Our Belizean Sailing Tour with Ragamuffin

It was time for us to head home. Kind of. Via the extremely scenic route.

To get down the coast of Belize we opted to sail. Why not, right? There are only a couple of tour providers that have a Caye Caulker to Placencia option, which was going to be our best bet for getting back into Guatemala. Other options are to head Hopkins, but we wanted to get as far south as possible. I’d rather spend my travel time on a boat as opposed to a bus.

Hands down, if you do this trip, do it with Ragamuffin.

Just read a handful of their reviews. They’re clean, safe, fun, and professional. And fun. Did I say fun? They offer tours of various sizes with the minimum requirement of 12 people. We just barely met this minimum, so we took their smaller option, the Ragga King sailboat. Book in advance, because the group can only set sail if the minimum number of people join. We paid $1600 Belize or $400 USD each. Considering we were living on about $15/day, this was a real splurge. We chose this trip over another MONTH volunteering somewhere else.

The tour leaves on Tuesdays and Fridays, and we didn’t know for sure if we’d be able to go our preferred weekend until the night before. Maybe nerve-wracking for some, but we weren’t on any kind of specific schedule. And it worked out. We were joined by 2 solo travelers, a young couple from Germany, a couple from New Zealand, and a family consisting of Mom, Dad, Son, and son’s wife from Wyoming.

The most important and most fun humans on the trip by far were the crew. Captain Shane, Gareef, and Andre the cook. They kept us fed, safe, and laughing the entire time and I was honestly sad to see them go when the time came.

Day 1

It was important to pack the day before because we set sail at 7:30 am. There’s limited space on a sailboat so big bags went down in the hold, and we pulled the few things we would need out in our day bags. DON’T FORGET THE SUNSCREEN. Three days on the water is no joke. Even mi amor, who has plenty of melanin, needed to re-apply every couple of hours.

I really don’t know how to accurately capture the joy of a pleasantly rocking sailboat with regular sea spray to cool you down and plentiful fruit, chips, and rum punch. Turquoise water, blue sky, new friends, and a DOLPHIN. Really. To make a perfect morning even more perfect, a dolphin joined us jumping in front of and alongside the boat for at least half an hour. The only other time I’d seen a dolphin was at an aquarium.

Our first stop was at Goff Caye, a common snorkel spot.

We walked around a bit on the island, digging toes in fine white-yellow sand and stretching. We also got to snorkel a bit around here. For every snorkel on this trip Captain Shane and Gareef stressed the importance of not touching ANYTHING. They explained how valuable marine sanctuaries were and how it was our responsibility to preserve them as best we can. They spoke to how climate change and changing weather patterns - especially rain - were negatively affecting both marine life and the humans who call smaller islands home. They could also identify nearly every fish we saw and were patient beyond measure with our slower swimming speeds.

Goff Caye was very near where the barrier reef ended and the continental shelf dropped off. It’s nearly a year later as I’m writing this, and the memory still gives me chills. We got to snorkel over a great abyss of deep blue (well within reach of the shallows) that was both exhilarating and terrifying. I wish I had pictures for you, but alas a GoPro was not in this backpacker’s budget.

After a full day of sail, snorkel, and swim we arrived at Rendezvous Caye. A tiny blip of sand with several hammocks but no running water. Not a problem at all, as the crew had everything we needed for a full meal of jerk chicken, rice, veg, fruits, and pasta salad. And rum punch. Always the rum punch.

Mi amor said it best as we were walking onto the island, “I feel like a rich white man.”

They also had tents for each of the pairs and camping on an empty island is how we spent the night.

I have rarely been anywhere so beautiful. The brightest of stars, a perfect sunset, wind in the palms, and a lullaby of waves. Actual sleep was hard to come by. The lack of air movement in the tents made it insufferably hot. But I didn’t even really mind.

Day 2

Although I was sad to leave Rendezvous, I was excited to get in the water again and cool off. Our first snorkel stop mother Earth smiled on us and we were visited by a sea turtle! She swam slowly all around the boat, shining like a specter from the deck. Down in the water, she didn’t seem bothered at all by the dozen goggles pointed her direction and following her around. She was HUGE!

At other snorkel stops, we were given the option to go spearfishing, with the guidance of Captain Shane of course. I didn’t opt to try, but it was really fun watching those did. It required plenty of endurance, as you couldn’t just float around on top. You had to dive to where the fish were, which could be pretty deep. In case you’re worried, the crew knew exactly which fish were forbidden to kill and would not let anyone attempt to shoot the spear gun unless they gave the go-ahead.

The Wyoming dad opted to fish off the back of the boat too as we headed to our island for the night, and he caught one! The crew saved it and Andre served it with dinner that night. Our night two island was Ragga Caye, and is owned exclusively by the Ragamuffin group. It has dorms, private rooms, SHOWERS, and a large kitchen and dining room. They employ a guy to stay there and keep things taken care of, and he has two dogs! Lassie & Chewbacca. Lassie recently had puppies while we visited and they were SO CUTE. Our stay at Ragga was also another lesson in the effects of climate change. We were instructed to take quick showers and use the drinking water the crew had brought with us, because rainfall had not been enough to fill the reservoir as usual.

After we showered off, we ate another huge meal and stayed up late into the night sharing drinking games.

Day 3

We took the Ragga King out to snorkel one last time and look for manatees, the last great marine life we had yet to see. There wasn’t much wind, and it got pretty hot as we motored around with our eyes peeled. No luck, but what can you do.

We came back to Ragga Caye with a boat waiting to take us and our bags to Dangriga, about 30 minutes away. We walked to the bus stop (a longish walk, there were plenty of taxis) with the goal of finding a bus to Placencia. All of our companions were at the bus stop too, but they were going to Belize City, Hopkins, and elsewhere. The next bus to Placencia was going to be a bit of a wait, and the Wyoming family was going the same way. It was only a wee bit more expensive to split a cab between all of us (50Q/$6.5 for two people) and way more convenient and comfortable so that’s what we did. The Wyoming son was the kind of guy who probably bonds with his Uber drivers, so we had interesting conversation nearly the whole way (well over an hour).

PLACENCIA

We had booked 2 nights in Placencia at Lydia’s Guesthouse to give us a bit of breathing room between the wonderful but hot and active sailing trip and the logistical shenanigans that were going to be getting back to Guatemala and our flights from Guatemala City in less than two weeks’ time.

We didn’t do much, but honestly, there wasn’t much to do. Pretty beach houses, but limited beachfront if you weren’t paying to stay somewhere nicer. It was also a bit of a ghost town as we were coming in at the beginning of the off-season. I may have been biased from the perfect 3 days we had just come from, but I don’t think I’ll ever return to Placencia. I don’t really see why anyone from the States would go there either. I see no difference from Florida. Minus Disney.

Oh yeah, I also woke up with awful heat rash. Likely leftover from 3 days in the sun and a lack of air conditioning. When we Googled how to treat it, the Internet was kind enough to tell me to stay in cool dry places and it would eventually go away. I challenge you to find a cool dry place in the tropics when you’re living on the cheap. You can’t. It was all over and itchy and would not go away until we gained altitude on our way back to Antigua. Almost a week later. C’est la vie.