Mexico to Belize

On Saturday I had arrived to Tulum. Mexico was really quite different to Guatemala. Big roads, much more developed and quite a different lifestyle as well. Was very cool to live the Mexican life for a while.

On Sunday is was big diving time. I met a few english guys and girls and we decided to go for a double dive the afternoon. The trip was going to be to fresh water caves, which used to be dripstone caves, but are now flooded with water. The viz was supposed to be more than 100 meters. We set off the afternoon to the Dos Ojos caves. It was really quite cool to walk trough the rain forest with diving gear on and then all of a sudden to find a small bit of water, where we went into and descended into the caves. There weren't many fish around but it was amazing to swim through water which is as clear as air, but has such wonderful refelctions all over. In most parts the cave was quite wide, but we went through one strech, where both my elbows touched the sides and I had to watch out that my tank didn't scrape the limestone. Really quite a different dive to the normal open water dives. We went for two different dives in the cave, going off in different directions. Definitely worth the money! The rest of Sunday night, we had a good dinner on the street and then went out for a few drinks and decided to head out the next morning to go to Belize.

Monday moring we headed out to the bus and caught a bus to the Belizean boarder at 10.30h. Crossing into Belize was slghtly difficult as the Mexican officer decided that today the exit fee out of Mexico would be double the normal price. If you looked rich it could also be quite a bit more... What a nice guy. As soon as we crossed into Belize things changed drastically. We had arrived in the Carribeans. What a wonderful feeling. The people speak English and have a wonderful accent and are very very relaxed. The plan was to go to Cay Calker the same day still, but we arrived in Belize City 10 minutes after the last ferry departed. So we stayed in Belize City for one night. We were told before that the city was not really worth a visit. But we really had quite a fun time and found the city live super interesting. We went to a hostel;, with the weirdest characters ever running the place and walking on the streets was sooo cool. People just chat you up and start talking and are all relaxed. The dialect is just soo cool.

Tuesday moring we headed out to Cay Calker and we arrived in Paradise. A small island, everyone is super relaxed, good weather, cool people and lots of things to do. After we arrived we just walked around the island a bit, picked some coconuts from the trees and opened them and started making plans for the next days. In the evening we went to buy some drinks in the supermarket, had those and then went out to a few bars and a club. A real fun day. Unfortunately though Belize is quite a bit more expensive than the countries I have visited so far. That just means not going out for food and drinking stuff from the supermarket. We bought quite a bit of food in Mexico and brought that along to save a bit as well.

Today (Wednesday) the plan is to do lots of nothing. Read, write and book trips. I had heard a while ago about a sail trip that would go from here 3 days and 2 nights south past all the small islands, snorkeling, fishing and sleeping on deserted islands. That just sounds like heaven to me. So on friday I will head out of Cay Calker on a three day sailing trip to Palencia. It's quite expensive to do the trip, but it just sounds too good to let it pass. I might try to get a spearfishing trip in for tomorrow and otherwise just live the carribean livestyle - go slow, maaan.