10: Coastal Ruins and Sailing in Belize

Since our last adventures in Mexico, we visited one more place, called Tulum. It's on the Caribbean coast and there is plenty of beach but also some great Mayan ruins perched on the edge of the coast, which is quite something. We spent a couple of days in Tulum, the first day we just spent exploring on bicycles and going to the beach, and on the second day we visited the ruins themselves. It was quite a relief to be on the coast after being inland in the heat for a while.

The beach at Tulum, below the ruins

Ruins at Tulum

We spent a day relaxing and swimming in the turquoise waters of Caye Caulker, and the following day we set off on quite an adventure. We decided to take a three day sailing boat trip down the coast to a town called Placencia. The trip wouldn't usually last that long but this one is designed to be taken at a very leisurely pace!



Our boat, the Ragga King

The trip was amazing, as we took regular stops to snorkle or swim and there was constant fishing on the boat (Johnny caught a nice big Barracuda). After the first day of sailing we arrived at our first night stop, Rendezvous Caye. This is a tiny island, I think there were a total of about 5 palm trees and you could walk across it in less than 30 seconds. We arrived there and put up our tents, which had been provided. After that, we drank rather a lot of rum punch, until dinner was served - an incredible mix of seafood which had been cooked by the crew on the boat. Much of the food that night included the passengers´ various catches of the day. After dinner the crew set up a campfire which we all sat round, drinking more rum punch!

Rendez-Vous Caye, where we spent our first night

Crewmember Jahlee bringing in a fish

We woke up quite early (and
hungover for some) due to the sun, and after a relaxing breakfast got back on the boat. An awesome day of sailing, snorkling and swimming was had, and then we arrived at our second nightstop, Tobacco Caye. This island is slightly bigger, though  not by very much! After setting up tents, we relaxed and some people went to do some more snorkling. We also spotted a huge sting ray and a turtle next to the dock! After dinner, some traditional drumming had been organised for us to enjoy, which we did, and eventually the locals persuaded all of us passengers to do some
dancing.

The next day was sadly our last, and we sailed down to Placencia not wanting the trip to end! We made some great friends on the boat, all the other passengers (about 12 in total) were lovely people. If you ever happen to be in Belize, I would thoroughly recommend the trip (organised by raggamuffin tours). I wouldn't, however, if you don't enjoy reggae - as our rasta crew had reggae playing during the whole trip - although it did feel kind of appropriate!

Final photo with crew and passengers

Next we're back in Guatemala, seeing Tikal and Rio Dulce. Will keep you up to date soon :)