Don\'t worry, be happy!

And once again there's a question from me at the beginning: who of you has ever been illegally in a country for about 2 weeks? No one? Well... we managed to do it, but everything in its own time.

As we mentioned at the end of the last entry, the plan was to get from Chetumal to Belize. The exact destination was Caye Caulker, a small Caribbean island off the coast of Belize, which charms with its 'Jamaican' charm and is an extremely popular destination for backpackers. In general, not many people are familiar with Belize. If you look at the map of Latin America, you will find Belize south of the Yucatan Peninsula, somewhere between Mexico and Guatemala. The inhabitants of the former British colony and especially those on Caye Caulker live by the motto 'Go Slow' and you can feel that everywhere. The people are extremely friendly, very relaxed and laid-back. 'If there's a problem, someone will eventually show up and have an idea or do something. Everything will be all right. Life is beautiful.'

That's how the attitude of the inhabitants there seemed to us. What seemed a bit unorganized and unconventional at first (at least for us Germans) quickly became our way of doing things. As our journey continued, we gradually began to shed German virtues and habits. But I digress.

Since Caye Caulker is an island, you can only get there by plane or by boat. So we bought tickets for a water taxi in Chetumal, which turned out to be a speedboat and was supposed to take us from Mexico to Caye Caulker by water. As we were crossing a national border, someone had to check our passports as well as our stamp for entry into Mexico. This process, generally called 'migrations', took place at the pier in Chetumal just before we could board our water taxi. The following problem arose: we had neither a stamp for entry into Mexico nor the corresponding 'tourist card' that you get to prove that you are legally in Mexico. As those of you who have read everything diligently know, we crossed the border from the USA to Mexico on foot in San Diego/ Tijuana. We were closely watched and pierced by the eyes of many soldiers on the Mexican side, but none of them considered it relevant to stop us and draw our attention to the entry requirements. Ergo, we were in Mexico illegally the entire time. When the policeman told us this at the pier, we couldn't believe our ears. Fortunately, the man spoke English, so we could ask him about our options. There were exactly two options for us. The first was to go to the immigration office in Chetumal and try to explain our situation there. Possible consequences would have been that, in addition to a hefty fine that we would have had to pay anyway, we would have to go to jail for a certain period of time or have our departure refused until the situation was resolved. Since neither of these options was acceptable to us, we asked about the second option. This was much easier and is also much simpler to describe - bribery. The policeman explained to us that we could simply pay him twice the amount that we would have had to pay anyway to leave Mexico, and he would give us the necessary stamps, including the entry stamp. After a short consideration and hoping that this was not a trap to expose us to corruption, we agreed and paid the man. So not only did we manage to be illegally in Mexico for two weeks, but we also bribed an officer. We are bad boys (Bad Boys, Bad Boys, what you're gonna do? What you're gonna do when we come for you?) 😂

But never mind. We got the stamps and were able to leave Mexico without any problems. We boarded the boat and headed towards Caye Caulker.

After a wild but fun ride, where we raced over the Caribbean Sea and felt every wave, and a transfer in Ambergris Caye (better known as 'La Isla Bonita' from Madonna's song of the same name), we arrived on Caye Caulker in the early evening.

We found ourselves on an 8x2 kilometer island with no paved roads or cars. Motorized transportation, if necessary at all, was done by caddies, like those you normally only know from golf courses or FC Bayern training grounds. The aforementioned 'Jamaican' impression arises due to the language. The majority of the population, almost entirely Afro-Americans, speak Jamaican English. Not quite easy to understand for a 'non-native speaker', but still beautiful to listen to, at least for me.

After checking in at the hostel and taking a short tour of the island, we went to bed relatively early because we had planned a snorkeling tour for the next day. After all, we were not far from the second largest coral reef in the world. With a slightly queasy feeling about snorkeling itself, but also with extreme excitement and anticipation, we turned off the lights, expecting the next day.

The next day was promising. After breakfast and choosing the tour that was best for us, we waited at the travel agency for the go-ahead. Our group consisted of 2 Americans, 3 Israelis, and us. We got our equipment and boarded our boat. There were planned stops at 5 different locations, each with different things to see. Our guide for the tour was Captain Pete (a very cool name 😄). Captain Pete was a true Belizean (is that how you say it???). Not only did he explain and tell us everything about the island, the sea, and the coral reef ecosystem in his beautiful Jamaican English, he was also extremely musical and very, very funny. Already on the way to the first stop, we said to ourselves that it was worth taking this tour because, thanks to the people around us, we had so much fun like we hadn't had in a long time (without alcohol, of course 😄). Additionally, as we moved further away from the island, the already turquoise blue water became even clearer and brighter.

About 30 minutes later, we arrived at the first stop. The purpose of this stop was to visit a manatee. After a short familiarization period with the equipment, we set out to search for the huge animal. It didn't take long and we found it. It was lying about 3 meters below the water's surface, simply floating there and not moving, as if posing for the tourists because it's the star of this stop 😄. It was a spectacular sight because even though the manatee didn't move, you could hardly take your eyes off it. But as beautiful as it was to see a manatee in the wild, we had to move on, there was much more to discover.

The second stop was a shipwreck. As you can imagine, there were all kinds of different fish there. Judging by the size of his brain, my big brother could sometimes also be a Dory ('Finding Nemo', 'Finding Dory'). Of course, he came up with the idea to dive to the wreck. Not only did he not succeed, but he also lost his snorkel, which sank to the bottom through a hole in the wreck. When he told this to Captain Pete, he wasn't quite as happy as you can imagine, but he is a very good diver and managed to retrieve Sascha's equipment.

We continued our way towards the actual coral reef. There's not much to tell here, Captain Pete showed and explained the many different species to us and we simply enjoyed the sight of the diverse colors and shapes. At the same time, our guide also emphasized how sensitive corals are, and during the tour, each member of the group managed to touch a coral at least once. We were lucky if Pete didn't see it, otherwise he could get a little uncomfortable. But otherwise, he always kept his great mood.

On the way to the second-to-last stop, where sharks and rays were promised, we were served fresh fruits and water for lunch. Even though we're not the biggest fans of fruits and vegetables, we found this to be a very suitable 'menu'. After a quick refreshment, we arrived and were not lied to. The moment the boat came to a standstill, there were sharks all around us. They were not great white sharks or sharks dangerous to humans, but they were relatively large and breathtaking to look at. You could literally feel how everyone present wanted to get into the water. I can confidently say that it was one of the most impressive things I have ever seen in my young life. There were sharks and rays and huge schools of fish everywhere, and you truly didn't know where to look first because you were afraid of missing something. Still fascinated by what we saw, we eventually left this stop as well.

Our final stop was a kind of sea strait where we were supposed to see many turtles. Due to the lack of words to describe the beauty of the underwater world, I will let the pictures speak from here on, even though they can't capture what is happening there even remotely. You really have to see it to understand our enthusiasm.

In the afternoon, we finally returned to Caye Caulker. Very exhausted but also more than happy, we had dinner and booked our trip to Flores, Guatemala, via Belize City. Since the distance between these two cities should not be underestimated, we got up early the next morning so as not to miss our water taxi. It took us to Belize City as planned, from where we boarded the bus to Guatemala shortly afterwards, knowing that from now on only Spanish would be spoken, which could only be to our disadvantage...

However, we didn't worry about that too much, because the joy of what we had seen on the last day was still too great.

In conclusion, I can only add that it was a unique experience for us to participate in it and that we can highly recommend Caye Caulker and a snorkeling tour associated with it to anyone who hangs out down there!!!

See you then

Batman (Sascha) & Robin (Max)