Bye Belize and Mexico

I said goodbye to Belize on Friday, went back to Mahahual Mexico on Saturday and then it's off to Key West tomorrow. Belize was lovely. I visited the zoo and went manatee watching, but alas, I have a reason to return. I did not see any. I did see a black tiger, close enough to pet, but there was a fence in the way. I ended up, I guess you could say, hitch hiking back to town and got a lead on real hand made Belizean style tile, very similar to what I had installed just before leaving on this most recent adventure. Maybe this could be my new line of work, knowing how difficult it is to get the Saltillo/terra cotta tiles in cold Minnesota.

I traveled up the middle of Belize to Lamani to see some historic Mayan ruins, some of the best in Belize. It reminded me so much of the trip my friend Rose and I took to Cambodia to see Ankor Wat. The shape and construction of the two ruins could have been built by the same people. I wonder what I'll think if/when I finally get to Egypt to see the pyramids. The riverboat ride from Orange Walk to Lamani and back made for a nice day amongst nature in a different way than being on the ocean, though the mangroves are such an integral part of each ecosystem.

It was sad to leave my new friends in Mahahual, but seeing my friend Leslie tomorrow eases that. Several of us have plans to meet again, maybe in Malta, maybe in Honduras, and maybe back in Mexico.

Life does have its rewards!

Happy Carnival from San Pedro Belize

San Pedro is a small town and there's no getting around being painted up when you know any of the locals. Carnival time here for the young and some not-so-young is to paint skin and clothes. The guys from the dive shop found me--I'll have to get a pic and post it here so you can see how colorful they made me. Some of the guys dress up like women, in a way and everyone dances in the streets. They collect money instead of throwing out trinkets as they do in New Orleans, but I haven't figured out who gets the money. Anyway, it's lots of fun, as has the diving here been.

The reef is pretty, yet I hear it's degraded quite a bit in the past two years, more brown than colorful. The fish are awesome--so many of the ones I studied for my Mahahual project are here and today I even swam with two dolphins! My favorite fish here has probably been the pair of queen triggerfishes, but the midnight and blue parrot fish were pretty cool too. Lots of indigo hamlets too. All so colorful. Sharks were around for almost every dive, and turtles. Loggerheads and very close up! The dive shop took photos so you can see me swimming a foot or so away from one.

My time here is limited, so back to Carnival.

Beautiful Belize

Happy Valentine's Day, or should I say Happy Mardi Gras, we're inbetween both!

One of my first stops in Belize was to the bank. Who would think a bank would be decorated all out for Valentine's Day? It was. Several nice sayings there I just had to write down, but that's not why I came down here. I came to dive, as if I didn't get enough in Mexico. My first dive presented five sharks, the second three turtles--a loggerhead, a hawksbill and a Ridley! Then there's the fish that I'd only seen in the books and had to memorize for my research in Mexico and now got to see huge black groups, tiger groupers, nassau groupers. Trunkfish, dogfish, horse eye jacks, indigo hamlets, porkfish, yellowhead jawfish, tiny purple banded shrimp, and so much more. The water is so blue here and white sand. Exquisite. Now, if I just had a romantic person to share this with, it would be heaven. Maybe that was influenced by the music I'm hearing outside the internet cafe for a wedding reception across the street.

Belize is changing by the minute. There's lots of street construction so things are looking different even in the few days I've been here. I walked around the north side of the beach today, lots of 2-story apartments for tourists, more quaint than the huge complexes on the southern side that I've seen from the dive boat.

The town is rather small and it exudes tourism. Mostly American and Canadian tourists. The dive masters have all been local Belizians, unlike other places I've been when they're from everywhere else. The dive sites have all been very close, five to ten minutes away from the dive shop, so we come back to shore for the surface intervals. Then the tamale man comes so we have something to eat between dives. Oh, this dive shop offers warm towels after the dives which feel oh so good since it's been a little on the cool side down here. They also provide photos on a CD for all the dives you've been on, so I'll have those if my pics don't turn out well.

I'm using my down time to read up on my sailing, and will get back to the dive master books tomorrow. It's been a very relaxed time here. Island time. Life is good.

Hope all is well wherever you are!

Mahahual Mexico, Week 4/5

One more week to go. Four more diving days. Now I get to survey officially, meaning I´ve surpassed the tests of identifying fish and can successfully do the survey techniques for adult and juvenile fish. I´ve been paired with Chad, a fellow American who is a great dive buddy. He finds the turtles and lobsters and various other things. The only unique creature I´ve been able to point out to him was a mantis shrimp. It certainly if a lot more fun to dive now that I can identify so many (more) fish.

We´ve settled in to our work groups, people are continually getting some sort of training. I´m part way through my dive master course, but have decided not to finish it. There´s too many important things to know to rush through it. Yes, I´ve finally decided that some things can´t be rushed. I´ve been reading my Annapolis Book of Sailing in preparation for the last part of this trip.

We have done some traveling around Mexico, the cenotes in Tulum I wrote about previously. Last weekend we took a day to go to Balacor. It is south of here, and also has cenotes. The town is on a big lake that´s not really a lake but a far in inlet of the ocean. We spent some time in a fort there. Yes a fort. It was used long ago and was a key area for pirates. Just south of town was the cenote we spent playing in all afternoon. It was fun playing like little kids, and having a Mexican meal, and a meal without rice. We´re getting more than our share of pasta and rice at the base. If I don´t watch it, I´m going to have to add more weight to my weight belt, no, that´s not an option.

We´re also teaching English to the Mexicans here so I am putting my TEFL into practice. It´s slow going yet rewarding when the faces of our students light up with understanding. We´re teaching small amounts, but difficult things all together--present, past and future tense all at once. That´s the way our instructor wants it done, so we´re doing our best. I have a group of taxi drivers that we teach at the local elementary school. Since there are only four classrooms, we meet outside, and hope the lights are on. We like teaching night because the expedition staff makes dinner. They´re such better cooks than we are, though we are getting better. Ben, the dive instructor, is really picky about his food for I was happy to hear his complements today about our cole slaw and lentil layer bake. I´m really liking lentils now, garbaonzo beans and refried beans. I never though I´d say that.

I rode the bike through ¨New¨ Mahahual today since I was near there to come to the Internet. It´s a growing cookie cutter development that´s meant for the locals. The buildings are built by hand, with trees for scaffolding, not bamboo either. Old Mahahual is changing too. I wish I had pictures when we first got here to now. Even I can see the difference. That´s progress, or is it? The cruise ships keep coming, Monday through Friday like clockwork. Too bad the building of the cruise ship pier meant dynamiting through a shark mating area. We´ve not seen one shark on any of our dives. We have seen turtles though. We were on a practice transac the other day and at our stopping point had a big loggerhead turtle to watch during our interum.

Life is good. Hope you all are well.