Nightclubs and bars in Caye Caulker

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The Bamboo Grill is a pretty popular pub in Caye Caulker, but I can't say I'd recommend having dinner there (the food is only so-so and service is extremely slow, even by Caye Caulker standards!), which is why I'm including it in my nightlife tips instead. Located on Front Street, the Bamboo Grill offers a great view of the beach and a really fun atmosphere - you can sit at one of the picnic tables or, if you haven't had too much to drink, grab one of the swings hanging from the rafters. They usually have good music playing and a huge selection of drinks and cocktails, which makes it a really fun place to go for Happy Hour!

Dress Code: No shoes, no t-shirt, no problem!

Oceanside is quite a local hang out but we headed there with a group of other backpackers and had a great time! There were a few sleazy men however, and its also really hot inside. Knock back the cocktails, hit the dancefloor and you won't care!

Dress Code: Very casual

Gabriela unsuccessfully tried to elucidate Popeye the sense of having a job and Ron and I were amused hearing somebody explaining the words “raise” and “promotion”. Meanwhile on our left hand side we saw “The Rasta Dude” entertaining some other tourists with reggae music and Sprite. Robin used an empty plastic bucket as pongo and sang about life on the island. Eventually he would stop singing to take a sip out of his Sprite bottle. He started yelling “Drink Sprite – Feel right” and we learned soon that Sprite was not actually Sprite but rather some home made super Rasta coconut booze. Popeye, totally confused from what he had learned from Gabriela about work, income and monetary systems later joined Robin playing a harmonica and the two continued performing until we all ran off due to a major sandflies attack.

One thing I also learned on my first day with the Rastamen is that nothing is worth to rush. As I walked through the village with Popeye looking for a bar I realized that the village must actually seem way bigger for the local population than for us. I felt like not moving at all since we strolled in half-snail-speed while my company still considered it as sprinting and asked where the fire was. It took us almost 45 minutes to walk a distance one would normally do in less than 10 minutes. I had to adjust and actually felt quite comfortable after a while walking in slow-motion. A couple of days later we could easily distinguish between new-arrivals and travelers that have spend at least a few days on the caye.

Dress Code: Ron, Gabriela, Robert a Norwegian traveler, myself and some others enjoyed dinner later and Popeye was not shy to basically inviting himself for a meal after he offered us to take us on a fishing trip the following morning on his boat. Popeye either did not enjoy his roasted chicken with rice or is simply a ketchup fetishist. He poured an entire bottle of the red salsa over his meal and ate it all up. He also finished the complete variety of leftovers and even poured all drink-leftovers in one glass and mixed himself a nice cocktail of beer, red wine and coke. However, Ron and I followed the invitation to a nice fishing trip in the Caribbean sea and met up with Popeye the next morning dot 9 A.M. After we got some liquid provisions from the grocery store and sardines as bait for the big fish we intended to catch we started walking towards Popeye’s boat. We walked all through the village and when we reached the airstrip we knew it could not be that far anymore. We anyway asked our host as of where the boat exactly was parked. He, kind of offended, stretched out his pointer and said “over there, come, it’s not far”. An hour later we reached the southernmost tip of the island where even the narrowest path ended and we only had woods and jungle in front of us. We saw lizards as we only knew them from the zoo and reptile park, lonely fishermen, the new cemetery, nice little houses for sale, but no boat. We explained our jungle tour guide that we are on holidays and not on a wildlife expedition and would like to have a swim in the split rather than searching for the imaginary sailing ship. No need to explain the comments about our bungled extreme-fishing tour we had to listen to when we returned to the village running into our friends Gabriela and Robert later that morning.