Wheres Ali the Eccentric Nomad: Belize....By SHIP and LAND

By Frugal Chick Ali

Caye Caulker
Solo Travel Rating:
Walkability:

Taxi:
Lodging: Airbnb, Hotels & Hostels

San Pedro
Solot Travel Rating:
Walkable:

...This is a short picture log of my Belize trips. ( most pics lost).. Such a bummer.. Always back up your photos!!

Anyway, One trip was via a cruise in 2014 and the next was ALL land or should I say IsLAND in 2015!!

It is One quaint yet Beautiful Country

It'll is such a great place it is on my list of places to live... Yep... That good.

My first trip was by Carnival Cruise the Magic.. Loved the boat ( first time cruising)

Out of Galveston in June - peak season so prices we're like a third higher.. After going to Belize for only 8 hrs, I knew it was way too short. Of course I got a nice introduction to the country.. But it was just enough to set my soul on FIRE🔥

I did an inland tour to the Mayan ruins and thru Belize City... And I wanted more...

My second trip was in Nov 2015 and we hit 2 islands!!

RT flight out of Dallas was around $273, one Airbnb was $32 per night (4) and other was $49 per night (4).. Split for 2 ppl..

You can not beat that!!? My frugalness tingles at saved $$$.

First thing though....make sure you have enough time to catch the water taxi over to the islands.. At that time, only flights landed at like 4pm and last water taxi was at 4:30pm.

I remember everyone telling us we weren't gonna make it due to traffic etc...

But we were determined.. We got a cabie and he said he would do his best to get us there...

I also secured an Airbnb in the city just in case we d8d not. This person knew our situation and made arrangements to allow us to cancel day of arrival if we didn't need it.

How sweet!!!! Don't see that too often..

Anyway WE MADE IT!!

We decided to do 8 days total. First was Caye Caulker which is approx 5mi circumference for the entire island.. Meaning you can walk from one end to the other in say 20ish minutes.

Main transportation is bikes and golf carts.. No cars

We found a really cute and inexpensive quad apartment on the far end of the island close to the airport strip.

We loved it.. Great owner who met us and perfect amount of space for $32 per night.. It was a one bedroom with kitchen, outdoor porch and eating area and rooftop seating and hammocks..

I did my yoga there. It was beautiful. We had access to bikes and a machete to cut our own coconuts!!

Say what... Well of course I did 😜

Before my trip was over, I was determined to swim across this channel that cut between Caye caulker, and this other island so that I could jump off of this tree branch into the ocean like everyone else was doing..

Problem is I can't swim at least not enough to swim across the ocean channel to the other side, so a cool kid that worked on one side, volunteered to swim me across the other side. He was so awesome.

I finally jumped!! No life jacket and can't swim.

REMEMBER: Move slow and enjoy...

there is only one hospital and 2 cemetaries.....

Be careful of those sand flies and the more you go inland off the islands the more bugs you see. Or maybe it was the time of year or the temperature..

And you'll never guess the pesky-est creatures are the crabs... they rummage through the garbage like raccoons and rats.. Eeek

Caye Caulker was awesome and I met some really nice islanders and expats there..

Next up water taxi to San Pedro/Ambergris Caye..area well known for the divers beautiful blue hole.

San Pedro is much bigger and tons more going on of course.. Cars, buses, motorbikes, jeeps for rent. Events, nightlife, housing subdivisions, restaurants galore.. You name it!!

The apartment we rented on this side was awesome. We ended up getting a great break because the one bedroom, we rented for 49 dollars a night wasn't available, so we got the master suite on the top floor, which gave us full kitchen full living room, 2 separate master bedroom suites with balconies on both sides and we were a step across the street from the beach. The owner and the manager were both awesome, they took great care of us. That's one of the cool things about staying with someone or doing an airbnb is oftentimes you can build relationships with those folks. They were so helpful and made sure we felt safe and comfortable. It was great there's also other sharing companies out there now, you have homeaway, couchsurfing, there's also a workaway. So many different ways for you to visit different places and meet people and either stay with them or meet up, so you have other people to hang out with, so anyway check those out.

I really enjoyed the freeness of both islands.

Even though I was with a friend she and I did a lot of our own things so it was like a solo trio and I was really comfortable walking around, exploring etc..
you reall can't go wrong with the food. Find yourself an eatery with outside seating (everywhere) have some rice, beans and your choide of veggies or chicken or carne. You really can't beat that.