An island with two cemeteries and zero hospitals. This is the first fact the Codger was told about the island he was ferrying over to after 24hrs in transit from Sydney. The Codger was in the taxi to the ferry port to Caye Caulker (an island). Comforting news.

First lesson learnt – you give 50USD to the cab driver with expectation of receiving 20USD return. You get back local currency. You never get back USD change, only local change. The realisation of this was that traveling across six countries in 4 weeks, there are 6 currencies. That’s a lot of spare change…

Caye Caulker – a Caribbean island of Belize, surrounded by aquatic bluer than blue clear water. Whatever you are picturing in your head a Caribbean island to be, this is it. Tall, bent over palm trees with coconuts separate the water and the compacted sand and dirt roads. Only foot, golf cart and bicycle traffic here. A forty-five minute ferry from Belize mainland keeps many away meaning even in the peak period, it doesn’t feel overcrowded.

The first full day of this adventure involved sailing out to the barrier reef. The second largest barrier reef to The Great Barrier Reef. First snorkel stop was at ‘shark alley’. With a little help of some chum thrown into the water from the crew, the Codger found himself surrounded by about 20 nurse sharks, both on and under the waters surface. It was an exhilarating experience but one that felt completely safe for some reason.

Continuing to sail north, the vessel appropriately named ‘Best Life Ever’, headed toward a channel in the reef. The Codger swam away from the boat to the reef next to Eagle Sting Rays, Barracuda, rainbow fish, snapper, parrotfish, butterfly fish, Angel fish. Our guide dove deep and swam through a 3-4m long cave. The Codger decided to follow him, with nothing but about one hundred fish seeking refuge. Would have been handy to have had a GoPro to capture this. The best way to imagine this, is to close your eyes and pretend you are inside an aquarium or Finding Nemo.

After a few glasses of rum punch in the sun on the deck and conch ceviche, we approached Caye Caulker for the end of the snorkelling trip. Close to the drop off point, was a part of the island known for a large number of sting rays to all but beach themselves.

Iguana Reef feeds the sting rays at 4pm every day so the timing was impeccable. Walking through the shallows, the strings rays approached with no fear. Scared the pants off him when one touched the back of the Codger’s leg without expecting it. There was a bloke who provided bait fish to feed them. You sit in the shallows, the sting rays swim over, you put your hand under them where their mouth is located and they take the fish off you. The bite of them feels like a gum crunching down. Was trying my best the whole time not to get Steve Irwin’d.

That was all day one.

The weather turned bad on the second day, with very strong winds and plenty of cloud. Borrowing a bicycle, the Codger cycled around the small island and found himself at The Split. In the 60’s, the island was split in two from a hurricane. Opportunity arose and some clever locals built a day beach club called The Lazy Lizard and concocted a rocket fuel called Lizard Juice. 5 types of rum and lime in a slushy format…

Dinners here are delicious and all fresh. Lobster ceviche, fish tacos, lobsters tacos. Cannot explain taste very well so won’t attempt.

Guatemala next.