Making friends in hostels is always easy. I guess you could say I made friends with
Norman, the sad alcoholic with a reputation.
Luckily Olivia and I quickly made other more mentally stable friends in
the hostel and soon we had formed a nice group of different nationalities. Out of all the hostels I have stayed at I
think this is the place where I found it easiest to talk to people and make
friends, although this was probably mainly because of Olivia.
One of the first activities we did as a group was to make
use of the hostels two canoes. Canoeing
with awesome people over the Caribbean Sea watching the heavy rain clouds in
the distance was a great way of spending my first day back in Caye
Caulker. Why didn’t I do this last time
I was on the island? The fact that both
Myles and I had food poisoning for most of our time was probably the main
reason.
The winds of change
The day we went canoeing early on in our trip was unfortunately
the only dry day we had. The heavy rain
clouds I saw in the distance from the canoe had arrived to the island. Occasionally there were gaps in the rain as
one rainstorm passes over but this was only to make room for the next one. As we had a perfect view of the horizon from
nearly anywhere on the island it was easy to see the next storm
approaching.
During one of the gaps we decided to venture out into the
water for a swim. We had been stuck in
the hostel all morning watching the rain so it was nice to finally be out of
the hostel and into the sea. From being
stood at sea level the horizon is only around about 3 miles away so when you
see the line of the horizon disappear into a grey mist you know the next rainstorm
is due.
What’s more interesting is the change of feel you get in the
air just before the storm hits. I
remember being stood waist deep in the water waiting for the rainstorm to
hit. The first sign is when the birds
disappear and the sky becomes devoid of life, then suddenly you feel the
temperature drop followed by the arrival of a strong wind. By this point the horizon had very much been
blurred out by a grey wall. We thought
it would be fun and easy to swim in the sea whilst it was raining however the reality
was somewhat different. The strong winds
and heavy rain meant it felt more like we were swimming in a halestorm.
But why's the rum gone?
Since I had no money and I was borrowing off Olivia I decided
to buy a large cheap bottle of rum that would last me for the duration of my
time here on the island. It was some horrendously
cheap clear liquid called Traveller’s Choice (a great name for a rum aimed at
backpackers). After a while it acquires
a certain taste that isn’t all that bad.
I would almost describe it as having chocolate undertones. However after the halestorm I returned to the
hostel to find this bottle almost empty.
Had I really drank that much last night? I was beginning to suspect Norman of taking
benefits of our new “friendship” but I didn’t have any evidence. “What a stupid person I am...” he said during
light chit-chat that evening. He was
still mulling over the small incident of him losing his passport and all his
credit cards. “You can’t just sit here
and beat yourself up” I said trying to get some positive action out of him.
He reminded me a bit of myself when I had my phone stolen
the previous week, sobbing with self blame.
“What have you done to try and sort this out?” I asked him.
“Well I found one card in the bottom of my bag and I have spoken to the
police”. He went on to say he didn’t
have much confidence in the police here.
“You remind me of an author” he said looking at me with his sad glazed
eyes. “Have I told you that before?” he
followed up. “Yes, you told me last
night” I replied. “Oh, well you really
do, you remind me of an author”
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