CARIBBEAN

“Where is the Caribbean? You know, endless white sand, coconut trees and pristine turquoise waters that you see on the travel brochures?”

“You ain’t gonna find it around here, Barbara!”

A lot of travellers come to this side of Guatemala looking for a white beach. Actually, not ANY white beach, but THE white beach, the one we’ve all seen in a photoshopped picture in some travel brochure or in some movie/documentary a long time ago; THE white beach that fills our daydreams every time we hear “Caribbean” or “Sex-on-the-beach” cocktails.

I’ve learned that, sadly, there are no white Caribbean beaches over here or even up the coast of Belize. The last ones were bought up and turned into five stars resorts, so one needs to fork out loadsa money to visit them.

There is a glimpse of hope – again, money talks louder than words - in the form of tiny little Cayes (islands) scattered not very far from the Guatemalan coast.

Chilling on white sandy beaches, swimming on turquoise water, snorkeling in a coral barrier reef. The best part? No houses, no hotels and no one around you, but your five or six fellow travellers. Sleeping? Rudimentary camping tents or hammocks.

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photos kindly provided by Elena & Sandra.

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As I explained it to Barbara, her eyes started dilating with optimism.

“How much, Paulo?”

“One day tour, leaving on a lancha boat at 8am & returning at 3pm will cost you 50 USD or 100 USD for an overnight stay.”

“100? Wow! That’s like a week’s budget for a traveller like me.”

“Well Barbara, it all depends on how much you really want to go to the Caribbean. Do you want to keep on looking at the pretty pictures and daydream about them or do you actually want to turn that daydream into something special, something…REAL?”

...

Ciao 4 now

~ Paulo ~