I had my third visit to the island of Caye Caulker in September 2010. My friend John and I decided we wanted a 10 day getaway to sail, snorkel, fish and tan.September is towards the tail end of Hurricane Season but we didn’t mind. I had been on the island the year prior and everything was great. Great weather, great sunshine, great fishing. Despite it being Rainy Season and Hurricane Season, in 2009 i only saw a few rain showers in the mornings and during the days it usually cleared up and ended up being gorgeous. We figured it would be pretty much the same in 2010.

We were right for the most part. We arrived on Caye Caulker on September 17th, 2010 in the evening and enjoyed a nice boat ride. A note on the side, yes you CAN make the 4:30pm boat to Caye Caulker when coming in at around 3:30 pm at the airport. I had never done it before myself but i was surprised at how fast and easy we made it out of the airport and into a cab. The ride to the water taxi was about 15minutes so we had plenty of time.

While on the island I took the opportunity to take John on the 3 day sailing trip with Raggamuffin Tours down to Placencia. I have done this trip 2 times prior and know how beautiful the small Cayes are and I wanted for him to be able to experience the beauty of it and the chance to see some of the more remote parts of offshore Belize.

It was when we reached Placencia and went to dinner at Wendy’s that the news grabbed my attention and CNN was talking about two tropical storms, possibly hurricanes moving toward Mexico and the Central American countries. I looked at the TV screen in fascination and thought to myself: “What are they talking about?” as I looked outside the window and took in blue skies and a few scattered white clouds in the sky. The crew from Raggamuffin Tours didn’t seem too worried and i asked my friend Rafael about it.

Fishing Competition

He told to be careful dismissing the weather all too soon. Weather tends to move a lot quicker over the Atlantic and in the Central Americas than anywhere in Europe. The announcement that two storm systems were headed our way was to be taken serious, despite blue skies and scattered clouds at the moment. He rushed us to take our food with us on the boat so we could make pace and get back to Caye Caulker. We had a full night of sailing ahead of us and two storms chasing behind us.

The night on the Ocean was rough but nothing too bad and i reeled in 3 big barracudas in the morning hours before we made it back to Caye Caulker. Rafael took the boat straight to the backside lagoon to moor it and we were greeted by a small boat coming to ferry us to the island itself. By then, the sky was grey and the wind had picked up considerably. Walking the streets of the island there was a buzz and hum of activity i had rarely seen on this laid back island. Everybody was out and about, getting supplies, boarding up windows or simply heading to the bakery for some fresh bread. Most of the houses on Front Street had been boarded up already and we walked down to our hotel wondering if we should even stay on the island since everyone seemed to be getting ready for a big storm.

Talking to some of the locals we gathered that there was a Tropical Storm called Matthew heading toward Belize and everyone is indeed preparing for the worst and protecting their assets as conditions may worsen into a Hurricane after all. We decided to stay on the island nevertheless and moved back into our room in Tropical Paradise Hotel, a decision we regretted the next morning as all boats were suspended for the day and we had wanted to go out to Cayo to visit friends.

As the day progressed, so did the storm and heavy rain and wind was pelting the island. The tide actually came up quite a bit and water and debris was washing up on front street. Further out on the Ocean there were high waves crashing on the reef. We stayed in our room most of the day but once the rain ceased decided to walk the island and find out how much impact the 40mph wind and rain had really done.

We walked the backside of South Caye Caulker, which is referred to as The Swamp by the locals. Now we know why. There was water standing in the sand paths and not just from this recent storm. The water that was there smelled brackish and there were quite some mosquitoes around using it as their breeding grounds. While jungle boy John was unimpressed, i was mosquito food and got eaten up pretty good.

Front Street on Caye Caulker after storm Matthew blew through

We walked over to the Airstrip and walked by Ocean Academy and the more remote houses in this part of Caye Caulker but didn’t notice a lot of storm damage other than palm leaves that had come off the trees and puddles in the sand roads. When we got back to Front Street we decided to check on Lazy Lizard and the split as well.

Walking down Front Street was a puddle jumping exercise as there was a lot of rain water, ocean water and sea-grass which had been washed ashore to navigate through.  At the split there were about 20 small kids playing in the waves that crashed into the old barrier. There was a laughter and screeching and for them it was just a very good time. It definitely took away the somberness and sincerity all those boarded up windows and flooded streets had left me with.

The split itself was littered with whatever the water brought to shore. Once again, I realized not everybody tried to be gentle with the Ocean. People disposed of their waste in it and frequently so. I am not sure where the debris was from that had been washed to shore here but there was a wide array of plastic bottles from shower gels, sun lotions and drinks, to hair spray cans to discarded flip flops to food wrappings all of that mixed into dead sea-grass and sandy foam.

Please remember: Be gentle with our Oceans! DO NOT LITTER thank you. If we all follow this, we will be able to provide our kids with the opportunity to still be able to swim with Manatees, see the sharks and beautiful corral and teach their kids how to preserve all this! If we do not, the Oceans and it’s inhabitants will die and this will permanently damage our ecosystems.

Overall we had a great time riding out the storm. Be warned though! The weather in Belize DOES change quickly and a friendly warning by a local should not be dismissed. Watch the weather and the news and decide for yourself if you want to ride it out or not. Don’t rely on your hotel to give you accurate information as some places will only care about keeping their customers. Do some research yourself and apply simple safety logic.