Caye Caulker - Dangriga - Placencia

Caye Caulker was extremely nice. Did very little in the time that we were there. Accommodation was nice, but literally just a wooden room with a bed in it....and a cockroach, which I wanted to kill and Jenny wanted to save, so we agreed to stun it with the repellent and she could catch it, which she managed after about 1/2 an hour of crawling about on the floor. We left there by water taxi and caught our first chicken bus in Belize city. So called cos sometimes people bring livestock on. Not on this one though. You do see a lot of locals carrying machetes though, the length of my arm, which is a bit concerning. Having said that, we saw a lot of locals in Guatemala wearing the whole cowboy gear with guns stuck down their belts strolling about the place, so not too bothered about the odd machete. The buses are old American School buses - blue birds. Not the most comfortable, but we weren't on for that long. Also they just stop anywhere that you tell them to along the way, and pick up people who wave them down anywhere along the route, which doubled the journey time. Travelled south to Dangriga.

Dangriga was a bit of a dump. We were intending just to stop there overnight and get a boat out to another island where there is a reef within snorkelling distance - Tobacco Caye - but the island was full (of Americans probably), or anything they could offer was too pricey. Dangriga is a port town, beach was a bit manky. Felt like a total tourist. The majority of the population being Garifuna black carribeans who speak their own dialect of English. The rest of the population seem to be Chinese. The Chinese restaurants outnumber the local ones and all the locals eat there, so I've been trying out different versions of chicken fried rice over here. Unfortunately they put pees in it and carrots. Not impressed. Anyway, there wasn't a lot to see in Dangriga, although I thought the people were all quite interesting, friendly and very laid back (or very unemployed, not sure). Stayed in a nice place here, shame the town wasn't up to much. Left there this morning and got another chicken bus to Placencia, with the most annoying woman in Belize, maybe the world. She talked non-stop to the rasta next to her at the top of her voice the whole way here, and at every stop was shouting out the window at random people in the street. Placencia is right in the south of Belize, planning to spend a few days here then get a boat across to Honduras. Nice and hot today, probably about 30 degrees.