“Okay, welcome to Caye Caulker. I’m tired so just put yo’ bags in ya’ room and we do da papawork in da mornin.”
That was the welcome we received when we arrived at our guest house on Caye Caulker Island in Belize. The sun had set and the cool evening breeze gently swept over the island, rustling the palm trees above us. After our late arrival to the island and dealing with our immigration issues, it was nice to receive this laid-back introduction.
We placed our bags in our colourful room and lazily wandered down the sandy lanes to find somewhere to eat. A row of funky beach bars playing Caribbean reggae music lined the entire western end of the island. Men were tending to smoking grills right on the beach, with the surrounding picnic tables holding groups of loudly chatting tourists and Belizeans enjoying freshly grilled chicken. Our movement slowed to the beat of the Rastafarian melodies that echoed across the powdery sands and we soon realized that this was yet another paradise that we were going to enjoy.
Caye Caulker is a small, coral island off the eastern coast of Belize, about 32 km north of Belize City. Just 8 km long by 1.6 km wide, this tiny atoll has been severed in two by what is commonly referred to as “the split“. Some people claim that the split was created by Hurricane Hattie in 1961, but we soon found out that this story is false.
In truth, according to island’s inhabitants who helped to dig the trench, the hurricane only created a small creek, just a few inches deep. The Village Council Chairman at the time, Ramon Reyes, ordered a waterway to be dredged deeper to create a practical passage from the eastern shores to the west. The new channel would allow for dugout canoes to pass through without having to circumnavigate the entire island.
Today the split is nearly 7 meters deep and it is growing rapidly from natural current erosion. Although the growing gash threatens Caye Caulker’s future, for now it makes for a very funky place to hang out. With a loud beach bar perched at the edge of the watery avenue, the split is the best place to swim on the island. We spent much of our time there, ordering ice-cold buckets of beer and lazing in the sun while listening to a mix of western and eastern Caribbean tunes.
On one particular day at the split, we spotted a man flying about 4 meters above the water. Streams of jet powered water shot from his feet and he looked like a shirtless iron man in board shorts. We rushed over to get a better view and joined a crowd of cheering partiers near the bar. He was riding on what we now know is called a “fly board”. He put on a show, twisting, diving and flipping on this incredible piece of technology. The entire beach was cheering him on and I think all of us were amazed at what we were seeing.
The man on the “fly board” was an exception to an otherwise calm and quiet atmosphere on the island. Caye Caulker’s slow, tranquilized ambience often reminded us of Isla Holbox in Mexico. In fact, the motto on the island is “Go Slow”. Every hour was spent lazing by the water, strolling the dusty lanes, listening to music and just enjoying the funky, laid-back, Caribbean vibe.
We made plans to meet up with our new friends Celia and Jonas of the Nomadic Danes one evening. We swapped travel stories and blogging tips over dinner and drinks and really enjoyed each other’s company. It’s always fun to meet up with fellow bloggers and Celia and Jonas taught us a lot about online business. It was great to meet up with like-minded people and we hope to keep in touch and travel together again in the future.
At the end of each day spent on Caye Caulker, just as the sun started to rest on the sea, bottles of beer would magically start to appear in everyone’s hand. It would be hard to spot someone, foreign or local, without an ice-cold Belikin beer in tow. It was this perpetual holiday feel that made Caye Caulker a hard place to leave.
We spent 8 days there and enjoyed it so much that we eventually returned after a trip to nearby Ambergris Caye, where we were invited to stay at the beautiful Victoria House Resort.
Stay tuned for more about our visit to this incredible island paradise!
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Ahh I loved Caye Caulker, did you try the panty rippers cocktails they sell at the Split? Such a chilled out island with friendly people and delicious seafood. You really feel like you are in the Carribbean. Interesting to hear about how the split was actually formed, we thought it was because of the hurricane too. Great post 🙂
Wow, that place looks amazing, the colours are beautiful. As we’ll be back on Americas side of the world come Friday we’ll have to keep places like this in mind 😉
Wow, Caye Caulker looks like the dream Carribbean destination! Would love to go there one day. Great video of the fly board, looks just like Iron Man! 🙂 Did he rent out the fly board, so people could try, or was it just for show-off? Nice blog post, love your beautiful photos!
Oh wow, I’m very jealous!
We did try the panty rippas, but not at the split! We had them at a restaurant one day. We definitely drank our fair share of rum drinks in Caye Caulker 🙂
Cheers!
Excellent! Definitely keep Caye Caulker in mind if you’re in Belize, it was awesome!
Safe travels 🙂
Thank you Maria,
It was sort of a promotion for fly-boarding. To be honest, I’m not sure if they rented them out! There were a lot of people windsurfing though, which were for rent. Not sure I’d want to fly-board, it looked really, really difficult and I don’t think I’d like to be up that high!
Cheers 🙂
Yeah, Caye Caulker is definitely one of the those “ultimate relaxation” spots of our world. No strange dude flying like a dolphin when we were there though… had to content ourselves with the still slightly bizarre sight of locals (mostly Garifuna) bathing in the warm waters fully-clothed. Great little island, isn’t it? Glad you guys had a fantastic time! Good luck!
haha, ya the dude flying through the air was definitely interesting! We also got a lot of “respects” and fist bumps 🙂 Good times! Happy travels!
The fly boarding looks like a lot of fun. I am adding this place on my to see list. Have you tried to windsurf there? was it expensive? or did you just stick to those ice cold beer buckets? 🙂
haha, we both didn’t try windsurfing, it was a bit out of our budget ($80)…and not something that we’re totally interested in. However, if it’s something you want to try, it would be worth the money. It looks really hard and frustrating from what we saw…but I’m sure once you get the hang of it, it’s amazing 🙂
Cheers!
Love your pictures. And I’m dying to get to Isla Holbox. Did you like it more than Caye Caulker? Different enough from Belize to do both?
Yaaay – our favorite place on earth! 😀 Love the photo of the four of us. We had sooo much fun hanging out with you guys and we really, really hope that we can meet up again one day on the road.
Oh, and you know I agree on everything you wrote about Caye Caulker. <3 I'm surprised we're not still sitting there sipping rum punch and enjoying the spectacular sunsets… Oh well! 😀 We just need to go back one day! Xx
Loved Caye Caulker ! Went diving The Blue Hole from there . My partner decided to hire a bike and cycle round the island while I was gone – it took about 20 minutes !!
Did you visit the bar where you sit on rope swings at the bar ? Great fun – loved all the sand floors in the restaurants and the little golf carts driving around . We visited a small island from there that was like a cartoon of a desert island with one palm tree in the middle . Seemed to be a popular getaway destination for Americans as they could use dollars there .
Great getaway place – never seen such clear turquoise water . Fab place !
Hey Rebecca,
In my opinion, the two are different from each other. C.C. and Belize in general, has a totally different vibe than Mexico. The Creole influences, the Rasta ways, the split, etc. etc. are all things you won’t find on Isla Holbox. To be honest, there is much more to do on C.C. We loved Holbox though for chiling out – purely for relaxing and swimming. There are a few excursions you can do, but not as many as C.C. the bonus of Holbox is there is an actual sand beach 🙂
Loved both, but in different ways.
haha, I’m so surprised you guys actually left 😉 But I’m sure you are happy you did. We’ll have to have a reunion on Caye Caulker one day! Whoo hoo! Good times.
Cheers and happy trails.
We went to a few restaurants and bars, but I’m not sure which one had the rope swings at the bar…hmm! We loved going for sunset with a rum punch at 88 West 🙂 Loved the golf carts too! Such a cool way to get around. Glad you enjoyed Caye Caulker as much as we did!
Happy travels.
That looks gorgeous! I went to the Maldives once, that was pretty chilled, and I also couldn’t tear myself away from Beirut, where I really got to unwind (that was more about the hostel and the company than the city however!)
I imagine the Maldives would be VERY chilled out, we would love to go there. Beirut is a fantastic city!!! Which hostel were you at? We were at some super dingy hotel, but it was the cheapest thing we could find…haha.
Nice story! The photo you use for the split is not Caye Caulker though, it’s st. Georges Caye. Just so you know 😉
Hi Peggy,
The photo we used for the Split was from online, but just in case it isn’t the Split, we’ve changed the picture! We’re sure this one is correct 🙂
Cheers.
My hats – I mean I make them , so cool to find them here 😀
CC is fablulous and yes, it is possible to rent the flyboard. I stayed on the island for 8 months and will indeed be back again!
Thanks for the article, it is so well written and really reflects the vibe of the island as it is.
Hi Veronika!
Wow, 8 months on Caye Caulker would be amazing. Hopefully you’ll get back there one day. We love C.C.!
Cheers
Caye Caulker OMG I Love this little piece of Heaven. You can go Barefoot any place on the island, and no one even bat an eye. Same on neighboring island of Ambergus Caye as well.
I know! It’s so chilled out, we loved it there.
Cheers for the comment.
This blog was incredibly helpful in our research on Caye Caulker! We’ll be staying at Paradise Too on the island so we’ll have to report back on that! Thanks again for the great post!
Great! Enjoy your time on Caye Caulker, we found it hard to leave 🙂 Cheers.
This place was awesome! I stayed for a few days back in 2014(December) as well. Snorkeling on “Smooth’s” tour was the highlight as he took us out on a boat to swim with nurse sharks and stingrays. I fed stingrays from my hand! And then he took us to an island to cook up some conch and lobster. And yes, we caught them our selves! Such a great experience! Be on the lookout for travelingwatermonkey.com to return very soon.