Eating on Caye Caulker for $10USD a day
There is a over 20 restaurants on Caye Caulker. All offering a little bit of the same and with a Twist of different flavors. There is not much for international food, but if you have a craving for Italian, there is two restaurants that specialize. And don’t forget there is always a Chinese restaurant or take away anywhere you go in Belize.
Here is a guide to eating good food for breakfast, lunch and dinner for only $10USD total.
You don’t have to cook anything, only wait for your food to be ready.
Breakfast
Waffles to go at Jesse’s Snacks. Choose your toppings, butter, cheese or syrup. $1.00USD. She also serves fresh made tortilla with ham, cheese and beans for $2.50USD. A very filling breakfast.
Fruit plate from Julia’s Fruit Stand or Gloria’s Deals on Wheels. Bananas, pineapple, papaya & watermelon all cut up ready to eat in a nice to go container with fork for $2.50USD
A new place in the palapa area and one of my favorite places to get a fresh made smoothie of your choice of fruits for $1.50USD. They also sell fresh made fruit juices for $5USD for one liter.
Lunch
Local Favorite and usually eating by every Belizean daily. Rice and Beans or Stew Beans and Rice with Stewed Chicken with salad and plantain. This will keep you full all day $3.50USD This meal can be purchased at Martinez just around the corner from Oceanside or purchased to go at Glenda’s located to the back by the BTL complex. I usually share this meal or save what I can’t eat for a snack later. The also do great burritos for $3USD
most popular meal in Belize
Dinner
Another favorite of ours is El Paso, just accross from the bakery, which is a must stop, more details below. El Paso is very inexpensive Spanish food. Very flavorful. I like their vegetarian burritos. Neno’s is stewed beef and beans served with your choice of fry jack or tortilla for only $4USD, enough for two to share. They also serve fresh and only .50 cents each. Garnaches, Salbutes, Tostados, Panadas and Fry Jack. This place serves breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Chinese Fried Chicken or Fried Rice or a cheese burger in paradise to go, at any of the local Chinese Takeaway, this meal can also be eaten in. Open for lunch and dinner.
Now, you can’t eat the same meal everyday, so here are some other inexpensive meals. The best is to take your food and find a nice place to relax on the beach and enjoy the view and breeze.
Homemade Meat Pies to go. For only $.50 cents USD each. Buy 3 and have a filling tasty meal. This are usually eaten for breakfast. He usually walks through the village with his cart and you know he is around as he hollers out Meat Pies…He also has these really good lemon tarts for the same price. His wife does all the cooking.
Tamales, Rubin is usually around every day, Tamales are always available on Saturday and Sunday in the morning and up to lunch time. They are $1.50USD each. Very tasty local dish, made with corn / masa and chicken.
Chicken King, has his home made cart that is roasting chicken as he pushes his cart through the village, you can smell it as it passes by. Chicken is sold by the 1/4 chicken for $2.50USD comes with dinner roll. He also makes chicken burgers for only $2.50USD and they are delicious.
Conch Fritters usually present themselves around 4pm, a perfect time for an afternoon snack. $.75 cents only. Lots of flavor. When in season, he has lobster fritters. He also does pizza pockets for only $.50 cents each.
Tacos in the morning. These gyals start early and offer fresh juice and tacos. A order of 3 is only .50cents.
There is currently 3 or maybe four ladies offering this early from 6am. They set up on the street side, close to the water taxi area. Fresh orange juice and tacos, a local favorite, you will often see a crowd around, all waiting for their order.
Don’t forget to pass by Mrs. Eladel of Mom’s Kitchen, she makes fresh Johnny Cakes. Have your Johnny Cakes with ham and cheese or chicken and beans, or beans and cheese.. Only $.75 cents USD each.
We don’t want to forget about all of these other wonderful places that offer great food for really good prices. Glenda’s Restaurant, she has breakfast and lunch. She is also known for her homemade cinnamon rolls for only $.50 cents USD each. Make a pitt stop at the local bakery. A great place for snacks in the afternoon. My favorite is the ham and cheese flake pastry or the hotdog in a bun. Only $1.50USD
Bones aka Llyod starts from the split and walks towards the main part of the village daily starting around 4pm and offers fresh baking of Banana Breads and other cakes and cookies.
Aldame, also known as Caye Lady makes all sort of wonderful cakes for sale for $2USD each, she starts at the opposite end and works her way to Tsunami, then is back in the evening by the palapa area. She does an awesome coconut cake.
She also makes wonderful tortillas that she sells through the local stores. $1.50USD for 5 tortillas. I loves these with fresh avocado and cheese.
Conch Soup from Aunties Fast Food. Locally made and only $5.00USD comes with rice. This is enough soup for two people or save some for dinner. She has a huge variety of take a way food on her menu.
There is so much wonderful inexpensive food in Caye Caulker that is made by locals. Offering excellent food.
There is many restaurants offering Barbecues and fine cuisine. I don’t think there is a bad restaurant in Caye Caulker.
Remember that Caye Caulker’s, moto is GO SLOW. So sit back and relax and enjoy the local cooking of Caye Caulker.
Strombus Gigas – Queen Conch
Conch Season in Belize is open from Oct 1st until June 30th
 conch shell on the beach |
Try some local flavor and enjoy a bowl of Conch Soup.
| Conch meat cleaned and pounded
Limes and lime juice Veggies – plantain, carrot, potato, corn, squash, cabbage and onion. Herbs – Cilantro and oregano Spices – Pepper Habenero or Marie Sharps Hot sauce Coconut oil or butter Water |
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| Instructions: | |
| Pound the conch with meat pounder and cut into bite pieces. Let Conch sit in fresh water with lime. Let sit while cutting vegetables
Cut veggies into big bite size pieces. Cut corn 1/2 inch on cob. Slice th squash like orange pieces. Cut potatoes into square pieces. Plantain should be firm. Buy one that is yellow, if not ripe will taste bitter cut into half inch pieces add to soup last. Make soup base. Heat oil, add chopped garlic, about half a garlic head and one medium size onion. Drain conch and pat dry. Add Conch to garlic and onion and brown a little. Take out conch and put aside. Add water and soup base. If you want your soup thick and creamy add one can of evaporated milk and one can of coconut milk. Sprinkle with pepper to taste. Add your veggies, carrots and potatos first….add conch. Plantain last. Bring to a boil and reduce heat. Meanwhile make rice. If you want your rice to have a coconut flavor add coconut milk just before it is finished. About 1 cup. Serve your soup with a cup of rice. Cut up fresh cilantro and oregano along with habanero pepper and lime wedges. For more information about Queen Conch go to www.strombusgigas.com |
Manatees at Caye Caulker North Point
Every year the West Indian Manatees make their way out to the reef at the North Point of Caye Caulker Marine Reserve. The manatees relax and enjoy the cooler waters of the reef. They come here to mate and they come to have the algae cleaned from their bodies from the reef fish. We are very luckly to have seen them so often this year. At Tsunami Adventures we offer small groups, which gives you a better opportunity to see the manatees. We do not harass the manatees.
Manatee taking a breath
Here is some information about the Manatees.
Although their bulbous, whiskery face makes this hard to believe today, manatees are probably the source of legends about mermaids. Their humanlike eyes must have captivated the early European sailors who caught fleeting glimpses of them swimming in the warm waters of the West Indies.
In the 17th century, mermaids were depicted with their male companions, mermen. Although the legends of these half-fish, half-human creatures have lived on for hundreds of years and are still popular today, it is uncertain whether the manatees that inspired the legends will live on much longer.
Only a concerted effort to protect them in their marine habitat will save manatees from extinction.
Manatee at North Point Caye Caulker
Manatees inhabit warm waters of the Western Atlantic from Florida to Brazil where they live in coastal waters, freshwater inlets, and river mouths.
Although their range is quite large, manatees today exist only in a few small, isolated populations. They once were widespread in rivers and along coasts in their range, but they were hunted extensively in the 18th and 19th centuries. Coastal development has further reduced their populations. Today, there are less than 2,000 manatees remaining in the United States.
The population of manatees in Belize has varied over the past decade, but is now estimated at 300-700 individuals. Despite this seemingly low number, Belize is thought to have the highest concentration of this subspecies in the world. However, the current population is significantly lower than a century ago and is continuing to decline. What is causing the West Indian manatee to hover near extinction?
Reports of declining manatee populations due to hunting date back to 1883. In spite of the Manatee Protection Ordinance of 1935 and the more recent protection under the Wildlife Protection Act, illegal hunting has persisted. Reports of manatee bones at butcher sites is evidence that manatees are still taken for local consumption, especially in Southern Belize, but currently the primary threat is the exportation of meat to neighboring countries such as Honduras and Guatemala. Another threat exists in boat collisions with manatees; propeller-scarred manatees are becoming an increasingly common site. Moreover, as boat traffic increases, manatees are left with fewer undisturbed creeks and channels for calving and resting areas, thus they are forced to seek out less suitable habitats to avoid such harassment. In the search for habitat, manatees often find themselves susceptible to entrapment and death due to gill netting in rivers and across river mouths. Finally, it should come as no surprise that industrial and agricultural pollution, as well as effluent from domestic sewage, adversely affects the health of manatees and potentially destroys the vegetation on which they feed. Increased coastal development has made this a significant threat.
It seems that with such a high number of threats, the manatee has an uphill battle for survival. Fortunately, over the past decade, the people of Belize have made great strides in preventing further loss of this species. Public awareness campaigns and educational workshops have helped to increase enforcement of regulations. Still, more enforcement is needed to protect this species, whose fate hangs in the balance.
The manatee is a large, bulky aquatic mammal with flippered forelimbs and a spatula-shaped tail. Manatees can grow to 12 feet in length and weigh up to 3500 pounds. They may live to be 50 years old.
The manatee diet consists entirely of vegetation, consuming at a rate of 100 pounds a day. They eat by using their divided upper lip, which is very flexible, to grasp and take in aquatic plants. Like other air-breathing marine mammals (dolphins, whales, and seals), manatees must periodically surface for air.
Females reach sexual maturity between five and nine years of age, but they do not produce many offspring; more animals are killed each year than are born. Mothers are strongly bonded to their calves, but other social ties among manatees are very loose. They are extremely gentle and have been described as incapable of aggression.
Manatees are one of four living species in the Order Sirenia, which also includes the West African manatee, the Amazonian manatee, and the dugong. Another sirenian, the Steller’s sea cow, became extinct in the 1700s. The sirenians evolved from an ancestor they share with the elephant, their closest living land relative.
Tourism
Manatees spend hours grazing underwater everyday, and they can be very exciting to watch in their natural habitat. Manatee-watching tourism gives local people a financial incentive to preserve the species, since tourists spend their dollars at local businesses. Tourists may be inspired to do something to help these beautiful and mysterious creatures.
Here in Belize, manatee-watching tourism has been a very successful conservation action. Not long ago, local people hunted manatees with rifles, while today manatees are a big attraction for tourist dollars.
More scientific research is needed to understand manatees and their needs. One current study is tracking manatees by satellite to learn more about where they go and what they do. We need to know more about their calving and feeding behaviors.
www.swallowcayemanatees.org
We’re Styrofoam Free!
