Caye Caulker, Belize - Day 1

Travel Day! We were up at 3 am on Sunday, took Harley for a walk, finished our last minute packing and were picked up by a car at the house at 4:45 am. In the past, we would drive to Andrew's work, which is about 5 miles from the airport, leave the car there and take a cab the rest of the way. However, we've have a couple of "issues" with cars upon our return (dead batteries, flat tires, and the like) so we now pay the little extra to ride to the airport in towncar style.

The airport was surprisingly busy for 5 am on a Sunday - "Cruise Ship Sunday" one of the employees called it. Unfortunately, everyone in front of us at security had either been living under a rock, or does not own a TV or subscribe to any routine news - hopeless! One family in front of us pulled no less than 6 bottles of water out of their carry-on and proceeded to try to drink them all before going through. Others had their travel-sized liquids in gallon-sized ziplock bags (oh so close, yet still wrong), and most had more "carry-on" items than a pack mule could safely manage. We made it to our gate just as the third group was boarding (despite arriving at the airport more than 90-minutes before our flight) and were on our way. We changed planes in Miami, and arrived in Belize City about 2:30 pm.

The management company of the property we are renting provides a "door-to-door" service, so we were picked up at the airport and dropped off at the water-taxi station in Belize City. The water-taxi is really more like a big city bus that floats, and takes passengers to the various cayes and islands surrounding Belize City. Once on Caye Caulker (about a 45-minute ride from Belize City), we were met again by a gentleman with a golf cart. He loaded our luggage and took us to the management company so we could check in. We were then deposited outside of our rental house, Alta Vista, where we were met by the owners Annette & John. A & J greeted us warmly and walked us up to the second floor to begin our tour. On the way, they explained to us that they are from Oregon and they spend the winter here. When they are here they have an apartment on the ground floor that they stay in. The upper two floors they rent out to tourists.

The house is beautiful and the first thing we noticed is all the Belizean wood. After quickly telling us to take off our shoes and brush the sand from the wheels of our luggage, John proudly told us that he had personally installed all the wood floors, built the cabinets in the kitchen, and even made the couch! We also learned about using filtered rainwater for our showers, and about security for overnight and when we were out of the house. This proved to be good information as we learned the next day that a couple at another house managed by the same company were burglarized during the night and had their iPad and a few other items taken.

The upper floor is a loft-style: two "bedrooms" and a bathroom. This is the second bedroom. You can see the railing to the staircase down to the main floor.

This is the upstairs bathroom. There is an identical one off the kitchen on the main floor.

This is the main bedroom area upstairs. The "wall" with the closet on it separates it from the second bedroom in the loft area.

Kitchen - note the gorgeous Belizean wood cabinets and floors!

The living room and dining room, with the stairs to the loft area.

The front deck. There are three decks total - front, back and roof. More photos of the others to come!

By the time we finished our tour with Annette, we were starving so we headed out to a little Cuban restaurant on Front Street. I had a whole red snapper and Andrew had a conch fillet. Both came with rice & beans and cabbage salad - yum! After dinner, we wandered back to the house and headed to bed - looking forward to a full day here tomorrow!