Belize and Caye Caulker

We arrived in Belize on Monday, Nov. 23. We took a bus from Chetumal, Mexico to Belize City where we took a water taxi to Caye Caulker. Belize city was really busy with lots of loud music playing out of all the stores. On the bus ride, we met a couple from Vienna, Anna and Ferdinand, who were also going to Caye Caulker. We made friends and went out for breakfast with them before catching the water taxi. We ended up being best friends for the next 5 days.
The water taxi to Caye Caulker was about 45 minutes on a large covered speed boat (maybe 30 feet?). Caye Caulker was just awesome. It was so small the main mode of transportation was bicycle and golf cart. Even the police had a golf cart. We stayed in a cabana on stilts (not over the water though) and was pretty shabby but it was the cheapest place on the island. But oh the LOBSTER!!!!!!! so much lobster. Before tourism took off, the main source of income for the island was lobster fishing. The other seafood was amazing too. We got to eat baracuda, conch and ocean jack for the first time, and had our share of snapper and prawns too. We also lived on tuna (the canned kind) sandwiches to balance out the costs.
We took a all day snorkelling tour on a sail boat. We got to see our first southern sting ray, moray eel and nurse shark up close. A ray almost ate our camera when Ian was taking an underwater video. I also got to see my first sea turtle in the water. And there were so many types of fish, all sizes. It was amazing.
We finally left Caye Caulker today. We said we were going to leave a few days ago but couldn't bring ourselves to do it. We are now in a really small and remote village called Maya Centre. It's inland but it's the entrance to the Cockscombe Wildlife Reserve, also known as the Jaguar Reserve. We are camping the first night at a little place where the owner is a medicine woman and the founder of H'Men Herbal Centre. Tomorrow we will head up to the reserve and stay there for a few days hiking around. We really hope we get to see some Jaguar tracks, the cat itself is very elusive. But we've already seen a Kinkajou, which looks like a cross between a monkey and a cat, climbing through the trees by our tent. We also saw a toucan and a bunch of parrots.
It takes so long to upload pictures on to the blog, so maybe we'll have some time when we get into the city next week.
Now for out first jungle trek of our trip.