Week 22: Cozumel, Bacalar & Caye Caulker

On the first day of week 22 we were in Cozumel. In Cozumel we…? I don’t know what happened (nothing exciting happened on that day)!

On Tuesday we rented a… Jeep that was white!!! It was so cool because it was small but still really cool, and it had stiff seatbelts that you couldn’t really pull, because it was full of dirt! It was so fun. So what we did in the Jeep was drive around the island, and on the way we stopped at a beach that we had to take a 5 min boat ride over all of the sargassum (seaweed). It may have smelt disgusting, but it was cool seeing so much seaweed in one pile! Then we had arrived at the beach, and it didn’t have much sargassum, it just had a tiny bit of seaweed. But it was still beautiful. And it also had lots of big and cool shells. Because the beach had lots of shells I decided to start a bag, to collect the shells in. And by the end of that beach sesh it was sooo full, you couldn’t even fit the tiniest ant in there! So then we were back on the boat heading back to the Jeep. Then we had stopped again on the way back home to go to another beach that had nice water, a water park, a pool, and so much more cool things, but sadly we didn’t get to go, because the people that worked there weren’t that nice. So we were back on the road, again, on our way back home.

The next day we were on our way to Bacalar. Bacalar was lakey, with nearly no people at all. Anyway, on Wednsday we went on a………………… Is there an app that gets you out of the habit of doing too many dots? Because if there is I need it stat. Anyway, we went on a…. Boat ride over the most stunning lake ever, that had free fresca (wierd but yummy drink), and had served food on a surf board in the water! It was A. M. A. Z. I. N. G! And also, you could literally swim inside of the lake. But the lake wasn’t just an ordinary lake, it looked like The Bahamas! From the second I saw it I could tell that we were in paradise. All I did (exept for swimming in the beautiful lake) was drink fresca. It was a dream come true. In between all of the beaches there was a cenote or two, we didn’t get to swim in any of them, but we did get to see how beautiful it was. Then we were sadly on our way away from the beauty, and towards land.

The next day we had moved out of Bacalar and into Belize!! Sadly we were moving OUT OF MEXICO!!!!! It’s so so sad! Sorry, anyway we were then in Caye Caulker where we had a chill day at the beach and it was really cool because it had a rock jump, not much seaweed and not many people. It was really nice there. I spent most of my time there collecting shells and going in the water. The only weird thing about this beach was how it had no sand at all! So then after a really nice time at the beach we went to, maybe the coolest bar I had ever been to! It was in the water!!!!! It had seats, crabs, swings and so much more cool things. It was amazing. When we were there I had gotten a Sprite and mum and dad had gotten 3 beers each. It was the nicest way to end the day by having drinks while sitting in the water.

On Saturday we did something that was very unique and special and rare, we went…. snorkelling with, nurse sharks, dugongs, turtles, octopus, dolphins, rays, barracuda, and lots of fish! They were all so cool! First we swam with 2 dugongs! The dugongs were slow, grey and super cool. We were really lucky to see at least 1 of them, because they hadn’t seen any for 2 whole weeks!

Then we swam with lots of fish and nurse sharks. The fish and nurse sharks were creepy and cute. The sharks were creepy and the fish were cute. I nearly screamed when I saw the sharks, because they looked like massive cat fish, and I absolutely, HATE, cat fish! Some times it’s even just hard to say the word, cccaattt fffiiiisshh (just kiddin’, I don’t actually have trouble pronouncing the word cat fish!). 😉😉

The next stop was the second biggest barrier reef in the whole entire world! This was our last stop of the day, so we had to at least try to make it even more special than it was. And that was the place where we nearly saw everything.

We saw, nurse sharks, turtles, octopus, dolphins, rays, barracuda, and lots of fish! It was awesome. My favourite thing there was probably the dolphins and the turtles. There was 2 dolphins, 3 turtles, 1-2 nurse sharks, 1 octopus, 1-2 rays, 5 barracudas and I couldn’t even count how many fish there were, but as an estimation, it would be about 1000-2000 fish! And that is alot of cool animals.

Then sadly it came to the end of the day, and we were on our way back to the island, saying a sad goodbye to the boat.

On Sunday we did not do anything in the morning except for chill, but we did do something cool at night. What we did was swim and feed sting rays! Most people are afraid of sting rays because of what happened to Steve Irwin. It is very rare for that to happen. Here is a fun fact to make you a bit less scared of sting rays:

• More people die falling out of bed than from stingrays! Thousands of stingray injuries are reported worldwide each year but, interestingly, only five recorded deaths have been reported in Australia since 1945, and fewer than 20 worldwide.

Ok? GOOD. Oh, and if you don’t know who Steve Irwin is you can press the link to find out. Anyway, back to my, way cooler story. So, what you had to do to feed the sting rays was:

1. get the food the sting rays are going to eat
2. place the food, with your hand underneath the food, underneath the sting rays mouth
3. then let go of the food and it will suck it up all by its self
4. to make sure that it has eaten the food you should look at the little holes in its head
5. and if water or sand squirts out, that means you have done an excellent job
6. but if it doesn’t spit of squirt, that means you have done the worst job in the whole entire world

That’s just a good thing to have up your sleeve just in case. Then after doing that sting rays became my favourite animal ever.

Fun facts

Why does Lake Bacalar look like the Caribbean Sea?

Answer: The lake is renowned for its beautiful blue color and water clarity, partly the result of having a white limestone bottom.

Are all stingrays friendly?

Answer: Stingrays are not aggressive. They are curious and playful animals when there are divers and snorkellers around, and if they feel threatened their first instinct is to swim away. But as with all marine life, people must respect stingrays’ personal space.

What is sargassum?

Sargassum is a brown seaweed that has started washing up on the coast of Mexico and other countries. It is disgusting and smells yuk!