Sailing Away

Our second week in Belize was dominated by a fantastic sailing trip from Caye Caulker in the north to Placencia in the south. We were joined by 11 other travellers (including our Strayian buddies Carrie & Brett - don't believe the hype, not all Strayians are wankers) for the three day trip on 'Dis n Dat', a 40 foot fibreglass yacht.

The trip allowed us to fish, snorkel and sail during the day, while nights were spent camping on little offshore islands (cayes) eating the catch of the day, after which the rum punch and banter flowed. The fishing wasn't too bad, with Mat hauling in a couple of barracuda and managing to snare a crayfish while snorkelling on the second day, before the hangover kicked into overdrive and left him at the back of the boat laying a burley trail. The photo below is Mat - his tan is fully locked in now...

Along with the Strayians, we had a great mix of other travellers onboard, including Random Dave and Doctor Lisa from Vail, Scuba Steve and Claire from Vancouver, and the lovely Sophie from Oxford. That leaves two others - a couple of young ladies from New York who became fondly known as Tweedledum and Tweedledummer.

These two units seemed to have thought they'd booked onto a P&O cruiseship, and thus provided us and the crew with numerous laughs and frustration during the trip. The two man Belize crew of Brown-Man (Brrrrrooooooowwwnnnnn) and Charlie couldn't stand them and were more than amused when one of them got craked in the head with the boom.

This was in fact so hilarius for Charlie, a 60 year old rasta with a drinking problem, that he fell ovberboard laughing as he cried out in creole (broken english) "I told da stupid bitch she getta clonked in da fookin head'. This incident reduced the number of brain cells shared between our two New Yorkers to 1.


En route, we camped at English Caye, which has a permanent population of 2 - a father and son lighthouse keeper combo. Father was on the mainland, so we spent the night drinking and catching up with the son who has lived on the island for over 40 years. Some great stories shared over the 'One Barrell Rum', and then an offer at 2am from him to take us on the 12 mile trip in his 12 foot dinghy to visit the Belize City Casino... maybe next time.

In Placencia, we grabbed an apartment (using the term loosely) from an ex-pat American named Big Stan who spent the best part of an hour explaining everything we needed to know about Placencia, including the fact that Mrs. Bouyole made the best bread on the island, but Norman made better cinamon buns.


We also took the opportunity while having access to a kitchen to cook up a couple of feeds (the first home cooked meals since we left Aotearoa) and to visit the local bottle store (a parked semi trailer with a container on the back) to stock up on belicans for a night of card playing.

We're now in Belize City after our first chicken bus ride (the term given to ex-US school buses which feature heavily in Central and South American bus fleets). The ride was memorable for the speed bumb we took at pace which led to Mat being catapulted from his seat into the roof, a couple of feet above him, and for a local who screamed at the bus driver constantly in creole to slow down - "notta goin ma grave yet batty boy". Concern rises when a local complains about the drivers poor skills.

Where on to Gautemala now, a week later than expected and with a trimmed down itinerary. Hope all is well, and for those following the journey, no automatic alert for the last Belizean blog was sent so please look back for other tales from Belize (featuring a quiz night and karaoke).