Waking at 8 am we heard the familiar sound of rain pounding against the ceiling. It seemed like the rain had followed us to the tropical island of Caye Caulker.  When it broke for a little while we grabbed all our stuff and went back to check into Bella's which was to be our home until Friday.  As the rain was here to stay for the day we threw on our rain coat and went off to explore and stock up on some food for the next few days.  It turns out when it rains here the mud roads make it very difficult to walk in flip flops so Sarah went fully native and walked barefoot everywhere. 

We came home and made our speciality of beans, scrambled egg and avocado and spent our day moving from hammock to chair to bed and ventured out for 3 little walks to prevent the stir craziness properly settling in!  At the kitchen table Simon (our Swedish roommate) started teaching us some new card games, which was well needed as there is only so many times you can get excited by ANOTHER ROUND OF GIN RUMMY.  That night we went out for dinner with our new Swedish and American friend in search of Wish Willy's which has been recommended so many times and is basically some guy called Willy who has set up BBQ in his own back garden, but turns out he was doing a spot of house DIY so was closed for the night!  Feeling really dejected we went to his recommendation of Maggie's on the corner.  It turned out Willy had good taste as it was the BEST lobster ever.   There was quietness at the table for the whole time as we all devoured our food.  Dani was in her element with lobster claws flying across the table as she searched every nook and cranny for another bit of fish. 

That night was a tough one to get to sleep as we had a combination of being in the dorm that backed on to the other party hostel Dirty McNasty's (why you'd call a hostel that is beyond us) where one Irish guy screeched 'in the jungle the mighty jungle the lion sleeps tonight...' Until 3am and Dani had a snorer on her top bunk who made it feel like we had our own private gorilla in our room and kept climbing up and down the ladder.  First thing next morning we changed rooms and actually managed to get a lovely private room with view over the river and saving us money!  Win win! 

The sun was shining in Caye Caulker that day and we took full advantage we walked the full length of the island through the mangroves and we're excited for our rooftop sunset yoga at 5pm, we'd even found a recruit in our new English friend Ollie.  But the dreaded rain came back at 4pm so it was not to be so we cooked an amazing dinner of tuna, beans, avocado and tomatoes (our speciality). We played sticks with two fishing guys in our hostel who were waiting for their fish they caught that day to cook. We also got a lesson on how to fish.

The rain had died down so we went OUT OUT with our first stop being the sports bar!  We were following the crowds and at midnight everyone headed to the reggae bar where we got a golf cart taxi the 'long distance' of front street!  The Reggae bar is 2 floor bar with amazing swing stools and 'choons' that would make Bob Marley proud.  Loads of people from our hostel arrived as well so we had good crowd of people to hit the dance floor with.

The next morning two hungover girls made their way down to the split to try cure the hangover with snorkelling and sunbathing. Dani had bought local suncream and when we came back she looked like lobster. Lesson learned. Never buy the cheap local crap. Thank god Col is going to bring over suncream when he is coming to Guatemala.

We met our sailing group and got a debrief on the next 3 days. The group consists of 90% American and 6 of them are couples. We are both very excited to fish and snorkel and the endless supply of fresh fish.

We finally went for dinner in Wish Willy's and ordered the grilled lobster. Unfortunately it did not compare to Maggie's lobster and both of us are feeling very unsatisfied. When Willy delivered the plates to our table our faces said it in our faces. Afterwards we went back to the hostel and played games with our new fisher friends. We taught them how to play gin rummy and one of them taught us their chip game which was a lot of fun.

Our bags are all packed, skin is tingling from the sunburn and we are ready to set sail across the uninhabitated Caribbean paradise. We will be camping the next two nights which will be eventful in the tropical storm and cut off from the real world!!!