Our hostel was great about us arriving a day late due to our transport muck up and allowed us to stay an extra day. However I hadn’t planned in the itinerary for a whole extra day on the island (we would have arrived originally at 6pm) so I was a bit stumped on what to do. We got up at 5am to try and get some sunrise photos, sadly the cloud cover meant the photos weren’t that spectacular. Also the internet was too patchy to catch up on blog posts so instead I spent many hours in the hammock reading and listening to podcasts.

A funny thing about the Belize dollar is it looks just like the UK 50p in shape and even has the Queen on one side. Belize gained independence in 1981 and it was granted this so late because Guatemala contested the territory and only formally recognised its independence in 1991. It is still contested terrority and it was only this May that they had a referendum in both Belize and Guatemala to agree to give the decision on the border to the International Court of Justice.

We had burrito for lunch, with Belize’s special pineapple flavoured fanta, followed by some more hammock time.

In the evening we again went to Wish Willy’s for some more home cooked food. We then went to the Lazy Lizard for drinks but were put off by the abysmal karaoke night. There was barely anyone there because I swear the singer had sent them running. To save our ears we headed back to our hostel to pack our bags.

Today was a chill day to relax after diving and we started, like with most days, with fry jacks.

We headed to the split which was was created by Hurricane Hattie in 1961 and made wider by hand dredging. It literally splits the island in two and there’s a bar called the Lazy Lizard there. It’s the in place to grab a drink and relax by the water.

After sunning myself for a bit I went for a dip in the water. The current going through the split is very strong and it took a fair bit of work to swim against it to the inlet where the half submerged tables and chairs are. Underneath the pier I found a whole bevy of fish hiding from the pelicans and other birds. It was quite surreal to see them all bunched together so close and they moved in concert together away from me when I got close.

We went to Kareem’s for a late lunch and had bbq meats off his grill on the beach.

To top off a chill day we had drinks for the evening followed by a stroll to try and find the airport at the other end of the island. It didn’t take long since it’s such a small island.

After another fry jack breakfast it was an early boat ride out towards San Pedro for our dive.

It took about 30 minutes to get to San Pedro and we were diving off Tackle Box and Esmeralda. The Belize reef is a UNESCO and this would be our third one this trip.

Tackle box dive was into a reef canyon and before we had even started descending there were sharks milling about underneath us. I very much suspect they are used to being fed by people but at least our dive leader didn’t. At Tackle Box we saw a lot of sharks at first, both Nurse and Reef sharks came up to the boat straight away. Caribbean reef sharks can potentially attack humans, but these ones had no interest in tasting the English divers. We also had a huge Grouper keen to join the party, it followed us for a good 5 minutes.

Between the dives we had fruit to munch on and the crew on the boat talked to each other in creole. It sounded very similar to Jamaican Patois and left me half understanding everything they were saying but not all of the details. We also had a chance to snorkel at a nearby reef but didn’t see a lot we hadn’t seen already on the previous dive and the seaweed kept on getting stuck in my hair. I decided then and there that we wouldn’t also be doing a snorkelling trip from Caye Caulker. At least with diving you are far below the seaweed.

At Esmeralda we saw sharks far more frequently, mostly Nurse sharks, they are so used to divers a group of 4 including some juveniles just tagged along for a little bit to see what we were up to. We also saw a wider range of sea life than we had at Tackle Box, a Moray Eel was hiding out in the coral, as were some Lobster and Crabs.

We were reminded frequently that if we saw any Lion fish it was our civic duty to catch them and turn them into ceviche. Lion fish are actually an invasive species on the Belize reef and are damaging the ecosystem so everyone is keen to do their bit and catch them. Given the venomous spines I’m fairly glad we didn’t need to work out how one catches a Lion fish with your bare hands.

After the diving we had an hour of free time to wander around San Pedro which is a town on Ambergris Caye. It’s much larger than Caye Caulker and it made me glad we had chosen the island we did. It’s much more chilled and relaxed with less tooting golf carts driving around. We dried off a bit in the sun and had nachos to eat. Diving always makes me so hungry.

After eggs at our apartment we cycled early to the dive shop so we could get kitted up for our morning of cold cavern diving. We were lucky that our accommodation included free bicycles because it has become our main form of transportation in a Tulum.

The cavern diving was spectacular and we could see really interesting stalagmites and stalactites which were made when the water table was lower. Since the cavern is now underwater they can no longer form and it’s part of the reason the dive shop ensured we had a lot of experience diving. We were having to be careful maintaining our buoyancy so we could get between all of the cave formation without damaging them.

Unfortunately we couldn’t take great photos on the GoPro because we didn’t have a wide angle torch so instead here are some other peoples photos of what we saw. Also Dave forgot to even turn on the camera for the first dive (and it was the prettiest). The most eerie view was when we turned off our light and could see the above opening and the sunlight streaming through turning the water light blue but all around us was dark and stalactites.

Because we started so early we were finished and back in Tulum for 12:30 so we decided to go cycling around the area and go to the beach which was about 2 miles away. Most of the beach had hotels and restaurants on and you had to pay for access and the public beach area was quite a way away so we decide to make our way back.

Also the beach had a real problem with red seaweed, as has the entire Caribbean, last year and this year large quantities have been washing up on beaches everywhere. Its not particularly harmful and at best guess has increased due to warmer ocean temperatures and weather patterns, its has certainly caused a real drop off in tourism for the areas affected and the Riviera Maya is fighting an ongoing battle to clean it up.

We thought there might be a shortcut through the forest to get to our accommodation. While google maps suggested it might not exist there has been so much building work we thought it may have been newly added and then instead of a 3 mike cycle it would be 0.5miles. Sadly while we did find an abandoned hut in the wood (not scary!) and lots of insects we just found the fence to where they were building the road.

After that detour we needed a drink to refresh and watched the pelicans divebombing the sea for fish. It was certainly an entertaining hunting habit.

That evening we decided to try for pizza again and it was open at 7pm – yay. There is something about fresh pineapple that makes a hawaiian pizza so much better. We even found the pizzas so large we took some back for the next day.

Today was a very busy day and we achieved a lot including a UNESCO!

We had an early start to fit everything in for the day but it turns out that not many places in Tulum open at 7am for breakfast. After walking around we found somewhere but it wasn’t anywhere near the standard we had in Cozumel.

After breakfast we caught a bus to Muyil. These are the largest Mayan ruins around the Sian Ka’an lagoon area. All the paths were swept of leaves and the citadel was very impressive. We even saw a rainbow that circled the sun when we were at the citadel – called a circumzenithal arc – which is caused by ice crystal in the upper atmosphere. It was pretty!

We then walked through the boardwalks to the proper Sian Ka’an area through the jungle. The lookout tower was interesting to go up and down since it was more of a steep ladder than steps. It also swayed in the wind or if anyone was going up it because it wasn’t double bolted at every joint. The views were totally worth the possible injury.

Once we arrived at the lagoon shore we were met by the most amazing sight. There was a cloud of black butterflies drinking at a puddle near the lake and you could walk through them all hovering in the air and it was just the most surreal sight.

We took a boat ride through the lagoon passing through a narrow canal to the next lagoon. These canals were built by the Maya and are still maintained today. I was surprised how turquoise the water was by the shore and in the middle it’s a very dark blue from the Cenote which feeds it. We had some time to snorkel around the mangrove shore and then we were given life jackets and could swim through the canals. There is a strong enough current it’s just like the lazy rivers at centre parcs and we just bobbed along taking in the mangrove forests and fish. 

We were lucky and as soon as we exited the Muyil Ruins again a collectivo turned up so we didn’t have to wait. We then went to grab pizza at a place recommended by our airbnb host but it wasn’t opening for another hour (despite what their website said). So we ended grabbing a burrito.

We also grabbed supplies to make eggs for breakfast because we are going to have another early start. You would of thought eggs would be in the local supermarket “Oxxo” but no deal – we ended up exploring the backstreets and found a market. I particularly liked the bananas hanging still attached to the vine.