After the constant struggle with Spanish in Mexico, English-speaking Belize was a breath of fresh air, not that you could understand the locals when they spoke to one another, with their extremely thick Caribbean accents. The best thing was being able to read and signs, though one of the first places I saw after the border was, "Average Fastfoods," which begged the question, what were the names of some of the poorer food stalls I´d eaten at in Mexico without realizing? Not The Best NACHOS, Seriously Lacking Quesidillas and You´ll regret buying these BURRITOS.

We´d picked up two more people, Joe and Tom, at the border so our duet had grown into a quartet by the time we´d reached Belize City. Apparently much of the city had to be rebuilt after a hurrucaine so It´s not that I ha high hopes for the place, but it really was a dive. The guide book said that the premier attraction of the former Capital City was the Swing Bridge, which opens up twice an day to let larger boats through. Frankly Dunnikear Road Bridge is more impressive, Lochgelly Rail Bridge is more attractive and Roseberry Terrace Bridge is far more fun to cross. Unfortunately it was too late to catch a boat that night so we were forced to spend a night at a hotel, from where the owner proudly told us that you can see the swing bridge.

We headed out to the local Chinese for dinner, which turned out to be a pretty uncomfortable experience. When we arrived there were about 5 locals, all black, standing at a metal gate getting their food handed out to them my the Chinese owner. When he saw the 4 of us however, he opened the locked gate, ushered us in and pushed the locals back before locking them out once more. I´m not sure if there was a legitimate reason that I wasn´t aware of, or if he was simply a massive racist but it certainly wasn´t the most comfortable meal I´ve ever had.

Though the city looked slightly better in the light we still hopped on the first possible boat out heading to Caye Caulker, a tiny island just short of the reef. Within minutes on Caye Caulker our quartet had grown again into a full band when we met Blake and Wei-Lien, two Aussies also from Playa. Though it was never going to take long to bump into them on an island that you can run the width of in less than 30 seconds to be fair. The motto of Caye Caulker is "Go Slow," and to say it´s a relaxed sort of place is a grave understatement. The only doctors surgery I saw on the Island had a sign outside saying there would be, "No clinic until June," and nobody seemed in any kind of rush to do anything, not that there was too much to do apart from sit at the beach, or on a hammock on one of the piers. The only vehicles on the Island were the Golf Cart Taxis, though on an island so small, the drivers mainly seemed to just sit in their carts sleeping all day.

Without a doubt, the highlight of Caye Caulker was the snorkelling and diving though. Since the reef, the 2nd largest in the world, has been protected for so long the fish are completely unafraid of humans and would actually follow you around, letting you pat them. Even the nurse sharks didnt mind getting stroked and the rays were quite hapy to be picked up. The sheer amount of fish was ridiculous and the sea turtles just glided about minding their own business. Without a doubt it´s one of the best things i´ve ever seen in my life. To top it all off, after we were back on dry land our boat driver, who had dived for some shellfish on the way back in from the reef, cracked them open, cut them up and served up some seriously fresh and awesome cerviche.

For all its great things, Belize is quite expensive so while the rest of our band left, me and Mark hung around to have one more day of "going slow" and filling up on the traditional Chicken, rice and beans before catching the boat back to Belize City and without hanging around for a second longer than we needed to, hopped on a bus heading for Guatemala.