We’re up a half hour before the sun, and I check the room again to make sure we’re not forgetting anything. We have the front desk call someone to pick up our gear and verify a taxi is on the way. The taxi picks us up at 530 am and takes us the ten minutes to the port. The porters load our bags on board. We spend five minutes at Caye Caulker and it’s another fifty minutes to the mainland.
We peruse a shop while we wait for our stuff to be unloaded. With luggage in hand, we notice a guy waiting with Caleb’s name on a sign. Some kids ask us for change, and a guy in a military-like uniform tells them off from the parking lot where our ride, a Foton van, to the airport awaits. Our driver had a gall bladder stone removed two months ago and wants to learn diving next year.
We wish him luck as he drops us at 815 am. I buy a Snickers bar for $2 and learn that countries sell them in different weights (mine being 58.7 g) while Caleb talks with the employee. Once we’re able to drop our bags, we get fry jacks outside and walk to see a jet, then go through customs and security. I find a store selling stickers, but sadly none that I want.
I get us a crappy pizza that we finish, after paying our departure tax of $35.50 each, before boarding. Note for my return: stick to local dishes (always a good idea) and Mexican food while here, as it won’t be as disappointing when it’s bad (chances are lower of this happening). We get moved out of the exit row, which Caleb always tries to procure for that extra legroom and child-free seating.
Somehow, we still have more space to stretch our legs. There is gum stuck to the wall, so Caleb grabs a wipe and then another to get rid of the goo on our tray tables. I do a crossword puzzle, and we’re in the air, then landing in Houston hours later. A woman joins our race up the stairs to get to customs, so we race her down the escalator after.
We get dinner in the United Lounge, which includes jalapeno mac-n-cheese and a cinnamon sugar donut. I’ll read for the majority of the flight to San Diego. I hear a kid next to me, “I’m trying to avoid the forever box.. a coffin.. I’ve been researching West Nile Virus, and I scared myself.” Fallon is there to pick us up, and we will get home after 9 pm.
I finished my milkshake and rum cake from yesterday before we went to Rum+Bean to get cold brews to-go; they looked like a milk and a dark chocolate drink. We rented a golf cart for eight hours since we’re already within our no-dive zone for flying tomorrow. Our first destination is Elite Adventures, located at 2 Mile North of the Bridge, 1, San Pedro. We went to retrieve Caleb’s bottle and were given his shirt that we forgot we left.
Elite Adventures
We buy a few shirts and then continue north in the rain. We stop at the White Sands Dive Shop just to walk to the water and back. We make it a bit further before I decide to turn us around. My butt is soaked in the seat, but the hand holding my camera is dry. When we get to The Truck Stop, the rain has ceased. There is a truck frame that has become a garden and the namesake of this home for iguana, a family of blue crabs, the tiniest lizard we have ever seen, and a crocodile that flops away into hiding at the sound of Caleb’s whistle, because you can never see enough crabs.
The Truck Stop
We had backtracked to look at Aces Wildlife Rescue, but visits are by appointment only for a guided tour of their rehab facility and sanctuary. So it’s off to Crocs Sunset Sports Bar on the suggestion to stop in hopes of seeing another crocodile. With no such luck, I drive us to El Fogon for lunch. We start with a chicken salbut (a small deep-fried tortilla), which is a Belizean staple, and order a bowl each of the chicken hearth stew, mine with a side of coconut rice, macaroni salad, and a slice of plantain.
I’m not sure where we ended up, but Caleb had tried to navigate us to a self-tour stop, and it was someone’s house, so Caleb pet their dog while I took some pictures of their lovely backyard that is the Caribbean Sea. We get petrol and make our way back slowly to the resort so we can minimize the wear and tear on Caleb’s already damaged spine.
In our room, I lose wifi before I’m able to post the view from Elite Adventures to Instagram with the caption, “Before the storm, that caught us on a golf cart, and it was still a beautiful day.” We pack and Caleb will sip watermelon juice while I try the sweets from the fridge, only to find out that the chocolate is moldy and the coconut bar is gross. I should have had them on Day 1, but I forgot that the humidity would have such an effect.
We have a small boat pick us up from the dock by Toast, the seaside grill, where we grabbed dinner last night before going back to the room at Mahogany Bay Resort. They will take us to a larger dock where we will be picked up at 730 for a three-tank dive day. We are grateful that Dolly and David, the couple who joined us in the Great Blue Hole dive, met the owners of this boat and extended the invite. The wife, Joan, holds the record for the least air used on a dive.
The first dive is sans wetsuit, and there are plenty of bright blue fish to keep us company. The second dive is with my 3mm wetsuit on and I’m about the same level of cold. I’m focused on colorful coral and hundreds of cyan sea life, while a few divers are spearfishing the lionfish that will be served with our lunch. I’m glad that we have volunteers helping to decrease the population of an invasive species, and then feed it to me with chicken, potatoes, coleslaw, rice, and beans.
Our third dive could have been in the same spot or on the other side of the island. There was still coral and fish, exactly what we came to see, especially in warmer water than can be found off the coast of California. We’ll talk with Spencer, the husband, for the hour-and-a-half ride back. A woman asks if my one glove is a dive secret, but the captain knew I was hiding something, so he let me keep it… Michael Jackson style.
Spencer was a police officer for 15 years and then a homicide detective for just as many. He tells us about a guy who blew his skull off and had his intact brain slide across the floor, with no AK-47 bullet in it either. We were just as curious about the science behind the scenario as he was, but not enough to get a job as a medical examiner. I’m hit or miss when it comes to bloody scenes as I’m interested in what the body can do, but sometimes what it’s forced into is cringeworthy.
Anywho, Spencer offers to take us out again tonight, but I’m ok focusing on food for the evening. He drops us off at the Victoria House dock, and after a shower, we get our daily milkshake. We are handed three cups to accommodate our add-ins, so Caleb has the energy to clean our gear after dinner. We ordered guacamole and a triple-cheese pizza, and just as quickly got it to-go to escape the mosquitoes. We hang our rinsed gear in the closet and sunroom.
I wrote in my notes that I slept until 6am so that Caleb could take pictures of me sleeping, but really, I get up at 6am at least five days a week to get ready for work that starts at 9am, or five minutes early so I can be prepared for my first customer when the doors open. Anyways, we’re still on vacation, so let me get back to that. We go to breakfast at 7am and talk with the other couple that brought their dive gear to the table. We learn that the wife has been diving for 17 years and is taking her husband, once certified, to the Blue Hole; which will be her third time taking the plunge.
looking for lionfish
The waiter had returned to inquire about the ingredients in my breakfast, so I was under the assumption that I was getting eggs and tofu with my beans in my fry jacks, but regardless, I like the extra carbs when the bread seems less full. I eat my food with a side of mosquito bites and appreciate not having to put up with these necessary evils on a daily basis; though I’d have to if I live near warm water dive locations. In the shop, I see a woman with a bottle of champagne and a phone tripod, and a different definition of vacation.
Caleb and a nurse shark
We get a ride across the street with a trainee (not sure for what) and two snorkelers that get on another company’s boat. Our first site is Tuffy Canyon where, averaging 47ft for 44 minutes, the Yellowtail snappers and I watch reef sharks propel themselves past us at 1.5mph, though with their slanted tails creating more jets of water, they can reach speeds of 25mph. The fastest shark in the sea, thanks to its dermal denticles “skin teeth”, is the mako at 35-50mph. In trying to find if someone has pet one before, I came across Keith Poe, Shark Tagger, who likes to play tug-o-war with them in Southern California, for science.
I also found the Shark Angels, an organization that wants to turn fear into fascination, so it offers dive trips to the Bahamas so you can watch sharks get fed, so that they’re too full or distracted to snack on you; among other things I’m sure. There are five basic types of camouflage in nature: concealing (deer) vs disruptive (jaguar) coloration, disguise (crabs), active camouflage (octopus), and mimicry (oakleaf butterfly), but sharks aren’t often mentioned for their ability to blend in from above, below, and where the ocean floor meets water.
Caribbean reef shark
Sharks are impressive creatures and sometimes our eyes can only catch a glimpse of their movement, so our brains think we see light reflecting off a small fish, but it’s actually catching a shark belly in contrast to its environment. All this research leads me to learning about tonic immobility, which is some animals’ way of avoiding being eaten in their state of paralysis, but plays a role in the sharks mating behavior. The first dive is incredible and so inpiring, which fascinates me on so many levels, because there is so much more to see and learn about the species I’m lucky to meet underwater.
nurse shark and hawksbill sea turtle
Our surface interval is at the dive shop where I’m offered the opportunity to pee off the ladder, usually something reserved for at sea, through my wetsuit which will need washing, and rinse with their fresh water shower; which had I known was an option, I could’ve just peed in the shower like I do at home instead of soaking my neoprene for Caleb to de-funk later. The second dive at Paradise Canyon is amazing as I capture a shark and turtle in the same scene. The visibility starts to lower but after another 44 minutes with a max depth of 57ft it’s time to get out.
We leave our gear in the van for the ride back to the night dive that is promised after sunset. We walk to the room, past a Great kiskadee with a unique three-syllable call and a cute crest. Though I’ve never introduced myself as a birdwatcher, it is an activity that I seem to seek out for the joy it brings, even in moments like this when the encounter was unplanned. Though I do understand why it seems to be older people, or childless couples, that best get to experience the calm and quiet it takes to fully appreciate the birdsong, wing flap, and feather shuffle as they dance to their own beat.
I put on more aloe and we switch into dry clothes. In this process, Caleb misplaces his phone, so we go to the shop and office to ask about it only to find it where he set it down to change. We go to Rum & Bean for our daily milkshake; not a healthy habit, so I’m grateful it’s temporary, but we’d adjust the sugar to vegetable intake in the long-term as I love an icy drink on a hot day or as a second breakfast smoothie at work as a blended way to get my daily nutrients by the sip or chunk, depending on how much water I add to the cup and how long I blend it.
There are some sweets in the display again, so we grab a cinnamon roll (I only eat the top half) and a coconut chocolate chip turnover (that Caleb will finish, even though he doesn’t like coconut). I’ve learned my lesson about baked goods from this source — don’t waste my time trying to enjoy them. Some things are just better looked at or smelled through the wrapper. We get our night dive receipt taken care of and go to the lobby porch to read.
We’ll have been lounging for about an hour when new guests arrive, which means more welcome drinks and the accidental making of two extra that we gladly accept with their pineapple wedge on the rim at around 230pm. We spent the next four hours on our kindles, phones, and having a snack before meeting on the dock at 630 so we could get to Hol Chan Cut by dark after checking in with the park ranger in his floating office. We’d be the only dive boat this evening, so I was able to wear my one glove. There is a boat nearby that will have snorkelers shining their lights on us, like we’re about to do to the nightlife.
looking downlooking up
Our pre-dive brief asked us to enjoy seeing the fish, but please don’t spotlight, and blind, the little ones for the bigger fish to see and eat. Also, beware the bloodworms. We, Caleb and the two girls, we went with, were told their name was only color derived, but would find out post-dive that we were swimming with the world’s smallest leeches and they had made the most of their opportunity from the willing donors (aka divers with lights that attract them). We dove with the small young (their length was the width of a pinky finger and their width that of the cuticle), but the adults can cause a bee-sting like reaction and grow up to 15 inches long.
nurse shark and Southern stingraymaking sunfish shadows
We were also told that turning your light off would get rid of the pests, at least temporarily, and improve your vision as you focused on others’ lights, but there are venomous creatures lurking in the dark so it’s best not to bump into them. Instead, use your light to draw the bloodworms towards brain coral and watch them disappear in a sci-fi like manner. We see Yellow stingray, Southern stingray, hermit crab, a crab under a rock, a Channel Clinging crab with six legs, Spanish slipper lobster, nurse shark, Caribbean spiny lobster, and a baby puffer fish.
Caribbean spiny lobster
This was our longest dive here, at 55 minutes with a max depth of 26ft. The water temperature was 87.8 degrees and I was chilly on the dive but so excited and distracted by all the action. I would wrap myself in both towels for the return trip and put a hoodie on for dinner by the beach while our ride took the girls back to the shop. We shared a crispy chicken sandwich and a bratwurst with onions. We walk back to the room and I put two bandaids on, with mixed emotions, as my wound opens more.
Caleb wakes me up with his sleeping arm into my sunburn. I put lotion on where I can reach, minimizing causing myself more pain in the process and come back to bed so that Caleb can put sunscreen on the rest of my burns. We go to breakfast and both order ranchero de casa and I order maple fry jacks (triangular sopaipillas) and eat most of them. We stop by the tour office and get aloe, and when we go back to check-in with our pink slips from the resort, verifying that we paid, the morning dive has been canceled.
colorful breakfast and dinner
Caleb was looking for his hat this morning and we asked about it at breakfast with no luck, but someone had found it and we saw it sitting on a shelf behind the front desk when we went inside to rent a golf cart for two hours, just in case the afternoon dive was still available. Caleb carried our dive bags back to the room (not sure why we didn’t use the cart), but this guy gives us a jokingly hard time about it, but Caleb let them know I’m burnt. I’ll crack a joke at the top of the stairs when we’re out of earshot, so I won’t be sharing it here either.
This gives us time to go into town and park near Patz Delicatessen and walk to Island City Supermarket; a store that looks better online. We get more sunscreen, even though ours will last the trip, and some leave-in conditioner to help with my tangled curls. I think it works better as a pre-wash cream. I’ll take over the driving so Caleb can navigate us to Amigos Del Mar Dive Shop. It’s here that we find out their boat went out this morning and plans to leave again at 11am for the afternoon trip. We badly want to go but we don’t have our gear with us and won’t make it back in time, so we can only hope that the boat we’re booked on will still go out.
a beachview from the golf cart
I’m stopped at an intersection, trying to figure out if I turn right now or turn right on the next street. A taxi driver to my left honks, even though he has room to turn next to me, so not sure what that’s about. Luckily, a kind guy on two wheels points out the sign for the Eco Iguana Corner Foundation where they are breeding them. We park and while Caleb locks up the cart; as the start key is the same for the island apparently, but the lock key different; I find comfort in the shade. We are slowly approached by an older man who points out so many hidden iguanas as they lounge on branches and across twigs.
There’s a few small boats resting among the blue-green algae, one with more water in it than under it. As we turn left we’re greeted by a jealous kitty who hangs around while I get to feed a banana to an iguana and then pet his body and spines (tuberculate scales) that are softer than they appear, more flexible fingernail vs hard (both are healthy) and less porcupine or splinter. Our tour guide lifts the iguana onto his hind legs, just to show their relationship, like a cat that lets you rub its belly. We bypass the tourist picture opportunity (a photo stand-in) and walk across the bridge made of the 2-inch thick trees nearby (or their cousins from a different location).
I’m surprised there’s not flies here or perhaps they’re too preoccupied with the rotting piles of fruit and lettuce that the iguana smear their genitals on while they pick a piece to munch on. We wave to some of the guys sitting near the kitchen and pass their house on the way out – a version of my childhood home had the cabin been more than just a few walls with a crooked shelf (because I was fighting with my sister) before it was torn down and 2×4 frames put up in a day, but only a single story instead of two.
We stop at a shop because of their sign, which seems to interest us both more than what was inside. We walk next door to the Belikin Store where they sell shirts, beer mugs and dark chocolate, so we grab two bars with just three ingredients (cacao, cane sugar, and roasted malted barley) and at least two of them local, so we can try a piece now and have some for later. We’ll drive the 0.25 mile (according to the sign posted, but more accurately 0.68 mile) past our resort to see what the Black Orchid has to offer, but found out they’re closed on Sunday and Mondays and don’t open until 3pm for happy hour and dinner at 530.
The owners, a couple, started their dream in 2007, graduated from culinary school in 2011, opened up on Halloween of 2012, survived the Covid regulations, and have since been retired in 2023 due to amazing staff who continue to serve their pork and seafood menu. I’m glad we made the drive instead of walking as I want to be adventurous but also want a nap. The speed bumps are horrendous, especially on Caleb’s spine, and even the mooring rope over the road causes us to slow down while we get passed by others, but that’s the status quo for vacation mode regardless of where we are.
We return the cart and go back to the room to eat my accumulated leftovers for lunch. We are booked for a private tour, just us and our guide George, for the afternoon. We get dropped off and even get help with our gear. The boat takes us just outside the reef and we can see sharks just below. It seems one nurse shark in particular recognizes her lionfish buddy as divers have a 50% chance of getting fresh ceviche for their underwater friends or getting it onboard to share with others. Spearfishing has regulations like other hunting sports, but also free-for-alls of invasive species to protect local parks.
We see other nurse and some Caribbean reef sharks too. It’s amazing to have a shark in almost every picture. Riding out to sea on high waves is one thing, because you’re thinking about being underwater, but it’s another to contemplate dealing with twice when trying to board with a trainee. The ladder won’t stay put, so while he tries to get me onboard, with my sunburn and one hand slowing me down, the trainee tosses a line and buoy, also not staying put, for the guys to hold onto so they don’t get carried further from the boat.
Once we’re all safely onboard, I let the guys know I’m turning down the opportunity for round two. The dive took me to a max depth of 82ft and we were only down for 39 minutes, but that will be enough. I look forward to a dry bandage, and more aloe and sunscreen. We walk to Rum & Bean for more milkshakes to go with our dinner and the inquiring minds at the table next to ours want to know where our big name drink came from… the local shack that’s walking distance from here with no logos present, but they could be sneaking in their syrups.
Those same minds happened to take “our” table, so that’s why we sat next to them. We’re glad to be early, meaning before 530pm, so we can get the lunch menu which has more us-friendly options. The service is usually great, but I grab menus, then grab water glasses and one set of silverware as the table next to us offers theirs. I’m wondering how long it will take when the guy next to us gets his drink. I suppose it didn’t help our cause showing up with outside beverages, but there are no signs posted otherwise and we were offered to be made drinks.
I get the tofu nachos, Caleb the steak fajitas, and an order of chicken quesadillas to-go. It’s nice having a partner that I can share so much with; sometimes because we like the same things or because we compliment each other’s tastes whether it be food, clothes, or activities. Caleb, the other day, compared our reading as Calvin and Hobbes to Nietzsche, but he really should give himself more credit for the books and memes that have given him so much nautical and naughty knowledge. Maybe one day we’ll record some of our post-dive conversations and turn them into a podcast, but for now, we sleep.
TheJessicaness 