We all know that the laws of marketing tell us that to keep your readers returning to your website the content needs to be fresh and original. So why has this site become static and stagnant? The internet basically dropped out of site these past weeks, a reminder that we are indeed in Central America. Read on to catch up!
Back in April we left Honduras ( read about our fun in Guanaja, Utila, Cayos Cachinos and the West End of Roatan) and overnighted back to Glovers atoll, Belize. We had spent a few days there in the early part of the year and wanted to return for more diving. We wandered into the bar at Isla Marisol Resort and were greeted warmly by the staff, who said that they remembered us. The bar was crowded with divers on a total high after a week of diving with whale sharks.
Although we hadn't planned it, this return trip coincided with April's full moon -- and we were excited about a whale shark excursion since the divers had found the whale sharks on every dive for the past 14 attempts. While in Utila we had seen whale sharks on the water's surface from Dragonfly and we snorkeled with a whale shark on two occassions, both amazing experiences but only lasting long enough to see the shark briefly. In Belize, you can actually scuba dive with a licensed operator. Whale sharks are usually seen April - June around the full moon when the snapper are spawning (they feast on the spawn) at Gladden Spit outside the barrier reef. Noone knows why the snapper spawn in this one spot, but it is the only place in Belize to see whale sharks. Our dive trip took place 3 days after the full moon. Two boats loaded with divers headed out for the 60 minute trip on a rough, windy day. I'll tell you that it was a very wet and bouncy ride in the 37 foot, open, motor boat. Everyone was excited and hoping for the best. These dives were not what I expected at all - basically we were swimming around in the deep blue ocean, between 30-80 feet, looking for the snapper. Visibility was poor and there was little to look at besides each other and an occassional fish swimming by. The dive leaders were able to make out some snapper down very deep at the end of the first dive, so we were all hopeful that they would surface during the second dive and bring the whale sharks with them. No luck, no snapper, no whale shark. The ride back to the lodge was rough, wet and very quiet. Everyone was disappointed and quietly calculating the cost of swimming in circlesfor an afternoon.
The resort's plan was to wait for calmer weather, make some calls to confirm that other divers had seen sharks even if we hadn't and try again. Tough call on all our parts since we had to anty up the fee again and it's a no-refund situation, but when the day dawned we decided we had to go for it since we were there at the full moon during the right month and who knew when that would occur again. So, back we go with most of the group. Again we were hopeful as we plunged into the water, swimming, swimming, swimming for 45 minutes -- no sharks but a few more fish this time. Another quiet surface interval with in our boat but we learned that some of the folks in the other boat had gotten in the water just in time to see a whale shark; so we knew they were there! We all jumped in for our last attempt; swimming, swimming, swimming. About half way through the dive a few dolphin appeared and we watched them from below for the first time. I was watching these dolphin play in front of our boat, monitoring my air, figuring we had about 15 minutes left before surfacing when I glanced over at our dive leader, who is pointing down in the other direction. From below us a huge, dark, spotted creature was rising toward our dive boat. I was pretty close to the boat and took off at a full swim to catch up to the shark, unaware of anything except a diver with a camera swimming beside me and the whale shark just ahead of me.
It was an amazing, exciting, thrilling fifteen minutes. The shark was about 35 feet, an adult male, he was completely unconcerned with us, swam right by us, surfaced at the boat's outboard engines because they like the bubbles, then made a turn and swam through our group twice. It was as if he was "on the clock" and was giving the tourists what they came for. Everone had multiple views of him and we could have easiyl touched him if we had wanted. I saw him from the side, the top, behind and below. His tail was HUGE, his head was HUGE, he was HUGE, his eyes were TINY. At one point I was watching from about 15 feet away and I noticed Rick floating directly below the shark's face as the shark swam down toward him - Rick wiggling his fingers as if to say "come and get me big boy". For such a large fella this shark sure was graceful and it truly felt like time had stopped as we were swimming around him (or he around us). For part of the time the dolphins came down played in front of him, our dive leaders said they hadn't seen that before. All of this took place at about 20-30 feet. When he was finished with his fun (no food to be found), he disappeared in a flash. Well, it was quite the noisy boat ride back to the lodge and a very enthusiastic crowd in the bar that evening. I am hoping that I'll be able to download some of the photos and the video taken by others in our group.
Our final few weeks in Belize were spent at Lighthouse atoll. If you ever want to see the best of Belize, the outer atolls are it in our opinion. Half Moon Caye at Lighthouse atoll is a dream spot managed by the Belize Audibon. The water is shallow, spotted with coral, the most beautiful shade of blue. The island is a protected nesting site for red footed boobies and home to frigate birds as well. The diving on the wall is spectacular, the most gorgeous coral formations we have seen to date along with big grouper, snapper, eagle rays, sting rays, morays of all kinds and lots of beautiful tropical fish large and small. We stayed over a week, basking in the beauty.
Now, while all this was going on we were eating up our food stores and using our fuel - no way to jump in the car and load up, in this case the closest grocery/fuel dock was 60 miles. Although we hated to lose all our "easting" and trade the beautiful atolls of Belize for civilization we resigned ourselves that we should return to the coast of Belize to resupply.
At this point we had been watching the weather for 2 weeks to start our trip to Key West but wind had been consistently strong right from the North/Northeast with concerns about tropical characteristics in the area of Belize, Mexico and Florido. Finally a 3 day opportunity opened up with good conditions as far as the Yucatan so we decided to sail to northern Mexico and wait for another weather window to head to Florida. We are now anchored in Isla Mujares, Mexico which is an island just northeast of Cancun, a common stop for cruisers headed to/from the Gulf of Mexico. Leaving from here results in less miles to Florida, but in a northeast direction; NE is the typical wind direction and can make for an uncomfortable trip, especially under sail. We are anxious to get underway to Key West but will wait for good conditions - it's still a way from there to home afterall but we'll be seeing most of you soon!
By the way, this is a photo of the small wale shark we snorkeled with in Utila.
