Caye Caulker is located approximately 20 miles (32 km) north-northeast of Belize City, and is accessible by high-speed water taxi or small plane.

In front of the village, a shallow lagoon, between 6 inches (150 mm) and 14 feet (4.3 m) deep, meets the Belize Barrier Reef to the east.

The Village Council Chairman at the time, Ramon Reyes, recounts that he and others dredged the waterway by hand after Hurricane Hattie opened a passage a few inches deep.

The increased flow of tidal water has dredged the opening to 100 feet (30 m) deep, fortuitously now allowing passage for larger boats.

The natural erosion of the soft sand banks of the waterway continues to this day and threatens to further widen the passage.

[2] Caye Caulker is thought to have been inhabited for hundreds of years; however, the recent population levels did not start until the Caste War of Yucatan in 1847, when many mestizos of mixed Maya and Spanish descent fled the massacres taking place across the Yucatán.

[3] The village council was supported in the task of rebuilding by Governor Thornley's Emergency Committee and formed teams to do various types of work.

During World War II, fishermen living on the island also collected debris from torpedoed ships in the Caribbean that came floating ashore.

Tourism first started on the island around 1964, with only a few visitors on weekends from the mainland Belleview Hotel, brought out by a local boat called 'Sailfish', built by a schoolteacher beside the then Teachers House.

Hippies following the so-called "Gringo Trail", of Isla Mujeres, Tulum, Caye Caulker, Tikal and Lake Atitlan in Guatemala passed through the island (many of them making use of the easily available marijuana).

For those passengers preferring a route more commonly adopted by locals, there are regular water taxi services providing transportation to and from the island.

The watercraft typically sport two to four large motors and make the journey in 30 to 50 minutes depending on weather and the size of the boat.