We are now in Caye Caulker, Belize, which is another small island. It's apparently cold for Caye Caulker, but "cold" here means a low of 20 degrees. We're living cheaply in a hostel on a futon ($7 each per night), so it's a little run down, but the people are nice and it's a fun spot directly on the oceanfront. Yesterday Jeff, Dores (a girl from Germany) and I took the hostel's canoe out for a test run. Saw some starfish but most of the marine life is further out. The island has a very relaxed vibe, with hammocks all over the place and many signs saying "No shirt, no shoes, no problem". We were hoping to do a sailing tour today that would take us out all day to snorkel in the best spots, but it might be too windy and Jeff's stomach is unsettled. If we don't go today, we'll go at some point this week. Apparently you get to snorkel side by side with reef sharks, so I'm trying to gather my courage.

Our backyard.

Continuing from where we left off last time... last Friday was relatively relaxed. Jeff caught up on some sleep, I hung out with Perryn on a small restaurant's dock where we got a little work done and occasionally jumped into the ocean to cool off, and Ally and Charlie took the treehouse's bikes out for a ride. We all ate at an awesome seafood restaurant over the water called Fidi's, which was run by the chief of police in Utila. The boys had yellowtail snapper, which was a full fish caught earlier that day, and the girls had fresh shrimp. All delicious, and I learned fish really do have small brains. We were up early on Saturday to catch a boat ride over to Water Caye, which is a small island with white sand beaches not far from Utila. The boat left from Amanda's dock (Jeff did a little swimming while we waited). It was essentially paradise. There were pelicans everywhere feeding on the massive clouds of minnows that were fun (and maybe a little gross) to swim through. Jeff and I went snorkeling, and managed to see a sea snake, some cool seaweed/sea sponges, some interesting fish, including a pufferfish, possibly. The pictures aren't nearly as clear as what we saw, but they give you an idea. I was definitely relieved that the snake never swam upwards. The boat was not quite as smooth on the way back as on the way there, and I have some bruises to show for that.

Fidi's restaurant.

Also Fidi's.

It looked closer in person, but this was the snake!

When we got back from snorkeling, we noticed this interesting face in the sand..... And when we went back for it later, it had disappeared! No idea.

Jeff was a lot more careful not to burn, this time.

That evening we had some drinks and went out to a few of the local bars. One in particular was called Treetanic and was literally a work of art. It was massive, with multiple different pathways to follow, all of which were at least as interesting as this:

We checked out of the Treehouse early Sunday morning, which meant saying goodbye to this morning view:

But Perryn, Jeff and I checked in to the Mango Inn, which was also very nice, and included a pool, air conditioning, unlimited drinking water, and this pathway leading to our room:

Officially treehouse-less.

Unfortunately we had to say farewell to Ally and Charlie, who had a ferry and 4 flights to catch. We spent our last night in Utila at Treetanic, and Monday morning before taking off we visited the Iguana Station, which is a volunteer group focused on educating the community about the environment, and researching/breeding iguanas. There were some interesting bugs and birds too.

This parrot (who could talk) was fluffing at me because she hates girls. She hates girls because her previous owner had to give her up for his new girlfriend.

We caught the 2pm ferry out of Utila that day, a little sad to leave! Thankfully the ferry out was nothing like the ferry in. The three of us spent Monday night in La Ceiba, in a hostel called Banana Republic. Not luxurious, but very cheap for a private room! We went out to a nearby restaurant to eat and ordered way too much food. On our way back, we realized the power had gone out on our block, which meant a couple of hours overheating in our room without the fan. Luckily the power came back and we got watch part of Djengo (until the Benedryl knocked both Per and I out for the night). Per had to catch an early bus to San Pedro Sula to catch her flights back, so we had to say goodbye (very sleepily) :(

Once Jeff and I got up, we found an adorable cafe and had a great breakfast for very little money. After painfully trying our spanish out to buy me something for my sand fly bites (really no clue what we bought, but it seemed to do the trick), we checked out of the Banana Republic and organized a cab to a place called Omega that Amanda had recommended, which is a tour company in the jungle about 12 miles form La Ceiba. We were immediately impressed. Gorgeous place, with a great room including a private balcony that cost relatively little. All of their food was made fresh (it took about 2 hours for a meal, so you had to order ahead of time), they had 2 pools (one with fish), and tons of hiking trails through the jungle. We did a 2-hour hike our first day there, and it was breathtaking. We got a little lost towards the end (and ran into some horses...), but we found our way out eventually.

The next day in Omega, we went white water rafting! Well, we started with white water swimming and cliff jumping, which sounded a little terrifying, but was a lot of fun. Jeff tried most jumps either backwards or doing a gainer, I was just happy I survived swimming through the rapids.

Jeff doing a gainer.

Sliding down a slippery rock backwards (this was intentional).

My less impressive jumping.

The river we were rafting on.

After a couple hours of that, we finally started rafting - there were 3 boats with 3 people in each, Jeff and I were with a local guide named Oss. I was in the front of the boat, to my terror. We never fell out! Except at the end when Jeff and Oss wanted to flip the boat.

A good 5 hours later, we had finished rafting (at this point I was exhausted), and we headed back to the resort for some free lunch! We hungout with the people we had been rafting with for the rest of the day/night, and actually ended up sharing a cab back to La Ceiba with 2 of them the following morning (at 6:30am...). They had met some supposed-IBM-vice-president with a lot of money before coming to Omega who had offered them a ride to San Pedro Sula that day, which we ended up joining in on, and which saved us some hassle and money. Since San Pedro Sula is not a particularly safe place, we payed a little more than we're used to for a safe hotel 1 block from the mall, so that we could easily grab some food (we ate at Pizza Hut, hehe).

The next morning (Friday), Jeff and I headed out early to the airport to catch our 9:30am hour-long flight to Belize. It was foggy that day, so our flight ended up being delayed by 7 hours, which was actually a relief because at one point we thought we were going to have to wait until the next day, which would have meant a 24 hour airport sleepover. Because of the delay, the airline bought us a free Wendy's lunch, so I was forced to eat my first fast-food burger ever! Broke my burger-less streak, although I can still say that I've never paid for one. The plane was adorably small, with about 8 seats, so we could see all of the pilots' controls and had some cool views.

We got to Belize City just in time to catch the last water taxi over to Caye Caulker, which is where we are now!

Much love,
Jen and Jeff