Ambergris Caye and Caye Caulker

The sea wall (and only decent
swimming spot) on Caye Caulker

Tropical waters from the scuba boat

In my opinion, the best part of our trip was our stay at Caye Caulker.  It's a very relaxed little place where people mostly ride in golf carts or bike everywhere.  It's small but cute and the relaxation factor is high.  We came to the Cayes (which is what they call the islands here) to snorkel and scuba on the huge barrier reef that lies about 0.5 mile east of Caye Caulker.

Snorkeling at Sting Ray Alley, Ambergris Caye

The prime sunset chair

Sunset ready!

The view from our favorite sunset
spot on Caye Caulker

Shade at Secret Beach,
Ambergris Caye

Frigate bird

The beach at Half Moon Caye
National Monument

The pool at Island Oasis, Caye Caulker

Red footed boobie!  Too
bad you can't see his feet...

We also had a stay on Ambergris Caye, which was much busier and not as nice as Caye Caulker but was closer to some of the snorkeling and diving we wanted to do.  On Ambergris Caye, it's worth a bike ride up to Secret Beach, which lies on the western side of the island.  If the distance and bumpy road are too much, you can rent a golf cart to get you there too.  From Ambergris, you should be sure to take a snorkel trip to Hol Chan Marine Reserve (The Aquarium and Shark Ray Alley are snorkel sites there).  It is busy but full of fish and worth the crowds.

Sign along the walking trail,
Half Moon Caye

The water is gorgeous out by the reef

Hermit crab

We did a few of the half day dive trips and then splurged on trips to the Blue Hole (Lighthouse Reef), Half Moon Caye and northern Turneffe Atoll. The Blue Hole really wasn’t worth it for us.  We have a friend who went there and saw a large number of sharks circling the top be we saw almost nothing as the visibility was bad and there’s no reef or really many fish there.  It’s just literally a big deep hole.

As a rule, the further we got from Caye Caulker, the better the dives were.  The best spot in Belize reportedly is Turneffe Elbow but it is so far, the dive boats will only go there if they have a minimum number (4-6 usually) and the cost is prohibitive for most.  Half Moon Caye was a dive rest stop during a full day trip.  It's a gorgeous little island and there are Red Footed Boobies and Frigate birds nesting there, which was pretty neat.  We went with Frenchies Diving, who were cheaper and less pretentious than Belize Diving Services (the other main diving operator).