San Pedro

It is believed that San Pedro inspired Madonna's hit song "La Isla Bonita". I imagined San Pedro to be just like Caye Caulker, only bigger. San Pedro is actually a town (city) on Ambergris Caye, north of Caye Caulker.

I checked into my hostel early, then went to walk around. The beach was definitely beautiful.

I walked into town to go to the ATM and find some food. The streets were small and busy with golf carts, cars, and bicycles. Every block, several men had to make some sort of comment or cat call. First of all, I am nobody's "baby girl". My name is not baby, sexy mama, or anything to that nature. It was incredibly hot, I was irritable and hungry, the streets were far busier than I expected, and I was getting harassed every two minutes. I was sorry for leaving Caye Caulker.

There were plenty of places to eat, but when I get super hungry, my decision making skills plummet. You would think I would walk into the first place I see, but no, for some reason that doesn't happen. I wander aimlessly, trying to make a decision.

I walked past a little wood building with a long open window facing the street. I looked at the food of two people eating there as I walked by. It looked a little strange. I kept walking. Then I smelled it. I turned around.

They speak English in Belize. It's the official language of the country. But for some reason, I had a problem deciding what language to speak there, which was a bit embarrassing. I mean, imagine an American in another country, apparently unable to speak English.

Anyway, I ordered one of what they were having, and got a choice between stewed chicken or fried chicken. I ordered stewed chicken and had an amazing introduction to the national dish of Belize. Sorry, there are no photos as I was trying not to look like a tourist at this point... which was impossible.

After eating, I went for a walk and was relieved to find a quiet side of the island, at a boat terminal. There was plenty of shade, a nice breeze, and pretty much no one there. I walked along the street, and came upon the one guy that was around. He seemed to be talking to himself. I decided I should get out of the situation, as there was no one around but myself and him.

He spotted me before I reached the end of the block and I guess I looked like a good idea to him. He called over to me and started coming toward me. I had just about reached the corner and speed up a little. On the corner was a shop where I could see my reflection in the window. I saw his reflection close the gap between us as he came up behind me.

I turned around to face him, he was maybe 5 or 6 feet away, and shouted "Hey! No!"

He stopped for a second, baffled that I would confront him. I took the opportunity to walk off again, quickly. Now I was where I could see other people, about a block away.

He was apparently pretty offended that I had yelled at him because he started shouting at me and following me (although keeping his distance this time, so more for intimidation). He called me some awful things, and how dare I come to his country and act that way, etc. He followed me for two blocks until he disappeared into the crowded street. As I was walking quickly away from him, another guy sitting on the side of the road made a cat call at me in between shouts of the guy behind me. He quieted down real quick though when he realized what I was getting away from.

When I realized I was safe, I slowed my pace and headed back towards the hostel. I decided to walk along the beach and endured the comments from a guy selling necklaces. As I passed by him, two other guys walked up behind me a ways. One guy walked closer and said hello and asked my name. I looked him in the eye and said "I don't want to talk to you right now." He backed off and said "I can respect that". His drunk friend said sarcastically "She's a tourist. We have to respect the tourists."

I felt like crap. I get that the people here have lived here fairly happily for a long time. Long before tourists came here. Now tourism is a major part of their economy, and I imagine the police tell these guys that they have to be nice to the tourists because their economy depends on it. So the tourists are treated far better than the locals. I went to the hostel to lie down for awhile.

I met an Australian girl who was sleeping on the bunk below me. We went out to find dinner and ice cream. We stopped by a panada stand (apparently the English form of empanada) which is a stuffed pastry type thing with meat in it. We talked to the guy and another local about the best places to eat in the area. We had a few panadas, then headed off to find more food.

The next day I got up early and went for a run. The humidity got the best of me and 3 painfully slow miles almost killed me. Then I was off to go on snorkeling trip number two.

Our first stop was Hol Chan national park. These two Horse Eyed Jacks followed our guide around all day. Turns out he had a bit of food in his pocket. Called them his body guards.

A Morey eel.

A sea turtle.

This little guy was waiting for us back at the boat.

Then we headed off to shark/ray alley.

Our guide for the day seemed to take a liking to me and told me about his family and his mother, who lives in Los Angeles and runs a catering business on the side. He gave me her Facebook information and then invited me to the club that he DJ's at night for a second job. I didn't go, as that wouldn't lead to any good ideas, but he seemed nice enough.

Myself and my new Australian friend, Steph, went out to the bar at the end of the pier and floated around in inner tubes while we drank our beers. Then we headed off to find food again.

Caye Caulker, day two

I had a proper fry jack (stuffed) and coffee for breakfast, and watched the world from the dock at the hostel.

I developed a routine in the morning of eating breakfast, then coming back to first slather on sunscreen, then insect repellent, and only then going about my day. I didn't have to meet at the snorkel shop until 10 am, and I'm an early riser, so I stopped by "Ice and Beans" to get an iced coffee and walk about the island again. It was quite a bit windier, which meant the sand fleas/flies wouldn't be biting much (they don't care about repellent at all, they eat it for breakfast).

I met the group at the snorkel shop and sat and talked with the other tourists while we waited. There was a couple from France that shared their travel experiences, a few other people, and one girl from Japan traveling solo. The French woman remarked that it was rare to see a Japanese girl traveling alone, and I wondered how true that was. Mostly, I felt a sense of pride to meet another solo female traveler. We're out there, and we're more common than you think: women who yearn to see the world but can't wait around to find a travel partner. After all, you could wait for years.

All geared up, we walked to the docks on the west side of the island (actually the dock right next to my hostel) and first took a look at some protected tarpons.

I can never get over how blue the Caribbean is. It's my favorite sea.

And into the water we went.

It always takes me a few minutes to get used to breathing with my face underwater, but once I adjust it feels very natural. Almost too natural actually. When I dive under to take a closer look, I have to remind myself not to breathe.

I apparently need to work on my underwater selfies. You're seeing the float strap for my camera in the corner.

The jellyfish above do not sting. The guide passed one around to all of us underwater so we could feel it.

The reef is very shallow in some places. Oh, by the way, this is part of the Great Barrier Reef.

While trying to get closer for a better photo of this guy, something stung/bit me. Felt like a fire ant, if you've ever experienced that. I didn't see anything though, but swam off pretty fast. I later only had a small red dot from it.

I have always loved the shimmer of looking up towards the surface when you're underwater.

After snorkeling around there for awhile, we got back up in the boat to go to shark/ray village. Some might find this questionable practices as far as ecosystems go, although I only slightly understand it. But here they feed the sharks and rays to get them closer to people (docile nurse sharks). While yes, it does teach the sharks and rays that they can come get food, I don't think they forget how to get food when tourists aren't around (like never). And since this has become a protected area, and probably always will be, I don't know. I can see it both ways. In any case, they tossed a little food over the side and we jumped in to swim with the sharks and rays.

After we finished there, we headed over to the coral gardens for more snorkeling for those who weren't tired of it yet. I think less than half of us got in at this last spot, the rest sat in the boat drinking rum punch. But I wasn't about to let this opportunity go by. I was starting to get chilled, even though the water was in the low 80's. I didn't wear any sort of wet suit.

After awhile I started shivering, which made taking photos a little difficult, but of course I wanted to stay in as long as possible.

I did the half day (three stop) tour on Caye Caulker, because I would also be heading to San Pedro where I could do the other half at the sites closer to Ambergris Caye.

My feet hurt a little from I imagine the fins (I hope), and my ear was a little achy from diving under. When I was little, I had a pretty bad ear infection where I had to be taken to the ER or Urgent Care. My eardrum wasn't ruptured but it did have blood on it. Whenever I go on a plane, I can clear my left ear just fine, but not my right. I did buy Ear Planes (I highly recommend those, especially if you have to fly with a cold or other sinus issues) and use those sometimes. When I'd dive under to get better pictures, maybe 12-15 feet, I could not decompress my right ear at all. It made it fairly painful, so I tried to stay at a depth that my ear could handle. It was a little frustrating though.

Every night on the island, people come over to the west side of the island to watch the sunset. It's a sight to see in itself, the sudden migration of people and animals to the west side, onto docks that they get kicked off of, then onto a small window of beach. It's a serene time.

It was time to find dinner. I went out in search of food with two Canadian ladies and one British guy. I had lobster, salad, and .... mashed potatoes maybe?

The girls shared fish and lobster. I don't remember what the Brit had.

This place was pretty cool. They had a small grill out front, grilling up all sorts of things. We sat by the window to the bar and they kept giving us free rum punches... to go with the Belikins we were already drinking. That got us a little tipsy, which inspired the group to drag me out to the bar.

Of course, the crazy French Canadians (not the non-French Canadians I was with) at the bar got everyone riled up to do some weird green shot... out of a bamboo post.

I normally do not do this sort of thing. It inspired a pretty significant hangover, which was a concern since I was taking a water taxi to San Pedro the next day. We had fun though.