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.