The Christmas Rush - The race is on to Roatan

With our Caribbean boat trip now over the race was on to get to Roatan, for Christmas Eve. After the boat dropped us off at the dock in Placencia we scouted out a place to stay for a couple of nights and were lucky to find the lovely Serenade Guest House along the main hostel strip. The majority of our time in Placencia was spent figuring out how to get to Guatemala and on to Honduras, what was fairly obvious from the outset was that this was not an easy task and there would be plenty of boat/bus changes over the coming days. After a couple of nights of eating more delicious cheap seafood and enjoying the tranquillity of Placencia we started off early one morning with a 7.30am water taxi to Mango Creek (Placencia is a peninsula and it’s a long way to the mainland by road) which only took about 10 minutes. Unfortunately we then had to wait until 9.30am for the bus to the port of Punta Gorda, our exit point for Belize.  Punta Gorda was a lot smaller and nicer than we expected, definitely the nicest port town we have seen. Normally only a border town is equal to a port town in its unpleasant vibe, massive crime rates and overall unattractiveness.  Booking our ferry and getting through customs was a lot easier than expected. In the end there was a direct boat to the town of Livingston, Guatemala, our final destination for the day. Ade and Aisling who were still with us at this stage continued on to Omoa in Honduras the same day as they had to be in Roatan a couple of days earlier than us. The hassle free Belizean customs (there would want to be no hassle for their $20 exit tax) and the quick boat on a beautiful day was a great way to leave a country and the best we’ve had to date on this trip.

Arriving in Livingston we got the feeling that this was not the same Guatemala we left less than two weeks ago, a Guatemala full of friendly indigenous locals. Livingston has a weird mix of Belizean, Guatemalan and Garifunan locals. A lot of them can speak English and most of them look different to the stereotypical Guatemalan.  At the dock there were a lot of hustlers trying to book you on a trip down the Rio Dulce or other tours. We had heard that a lot of people pay for the trip on the street and then nobody shows up to pick them up for said tour. Anyway this was not an issue for us as we had booked in to Casa Rosada, a nice place in a great location for the morning sunrise. That day we went for a walk through the town and met a random local Garifuna man who insisted on giving us a walkabout around the Garifuna area of Livingston to understand their culture.  So we decided to trust him and follow this stranger into his local neighbourhood through the back lanes of houses and maze that was the Garifuna area of Livingston. The Garifuna are of Carib and African descent and only make up a small percentage of Guatemala’s population. He brought us for about an hour’s walk around the schools, houses and football pitches and told us about how the Garifuna are discriminated against by the native locals and how they don’t receive support from the government. The Garifuna really only work and socialise within their own community and don’t appear to mix with the other Guatemalan people. Although after ten minutes we were completely lost in a very rundown neighbourhood and with a stranger all the locals seemed very friendly so I relaxed about risk of getting robbed (nothing could be done to prevent it now anyway!). It was all very interesting to hear about but I could sense the inevitable discussion of a donation to the local community arising at the end and arise it did. It did seem like a good cause but we were only in the country for a couple of days and had taken out all the Quetzals we planned on using, plus we did just meet some random guy who was asking us to hand over cash. He said he was head of a food program but how were we to know that! People do look for money a lot which is fine as a lot of them are good causes but they always assume everyone is an American and a millionaire who will give away money if they are asked. This local insisted that he wanted nothing from giving us the tour, only that he could spread the knowledge of who the Garifuna people are and what they do. We gave him the benefit of the doubt but unfortunately in the end he was ultimately looking for something. Anyway rant over, we gave him nothing and avoided him for the rest of our time there, let’s hope he wasn’t legitimate and karma doesn’t come back to bite us on the ass.           

The next day we got picked up out our hostels dock for a boat trip to ‘the seven altars’ a waterfall formation near Livingston. It was a nice place but not that impressive after the incredible Semuc Champey. We hiked up to the top through the river and by the muddy banks, made all the harder by the strict 40 minutes that the captain of the boat gave us to do it in. Following this we got the boat to the private beach of Playa Blanca. It was a nice beach and only one of a few on the Guatemalan east coast that is clean enough to enjoy. We spent a few hours at the beach lounging and headed back to our hostel to plan the next day’s journey to the Honduran border.

Our first mode of transport for the day was a lancha (small boat) at 7.30am to Puerto Barrios, Guatemala, and it was to be Sarah’s last lancha for the day but the first of three for myself! We arrived after about 30 minutes to the absolute hole that is Puerto Barrios (typical shitty port town) and we walked the 5 or so blocks to the market to catch the frequent colectivos to the border. If you ever need a bus in Central America just head straight for the local market as this is transport hub of any town and it’s here you will see the many colectivos crawling through the market stalls until the van is at least twice its capacity (only twice the capacity as they need to stick another 10 or so people on along the route!).In no time we caught one of these vans going at a snail’s pace heading to the frontera (border). We crammed ourselves into the van and threw our rucksacks onto the roof for a cosy hour’s journey to the border town of Corinto with the locals. Just as the van pulled up to the Guatemalan immigration the conductor asked for our passports so he can get our exit stamps. Being well accustomed to border crossings by now I routinely reached into the document wallet that my passport is always in and a sudden shock hits me as I can’t see passport!! Now, I’m not the type of person to just keep items like passports in a random pocket I’m annoyingly organised (drives Sarah crazy) when it comes to things like this so straight away I knew I didn’t have my passport anymore. I went through the motions and checked furiously through my backpack and nothing. So we got out and had our rucksacks taken down and I checked frantically through it, all the time the realisation settling in that I had either left the passport back in the room in Livingston or it was gone and we (I’m assuming Sarah wouldn’t have abandoned me) would be stuck in Guatemala for Christmas. Everyone on the van especially the conductor had a good old laugh at my expense and continued on to Honduras. The immigration officials were of no help and suddenly couldn’t speak either English or Spanish and soon vanished into their offices. There were plenty of helpful travellers about though that suggested I check my bag or pockets as that’s where they had found their passports when they couldn’t’ find them before!! They were serious!! Anyway, ignoring these ridiculously stupid obvious suggestions (I’m well aware of the fact that I was equally stupid in the first place for having misplaced my passport) we decided to catch a passing van heading back to Puerto Barrios. On the journey back I started thinking maybe we should have given money to the Garifunan man and that karma was back with a vengeance! I relaxed a little more on the trip back assured that there was no way that my passport could be anywhere but in the room back in Livingston. The previous night I had double checked that we had our passports ready for the border crossing so I knew that there was a good chance that I dropped it then. On the van back we decided it was best that Sarah stay in Puerto Barrios with the bags and hope I make it back with my passport. After waiting for an hour on a full boat it finally left and once I got off the boat I sprinted back to Casa Rosada and explained my problem to an employee. I checked under the bed and there it was on the ground where it had fallen from the bed, it was my passage out of Guatemala and also avoidance of what would have been a painful Christmas sorting an absolute mess out. 

I just missed the boat back to Puerto Barrios so I sat at the dock downing a litre of water and catching my breath for about an hour and finally paid a little over the going rate for a boat to leave earlier than scheduled. Back in Puerto Barrios Sarah was waiting at the dock while being fed by a local woman. Sarah said the woman offered her food and a drink after hearing the story. Now I was only gone for about 2 hours but you’d think I left Sarah for about a week in the freezing cold with this story! She said she had no watch so lost complete track of time : ) Maybe with the broken Spanish the story was exaggerated and the friendly woman thought Sarah said, no dinero (money), no comida (food), no bebidas (drinks) y no novio (boyfriend).  Either way we thanked her for her help and started our journey to the frontera again. This time no issues at the border, except Sarah now had two exit stamps for Guatemala (which hasn’t caused any issues so far). We got dropped off in no man’s land and walked to Honduran immigration and after a $3 entry fee we continued on past the police and just caught a chicken bus heading to Puerto Cortes. We were pulled on to the back just as it was moving away and Sarah stood on some guy trying to climb over a bike (as if we didn’t attract enough attention as it was). On the bus there was a 80s and 90s mega mix blasting out over the outrageously massive speakers with the power ballads being a favourite of the drivers. I think ‘Lady in Red’ was a personal favourite of his. We got off at the town of Omoa and caught a tuk-tuk to our beds for the night at Suenos del Mar (Dreams of the Sea).

Omoa is an odd place, you definitely get a sense that it’s living in a shadow of what it used to be like in a recent past when cruise liners used to pull in and enjoy the beaches. When we were there a lot of restaurants and bars were either closed or very quiet. This once beautiful town that was famous for its beaches and still is for its old fort has suffered greatly from the corruption you see among many places in Central America. For some reason (undoubtedly bribes) a gas company was allowed to come in to Omoa and build massive storage tanks for liquefied petroleum gas right on the beach, see photo below of how much of an eye sore they truly are. Further than this they were allowed to build sea walls that destroyed the natural currents of the bay and resulted in their beach being destroyed and a new beach being created further down the coast. The result being that cruise ships no longer stop here, say what you want about how annoying a massive cruise ship pulling into to somewhere is but it can support a town’s economy. The Canadian owner of Suenos del Mar explained a lot of it to us and she was exactly what we wanted after such a hectic day, very friendly and a bit of banter. Her husband works on oil rigs off the coast of Canada for half the year and was currently away on one such stint, crazy! The rooms were some of the best we had on our travels and the common area was all decked out for Christmas and we were the only guests to enjoy it (from our walk around town we were the only guests in Omoa!). It had been a very long day, longest since we started, so we had a well-deserved beer and went to bed for yet another early rise.

We caught a Tuk-tuk first thing in the morning to catch a bus towards Puerto Cortes and then switched to a shuttle bus for San Pedro Sula. The conductor wanted to charge us double for putting our bags on seats or the ground so stubbornly we sat them on our laps for the two and a half hour journey. In the end the bus did get so packed he could almost justify any air space as being a potential customer but I have still to see someone being refused a spot on a bus in Central America because it is full, there is always space, always! When we arrived at the terminal in San Pedro Sula we switched for a bus to La Ceiba. The journey took four hours and the driver was mental on the road, all the more worrying when it started to lash rain and we realised that the bus didn’t have any windscreen wipers!  We later heard a story from friends of ours that their bus in Honduras had no headlights and they were driving for an hour at night! Finally we arrived in La Ceiba, the port town that is the gateway to the Bay Islands. Our ferry was in the morning so we booked a night in Olas del Mar (‘waves of the sea’ this time), the best of a bad bunch. In the end the room was fine but La Ceiba itself is one of the worst places we have been, and from what we heard one of the most dangerous at night.

We decided to treat ourselves and head out to a fancy new mall to watch the new Mission Impossible film in the cinema there, very good by the way. On the taxi back that night there was a passenger in the front (very common to share a taxi with strangers) and she was talking to the driver in Spanish but we couldn’t translate (a little harder to pick up than Guatemalan Spanish). A few mintues later we pulled up to one of the dodgy neighbourhoods and she turned around to us and handed us an envelope, said nothing, and then got out. Sarah and I looked at the hand written envelope that said "it is very important that you read this", then each other, and cautiously opened the envelope. Now after watching the Mission Impossible film this was hardly going to be "your mission Mark & Sarah, should you decide to accept it"….and envelope self-destruct moment, but who knows this is Honduras! Inside was a hand written note! Ok what the hell I thought?! I had visions that the note said “you are about to be kidnapped, get out now!!!” Just like in the film 'Taken' with Liam Neeson. But oh no it was just an evangelical thing about it not being too late to see the light etc., so imaginary crisis over : ) Always good to be prepared for the worst eh? Later that night we met Andrea and Michelle at our hotel, a couple of friends that would make up the twelve of us that would celebrate Christmas together on Roatan.

The journey from Placencia, Belize to La Ceiba, Honduras was a crazy, very eventful few days where somehow we managed to avert potential crisis after potential crisis. Now with passport firmly in hand (I’d tattoo it to my forehead if I could) we set sail for a relaxing, travel free couple of weeks.

Sho yur luv for di scene

Cashew wine that we picked up in Caye Caulker

Sound advice

Goes hand in hand with the previous sign

Punta Gorda dock, Belize, the best way to leave a country

BUI

Sunrise over the dock from our hotel in Livingston

View of Casa Rosada from the dock

Mosquito net

Pelican invaded boat, Livingston

Off the coast of Livingston on the way to Playa Blanca by boat

Sarah on Playa Blanca

Playa Blanca

Seven Altars near Livingston

The giant gas storage tanks that symbolise Honduran corruption and destroyed Omoa as a town

Exploring uninhabited Belizean islands aboard the Ragga Queen

Caye Caulker, Belize is exactly what you come to expect from a tropical paradise in the Caribbean Sea. 

There are palm trees, great seafood, many cool bars and restaurants and a very relaxed local population. We stayed in Yuma’s (used to be Tina’s) which was a nice hostel with a great location (beside the water taxi and 2 minutes from front street) that was a lot more affordable than many places on the small island. The only thing that was missing was the sunny weather, it had been raining on and off for the majority of the time we were there. We stayed there for three nights and prayed for a better weather forecast so that the Ragamuffin Tour would get the go ahead. They had mentioned on their website that they would cancel the three day boat trip if it’s forecasted to rain for more than a morning or afternoon but we would have to wait for the briefing in two days’ time to find out the news.

In the meantime I’ll be honest we didn’t do very much except eat lobster and drink Belikin, the national beer so that’s all I’ll talk about for Caye Caulker. Belize is a lot more expensive than anywhere else we have been and that played a big part in our decision to spend only a week or so here. Caye Caulker is about 8km long and less than a 1km wide but the main tourist attractions are all within 10 minutes walking distance of each other.  There are no beaches to speak of really as the bars and restaurants are built on the “beach”. Within this small area there are so many great places to eat with a big difference in cost so it’s always good to shop around. They range from the ‘Budget Man’ who has a stand most days opposite the only club on the island on Front Street to Habanero’s restaurant. The ‘Budget Mans’ menu changes daily but usually consists of lobster or conch (a shellfish) with a couple of sides. We got a lobster tail, rice, platanas and vegetables for about 15 BZD or $7.50 (you can use the USD as readily as the Belizean Dollar here, at a fixed rate of 2 to 1). For Belize it was a great price for great food. Habanero’s dishes were in the 40 to 50 BZD range so we never made it to the dinner table but the place was always packed and had some great reviews. The first day we ate in Jolly Rogers, a small place at the waterfront that was amazing, especially the garlic shrimp and mash for only 15 BZD. Two other notable places we ate were the Rainbow Grill and Wish Willy’s. Rainbow Grill on the water off Front Street was the most expensive place we went to, about 30 BZD for the specials, but definitely worth it. We even came back on our last night for another round of Rums and food specials. Wish Willy’s was not too far from the Lazy Lizard bar just off Front Street but going 2 minutes of the main strip pays off. There we were greeted by a very friendly laid back host/chef who just told us to take a seat and not to worry as he would give us so much lobster that we would struggle to finish it, a challenge I am always willing to accept. He came out with only 1 plate for me and Sarah which worried me initially until I saw what was on the plate. It was stacked a couple of inches high with about 7/8 lobster tails mixed with vegetables and pasta. It was savage and he charged us only 15 BZD each for all that lobster. He then excused himself and went out back to smoke some weed with an American couple that he had come friendly with over the past two weeks. This and the fact he lived on a paradise island might explain why he seemed like the most relaxed person ever who hadn’t a care in the world. 

Other than eating we went to a couple of bars, the lazy lizard at the split (a narrow waterway known as the Split divides the island in two, created by a recent hurricane) being one of the best for views and happy hour deals (6 beers for 20 BZD). There you can watch the kite surfers as it’s always windy in Caye Caulker. One kite surfer got separated from his board and was being carried out towards the sea until a couple of guys at the bar jumped on their boat (docked at the bar) and helped him out. One of the days Ade and Aisling who were with us for the Belize part of our trip and are big into their diving went out to one of the world’s most famous dive sites, the Blue Hole which is about 2 hours boat ride from Caye Caulker. The Blue Hole is an underwater sinkhole or vertical cave that contains stalagmites and other cave formations because it used to be overland during the ice age when sea levels were over 100 metres lower than present levels. They seemed to enjoy it but mentioned that you really don’t get to appreciate it as the Blue Hole looks amazing from the sky but you can’t appreciate the view from sea level.  Our final night on the island we had our Raggamuffin briefing and found out that the weather forecast was all good so we were setting sail early the next morning (it had been lashing rain all day so we were surprised). We fitted some flippers and masks for the snorkelling and organised to meet in the morning for what would be an amazing few days of really living the dream on our boat the Ragga Queen. If that dream is island hoping on a sail boat in the Caribbean Sea and snorkelling some of the world’s best coral reefs.

The next morning we dropped our rucksacks off to be stored away in the hold of the boat and also gave them our sandals to store away as we would be barefoot for the next three days. There were about 15 people on our boat the Ragga Queen and about 10 people on the Ragga King who we would meet up with for the second night on Tobacco Island. The majority of people on our boat were couples and we had a crew of three. There was the captain Jerry (looking for a sexual harassment lawsuit) and the other two were Jahlee (too cool for school) and Shane/Gazza (really nice guy and our clear favourite). Introductions done we set off for an initial 3 and half hours sailing south in the beautiful weather that was promised.

Our first stop was a stunning shallow reef and straight off the spear guns were out and Ade and I decided to give them a shot. Captain Jerry gave us quick lecture on spear gun safety and strategy and also what fish not to shot (for example the rainbow parrotfish is protected and Jerry would kill us if we shot one). You can only load them while in the water and it’s easier said than done. While wading you place the handle of the gun on your inside hip and pull the rubber band back with both hands, all the time ensuring it doesn’t snap back. It’s not an easy task but gets easier with practice. In the first couple of minutes I saw a barracuda and shot straight away, not following Captain Jerry’s advice I shot horizontally not down meaning I lost track of the spear as I missed the barracuda. Even if I hit it there is a good chance that a barracuda is strong enough to swim away with the spear but I was way too excited to let logic get in the way of shooting a spear gun for the first time. Luckily I found the spear quickly and I was more cautious with my shooting from there on. Ade was successful early on catching a small yellowtail snapper, in fact too small to cook unfortunately. All the fish in the water look about 50% bigger than they actually are so finding a decent sized fish to catch (about a foot long) was a tough goal. We spent about an hour searching and shooting to no avail and were the last two to get back on the boat. To be honest I wasn’t a 100% sure which fish were the protected ones as some of them look fairly similar! Sarah went off snorkelling with Aisling and to not kill fish. We both thought the reef was amazing and saw a load of fish and knew there would be plenty more of it over the next 3 days. Along the way we saw some very deserted islands, one looked like there was just room for a small hut and nothing else and did some trawl fishing (continuing my bad luck of not catching any fish). We also saw some dolphins following the boat and some flying fish. These things are crazy, they actually fly a couple of feet off the surface of the water for 10 seconds or more, we have never seen anything like it before. After the reef we sailed to Rendezvous Island to set up camp for the first night, stopping along the way to purchase some massive grouper fish from local fishermen. Approaching the island it was spectacular, we couldn’t believe that we would be spending the night here with only the people from the boat to share it with. Islands just like this one were frequented many times by pirates in the past to hide their treasure and the reef was an ideal hiding place as it provided safety from the bad weather of the open seas. We set up our tents and drank some Raspberry wine, courtesy of Ade and Aisling and some of Ragamuffins rum punch. The crew cooked up the grouper on the BBQ along with some lobster and conch. The food was great and was one of the highlights of the Raggamuffin tour.

Next morning Ade got up about 7am to spearfish just off the island but the visibility was pretty poor so no joy. We had a proper fry up and set off to the next reef. This reef was a lot deeper than the previous day’s reef so it was harder to retrieve any spears that you shot off.  I was unsuccessful again at the spear fishing but really enjoyed looking around this reef and caught sight of a Spotted Eagle Ray which was pretty cool. Sarah spent most of her time lying out on the deck of the boat and building up her tan. Later on she was de-shelling shrimp with Shane; I don’t know how she got suckered into that! We stopped later on at another “reef” but we could only see grass and sand below so we didn’t stay long. Saw a few massive starfish as well but wasn’t much going on at this site so we headed on to Tobacco Island to set up the tents for our second night. This island was a lot bigger than our home the previous night with some accommodation and one bar. There is a ferry that comes here from Dangriga and two couples stayed on instead of continuing to Placencia the next day. We met the people from the Ragga King and later on we would have a joint party on the dock with both boats competing over the music. For dinner it was a full lobster on the boat and I spilled a lot of curry sauce over myself in the tight quarters and unfortunately Shane had scalding lobster juice poured over his leg but was ok in the end. My lobster was about twice the size of the plate it was served on! On the dock/boats the party went on to the early hours and we got a great response to us playing “I’m on a boat” by Lonely Island. Captain Jerry was definitely appreciating this song and got everyone top deck to dance it out, great craic.

For our final day we stopped off at probably the most beautiful of islands we have seen but this time we just relaxed in the sun and gave the water a miss for our final day. This was the perfect setting and weather was great but later the weather took a turn for the worst for our journey back to Placencia. This was the only time we were going against the waves so it was choppy enough. Sarah and I took the seasickness tablets so there were no problems thankfully. As we were inside most of the time beside Captain Jerry we got the full blast of his advances to the two Dutch girls on the boat. The whole weekend he was always at it never letting up. Fair play to the two Dutch girls, they were really great craic and just ignored him the whole time. Jahlee organised most of the trawl fishing off the back of the boat and had dreadlocks that went down the floor I think. We never got to see the full length of them as he tucked them into the back of his shorts, hilarious. When one girl asked how long he had been growing them for he just said before it became fashionable with the kids. All his responses were like this, just too cool for school or anything else for that matter. We didn’t really got to talk to him much as he was always in a bit of a mood whereas Shane/Gazza was the youngest of the three and always up for a bit of banter. It could be that Gazza has done a lot less of the tours and the Jahlee is just sick of them. We pulled into Placencia dock and our trip was over. We had an incredible few days sailing along the coast and trying new foods and things. It’s a hefty price tag for a backpacker on a budget at $350 each but you get all your food, drink and activities included and you would pay the same to do that much snorkelling and fishing by itself. Plus Belize is expensive anyway and as the boat was going south, the way we wanted to go, it saved us getting a bus from Belize City. It was one of those once in a lifetime opportunities that we needed to do and if you get the same chance we definitely recommend it.

From Placencia we had about five days to make it to Roatan for Christmas, stopping off in Punta Gorda (Belize), Livingston (Guatemala), Omoa (Honduras) and La Ceiba (Honduras) before our ferry to the Bay Islands. As you will read in our next blog we were lucky to make out of Guatemala at all thanks to my stupidity (I would saw unluckiness really) but we did in fact make our ferry Christmas Eve morning so we could celebrate Christmas and New Year’s beach style.

This warning posted on the side of the local police station didn't seem to affect the locals too much

Front Street fruit stall

Ragamuffing Tours, Caye Caulker

Caye Caulker local

The golf buggy and canoe, only modes of transport in Caulker

The Lasy Lizard, our refuge from the bad weather

Sarah doing her anti-rain dance in the Lazy Lizard, the slpit in the background

Front Street

The local desert/bread guy

Colouful hotel beside our place, Yuma's

Our hostel from their dock

Relaxing in a hammock on the pier of Yuma's

The Blue Hole, Belize, a popular dive site

Sexy Chicken, if I ever have a boat, this will be it's name

Tiny Island

Who lives there? I don't even see any land

Enjoying the weather on day 1 of our tour

Grouper, dinner for later on

Jahlee with his dreads tucked into his shorts

Rendevous Island, home for night 1

Approaching Rendevous Island

Sunset on the Carribbean Sea from the Ragga Queen

Welcome to Paradise!

View from the dinner table

Our boat, the Ragga Queen

More than half of Rendevous Island

Some rasberry wine to celebrate our tent pitching skills

Ragga Queen with the crew in the background preparing the conch and distributing the rum punch

Start of Day 2

Rendevous Island

A flattering photo of me spear fishing

Shane/Gazza de-shelling the shrimp for the nights dinner

Jerry charming the ladies!

Pulling into Tobacco Island

Sarah in her dress made for her in San Pedro and Tobacco Islands nightclub in the background

The only bar on the island

Our final island

Enjoying the sun on top deck

Relaxing our final day

The Ragga King