made it through the crush to get on the bus to San Ignacio. We got to San Ignacio late afternoon and checked into a dirt cheap room with a balcony at Hotel Hi-Et before heading into town to get our bearings. It’s not the prettiest town ever but could be a lot worse. There’s a little pedestrianised street lined with tour operators, bars and restaurants and a little market and plaza.

Our first full day in San Ignacio was taken up with a tour to the Actun Tunichil Muknal ‘ATM’ caves. It’s one of the most popular things to do in Belize away from the reef and everyone who we’ve met who has done it raved about it - we had high expectations and it sure did meet them. After meeting the other two guys in our group and our guide we drove to the site where we were issued with head torches and helmets. After a short 30 minute hike through the Tapir Mountain Nature Reserve, along a well marked jungle trail with three river crossings we arrived at the mouth of the cave. We then spent the next hour wading through the crystal clear waters, most of the time it was just knee deep but at a couple of points we had to swim. We passed through huge great cavernous halls and squeezed through gaps in rocks sideways. As we went our guide stopped to tell us some history of the cave and to point out sparkling calcium deposits and other rock formations. When we were about 500metres into the cave we stopped and climbed about 10 metres up the side into another chamber. Straight away we saw pots and ceramics scattered over the floor from Mayan food offerings. We were guided through the cavern, stepping over the pots as we went to sacrificial skeletal remains, one of which was so calcified that it glittered like crystal. The whole experience was pretty spectacular, not morbid at all, more magical. At one point we turned all our torches out and had our guide drumming to us to replicate a Mayan ceremony and it was really quite powerful, you can see why they considered the cave such a sacred place. On the way back out we took a more indirect route, squeezing through tight gaps and climbing between passes. Sadly some idiot managed to drop a camera on one of the skulls causing a fair bit of damage so all cameras are now banned, so we have no photos.

Back in town we spent a couple of hours relaxing at the hostel before heading out to meet up with the two guys from our trip and some people they’d met in Caye Caulker to visit the happy hours on the pedestrianised street.

We had planned to visit the ruins near town the following day but it was dismal weather, rainy and grey and we used that as an excuse to have a chill day, calling home and watching TV in our room. We popped out for a mediocre meal but that was the extent of our activity.

Fully recharged from our chill day we were up early for a chicken bus to Belize City. The bus dropped us at a roundabout on the outskirts of town where we jumped in a taxi to the watertaxi terminal and after a short wait we were on a boat to Caye Caulker. Caye Caulker is a small Caribbean island measuring about 5 miles by 1 mile. There are no vehicles on the island other than a plethora of golf buggies that rocket along the sandy tracks. The place has a real Caribbean vibe but no real beaches just an area called ‘The Split’ with a bar facing out on a shallow strip that flows between the north and south islands. We checked into an amazing little cabana, it was basic but ideal, a little wooden building that was nearly as big as our flat in London with a kitchen area and a dining table, a little home away from home and for a bargainous £15 a night.

After spending the first afternoon wandering around the island and eating in our lovely little dining room we booked a day trip out to the reef. The Mesoamerican Barrier Reef which runs for 900km from Cancun to Honduras includes a 300km stretch off the coast of Belize and is the second longest in the world (the Great Barrier Reef being the longest) and lies just 1 mile off the coast of Caye Caulker. After we boarded our speed boat it took about an hour to get to the Hol Chan Marine Reserve, on the way we stopped in the North Channel hoping to spot manatees but with no luck. Once in Hol Chan we donned out snorkel masks and flippers and set off in small groups to follow our guide around a small circuit to see some beautiful, green turtles, bright fish, huge shoals of grouper, the tail of a sleeping moray eel, scary jelly fish and lots of other marine life. After about 45 minutes we were back in the boat for another 20 minutes to take us to Shark Ray Alley. Although it’s a bit controversial as the boat captains feed the sharks sardines to bring them to the boats, we loved it (sorry Tim). The nurse sharks were the biggest sharks we’ve ever seen that close and the biggest was easily 8ft in length with 5 or 6 of them feeding at any one time and swimming under and around the boat. At first it was a bit intimidating when they brushed past us but you soon got used to it and swam with them through the waters. Along with the nurse sharks there were dozens of sting rays that glided around beneath us. After another unsuccessful check in the north channel for manatees we headed to Coral Gardens. Although the fish were far smaller than at the other sites they were brightly coloured and the coral was amazing, huge bushels and fans and antlers. We had one last check for manatees and a quick snorkel while waiting for them before we gave up and headed back to shore, stopping at the mangroves at the north of the island for a rum punch.

Back in town we were pretty tired and after trying to meet a couple from our boat for a drink and failing (there are no real bars on the island, just restaurants, it was surprisingly quiet) we headed back to make the most of our little cabana.