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.

On our way north

A giant anemone

More of the beautiful corals on the reef

Not sure exactly what this, some species of sea rod, I believe

Common sea fan and more sea rods

The octopus!

Another view of the octopus

Rock beauty

Spanish hogfish

Swimming with Sharks

After our time in Guatemala and the Cayo District, we came back to the island for some beach time. We took several walks along the beach and spent a few afternoons lazing in hammocks, reading books, and downing a few cold ones. It was very relaxing.

However, my parents wanted to see the reef, and we wanted to show it to them! My mom wasn't too keen on snorkeling, so we booked a tour on a glass-bottomed boat and headed out to Hol Chan Marine Reserve and Shark Ray Alley. The boat had a long, clear glass bottom, and it was really cool to be able see the bottom for the entire trip out to the reef.

When we reached Shark Ray Alley, it didn't take long for the horse-eyed jacks to arrive, followed very shortly thereafter by the first nurse sharks, and then the southern and rough-tail stingrays. Although I have mixed feelings about the feeding of sharks and rays, I think it is likely a net benefit, because for the tour operators it makes a very clear connection between healthy, living sharks and their income. For the tourist, I think it is also a net benefit, because it provides a (mostly) safe way to get very, very close to these magnificent animals.

Earlier that morning Amy was called in to assist with a birth at the clinic where she volunteers. The birth went very smoothly for the mother and she gave birth to a healthy baby girl. While Amy was at the clinic, several people came in with severe reactions to jellyfish stings, which they received at Shark Ray Alley and Hol Chan.

Needless to say, this gave us all pause, but we decided to go for it anyway. I saw many, many jellyfish in the water, but they were fairly small, and not the Portuguese Man o' War that people thought they had run into. None of us got stung, but one of the other children on the dive was pretty freaked out by the prospect, and I think this was a bit contagious because after a few minutes in the water with the sharks Liam and Lochlan both got back on the boat. But while they were in the water, they seemed to have a great time swimming with the sharks and rays.

On our way out to the reef

The first sharks appear

In the water--with the sharks! (These are all harmless nurse sharks)

Blue tang

Horse eyed jack

That's a lot of sharks!

Southern stingray

Me and Dad

Amy and Mom take a selfie

At our next stop, Hol Chan, we swam out to a fairly deep passage through the reef, and saw lots of amazing fish. My favorite encounter was with a spotted eagle ray, which cruised around about 15-20 feet below us for several minutes before heading out past the reef. We also saw a very large green moray, and two sea turtles (I believe they were both green sea turtles).

Blue-striped grunts

Parrotfish

Green sea turtle

Spotted eagle ray

A fish's eye view from under the boat

After the snorkelers rejoined the boat, we passed over the reef and my folks got to see some of the coral and fish up close. Unfortunately the boat did not spend as much time as I expected over the reef, but I think it was enough for my parents to get a sense of the reef and just enjoy some time out on the water.

In addition to our beach lounging and reef excursion, my parents got to see Liam sail in an Opti (and we all learned that he was promoted from the beginner group to the B group!), eat at a genuine Salvadoran Pupuseria, and pay a visit to Palapa Bar and add some saguaros and mountains to the graffiti.

Pupusa time!

Mom even got help prepare the pupusas

Some of the colorful furniture we saw during our beach walk

The ladies enjoying a beverage on the upper deck of Palapa Bar

The lads enjoying a cold cerveza

Last day with Grandma and Grandpa!

The two weeks my parents were here absolutely flew by. We all enjoyed their company tremendously and we were sorry to see them go. But they are on to new adventures of their own--they just bought a new house on a golf course! I think they had a good time here in Belize, but they were also looking forward to returning to Phoenix and getting settled in the new house.

Exploring Barton Creek Cave and Mountain Pine Ridge

After our day trip to Tikal and Flores, we spent a mellow day in San Ignacio, exploring the town and shopping for souvenirs and presents. My favorite part of the day was the farmer's market, which is by far the largest I've seen in Belize. While Amy, the boys, and my folks explored the market, I purchased produce for our Christmas dinner and the coming week. The produce was plentiful and cheap! For example, bananas were 10 for $1 BZE--that works out to five US cents each.

Mom, Dad, and the boys at the market

Another view of the market, with one of the ubiquitous dogs

One of the many fruit and vegetable stands in the market

The pedestrian street in downtown San Ignacio

San Ignacio also has a pedestrian-only street, lined with little shops, restaurants, and vendors selling food from carts. It's really quite charming.

The next day we took a tour to the Barton Creek Caves and Mountain Pine Ridge. For the past several weeks Belize has experienced record rainfall, and Cayo District in particular suffered extensive flooding. Consequently, the ordinarily bad dirt roads were absolutely horrendous, to the point of near impassibility in some places. In order to get to Barton Creek Caves, we had to drive across a raging creek (that actually seemed more like a full-on river to me). The driver asked all of us to move to the back two rows of the van so the tires would remain in contact with the creek bed, then he gunned it--the water came up past the headlights! Fortunately we made it across without getting washed downstream, then we parked at a bridge that had been washed out during the flooding, and crossed the skeletal remains on foot before walking the rest of the way to the cave entrance. Just arriving at the cave was an adventure!

This is the "wake" created by our van, as seen from the rear windows

We need to get to the other side...

...so it's up and over!

We had a short safety briefing from our guide, Juan, before donning life jackets and splitting up into three canoes. The passenger in the bow of each canoe was provided with a very powerful spotlight, which was helpful, because after we paddled into the cave, it was quite dark. The creek was pretty wide throughout most of the cave, and we were able to proceed three abreast. In many places, the roof of the cave was very high, up to 60-70 feet, and covered with a wide variety of stalactites and many bats. In places the creek narrowed, and the ceiling lowered, until at one point, we had to bend nearly double to pass under a very low hanging portion of the cave before entering another chamber that was much larger.

Safety briefing. Mom looks worried.

Getting used to the boats before entering the cave

Checking out the view

Cool formations!

Another interesting stalactite formation

Bats!

The ceiling is getting lower and lower

Near the turn-around point

More cool formations

Ancient Mayan underworld cave canoe-trip selfie

Liam caught this cool gecko after lunch (we think it is a dwarf bark gecko)

Perched at intervals along the ledges of the cave were numerous pots, and at one point, we could clearly see a human skull. Juan explained that the skull was from the sacrifice of a young girl, and archaeologists suspect she was royalty because her forehead had been flattened and elongated (as was apparently the style among the Mayan elite).

About mid way through the cave, Juan asked us to turn out the lights, and it was astonishingly dark, literally pitch black. He asked us to imagine what it must have been like for the Mayans, in their dugout canoes, using only torches, with wild shadows dancing across the cave walls. It was easy to see why they believed the caves and cenotes were the Underworld--it really does feel like a different world in there.

Eventually we reached a point where the water was too high for us to continue into the cave system, and we had reached the limit of Mayan activity in any case, so we turned around and paddled back out.

We had a delightful lunch at the picnic tables outside the cave mouth, then reversed our exciting walk/shimmy/river crossing to get back on the road. On an especially steep uphill portion, we encountered another vehicle coming the other way, and our driver Ishmael had to stop our forward progress and pull of to the side of the road. As we continued upwards, the engine started struggling, the BOOM! Steam/smoke/etc started pouring out of the hood and we stopped dead in the middle of the road.

Boom! The puddle is the engine coolant.

Waiting in the shade, Amy is IDing a bird we saw

We retreated uphill a bit to a spot of shade and waited while Ishmael and Dad tried to sort out the problem. It turns out that engines don't like being submerged in (relatively) cold water and then worked super hard to get uphill, so the engine overheated and the radiator overflow tank blew its lid and we lost all of our coolant. By pouring all of our drinking water into the radiator after it had cooled, we were able to get up the hill to a Mennonite farm where they had clean water they gave us to top off the radiator.

Then we proceeded to Mountain Pine Ridge. This is a particularly interesting area of Belize, because it is at a relatively higher elevation and is covered with pine trees. At times I felt like I was in Flagstaff, or maybe just outside Spokane, except the undergrowth was significantly greener, and I saw a toucan flying between the pine trees! That was weird, but awesome.

The gang at the mouth of Rio Frio cave. They are the little tiny specks in the center-right of the image.

The boys and Ishmael in Rio Frio Cave

The condition of the road leading to Rio Frio cave. We did not try to drive on this.

Thatched roof hut under the pines. Weird.

Keel-billed toucan in the pine trees

Last stop for the day--Rio on Pools

We stopped at an amazing cave and hiked around it for awhile, then made a final stop at Rio on Pools, a beautiful stretch of river with multiple cascading pools. I think if it had been earlier in the day and the waters hadn't been raging so hard we would have gone swimming, but we were content to just look. Another spot we wanted to visit, 1,000 Foot Falls, was inaccessible because the road had totally washed out.

We made it back to San Ignacio around 7:00, which made for another long day, but the evening was quite pleasant and we drank some beers and ate pizza at the tables in Central Park while we listened to a school choir sing Christmas carols. It was a very memorable day.