We packed up some bare essentials in a few random water proof camera housings and bags we had and took off around 11am and barely made it to town! The wind forecast was good to go but they aren't always reliable. Madre' met us in town on her bike "just in case". Thank goodness she was there waiting for us to help us get in. Matt and I wrapped up our gear and ran to the water taxi and barely made the one departing to Caye Caulker.
Once there we walked to the kite school KiteXplorer and dropped off our things and asked where we should try and get a room. Phil the co-owner told us about Ocean Pearl hotel right behind the school. As we were walking there we ran into Wanda and her fiance' Devin (small island). They were on their way to the Lazy Lizard bar to get some beer and snacks. We told them we would meet them there and went to the hotel. We sat around for 20 minutes waiting for someone to help us. As we were waiting we read all the signs posted and rooms were only $25 US/night for the room, private, bath, TV and fan. If you wanted to splurge you could pay an extra $15 US for AC!
We were really hungry so we decided to go to the bar as we thought the receptionist was at lunch. Wanda and I did a lot of catching up while Devin and Matt got to know one another. The wind started to pick up and there was a guy out there practicing. Matt spurred us into gear and we went to get our stuff. While Matt started I went to the hotel to get a room, success! Wanda and Devin went to talk to one of Devin's friends and we had a great time on the water.
We went and took a shower and went back to the bar just in time for happy hour. I told the bar tender that I wanted a rum and pineapple and she said "ok a pantyripa", sure why not ;-) Matt happened to recognize her from last year and asked her if she gave him some aleeve out of her purse last year, she laughed and said "yes I remember, I have everything in my purse!" Matt told her how thankful he was because he was hurting after the long downwinder.
On the way to meet up with one of Devin's friends Ellis and his girlfriend, we stopped in a wood carver's booth and Matt had his eye on a mask that was mostly in its natural form with a face. The guy who carved it told us that he was going to finish it up that night. Once we were all together we went into this random bar and ran into Gino, Derek, and Drummer Dan (from San Pedro). They were getting ready to play, very cool! We all decided we needed some food so Ellis suggested a great restaurant that sold local grub. After dinner we went back to the bar where the band was playing to watch them for a bit.
The next day we met up with W&D and had breakfast. The wind was forecast to build for the next couple of days. After breakfast we walked to the kite launch to see what people were putting up. All the young French guys that were staying at our hotel were putting up 10 meters. We only had a 12m and 14m so Matt took the 12m and I took video of him. I was a bit nervous for him but I new he would be safe. Not long after he was out he tapped his head to come in. His kite was flat!!! Matt spent a hour or two fixing it running back and forth to the kite school asking for supplies. Thankfully he packed some fix it tape with us and just needed scissors.
He went back out and had a great time. We think the other kiters were pretty surprised he got it back up and running in time for another session. We were getting hungry and got ready for dinner, tonight we decided on Italian (just because we walked past the restaurant last night and saw some delicious looking pastas). Dinner was so good and we walked back through town to go and see the political party that was going on. On our way through we stopped off to see the mask and the carver recognised Matt and said "I told you I would get it done". He was obviously very proud.
Matt asked how much and he pointed to the old man in the corner. The old man told us that it was $30 US. We all thought that was a decent price but if you know Matt you know he loves to negotiate. He said "will you take $20?" expecting him to rebut with $25. The old man got all bent out of shape telling us he's got to eat and don't insult him! We were all blown away and said ok and walked on. The carver was shaking his head and giving the old man evil eye behind his back. We felt bad for the carver but couldn't stand for the old mans attitude.
The political party was extremely loud and pretty boring so we kept walking. We ended up going into a gift shop and found a few goodies for some friends back home. Devin suggested we go to a club that they had a good time at the last time they were there. I&I Reggae Bar was great, all the seats and tables were hanging from the roof and trellis. It was pitch dark outside and we were on the roof, if it had been daytime we probably could have seen the whole island from up there. I was ready to call it a night and watch some TV.
In the morning we decided to catch the early water taxi back to San Pedro because the wind was howling and Matt wouldn't even have been able to take the 12m out! Back in San Pedro we walked through town and asked how much for a taxi North of the bridge and they told us $35 BZ (2:1 ratio). We knew they had to pay a hefty bridge fee so we decided to walk over the bridge and see if we could hitch a ride on a golf cart or flag down a taxi. We were in the middle of resituating our stuff North of the bridge and a taxi drove up. Matt asked him how much and he said $15BZ ($7.50 US) we gladly took it! We would still love to kite to Caye Caulker and are keeping an eye out on the forecast.
