Caye Caulker
South End
Once the others had left, John and Cindy took a 30-minute water taxi to Caye Caulker, a 5-mile-long sleepy island with a population of 2,000 and almost no cars. Getting off the water taxi, we walked among the pedestrians, bicyclists, and golf carts on the southern end of the island. We had breakfast at an awesome place on the beach, then walked further down the road to "The Split" - a small water way rumored to have been created in 1961 when Hurricane Hattie divided the island in two. (In fact, it was man made to allow for passage between the two sides of the island.) We also found a cemetery on the beach...What an awesome view for eternity!
Pineapple Palapa
After wandering around the south end of the caye, we took a free ferry to the
north side of the island, where KoKo King, a large bar on a beautiful beach, is the main tourist attraction.
On the ride over, we met a talkative woman who was building a house on Caye Caulker "right next to the pineapple house."
Intrigued, we breezed by KoKo King and walked down the dusty dirt road in search of something matching that
description. For a while, we saw almost nothing, but then came to some new construction: a hotel in progress,
the chatty woman's house, and finally, a white, bullet-shaped building with a pineapple crown on top. A man raking in
the yard turned out to be the owner, Dave Spelling, who invited us in.
The Pineapple Palapa
is a marvel of construction, and we were fortunate to get a tour when
it was almost finished. Each room has its own floor (which would be a non-starter for me in retirement, especially the top
level observation area that is accessed with a steep ladder), and the wood throughout is amazing. An interesting note is that
most of the construction materials (including tools, scaffolds, etc.) had to be imported at a duty cost of 30% of the value.