TUESDAY - travel day --

Tuesday morning, James and I had breakfast at Hannah's. Molly and Sally were sleeping in again. At Hannah's I discovered the Belizean specialty, which I am momentarily blanking on the name of, but that is similar to sopapillas or Indian Fry Bread. Fryjacks, that's it! They came with James' egg breakfast, along with some black beans which I don't think he touched. I don't think he ate very much breakfast that morning. I had yogurt, granola and fruit, which included some funky fruit I couldn't identify as well as some jicima.

After breakfast, we hit the road. It was about a two hour drive back to Belize City, which after all the driving the day before seemed like nothing. We turned in the rental car at the other office closer to town, and a guy from the rental car agency dropped us off at the Caye Caulker water taxi station. We got to the station around 12:30 and I found out the next boat was at 1:30. So after buying our tix, we got a locker for our bags and walked a couple of blocks to find some lunch at a local place listed in the Rough Guide. A local guy started walking alongside James on the way there, talking to him. I hung back and didn't hear their conversation, but in the end he ended up giving the guy a couple of bucks. Anyway, the lunch place was a very basic diner-y type of place, the menu was written on a chalkboard and consisted of various meats, all served with rice and beans. I got a plate of r&b with an iceberg lettuce salad.

Back at the taxi station, we had a little while to wait til the 1:30 boat. The station had gotten quite crowded. I paced around a bit, waiting. Finally they started loading a boat for Amgergris Caye, and most of the people started clearing out. Our boat was next. We loaded into the boat and set off. I moved seats to get out of the sun and sat next to a little toddler girl and her mom. She was a little cutie. Sally found a little Narnia toy in her bag and we played with the little girl a little bit.

The trip to Caye Caulker took about 45 minutes. When we got to the island, we headed north along the beach. Someone had recommended the Rainbow, which looked basically like a motel, so James and I decided to keep going while M & S checked it out. We checked the Toucan, which looked really cool, but it was booked. Next we walked around the back side of the island and checked another place, but it looked like a best western -- not enough character -- so we didn't bother asking if they had vacancies. As we were leaving that property, an English couple came up to us, asking if we were looking for a place to stay. Well, it was pretty obvious -- we had our backpacks on our backs. They said that their innkeeper had sent them after us, which was a relief -- I was confused at first why two sunburnt tourists would go to such trouble to help us find a place. We were skeptical and wanted to see what had happened to M & S, so we headed back towards the Rainbow. They weren't there -- there hadn't been any vacancy there, so we were still on our own, looking for a place. I was getting frustrated walking around in the heat with our bags, so we flagged down a golf cart taxi. The guy was really nice, saying he'd drive us around until we found a place we liked for only $5 US. Not bad.

The first place we checked out had a room/cabana, but it was not as nice as our place in SI, with esp. icky wood panelling. So we went to the Auxillou Suites, which was right next to the dock where we had arrived. They had a suite, which was spacious and looked nice, so we took it. It had AC as well as ceiling fans, a kitchenette, small table, a futon and two chairs in the living room area, and a TV with cable. Very deluxe compared to the Tropicool. But it turned out, we discovered that night, that all was not quite as fancy as it seemed. The bed was very, very hard, and made noises every time you shifted your weight. We woke frequently during the night due to the noise and discomfort.

Once we were settled in, we set off to find out what had happened to M & S. Luckily we ran into them fairly soon on the "main street" of the island. They were already lying out in the sun near their lodge. They were staying at the Blue Wave guesthouse, right next to the Ragamuffin Tours hut. M & S had already looked into taking a snorkel trip the next day with Ragamuffin, which had also been recommended by a Belizean in San Ignacio. James wasn't sure about the whole sailing thing, as he has had seasickness on sailboats in the past, but we agreed to give it a try.

James and I had dinner at Rasta Pasta, on the beach near our place. It would've been perfect, except for the wind -- it kicked up around sunset and cooled our food off way too quickly. We found the girls later on on the roof deck of a restaurant/bar near their place. It was pretty empty, I think there was one other couple eating up there. There was a cute kitty that made friends with us, however -- it seemed to take a liking to James especially, climbing up into his lap and curling up there -- so cute!

After a couple of drinks, we set off to explore the nightlife on CC. We headed to "the split," which is basically the end of the populated part of the island. The bar there, the Lazy Lizard, was quiet, so we turned around and headed the other way. I think we made it all the way to the other end of the main street, to a place called Tropical Paradise. We got a couple of beers from the bar there and started walking back towards our hotel -- things were pretty dead, nightlife-wise. We showed M & S our place, then headed back out, and as we passed Rasta Pasta some guys called out, "Are you going to the I & I later?" I made note of this, as it sounded like it might be the place we were looking for. We went to another bar, the Herbal Tribe (I have no idea what that means, it might've had something to do with pot or it might've had something to do with herbal tea, which was on their menu - it was a strange little place). After a drink there, we asked the waiter where the nightlife was. He mentioned the I & I, so we asked him how to get there.

Well, that's it for tonight. I'll have to continue with Tuesday night next time.