Caye Caulker Getaway

Wow last weekend was sure incredible. Friday around 12:45 we headed out on the bus to go to Caye Caulker which is an island off the coast of Belize. On our way there everything was going fine then at about 2 hours into the bus ride our bus break downs!! We were only 8 miles away from the bus station too. We all get off and we see our bus driver and conductor hitch hike a ride and take off to Belize City. At first Kim and I were like, "uhh did they just peace out and leave us?" But then we asked a nice lady what the deal was and she said they are headed to the bus station to get a bus to bring back here. Luckily we weren't too far from the bus station so about a half hour later we see our new bus pull up and joyfully we all load back up. We take off and im not kidding you about 10 seconds later I see a car pull out in front of us and I quickly thought to myself, oh no I hope the bus dodges it.. then BANG the bus crashes into the car. Everyone heard the bang but it didn't damage the bus at all. Everyone on the bus starts yelling are you kidding me and yelling at the lady who pulled out in front of us. Her front was completely smashed, and luckily none of the 10 people in her 5 seater car were injured. 
So now what? We have to make it to Belize City by 4:30 to catch the 5:00 water taxi to Caye Caulker because that is the last one of the day. It was about 3:30ish when this happened and the police were taking forever to get there, but luckily we buddied up with a nice lady and her two kids and she was letting us know that the next normal bus would be passing us in about 20 minutes and she helped make sure we got on that bus! When it showed up it was pretty packed already but we squished everyone in there and we literally were the last 4 people on there. Randy was standing on the bottom step to the door with his heels hanging off the steps. Talk about lucky to have made it on there. We reached Belize City just in time and walked to the water taxi and had 20 minutes to spare before the last water taxi took off. It was a quick 45 minutes to the island and once we reached it we were in awe of all the beauty! I felt like I was on a movie set I didn't know places this beautiful really existed! Our hotel was literally right there when we walked off the dock which was sweet having the beach front view of the crystal clear water.

After we got settled we went to find some grub and went to Pizza Caulker which was delish and met some fellow travelers and marked our names and such on the wood along with the thousands of other tourists that have stopped by that place. We wondered around the amazing beach town and looked for souvenirs and I got a rain stick. Im not sure why but I was in the moment and it just seemed like a cool purchase, along with a hacky sack and a hat for Bromley. (Yeah I am one of those tourists that gets pointless stuff but it seems awesome when your in the store). We then called it a night since we had to be up by 6 am the next morning! At the hotel we were greeted with 2 cockroaches one in the mosquito net above our bed and the other on the wall. They were pretty huge & and they made us scream a lot. Luckily we had Randy there to get the one out of the net. Now saturday we boarded the boat at 6:30 am to head out to the BLUE HOLE! If you don't know what that is, its a huge deep hole in the middle of the Caribbean and a ton of people go to Belize to say they have dove there. Rewind real quick to Friday night, Mario the guy we went through to do the snorkel tour said a lot of people get sea sick on the 2 hour boat ride out there,  so take dramamine. We all never get sea sick or motion sick and said oh thanks for the tip but we should be fine. Boy were we WRONG! I was good for about 10 minutes and then once we got out into open water the waves were really rocking the boat side to side and I just closed my eyes and tried to think of something else. It progressively got worse and I honestly did not know how I would be able to make it the whole 2 hours. Kristina and I kept looking at each other with faces like, oh man how are we going to make it through this? She broke first and told Randy she was going to throw up and went for the trash bag and threw up in there and then Randy opened the hatch to the bathroom and she went there to throw up. Then our tour guide (Louis) started freaking out because your supposed to throw up overboard so the rest of the boat doesn't smell. He quickly walks her to the back of the boat and she is sweaty and doesn't look good but does make it to the back where there is fresh air. As I watched her walk back I thought, great that is going to be me real soon. You can do this Trell, just keep your mind off it. About 5 minutes later the Louis comes to me and asks me if I was feeling sick. I try to play the tough card and say, ehh just a little I think I will be okay though. He said no, come with me to the back you need the air because the fumes, and heat back here make it worse. I tried to stay tough but then caved and thought I might as well try it. As I stumbled to the back and reached the fresh crisp air on my face I felt 30 times better. I sat next to Kristina and embraced the wind and looked at the water and within 15 minutes I felt way better. As long I a looked out and drank water I was not bothered. Eventually Kim came and joined us as well and we had a great time embracing the water and the beauty all around.
                      
 Our first stop was the blue hole and we geared up and jumped in before the divers so we could see the sharks first, and surprisingly I was not as scared as I thought I would be. Once I saw Randy and grandpa in the water I jumped in and BAM there were the sharks. They were incredible and Louis was able to dive deeper and get some sweet footage of the sharks and bring them up closer to us. It was a very fun and peaceful experience the sharks are not aggressive so it was rad to be swimming with them. We spent about a half hour there along the wall as well and just soaked up every minute we had snorkeling in the blue hole. We loaded up onto the boat and then went to Half Moon Caye and just us snorkelers jumped out here and swam to the beach and I saw a sting ray from a distance which was freaky!! We walked down the beach and hopped in and snorkeled our way back to the dock. This was about 40 minutes long and we saw lobster, and the mass amounts of fish that swim in circles like in Finding Nemo. Then once you swim near them they all separate & scatter then form back together and just circle around you. Kind of bizarre if you ask me! The whole thing was incredible and I saw so much life in the water! We then had lunch at the beach there and holy cow was it beautiful! Definitely the best beach & water I have ever seen. Kim and I lost track of time and were chillin on the beach and chatting and once we realized we didn't see anyone around us we headed back and the whole boat was waiting on us... woops!

After that there was one more stop called the Aquarium. We hopped out there and saw more fish and an angry barracuda and made more unforgettable memories! The boat ride back I started to feel my sunburn setting in and felt sea sick again, so Randy came over and talked to me and that got my mind off it and managed to get through without throwing up. Overall the snorkeling excursion was incredible and I am SO happy I did it. Totally worth it.


So this is a funny story. Randy left his garments on the boat and didn't bring an extra pair so he had to go buy underwear and the only ones he could find were at a chinese store and they were size XL but since they are chinese there were really like a medium and they were pretty much little boy poofy underwear. Randy was so embarrassed to show us, and when he finally did we couldn't believe he actually had to wear those! Definitely made the trip that much better. That night I was beat. My back and legs got burnt and I had an uneasy stomach still and the thought of food made me want to barf. The only thing I could drink was water. I was bummed Kim and I felt awful because we couldn't explore or do anything fun that night :/ It was such an awful feeling. Sunday we tried to catch the water taxi to San Pedro to make it to church but it was 20 minutes late so we would of missed the sacrament by the time we got there. Instead we just chilled back at the hotel and enjoyed the A/C and beach view. The ride back went smooth and we made it back on 1 bus instead of 3. As you can tell I loved every minute on that island and might even go back with the new wave of girls because it truly was paradise!

Oh yeah here is the link to the video of the recap of the weekend!