Toucans, Tarpons, and Temples: Sailing to Mexico Rocks

This past Saturday was perfect for sailing--15-20 kts north-northeast, 82 degrees, full sun. Lochlan was out for the day at his friend Nathan's birthday party, so Amy, Liam and I headed to Caribbean Villas to rent a catamaran from Paul. We loaded a cooler, a drybag with food and towels, and our snorkel gear on to the trampoline and headed north.

Shortly after arriving in Belize, we attempted to sail to Mexico rocks, but we did not make it. The boys were getting cold and the water was pretty choppy. For that outing, we tied up to a buoy near the reef, and the snorkeling was average.

However, on Saturday, we definitely made it to the right spot (we even sailed a bit past Mexico Rocks so we could see X'tan Ha, where Lochlan was enjoying the birthday party). Mexico Rocks is generally done as a half day tour, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, and our timing must have been pretty good because there was only one other boat there.

After tying off to one of the numerous buoys, we headed toward the rocks. Mexico Rocks is a bit different than other sections of the reef, because it is composed of many discrete chunks of coral in a matrix of bare sand and sea grass. The coral here is in even better shape than the reef right off San Pedro, and the diversity of fish is much higher.

The highlight of the trip came when Liam spotted an octopus under an overhang on one of the rocks. The animal was so well camouflaged Amy had to swim down and point before I could see it! The octopus was definitely not camera shy, and allowed us to take many still shots and a fair bit of video:

Here are some photos of the coral and fish we saw. In addition to the octopus, we really enjoyed seeing several Spanish hogfish and a rock beauty, two fish species we had not seen before this trip.