Vagabond and Beyond: 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.