Caye Caulker - And Another Fishing Trip

After our "crazy" casino night, the three of us grabbed a few slices of pizza, and then got on the boat to Caye Caulker (pronounced Key Corker). I'd forgotten what a great journey it was. We sped off towards the horizon, the clear water beneath us tinted with ever changing shades of blue and green. On the way we passed a few of the classic "desert island" Cayes (i.e. small mound of white sand with coconut tree in the middle) as well as the "Golf Course" Caye - a picture perfect island consisting exclusively of a 5 star resort and an 18 hole golf course, reportedly owned by Leonardo di Caprio.


Our destination was slightly less glamorous, but still a fantastic place to kick back for a few days. Caye Caulker is a small village community, set on a island fringed with white sand beaches, an offshore stone's throw away from the world's second largest barrier reef. There are no cars, all the roads are sand, and so the only means of transport are bike, golf cart, or by foot. Fortunately, the island is so small that it's easy to walk everywhere.



Simo insisted on picking the accommodation this time, but his first choice was full - so we bunked up in a place called Miriam's (which I have to admit it was a considerable step up from the SEA guest house). We then spent the next few days ... well ... doing nothing really. We got up late, wandered around the island in the blistering heat, drank some cold beers in the evening, and ate at some great restaurants - most notable at Don Corleone's, a place we felt we had to visit because of the Godfather associations ...

After a couple of days we moved hostel to Tina's, and it's a good thing we did, because Tina played host to two of our favourite things that we have encountered since leaving England. I think I would be doing everyone an injustice if I didn't let Liz explain this one:

"Oh my goodness! At the hostel we were staying at there were these two really cute little puppies! They were the best puppies ever (except of course for my Molly puppy!!) and were just amazing! We loved them so much and played with them all the time! They were called Elvis and Errol - named by Elise and Greg the week before! It was so sad to leave them..I wish I´d hidden little Errol in my bag!"

So, anyway, they were great, and we spent pretty much the entire time over the next couple of days playing with them. In fact, Liz loved them so much that one night she became very jealous of the other guests at Tina's picking them up and cuddling them. So jealous in fact, that she stole Errol and hid him in our room. I had to calmly explain to her that we couldn't really keep Errol in our room the entire time as people might ask questions. Also, Errol was beginning to make some whimpering sounds that were a bit too loud and dog like to be blamed on the squeaking of the fan. Eventually she released him, but that didn't stop the incident repeating itself a couple of days later ...

After a few more days of doing nothing except eating (including a wonderful beach barbecue of lobster and shrimp at a place called Fran's) we decided we really should do some kind of activity. There was much debate about snorkelling, diving, boat trips, etc. but in the end we decided on fishing ... not too strenuous, out in the sun, and if you're successful you get a free dinner ... perfect. We booked a trip with a resident Italian called Sandro, who was I think used to slightly more experienced fishermen than ourselves - witness the first conversation he had with Simo:

Italian: So what type of fishing are you interested in? Offshore fishing, fly fishing, trawling, spear fishing, etc. etc.
Simo: Er ... which one is the most fun?
Italian: Okaaaay ... I'm sure we can sort something out.

The next day we got up early and were on the water at around 8.30. The first couple of hours or so was "fly fishing" apparently - the sort where you have a rod, a line, a hook, some bait and a sinker. "Normal fishing" I call it. Anyway, none of us had ever really used a rod before, so we spent an hour or so losing bait, getting ourselves hooked on rocks and generally not catching much, whilst Sandro and the boat captain yanked snapper after snapper out of the water and into the boat. The next hour was slightly more successful, with a number of small fish caught (which were then unceremoniously chucked back into the sea by Sandro for being too small to eat) and the odd larger snapper finding its way onto our lines. Fortunately this time there was no gender divide (unlike the time we went piranha fishing) with all 3 of us having equal success, and so no bruised masculine pride.

After this we went "trawling" for a couple of hours. This is where you sit with slightly stumpier rods pointing at right angles out of the boat, then let out lots of line whilst the boat drives around for a bit, trailing the lines behind it. "Boring fishing" I call it. We caught nothing for over an hour. Just before I was about to denounce trawling as a complete waste of time, Simo thankfully got a bite. A big bite. So big that I felt I needed to help him hold the rod as he tried to reel it in. Since we had let out so much line, it took a fair old time and effort to do this, but it was definitely worth it. On the end of Simo's line was a large barracuda! We hauled it into the boat and took pictures. So trawling was worth it after all ...

After that we tried some spear fishing. Basically, it's snorkelling whilst holding a dangerous looking harpoon gun. I had a quick go, but was a bit put off trying to shoot the fish as they looked so graceful swimming in the water. Hypocritical I know, since I've got no problem with yanking them out with a hook through their mouth, but I really didn't feel like taking them down with a harpoon at close range. Liz and I let Sandro and Simo shoot a few whilst we checked out the wonderful and abundant corral in the area.

Finally we asked if we could go back to do some fly fishing - undoubtedly the best of the three types we tried - and Sandro obliged, taking us to a place rich in snapper. We'd got a bit better by this point, and had a productive hour or so catching a good number of snapper. I think we had around 30 between us by the end. The drawback of such a good haul, was that we then had to gut and scale them, a rather unpleasant task carried out mainly by the boat captain with a little help from me. Liz and Simo seemed content to take pictures, whilst I got myself covered head to toe in fish scales.

The fish "cleaning" process (as this is known) took place on one of those "desert island" cayes, mentioned earlier, which happened to be owned by the boat captain (see the picture above). Whilst I was getting fish scales in my hair, Simo became obsessed with the idea of owning such an island. Over the next few hours (and in fact the next day) we came embroiled in a discussion of how much such an island would cost, and how it could be developed into a profitable venture. We toyed with the idea of turning it into a luxury honeymoon deserted island, drawing couples looking for complete isolation in paradise. Then, since the caye was so near to great fishing areas, we discussed turning it into a few basic cabañas, where dedicated fishermen could stay and fish the fertile waters all day. Simo became so serious about the idea, he asked the boat captain how much he'd sell his caye for. The captain said around 50,000 GBP, but Sandro reckoned he could be beaten down to half that. Not bad for your own island, considering what a tiny studio flat goes for in London nowadays.

In any case, we brought our haul of fish back to land, gave half of them to the boat captain (as we would never have been able to eat them all anyway), then convinced Fran - of lobster beach barbecue fame - to allow us to cook the snapper on her grill. We then prepared the fish with olive oil, coriander, onion and tomato, as advised by Sandro (who being Italian had quite a flair for these things), and grilled them up. They were absolutely delicious. To top it all off, Sandro then allowed us to try some of his "famous" lobster linguine, which was - unsurprisingly - amazing. We then had a few beers and chatted to Sandro about his life. Turns out he owned a successful fashion business back in Italy, and had retired to Caye Caulker to chill out and fish for a while.

During this chat, and subsequently at a nearby bar, we managed to get through a fair number of beers, and talk of the island purchase continued. Liz and I thought the idea was just fantasy, and would have all blown over by the morning. Simo however, woke us with the news that he was going to phone his Dad in England with a business proposal involving the purchase of a certain "Simo Caye", just off the coast of Belize. By all accounts Simo's Dad was slightly less impressed with the idea than he was. Not to be deterred, as we left to go our separate ways later that day, Simo offered us an investment opportunity involving purchase of "shares" in his island. Unfortunately we didn't have a spare few grand lying around, so we left Caye Caulker islandless...