My wife and I spent July 3-10 on Caye Caulker and had a wonderful time! Wanted to post a trip report for future Caye Caulker visitors to reference. We stayed at the Iguana Reef Inn, which was absolutely wonderful! They really have beautiful facilities! Jim, Mario and Isabel were great in answering all of our questions and arranging our mainland tours. We did a day-trip to Tikal (via air) and really enjoyed that and were impressed with the Mayan ruins. They also made our arrangements for cave tubing with Tom Greenwood and we also really enjoyed that.

We dove 3 days and tried 3 different dive shops - Belize Diving Services, Paradise Down and Frenchie's. I had done some research and queried this board before and there didn't seem to be one obvious choice. We ended up having a good experience with all 3 dive shops. The dive masters were all very professional and safe. Paradise Down had the largest boat with a bathroom, so that was nice when we went to the Blue Hole, as it was kind of choppy between the atolls. We dove first with Belize Diving Services and they were super as we had not been diving in a couple of years. We might have stayed with them, but they were not going to the Blue Hole or the Turneffe Elbow this time of year. Frenchie's was the only place that was going to the Elbow, so we used them our 3rd day. Again, they did a great job. If you like smaller dive groups, Frenchie's and Belize Diving Services probably fit a little better.

As for restaurants, we loved Don Corleone's and Habeneros (they give large portions). Barefoot Caribe and the Sand box were pretty good.

As for money, we brought a lot of US traveler's checks, but didn't use them much, as most places took VISA/MC. Merchants took US currency without any issues. The 2:1 exchange rate makes it simple to understand prices. Never needed to use the bank on the island.

For those of you who like a good massage, Eva gave an excellent massages to both my wife and I. She even came to the Inn.

Unfortunately, I got sick for 1 day, but was able to get some anti-biotics at the Pharmacy and bounced right back. A doctor was also available, though I didn't feel bad enough to visit them.

Our only negative experience was using the International phones on the island, and I chalk that up to ignorance or lack of investigation on our part. We made a couple of calls back to family in the US and charged it on credit cards. When we got back we saw we were billed $35 (US) for a call < 5 minutes and $65 for a 13-minute call. We should have done our home work. I did call the billing company (actually a US company) and was able to get it reduced some. I would definitely recommend purchasing a calling card or using email if you can. The calling card will be more expensive than US cards, but it will still be cheaper that the credit card calls.

All of the people we meet on Caye Caulker (tourists and locals) were very friendly and made our trip very enjoyable! We loved the very laid-back atmosphere. Glad to see Caye Caulker escaped Hurrincane Emily. Hope to visit again some day!