12 posts tagged “belize”
About 45 minutes outside Belize City is the "Baboon Santuary". So named because it is a sanctuary for howler monkeys (which are not baboons). It's basically a bunch of people's backyards who have collectively agreed to leave a bunch of trees there for howler monkeys. The land-owners (and guides) all derive some benefit from visitors and the monkeys get a place to stay.
On our guided tour it was just Angela, me and our guide. Awesome. Our guide looked like a homeless guy in San Francisco, but had perfect English and grammar (not perfect for the way he looked, unqualified perfect). It was almost jarring to hear him talk about how the leaf-cutter ants made their trails from formic acid or how the howler monkeys have a special bone in their throat that they make vibrate when they're sucking air in--I just didn't expect someone with teeth that bad to be that smart. If I'd been listening better, I would've learned a lot about native plant species as well.
Made me doubt that I could get to where I am today if I'd been born in the country-side of Belize.
Anyhow, the point of this trip was the monkeys. Check this out:
Notice our goofy expressions? That's because it was really cool to be so close to these animals and we were giddy with excitement. Another one of the monkeys was just inches from my face when he reached out and gently touched my nose. It was a nature-communing experience. Maybe he was checking out my birthmark.
Yesterday we rented bikes from "Joe's Bike Rentals". We went as far north on the island as it's possible to go without a boat. North of where we're staying there is a lot of construction going on. Almost everything is under construction up that way. There are a few already-completed resorts, but there are a lot more on the way. Many are condo developments (on the South side of the island locals try to get you to attend free lunches and time-share pitches).
The ride: we went North along the beach (in hard-packed sand) up until "The Split". The sea cuts all the way through the caye at one point and bridge connects the two sides. The bridge is a semi-recent development. On the North side of the bridge nothing is paved. We went over some pretty bumpy and puddle-y roads on our way to "Journey's End" resort. Journey's End resort is a little bit before the road ends (I'm using "road" generously here). I'll upload the picture later, but the path we were on descended into a swamp and just went under water. So we turned around and headed South...
On the way back South I took a picture of a couple of the completed houses on the beach. These things were beautiful. Like a scaled-down Pac Heights home, but on the beach. All the more opulent when compared to the "ritzy" neighborhood of Belize city which we saw the next day.
The locals, for the most part, live on the South side of the island. We ventured off of the (two) paved roads and into the "suburbs" of San Pedro. The houses there are mostly on stilts (sometimes just a couple cinder blocks high) and they're universally small. Our ride would've been noticeably different on a bike with shocks. We went through puddles that blocked the whole road, around (and through) big ruts and depressions and ultimately came to the path that leads to the water tower.
We didn't know it at the time, but the town crocodiles (there are five or six) live over by the water tower. The locals feed them every day around 4:30pm and bring tourists out to see them eat dead chickens. We missed the show, but got to ride through a bunch more mud!
When we finally got back, it had been about 2 1/2 hours of straight riding and we were covered in mud splatters from the paths and roads of the island. All smiles. Thanks, Joe!
Addendum: Angela wanted the record to state that we road over a fallen palm tree.
We've been having a lot of local (we think) produce: cucumbers, mangos, carrots. I've tried the conch burrito, soursop yogurt (yum!), soursup custard (also yum!), some street-vendor papusas, street-vendor chicken tomales, random-dude BBQ chicken with rice and beans, fish burrito and some guava. A lot of rice and beans, actually. Quite a bit of chicken too--we even saw the chicken truck delivering.
Yesterday we had a picnic on the almost-deserted Half-Moon Caye where they have a Booby bird sanctuary. Chicken, rice and beans, but the real treat was cocunt pie afterwards. "Delicial! Really!" as they say on the Chinese Square Cookie packaging.
Photos of that experience to come later (this laptop doesn't have a card reader :-( )
"Downtown" San Pedro is either quaint or run-down depending on your perspective (as one of our tour books put it). We found a quaint spot that does burritos and other dishes from locally caught food. Since I've never had a conch burrito, I thought I'd give it a go. Delicious! I can't remember the name of the "restaurant" other than to say it's on San Pedro St and begins with a "G".
In the afternoon we went out with "Joe" to a couple new snorkel sites. Visibility was just so-so, definitely not as good as Aquarium in Maui. These were both really shallow swims. I was hoping for something deeper so I could see how deep I can go. Oh well.
Angela has amazing eyes and spotted a bunch of smaller critters:
* A tiny blue shrimp
* Christmas tree worms
* An under-water stick bug looking thing
* Bunch of spiny star fish
* Sea urchins
* Conch
We also saw a barracuda and a small-ish ray. Actually, we've seen barracuda on every single dive and snorkel that we've done so far and I just haven't mentioned it. They're really fast and they don't let you get very close.
The challenging part of the trip was on the second stop we were navigating (in strong current) through a jungle-gym of coral rocks in 5' water. We made it through okay, but it was a little dicey.
Phrase of the day: "sea legs: the feeling that you are still on a boat after disembarking". Sea legs also means that you're good at standing on a pitching boat, but it's the former definition that applies right now.
Snorkel One
We had a great guide this morning. He took us out to Hol Chan, some random spot outside the reserve and then Shark-Ray Alley. Giovani, the guide, was as much a highlight as the marine life.
I'll start with his story: he was literally born on a boat. His dad ran a deep sea fishing boat for tourists with his (then pregnant) mom. One faithful trip, his mom's water broke and some tourists delivered him on the high seas. Before switching to the tourist industry, he was a licensed lobster fisherman. What that means here is that he free dove down 60' to 80' and snagged live lobsters out of their hiding places with a specially designed hook. This was outside the reef down the wall.
He tells us that, out there, you're diving with reef sharks--not nurse sharks. From the pictures, reef sharks look a lot more predatory and a lot less puppy-dog than their nurse shark cousins. I asked if he would take us out there (I want to see how deep I can go with my new fins!) but he told me our boat would capsize in the waves outside the reef. Oh well. We could've gone out past the reef with a licensed fisherman, but they won't let you go out with a lobster diver unless you're licensed.
Giovani said he used to bring back 50 or 60lbs of lobster (at $15US per pound) in a day. He also said that free-diving all day long takes a lot out of you. He can hold his breath for about three minutes he says, but he seems quite happy to ferry tourists around instead for a living.
Another thing about the Hol Chan marine park--it's an official marine park. Part of the fee for going out there goes directly to the Belize park authority. This point was driven home when we saw a marine park ranger. He sits out there during the day and makes sure no one take anything out (definitely no fishing). A helicopter even came by a little later--our guide explained he was just there to "make sure everyone was all right".
Back to snorkeling... we went to the same place we were last night, but this time without scuba and in daylight. We saw another green morray eel (or maybe the same one), lots of yellow-tailed jacks, and ... fish of different varieties. Giovani brought us straight to this particular eel's home and got him to poke his head out by clapping his fists under water. Apparently, the eel comes out to investigate the sound.
The high light of this trip--by far--was running into the conch fisherman parked outside the park. These were two locals in a small boat cleaning their catch of conchs. It was a shark and ray bonanza. We swam with a dozen or so nurse sharks and about that many rays. The nurse sharks don't like to be bothered, but I chased a couple to see if I touch a tail. Giovani, who has an ecologist streak, asked that we not grab them tails. But I did touch a few tails. The rays were a lot easier to pet, they just cruise by below you and you can feel their tops (rough!). We stayed away from the tails, though.
Today's realization was that the sharks will come up to your boat when you park. So it was no coincidence that on the previous days' dives we always saw sharks in the beginning of our dives--they were hoping to get fed. Once they realized you don't have any food, they head off to the next boat.
And then the mega-highlight: a giant turtle with a couple remorrah fish escorting him around. This was the biggest turtle I've seen. Front-to-back his shell was longer than my arm--excluding his head. He came right up to me--Giovani asked that we not disturb him so I didn't touch him. Being face-to-face with a turtle that size was a little unnerving--that beak looked like it could take off a finger. Angela later told me that there was food behind me and he was actually headed that way--he ended up swimming just a foot below me while I floated out of the way.
The other uncommon fish we saw was a large puffer. We saw these in Maui, but this one was quite a bit larger. Maybe from my elbow to my finger tips. Giovani told us that when the inflate (puff) they float which makes them vulnerable to birds so he always discourages divers from pestering them.
Tonight we went to Hol Chan Marine Park with some flashlights and a couple guides. And some other people and a boat. Angela summed it up, "This was worth getting scuba certified for."
We got off to a little bit of a bad start when it took the two dive-masters 20 minutes to find the mooring buoy. But from there it was easy going.
The basics: 50 minutes or so at a maximum of 25' and usually less (Hol Chan is really shallow). Warm water.
Dive highlights:
* Green morray eel out in the open swimming around. Thickness of a... large eel. Angela guesses 6" diameter. Probably 4' or 5' long if he were stretched.
* Several lobsters including a spiny lobster. This is the first time I've seen a lobster outside of television or a restaurant so that was cool. We're guessing these were $100 - $200 lobsters... the biggest was maybe 2' long.
* Baby shrimp (red and about an 1" or less)
* Tiny 1/2" hermit crab
* Crabs galore! Spider ones and "regular" crabs (the tasty kind).
* Crazy nematode worm creature with anemonae-like sucker head and a body like an accordion (scrunch-able). Angela guesses he was about 2 1/2' long and about as thick as a snorkel tube.
* A bunch of sleeping/hiding sting rays
* A baby spotted ray of some kind
* Angela saw a baby blue octopus, but he was very shy and I missed him
* We followed a flounder for a little ways
* Angela saw the coral actually eating (well, filtering) plankton. She has an eye for detail
* On the way back we went through Sea Cucumber Alley (so-named by Angela) and saw a bunch of green... you know, sea cucumbers.
* And then there were the "Blood Worms". These squiggly creatures are attracted to light and (so say our guides) will nibble at you. We didn't get nibbled but Angela had one of these creatures get pretty amorous with her flash light.
The highlight were the hiding parrot fish. These things were h-u-g-e. Angela guesses they were 3' high (that's top to bottom, longer front-to-back). I think they were a little smaller than that, but no denying these were the biggest parrot fish we've seen.
Bounancy control was harder on this dive than on any we've been on here. Partly because it was so shallow and we were going up and down on these coral walls surrounding the sandy floor.
They were a few times when I got a little bit nervous ("Where's Angela?", "Boy it's sure dark" and then "My flashlight battery is almost dead"), but on the whole this was an amazing dive. Worthwhile experience!
We got an hour and a half break and then went back in for another 53 minutes of under-water fun--mostly at around 60'. We're getting the hang of it now. Very slow ascent and descent (what you're supposed to do), safety stopping, slow breathing... I don't feel like such a n00b anymore.
Highlights of this dive were:
* Warmth! 82F is great.
* Another sea turtle. This one came up really close to investigate me while I was standing on a sandy patch
* We got to hold a spiny star fish (small creature, maybe 4" across). Our dive-master, Tony, found him hiding out in one of these purple sponge bowl thing. The feeling of this little guy crawling on your hand is pretty neat. It's like a hundred dull needles flexing around on your skin.
No sharks, but Angela saw a Spottled Eagle Ray!
Today we learned more about the animal hand signs that the dive master makes to let you know when he's spotted something. First he'll take two fingers and point at his eyes, then do the animal sign, then point where you should look. A two-arm flap means a ray. One hand held vertically to the forehead is for a shark. Two hands over-lapped with flapping thumbs is for a turtle. I've missed the subtleties of the lobster and urchin signals, but I think they've got words for those too.
Next up: a night dive! This next dive is in only 25' of water, but we're told it's very dark (we're given lights) and apparently there's all sorts of different reef residents that come out for feeding (and being eaten) at the later hours. Can't wait!
Our morning dive was to about 60' and were were down for almost 50 minutes. We each got to hold a nurse shark! It was maybe five foot long (lots of that is tail) and totally calm. Apparently, when you flip a nurse shark upside-down it goes into nap mode. Tony, our dive-master, had an easy time catching it (by the tail) and passing it around to each of us.
Much better air control today than yesterday. I still had 900 psi left at the end (yesterday I had to surface early because I was running out).
Sights: Giant green eel! Lobster, groupers, ten or so nurse sharks, lots of the yellow-striped fish, a long (4' or so) vertical pipe-fish type of guy (yellow and about as thick as your forearm, very long snout).
The water temperature was 82F and visibility was about 70' (wow). Outside it's a balmy 88F and sunny.
Awesome!
Our morning dive was to about 60' and were were down for almost 50 minutes. We each got to hold a nurse shark! It was maybe five foot long (lots of that is tail) and totally calm. Apparently, when you flip a nurse shark upside-down it goes into nap mode. Tony, our dive-master, had an easy time catching it (by the tail) and passing it around to each of us.
Much better air control today than yesterday. I still had 900 psi left at the end (yesterday I had to surface early because I was running out).
Sights: Giant green eel! Lobster, groupers, ten or so nurse sharks, lots of the yellow-striped fish, a long (4' or so) vertical pipe-fish type of guy (yellow and about as thick as your forearm, very long snout).
The water temperature was 82F and visibility was about 70' (wow). Outside it's a balmy 88F and sunny.
Awesome!
