Enjoying the rasta life

OK, I neglected to mention one bad thing about Belize, relative to the other 2 countries on this trip... it's expensive.. damn expensive. I would average around 100-120 USD per day here.. including food, accommodation, drink, and activities.

Here's a break down of the rest of the week...

19 Mar

Went on a snorkle tour today.. swam with nurse sharks, manta rays and 100s of other tourists learning to snorkle ... one even had a panic attack with a rasta guy trying to calm her down:

"Calm blue ocean gal.. theenk of e calm blue oceeeean"

What? Surely the LAST thing she wants to be reminded of is the ocean!

Got sunburned on my back today though.. pretty badly.. should have worn a t-shirt while I was snorkelling.. darn.

20 Mar

I met a diver on the snorkle tour who recommended I dive the famous 'Blue Hole'cenote dive site at the Lighthouse Reef.. but considering it's a 40m dive I didn't feel quite so confident about it considering I hadn't dived for 2 years...

So...I decided today, to take a refresher dive, just to refresh my mad dive skillz... I passed with flying colours.. but the dive was only down to 12m.

Aries left today.. but Jonny arrived in town so he's gonna share the cabana in Aries' place (we bumped into each other at the net cafe.. bloody nerds that we is!)

After today's successful dive, I took a deep breath and paid the 200 USD to dive the Blue Hole the next day...

21 Mar

We left for the Blue Hole on a fast dive boat at 6am.. and the ride was the most choppy dive trip I've been on.. it was like riding a rollercoaster. Caye Caulker is surrounded by the world's 2nd largest barrier reef and, as such, as we passed over it, the waves became tumultuous.. I almost fell overboard.

Finally we dived the Blue Hole.. oh my God, I was freaked! The Blue Hole itself is 250 metres deep, but we dived down to 40m... I don't normally like to dive sites where I can't see the bottom, but because the visibility was only around 10 metres, I couldn't see the top either.. when we swam out into the centre of the hole I couldn't see the wall either!!! Close to gasping in shock.. I took a deep breath and entered 'Narcosis-ville'.. a magical land where nitrogen bubbles take your braincells on much needed vacation and soon I was enjoying the dive... The site (found initially by Jacques Cousteau) was created when the sea levels rose and a large cave's roof collapsed, creating the Blue Hole cenote.

The underwater stalactites at this collapsed cave are something else.. around 10 stories high and several metres thick.. it was a surreal experience.

The remaining two dives were great.. but shallower, and had some really nice coral (at 'The Aquarium' dive site for instance). We also stopped for lunch at Half-Moon Isle ... a 1km long by 200 metres wide island...a true shot of paradise with palm trees growing right down to the shore line and hundreds of osprey flying through the air.

That night myself, Jonny and two lads from the dive, Michael and Shane, headed out on the town (well Mike and Shane joined us by accident later!). We went to Coco Plums for jiggy rasta dancing.. I managed to score a free triple rum and coke when I convinced the barman that I had gone into town and pulled the crowd that had turned up (when we were there earlier there only 2 people had turned up) plus a 'cool' DJ who used a keychain electric synth consistently throughout his set... "weeee krrrrprapapppppppp"

Later that night involved us getting driven around in a golf cart by a drunk local who took us to an illegal latenight bar and even took Shane to a whorehouse to buy some rum... crazy night

22 Mar

Spent day cheeeeeeeelin on day beach.. nothing more.. nothing less...