Paget's Belize Journal

The Preliminary Trip - It Begins - First days - A tourist trip - Flying, sand crabs - San Pedro 1 - San Pedro 2 - Braids, snakes, dogs - Leaving Dangriga The Actual Stay - Help for library - Books; departure - Arrival; weather - Sensations, housing - Security, more housing - More security, snorkeling - Dock activities - Day-to-day life 1 - Day-to-day life 2 - The Quadrille - The apartment! - Cleaning and culture - Hurricane Irene - Too much reality - Hopkins Village 1 - Hopkins Village 2 - Weather - Minimum wage - Transportation - Food Experiments - The Brits; furniture - Meeting and greeting - Night noise, Settlement Day - Dragonflies! - More noise - A good 19th - Wrapping up the 19th - Traveling to Mexico - Thanksgiving in Mexico - Cockscomb Basin - A Belizean week-end - Tobacco Caye - Is it really Christmas? - This is the life - Christmas wishes - Headwear - Christmas Experiences - Lottery - Caye Caulker haircut - Caye Caulker 2 - Geckos - Red Bank - The last few days		Jan 14, 00 Caye Caulker Again After my haircut I went walking around the village to see what I could see. This is a nice little beach town (in the middle of the ocean), pretty much focused on tourism and water sports. One end of the island is mangrove swamp and apparently good for bird-watching via canoe, but I didn't do it this time. There were plenty of hummingbirds and egrets and other waders in town to admire. Also a good collection of beach gift shops with T-shirts, towels, souvenirs etc. I found a nice store with local crafts and bought a pair of whelk shell earrings, which are excellent. Particularly with the new hairdo. The other activity if you're not sailing, snorkeling, kayaking, windsurfing or fishing (actually I didn't see anyone fishing, except pelicans and frigate birds) is people-watching. I did quite a lot of that. Caye Caulker was actually more interesting to me than Ambergris Caye (the most popular tourist destination). Caye Caulker seems to be where the sailing crowd hangs out, so there are lots of beautiful sail boats with different colored sails(I actually saw "red sails in the sunset") and a great variety of people ­ different ages, different nationalities. I had a number of nice casual conversations with tourists and semi-permanent visitors who were pretty close to my own age--a welcome change from the overwhelmingly young population I usually interact with. In the evening it rained some more, so I had dinner (a sickly sweet rum punch, indifferent grilled fish and the worst rice and beans I've eaten in this country), stopped by a disco which was too crowded and too noisy for me, then went home and watched Dirty Dancing on cable. Things were better in the morning, I found the perfect beach bar and restaurant which had good food and coffee and just a generally good feel to it. Open air, thatched roof, mahogany bar, several cages with parrots and other tropical birds. It is called Popeye's (which is kinda why I hadn't stopped there before). A nice find. Some more sunbathing and, since it was Sunday, I worked one of the New York Times crossword puzzles from the book I brought with me. Then back to Belize City on the water taxi, a balmy, fun ride this time and back to Dangriga with Tony and Therese (who had been attending Tourism Board a meeting). A pretty good excursion. I am going on the trip to Red Bank to see the migrating macaws this weekend, so that will be my last trip before turning home. I'm going with Godfrey who is a great guide, very good at spotting iguanas beside the road, and all manner of birds, so it should be a fun trip. Maybe we'll see some orchids too. Next