You Better be Belizen It

Every middle-aged white guy in Belize was wearing a shirt or hat or something with that saying printed on it.  Tikal was my last stop in Guatemala before crossing the border into Belize and heading for the turquoise waters and white-sand beaches of the coast.  My first stop was Belize City.  After 3 months of travel, I have met many, many people who have traveled through Belize City and none of them had anything good to say about it.  So, when I arrived in the city I went straight to the ferry terminal and caught the next boat to the island of Caye Caulker, a 45 minute boat ride east of Belize and very close to the giant reef that attracts divers and snorkelers from all over.

I didn't have a plan when I got to Caye Caulker, but I ended up staying for five days, did some great snorkeling, and got a fantastic sunburn.  The latter was due to some fake sunblock that I bought in the ferry terminal in Belize City.  The same thing happened to a fellow traveler.  The moral of the story is, among others, that if your SPF 40 doesn't feel like syrup going on, it ain't the real deal.

Belize, like many other places in the world, has had abnormal weather lately.  My first full day on Caye Caulker, it was cloudy and cold.  The streets were deserted.  It was like everyone went into hiding until the sun came back. 

The island is car-less, so the only modes of transport are bicycles, golf carts, and your own two feet.  It's a tiny place, so you really don't need more than your feet to get around.  The streets, if they are paved at all, are covered in white dust and sand blown inland from the shoreline.  There is a lot of rastafarian culture.  That means lots of dreadlocks, reggae music, crazy accents, and the speed of life cranks back a few notches.

By day three, I and the weather were finally ready for some snorkeling.  I signed up to do a full day snorkeling trip at three different sites along the reef, and culminating with the Hol Chan (for those of you familiar with the reef).  At the first stop, we saw stingrays, sharks, lots of schools of fish, and lots and lots more fish.  The boat dropped us off a ways from the reef and we swam out to it with the sand beneath us gradually turning to thick and varied plant life.

At the second stop, our boat captain threw bait in the water to attract a shark.  He fed it for a while and then told us to get in the water... He assured us that sharks don't eat humans, they just bite sometimes because they get confused about whether we are food.  So, we all got in the water. 

The Shark (Sorry I don't remember what kind it was)

The third stop, the Hol Chan, was a hole about 30-40 feet deep lined with coral.  The water was so clear that we could see all the way to the bottom and watch hundreds of fish doing their thing.  On the way back to the boat, our guide spotted a moray (sp?) eel.  Everyone was very excited about it, so I assumed that it was a somewhat rare sight.  It came halfway out from under a rock, checked us out, and then disappeared again.           

The only other snorkeling that I have done on this trip (and really ever) was at the beginning of the trip in Costa Rica, where the water was murky and rough and I saw one blue fish and one purple fish and at one point, we all panicked because we thought we had lost one of our group.  This snorkeling experience in Belize was way better.  I had to do it again... but later.    

P.S. Sorry, I don't have more pictures to share.  I don't have an underwater camera :(