the lagoon is huge, full of mangroves, lots of places to get lost. we started paddling around the edges looking for any spots that a crocodile could hide. i kept expecting to see eyes staring at me from the surface of the water and was somewhat disappointed that they weren't there waiting for us. all of the hotels in that area have crocodile crossing signs, and there's a bar called crocs, so of course they should be everywhere.
when we didn't see any right off we started paddling into the trees, having to pull the boat over the roots, getting stuck, backing out, trying again, still no crocs. we made our way for about an hour, sticky hot, soaking wet with awful sulphur smelling mud, looking for some land, maybe the crocs spend this part of the day relaxing under trees. so we kept paddling until we saw land, a few palm trees mixed in with the mangroves, and we pulled up and tried to get out. the first thing that happened was sinking a couple feet into mud and losing our shoes. took some time to dig them out but we walked as much as we could and no crocodiles.
very disappointing afternoon. we found an area that was being filled in, presumably to build a house, cement blocks marking off the area and tons and tons of sand must have been hauled in to fill it. we still sunk as we walked, although not as much, and no sign of crocodiles.
after a few hours we paddled back to the dock (took a few tries to find our way through the trees), went to the nearest bar, had a beer, and asked for directions to anywhere nearby that people regularly see crocodiles. we walked and walked and nothing.
i found out today that there's a guy somewhere on the island that does night tours to find crocodiles, everyone wears headlamps and you tromp through the mud. we might do that this week. finding them wasn't really on my to-do list, but now that i've tried and couldn't i think i have to.
went diving again this morning and as usual here it was epic. yes, i'm sure you're thinking that any day i'm not at work, screwing around somewhere, must be epic, but that's not always the case. (i'd say its only around 75% of the time).
our first dive was at tackle box. today its just me and john diving, rubin is our divemaster as always, and chuckie driving the boat. i'm the first one down and there are 5 sharks circling my legs. instantly i'm hoping that someone else gets down quick, they're just nurse sharks and i know they won't bother me but its hard to get used to that idea. one spends more time with me than the rest and it has a little injury, a circle of broken skin, about half way down its body. he's just cruising, checking me out, so beautiful.
the dive is pretty much like the rest, all sorts of amazing things, and we're heading back when rubin signals to look up, 6 giant bottle nose dolphins are headed our way. rubin takes out his regulator and free flows, making giant trails of bubbles that the dolphins are swimming in and out of, they're swimming between us, bumping each other, getting almost close enough to touch us but not quite. we spend about 5 minutes watching the dolphins play in rubin's bubbles and zipping around us before they head out. and then its time to go since rubin has no air left.
our surface interval is spent snorkeling part of the reef and even that is good. there are giant lobsters hiding in the rocks but i'm afraid to grab them without gloves. its ok to catch them here with a snorkel but scuba hunting is not allowed.
back on the boat its time to relax for another 20 minutes before our next dive. i find out that neither of the guys has been to the united states, although both of them have tried. chuckie has never left belize. rubin has applied for a visa several times and has always been denied, each time paying $300 that he didn't get back. to apply for a visa to the us or canada you pay the fee and have to show proof of employment, bank statements, travel arrangements, and have sponsors. only about 20% of the applicants get to go, which really surprised me considering how everything here is closely tied to the states. i thought they could come and go just like i could. but the belizean government was caught selling passports to liberians so the united states cut off travel for a while. now its just severely restricted.
our second dive was at a reef that didn't have a name, so i called it 'rubin's reef'. lots more of the same, which i don't think i can ever get tired of. the coolest thing about this dive was that after being out of the water for over an hour and travelling further down the reef the same nurse shark with the injury found us again. it was incredible. and he followed us for the entire time, just like earlier. he was always in sight, i just had to look around a little bit. rubin caught his fin and held him upside down in his arms to pet his belly, then john caught him, then john caught him again and passed him to me. i was holding a shark and rubbing his belly and he didn't even care.
if it wasn't so expensive here i could stay another few weeks and play in the water. i know there are so many other things to see but every time i'm in the water i can't imagine going anywhere else. but everything here is over my budget and i have to move on. i made plans to go to san ignacio on saturday, jungle hikes to ruins and cave tubing. it'll be at least a month till i'm back on the ocean and it makes me a little sad.
i just had dinner with chuckie (dollar tacos and belikin beer), he's originally from san ignacio and was giving me some ideas of what i should see. i also found out that john is headed to the same place on sunday, we even have reservations at the same bungalows. it'll be nice to have an adventure buddy for another few days, maybe we'll go jaguar hunting.
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| croc hunting |
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