Caye Caulker Day 1

Today we have a snorkeling trip out to the Belize Barrier Reef and the Hol Chan Marine Reserve along it.

I did a 6:30am, 7 km, 1 hour run with another group member, Dara. We went to the south end of the island.

Couldn’t make it up the trail on the west because of puddles. Turned around and back by the hotel. She continued on up to Iguana Reef for 5 miles. Dara didn’t see the seahorses this morning either.

Donna went out looking for birds while I was running. She saw a few

Our snorkeling trip started at 10 am. We saw some Bottlenose dolphins spotted jumping on the way out.

We saw lots of boats at the manatee stop, and boats were leaving, so we left without getting in the water. Most likely the manatee was chased away.

We went to coral gardens next. We could swim unsupervised here. Lots of small fish, sting ray, sharks.

Our next stop is the Hoi Channel, which is in the Hol Chan Marine Reserve. In the reserve, you need to stay with your guide, and they often have a ranger out in a boat to enforce it. My camera battery ran out, thank you to Karen for sharing these photos and the dolphin photo above.

We also saw barracuda and a large spiny lobster.

Then to our last stop called shark and ray alley. We saw numerous nurse sharks, some 6 ft long. An eagle ray, and a green turtle.

We ate at Pasta per Casa Anna & Armondo, an Italian place right next to the hotel. The menu is two pastas per day. We tried both, which were really good. Afterwards we had Rocky Road and Peanut Butter ice cream at Nico’s.