We Need a Montage: you better Belize it's rainy season

As you've seen in earlier blog posts, Jason has been criss-crossing the Caribbean Sea in the name of international development financing and climate change adaptation. His latest stop took him to Belize. Having worked weekends and evenings for about 3 weeks straight, Jason demanded that he actually get off Memorial Day weekend so that he could spend it with me on the beach in Belize. That's my baby!

We used some of Jason's miles to get me a ticket to Belize. Now I gotta say that the impressive Fuzzy+Muffin care started before I even left for Belize. In the world of phone trees and it being pretty much impossible to secure customer service from an actual human being, I was ultra impressed when Jason picked up the phone to United and within 10 minutes they had my itinerary (complete with multi-day stopover in Dallas for Stacey's housewarming party) all booked, with flights I couldn't get online. I guess poor Jason living on United airplanes has finally started to pay off.

Basking in the glory of Jason's "status", I arrived in Belize on a Friday night and met Jason at his beachside resort in otherwise ultra-slummy, ultra-sketchy Belize City. We celebrated being reunited in person with a phenomenal dinner at a place a few blocks away. Jason ate the biggest fish I have ever seen a single person put down, ever. I can't blame him, it was perfectly cooked and super tasty.

The next morning we were off to Caye Caulker, one of Belize's many cayes (often pronounced "keys") for some snorkeling and general beach-y laziness. The cayes of northern Belize are renowned for their access to fabulous diving and snorkeling. The barrier reef of Belize is the largest and healthiest in the world, having surpassed the Great Barrier Reef of Australia when that poor reef went through a massive die-off a few years ago. We chose Caye Caulker because it's smaller and less resort-focused than nearby Ambergris but still has excellent access to the reef, which is only 1 mile away from the island. We figured this was right up our alley for a 4-day trip where we were going to do some hard-core snorkeling, relaxing, eating, and not much else.

Thirty minutes on a water taxi had us at Caye Caulker and ready to chill out. We checked in at our B&B on the north end of the island, then found a place on the shore for lunch. In the afternoon we swam at the island's main swimming area, where the water is about 3' deep and everyone hangs out on a hunk of wall that used to be a roadway, before a hurricane took it out and split the island into two parts (I think that happened in the 90's, not sure). Anyway, The Split has a nearby bar with live music, so this is a good place to chill for locals and tourists alike. Jason snorkeled around and brought me a super fat starfish. Then he loaned his snorkel gear to some of the local kids, which was super cute.

Jason standing on a grassy section of sandbar ... no he cannot walk on water, but thanks for asking.

Hanging out at The Split.

at the water taxi station, view back toward Caye Caulker

You can't get to the reef without getting on a boat with a tour. So on Sunday, we signed up for a full-day snorkel tour, which involves 3 stops at various places along the reef. We chose to go with Carlos Tours because he drops people off for lunch in San Pedro (on Ambergris) whereas all the other tour operators have lunch on the boat. Now, it has been well established by previous oceanic expeditions that Andria and little boats don't get along. As long as the boat is moving, I'm ok. You have me sitting on a boat on the ocean for more than a few minutes and I start to feel queasy - calm seas, rough seas, don't matter. Get me to a total of 15+ minutes and I'm probably going to get sick. Knowing this was gonna happen but still desperately wanting to snorkel, I did every trick I could think of - acupressure bands on my wrists, ginger candy, watching the horizon at all times, homeopathic motion sickness treatments - and picked a tour where we'd be off the boat as much as possible. Let's just say that, even with precautions, I only made it through 2 of the 3 snorkel stops before becoming ill.

But it was soooooo worth it. The reef is amazing, at most 15' deep in all the places we stopped and very much alive and beautiful. We had sunny weather for the whole day, so the colors were popping. The first stop was in the Hol Chan Marine Reserve, which is teeming with sea life and live corals. I love to just float above corals, watching the corals wave around and all the fish which tend the coral, use it for protection, make their homes in nooks and crannies, all that stuff. But Carlos kept us moving around so he could show us some of the charismatic megafauna - big fishes, moray eels, turtles, rays, and a spiny lobster too. Turns out that Carlos has a badass underwater camera, and sells pics from your trip for pretty cheap, so everything you see here came from his camera. Jason also got to conquer swimming through a cave without his ears exploding.

The second stop was at Shark and Ray Alley, which is filled with nurse sharks and several types of rays. Carlos caught a shark and a ray so we could touch them. The sharks aren't scary (to me at least) because they're at most 10' long. Now the rays, those things are spooky. Maybe it's that long barbed tail on some of 'em. The fish and coral were pretty fantastic here, too. At the third stop, Jason got to see a ray that was as big as a garage door. Sadly, no photos of that one.

The next day I had sufficiently recovered from sea sickness to get out and about, but the day was overcast and drizzly. I wanted to take the B&B's canoe out to boat around the mangroves, but Jason understandably forbid me from any more small boats for the rest of the trip. The mucky weather was further encouragement to lay low, with occasional rainstorms throughout the day, so we walked around the mini-reserve and read books and chilled out. Next day was more of the same, with a little bit of swimming and bruckdown music and more tasty food. Rainy season in Belize is the definition of relaxing! I'm always shocked by how Jason and I have a hard time "relaxing" without getting really really far away from home. Hey, take it how you can get it.