When I first read about Raggamuffin’s 2 night/3 day sailing cruise from Caye Caulker to Placencia, I immediately knew it would have to be a non-negotiable part of our trip – the photos of the crystal blue Belizean waters and the tropical islands looked THAT amazing.

So following our fabulous four nights in Caye Caulker at Chila’s Cabin, it was time for some more adventures on the water with one of Caye Caulker’s most reputable sailing companies – Raggamuffin Tours. After a quick pre-trip briefing the evening before, we met our fellow crewmates (21 of us) and our four crew members – Kevin (cool-as-a-cucumber Captain), Linton (chef extraordinaire), and Marvin and Jay (our two friendly tour guides and all round good guys).

Here they are distracted by a beautiful island and not facing the camera!

Setting off around 9:30am gave us all time to have a hearty brekky (fryjacks and cinnamon scrolls anyone?) before boarding and finding a spot on board the beautiful catamaran, the Ragga Empress. With such a spacious boat there was never going to be a shortage of fabulous spots to enjoy the views from – be it sprawled on the netting of the catamaran up front, perched on the roof, fishing off the back, sitting in the shaded back area or even inside in the galley (no way, too hot for that!).

We set sail, with Kevin telling us to expect approximately four hours of sailing before our first (and only) snorkelling spot for Day 1, to be followed by another fews hours cruising before we reached our island for the night.

Dave was one of the first to have a crack at fishing off the back of the boat (our dinners would comprise of ‘catch of the day’ each night, so it was important people were fishing) and he caught the first fish of the trip… although it was the Belizean equivalent of a blowfish, so no good for eating!

Before too long though, one of the other guys on board had caught a lovely big snapper, and to my delight, Linton quickly gutted it on the back of the boat, washed it clean with fresh water, cut the fresh (raw – sorry Mum!) flesh up into bite sized pieces, lashed it with chilli, lime juice and served us THE FRESHEST sashimi I have ever had! I wasn’t the only one who loved it, just check out the excitement on one of my crew-mates face below!

And it was sooooo amazing – so fresh, I couldn’t believe the fish I had looked at five minutes earlier on the end of a hook was a quick gourmet mid-morning snack – what a life!

We would spent about third of the following three days snorkelling, diving off the roof of the boat, swimming and all round relaxing in the azure waters of Belize, the other thirds were equally divided between chilling out on the most amazing tropical beaches you can imagine and sleeping in little tents on the islands…. Oh and of course there was more eating and drinking (bottomless rum punch, anyone?!) done during all of the above!

Enjoying the Ragga Empress (and those plastic cups = rum punch!)

Camping Night 1: Rendezvous Caye

Following a full day on the water, we arrived at the most picturesque island I have ever seen – Rendezvous Caye. A tiny coral atoll, this island had about 5 palm trees visible on its sandy shore, and as we got closer, we could make out five or so thatched huts for shade, a dozen or so beach recliners and the beautiful sandy beach with a volleyball net – oh yes, I think we all knew we had come to a pretty special place.

The lead up….. land ahoy!

and the finale…

Nobody lives on the island except for a caretaker when guests are scheduled to stay, so it is literally a deserted island in the middle of the ocean – it was PERFECT. I actually felt tears come to my eyes as we approached – I just felt so grateful to be where I was at that very moment and to be experiencing everything that we have seen and done so far – it was a really humbling moment for me, and one I won’t forget in a hurry.

Island caretaker awaiting our arrival

After a quick demonstration from Jay on how to set up our tents (one per couple), we soon made camp, then found time for a swim and a cold rum punch to watch the sun set.

Setting up camp on the sand, metres from the water!

Sometime between the sun setting and it getting dark, we also had a sunset dip and played some beach volleyball – it was so hard to see the ball we ended up seeing how long a rally we could get, as opposed to each team trying to beat the other – fun times! Tough gig, huh?!

Around about 7:30ish it was time to set up for our dinner extravaganza – now, let me tell you – Linton really went above and beyond with the food on this trip, it was definitely one of the highlights (for me, at least!).

Here is what was on the dinner menu on our first night – to start with there was a tangy, zesty prawn ceviche with corn chips, with the main buffet comprising a delectable belizean fish curry, prawn curry, a whole filleted fish (someone’s catch of the day!), jerk chicken (YUM!), pasta salad, roasted vegetables, a garden salad, coconut rice… and I think there were beans in there somewhere as well! How he pulled off this feast in the little kitchen on board, as well as the bbq on the island, I will forever be in his awe! And needless to say, the seafood was delicious, as was everything actually!

Everyone got on the bottomless rum punches for an hour or two, but by about 10ish, pretty much everyone was ready to hit the hay – being in and on the salt water all day can certainly take it out of you! Plus we did have to be ready to set sail by 7am the following day which meant a pretty early start, so off to bed we toodled.

Despite being a pretty warm night, it was awesome to fall asleep in our tent on the sand, only metres from the water, hearing the wind through the palm trees all night, and the waves gently crashing on the shores… I am telling you guys – paradise!

Lovin’ Belize!

The next morning after breaking camp pretty quickly and meeting our deadline of a 7am departure we set sail for the day. Breakfast was served pretty much straight away – scrambled eggs with onion, tomato and capsicum, bacon, sausages, fresh bread, fruit salad, granola and yoghurt were on offer, not to mention fresh coffee.

What a great way to top up our energy levels for what would be another action packed day of snorkelling as we had three or four stops that day before we reached our next island destination.

Our daily view!

Camping Night 2: Tobacco Caye

Despite not having the whole deserted island thing going on, Tobacco Caye had a charm all of its own. Brightly painted houses; an abundance of palm trees and friendly locals; more rum punch; more delicious food from Linton; another surreal sunset over the water; more camping on the beach right by the water…. Far out, we all knew that we were pretty lucky!!

Tobacco Caye from the water

Our camp site

Tobacco Caye island

One of the little local girls was adorable but very cheeky, insisting on ‘helping’ Dave and I to put up our tent – she ended up trampling bucketloads of sand through our tent – lucky we were only there for one night!

The final day we had a bit more of a sleep in, although I think we are keen to get on the catamaran for brekky so we were packed up and ready to go ahead of time. It was a HOT day so I think the appeal of a swim was made all the more attractive – although knowing we only had one swim stop was bittersweet so most of us jumped in the water for a final swim before we left beautiful Tobacco Caye.

The rest of the day was, as usual, pretty chilled out – more fresh sashimi was had (thanks to our fisherman!), the sun was shining, and the for the first time the majority of people were seeking out the shade and not the sun. Knowing we would only have one swim break certainly kept us all not wanting to get too hot!

Our crew hard at work … (but first, more FRESH sashimi!)

Us with Capt’ Kev

We finally pulled into Placencia, our disembarkment point around 4pm in the afternoon and amongst many well wishes and cheers, we did manage to snap a great group photo, with everybody in it – extremely unusual when you’re dealing with 25 individuals!

All in all, we had a freaking mindblowing trip, and I could not recommend Raggamuffin Tours enough. The food was restaurant worthy, the crew were full of laughs and dry Belizean humours and our fellow guests were all a good bunch.

We paid US$350 per person which is pretty steep, however when you consider all of your meals plus accommodation plus snacks plus activities are included, it is pretty reasonable, and I would happily pay it all over again! On a side note, the company is owned by a Belizean and his wife, so I was very happy to be supporting a home-grown local business that seems to have just gone from strength to strength over the last decade.

Thanks Raggamuffin!