Day 10 - Caye Caulker - snorkeling

LISA AND GREG: First thing this morning we headed out to choose a snorkeling tour for the day. Our first stop was Carlos Tours, which was strongly recommended by our travel guide. However, when we got there a sign informed us that they were already booked for the day. Luckily Carlos drove up on his golf cart (there are no cars on Caye Caulker) and told us he'd add us on to the day's tour if we wanted to go. It was a full-day tour and initially we had planned to only do a half-day, but it sounded so cool that we decided to go for it.

Carlos (along with his partner) took the ten of us on his motor boat to the Hol Chan Marine Reserve which encompasses part of the world's second longest barrier reef--180 miles. The ride took about 15 minutes. There he anchored the boat and after putting on our snorkeling gear we jumped in the water. At first we only saw sea grass but soon he led us to different areas where we saw many different types of coral, fish and other sea life. Obviously we couldn't take our camera under water but fortunately for us (and for him since he charges for the pictures) he brought along a great underwater camera and took some amazing pictures. Here is some of what we saw:





We stopped at another island, San Pedro, for lunch and then continued on to 2 more snorkeling spots.

LISA: We saw tons of marine life, but for me the two most magical ones where the sea turtles and manatees. I've wanted to see a turtle for so long and I knew it was a possibility today. I have been praying for this a very long time. So there we were in the water and since I am not a very strong swimmer I was always way behind the others (except for Greg who was always trying to keep on eye on me). Then there it came, a sea turtle. It swam so close to me. I was completely overwhelmed with its grace and beauty. I learned that it's very hard to feel so moved when you are trying to keep a breathing tube in your mouth. It took a lot of self control not to follow the turtle and follow our group instead. I know that I will never forget this moment.



LISA: Although I never really thought much about manatees, it was awesome to see them in the water. It's pretty rare to actually see them on a snorkeling tour, but there we were swimming when a manatee came by. We got a really close look at it and I felt like I could just reach out and hug it. Again, I was struck by its beauty and when I saw it, I realized that I had found another favorite animal. Throughout the snorkeling tour, but especially when I saw the turtles and manatees, all I could do was marvel at all the beauty God has created and be grateful for it.


GREG: But that wasn't it. We still had one more eye-popping experience to go. Carlos said it would be highly unlikely to see this creature in the Caribbean, because it usually is found in more northerly climates. But we got lucky again, and got an up-close look at the Squintidium dorcidus, better known, of course, as the Squinty-eyed North Carolina Dorkfish. Here's Lisa with one:


LISA AND GREG: We've now seen and done everything we'd hoped to see and do (and more) on this trip, so from here on, it's just icing on the cake -- speaking of which, it's dinner time.

Day 9 - San Ignacio to Caye Caulker

LISA AND GREG: We thought today was going to be a pretty uneventful travel day, and we planned to share some of our reflections about our time in San Ignacio. But things didn't work out that way. Our favorite cab driver, Mitch, picked us up at 9:20 to take us to the "bus station" in nearby Santa Elena. Here's Mitch:


Our bus, which was supposed to pick us up at 10:00, didn't end up arriving until noon, so we spent a couple hours talking with Gina, who is in charge of the "station" (really just a bare office with two chairs out front), and her husband, Elias. They were great and were able to educate us on various aspects of Belizean life, including education, the health care system, and race relations. (We'll share more about this later.) Here's Lisa waiting for the bus.


LISA: While we waited we observed many people pass by, a vast majority of whom Elias and Gina knew. One of these was Leopoldo, a renowned Mayan healer. Elias introduced us to him and I spent some time listening to part of his amazing story. He explained that he had recently worked with researchers from the University of Connecticut and The New York Botanical Gardens, sharing his knowledge of medicinal plants. I was very excited and grateful to have met him and I hope that I can return to San Ignacio to learn from him. Here is a picture of us with "Polo" as he is known.


LISA AND GREG: When our bus finally came, it was full -- no seats. Apparently buying an advanced ticket does not guarantee you a seat. So we had to wait some more. Finally, another bus came and we took the last two seats, in front of a family of Mennonites from Canada. About 40 minutes later, we stopped at a small village and there were about 15 college-aged backpackers from Belgium and other European countries waiting by the side of the road. Their bus had broken down, so even though we had no seats on ours, they had to cram on because ours was the last bus of the day. Most of them sat on the floor. It was crowded, but everybody seemed happy to be getting closer to Belize City, where we would take a water taxi to our destination, Caye Caulker.

About 20 minutes later, we heard a big crash. Lisa saw the front window of the bus shatter and a lot of the glass landed on several of the passengers in front. What happened was that a big rock from a passing pick-up truck had flown out and crashed into our windshield. The bus driver pulled over and we all had to get off in the middle of nowhere to apply first aid to those who needed it.


For a couple minutes we weren't sure how, or if, we were going to continue to Belize City, but when Lisa asked the bus driver, he informed her that there would be no other buses coming, and no national rescue squad dispatched, so we had to clean up as much as we could of the glass and then keep going, at a reduced speed, minus one windshield. Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt. It could have been a lot worse than it was.

We got to Belize City and luckily caught a water taxi right away for the 45-minute ride to Caye Caulker. The door to the suite we're staying in literally opens right onto the Caribbean -- we're only a few feet from the water's edge. Here's the place and the view from our front porch.




LISA AND GREG: We haven't done much exploring yet, but we're looking forward to tomorrow. A full moon tonight provided a beautiful backdrop for a walk on the beach. Here's Lisa's moon salutation.

Day 8 - San Ignacio

GREG: This morning we took a cab down the Western Highway to a "jungle lodge" called Chaa Creek. I'd ever heard of a jungle lodge until I started researching our trip, but there are a bunch of them in Belize and all over Central America. Basically they are pretty pricey getaways in the middle of the jungle with many of the amenities those who can afford to go there would expect (the "cabanas" at Chaa Creek are about $300-$400 a night, and some lodges are even more). It seems to me that it gives guests the experience of being on a safari and being pampered at the same time. OK, so that's my one-sided view. The owners of Chaa Creek have also done a lot to preserve the surrounding ecosystem, and were one of the first of the "ecotourism" movement.

Anyway, Chaa Creek also has lots of activities that the peons from other places can enjoy (for a price), so that's where we went this morning. The cab ride was fun because our cabbie narrated his take on Belizean culture and politics the whole time: "See that house?" he said as we passed a lavish mansion. "The toilet paper man lives there. That's his business. Toilet paper. Pretty good business." He was full of insight and local trivia.

LISA: One reason I really wanted to go was because they have a medicinal trail created by Dr. Rosita Arvigo. I hadn't heard about her until we began reading about Belize but I was immediately interested in her work. About 20 years ago she became an apprentice to a Mayan healer, a "curandero" who lived very close to San Ignacio, He healed with different plants found in the Belizean jungle. I'm currently reading her biography and it is fascinating. Growing up my parents had (and still do) a lot of faith in natural healing, especially in using herbs to heal different ailments. I vividly remember my mom giving me various teas to treat my cough, colds, stomach cramps. So it's always felt natural to me to turn to the plant world to find remedies. Even though we were hot, sticky and being bitten by mosquitoes, walking the medicinal trail was amazing. It was so cool to see the different plants and read about their many uses. Western science is finally paying attention and there is currently a lot of research on the healing properties of many of these plants.




























GREG: While at Chaa Creek we also visited their Blue Morpho Butterfly Farm, which is dedicated to preserving the presence of the Blue Morpho in this region. It's a stunning butterfly, with wings that look electric blue when the sun hits them.


While we were in the butterfly house two Blue Morphos landed on my head and stayed there the whole time. I tried to summon one to land on my finger, but it didn't work.



LISA: We decided to canoe the 7 miles back to San Ignacio instead of taking a cab. We were going with the current so that helped but it was still definitely a work out. However, it was totally worth it.




The Macal River was beautiful and peaceful and we saw some pretty birds that we hadn't seen yesterday. When we were almost at San Ignacio we even saw a river otter! It was so exciting (but the camera was unreachable so we missed getting a picture). We were starving when we finally got back and we had another one of our great Belizean meals.

GREG: We leave early tomorrow on a bus to Belize City and then a water taxi to Caye Caulker, a tiny island off the coast. We'll spend the next four nights on the island.

Day 7 - San Ignacio

LISA:Today we went bird watching with a incredible birder named Ben. We had to get up pretty early (4:30 am) but it was totally worth it. We had never been up so early to bird watch and it was so cool to hear all of the animals awaken as the sun came up. We heard a symphony of not only bird calls but many insects (like cicadas) and other cool creatures. Ben was able to recognize the birds by their calls and had an uncanny ability to locate them with the binoculars within seconds. He guided us through 2 great birding areas in town. The little digital camera we brought wasn't good enough to adequately capture any of the birds we saw (here's a sample shot)...


...but Greg went online and got images of some of them so you can see a little of what we saw.




Seeing the keel-billed toucan (the bottom picture) was surreal. I mean we knew they really did exist but seeing one live in the wild was incredible. Once again we were reminded of how miraculous our world is.





















GREG: So that was the morning. The afternoon gave us a little reminder of our last week in Chicago and our flooded basement. About 1:00 in the afternoon, a hard rain began to fall. It hadn't rained at all since the very first day of our trip, so we were happy to see it and hoped it would cool things down (it's been really hot here). Then the leaks began. Our room was (yes, that's past tense) on the top floor of the guest house we're staying in, and before we knew it rain was dripping in, pretty heavily, from about 10 different places through the wooden ceiling. We had to pack everything up and get out quickly. They ended up moving us to a much smaller, more cramped room downstairs (with no balcony or sitting room, as our other room had), but we're getting the last night of our stay free and -- the only real upside -- the new room has an air conditioner! We feel like typical spoiled Americans, but man, does the AC feel good.

A couple days ago we met a kid named Orvin, a really sweet 11-year-old who lives in a nearby village and is spending his summer making (and selling) slate carvings, one of the local crafts. We asked him to make us a lizard carving and he finished it today. Here's Lisa with Orvis, proudly showing off his masterpiece.


We're loving San Ignacio and wish we had more time here but tomorrow is our last day before leaving for Caye Caulker Friday morning. We'll check in again tomorrow or Friday.