Days 7 & 8: You guys, we're on an Island In The Middle Of The Caribbean, on break from an archaeological expedition!

We just got back from Caye Caulker and it was so much fun!!!! We actually didn't do that much other than chill on an Island In The Middle Of The Caribbean (eeeee!) but it was the perfect thing. I don't think I can even describe it so I'll do it with pictures. Chronologically, of course!

Despite a pretty late night we got ourselves up at 6 (we slept in!) to catch the 7am bus from San Ignacio to Belize city. Here are Melody and Marisa, two of my lovely roomies, getting ready. The bus trip was without a doubt the most interesting bus ride of my life, so the fact that it was 2.5 hours long was totally cool. But more on that later...

From there we caught a water taxi, which is a really big powerboat that seats about 50 people, out the island. Caye Caulker is actually pretty far out into the sea so it was a 45 minute boat trip. It was pretty awesome but slightly windy.

That's Zena (my other roomie), summer, and Emma enjoying the ride.

Roommate picture!! Here's all four of us on the arrival dock at Caye Caulker. That water was so gorgeous! It's actually pretty funny because even though we arrived with a group of ten people the four of us were the only ones from that group that ended up staying over due to a very close call with some bedbugs so it became a cabin bonding experience. So fun!
Our Hostel! We had a suite in the bluish part of the left building. You have to understand, this was like the best hostel EVER. It was $18 American for the night and the place was gorgeous. And there were no bugs on the entire island!

Naturally, the first thing you MUST do when you get to an Island In The Middle Of The Caribbean (still exciting) is get a pina colada! So we did. Actually, we ate so well this whole weekend! I had nothing but vegetables (I miss them...) and Zena even tried a barracuda! Which is funny because she saw one while she was scuba diving today. Again, these are my cabin-mates, Zena, Marisa, and Melody.

And then we went swimming! The water was INCREDIBLE. All azure and warm and wonderful. The interesting thing is that there aren't really beaches as we think of them at the Cayes because it's so shallow. There's not really a strip of sand, the water just sort of starts when the land gets low enough. Resorts actually ship in their own sand to give people the "white sand" experience.

Remember though, this is the off season for a reason. Soon we noticed the sky becoming a little threatening... Zena interprets:

You have NEVER seen a thunder and lightning storm until you've been in one in the Caribbean! The thunder was so loud it SHOOK things. And it rained SO hard. It was never colder than 75 degrees but you had to be under cover when the rain started because it actually hurt a little. The craziest part though is that these storms only last for like ten minutes because the wind blows so fast! That's Melody running away. And below that's me enjoying the rain while Melody models our rain-avoiding method of choice.

Of course, once it starts raining that hard, it's time to go check out your hostel room for real. And ours ROCKED. Here's Melody sitting in the living room. We had a living room! It only had one bed, but it was really really big so that was fine.

Here's Zena and Marisa taking in the storm from our second-floor balcony. If there's one thing that is absolutely REQUIRED of a house in Belize it's a porch with a hammock. It's the best thing ever.

We actually met up with another group of project friends that night which was superfun. The place we went to was three stories tall with SWINGS everywhere! Actually, using swings as barstools was pretty common on the island which was really cool.

It stormed on and off (remember, the storms are really short) for most of today, so while Zena went scuba diving, Melody, Marisa, and hung out at all sorts of fun sheltered places. This is the dock outside our hostel (which was called Tina's Backpacker's [sic] in case you can't read the sign). While we were chilling there we met a really cool guy who went to UCLA and now lives in San Francisco. He was leaving so he gave us his travel speakers, yay! Now we can have music in our cabin!

After a very relaxing, bug-free, awesome day we grabbed a water taxi back to Belize City. We managed to remember the way back to the bus termial (go us!) and got back without a hitch. Here we are on the way back. It was such a fun weekend!

Love you,
Elise