We took (yet another) bus and a ferry to Caye Caulker, a Caribbean island paradise. There are no cars on the island, only golf buggies and bikes.
The island was split in two by a hurricane, so now you have to get a boat to cross to the other side.
One of G Adventures’ Planeterra projects is the Ocean Academy which enables kids to attend senior school on the island. The kids took us on a guided bike tour of the island.
The next day was one of the highlights of the G Adventures tour – snorkelling in the Hol Chan marine reserve. It’s part of the Mesoamerican reef which is the second biggest barrier reef in the world (after the Great Barrier Reef off Australia). Hol Chan is Mayan for “Little channel” as there is a channel through the reef that the ancient Mayans used to get to shore. Inside the reef is a calm(er) lagoon.
The first activity we saw was from people from another boat. There was a Manatee just lazily drifting around. We got in and swam with the Manatee which was a great experience.
We were in and out of the sea many times with our snorkels at different locations. At shark alley, we saw – guess what?!
So we donned our snorkels and got in with the sharks. The crew assured us that they were “Nurse” sharks, and wouldn’t try to eat us. It was still pretty scary though. At one point, nine large sharks were counted together.
In all we saw lots of different fish, a Manatee, Nurse Sharks, and Stingrays around the coral reefs. Some, including Michelle, even saw a Turtle.
The crew were definitely a bunch of Ragamuffins. They were great fun, whilst being very professional. We had lunch and then a lot of Rum Punch on the way back. A wonderful and memorable day out.
