The Beginning in Belize

September 1, 2008.... our journey begins.

Our first day could not have gone any smoother. The night before we left, we were listening to the news about hurricane Gustav and knew that we were flying through Texas to get to Belize. We knew the start of our trip was going to go one of two ways. Either, it would be a great story about how we completely missed the hurricane and everything went great, or, it would be a good story about how the first thing we did on our big venture was deal with a hurricane (before we ever even left the US). We are happy to report that our travel to Belize went like clockwork.






We are staying at Annie Seashore and Chocolate's guest hose. Chocolate is an island legend and local marine conservation guru. He just turned 79 and has worked for years to help teach the conservation efforts from the perspective that mining for natural resources is ok and needed for economic growth, but it needs to have guidelines and be regulated. Chocolate was filling in as host for his wife, Annie Seashore, who is in Bali this week on a buying trip for the shop she runs. We listened to him talk about his wife and conservation. His two main themes were, he loves his wife and that she doesn't take any crap from him and that conservation efforts have to come from the heart (mostly because there is no money in conservation).


The next day, we went on a manatee tour with Chocolate. He has been working for over thirty years to protect areas for the manatees. In 2003, Swallow Caye became a protected area. Manatees are an endangered species. This is mostly because they are completely docile animals and won't even fight back when attacked. People used to poach manatees for the meat, now they are more endangered because they get run over by boats. The tour started with a boat ride through a big storm cloud and heavy rain. It was great. It is really hot and humid here, and the rain was a welcome relief. After about ten minutes, we passed through the storm cloud and there was blue sky on the other side. We stopped at a couple of places and observed the manatees. When they spot a manatee, they cut the engine and use long poles to move the boat quietly in the water as to not scare the manatee. One manatee started playing with the pole in the water by pushing it around with it's nose and fins. It almost knocked Chocolate into the water.





During our day, Chocolate told us stores about meeting his wife, how he got the name Chocolate, when he saw his first manatee, and the conservation awards he has won. He was nicknamed Chocolate because he had a sweet tooth as a boy and he stole money from people to buy sweets particularly chocolate. He doesn't eat sweets anymore since he was diagnosed with cancer (six years ago and is doing great now). He saw his first manatee at age six off the coast in San Pedro where he grew up. He won a big award a couple of years ago which was the first time in his life he wore long pants and a necktie. The tour ended with a nice boat ride back to the island and a lesson from Chocolate on how the mangrove islands form and expand.





The next morning, we went to the local bakery to get something for breakfast and got stopped in our tracks due to road construction- Caye Caulker style. Road construction in Caye Caulker consists of an earth mover machine moving some sand around and a grater behind it to fill the potholes. Very amusing. There is almost no vehicles on Caye Caulker. The most popular mode of transportation is the golf cart and the bicycle. Shoes are optional on the island. With sand roads, many must live their whole lives without shoes.
















Thursday was spent on a sailing/snorkeling venture with a company called Raggamuffin Tours. There were about 12 of us on a ragamuffin looking sailboat and we went out for a day venture snorkeling and sailing. With Bob Marley booming on the stereo speaker and promises of rum punch for later in the day, we took off. Our first snorkeling stop was called coral garden. There is a manatee that has been hanging out there for a while. Apparently it is his turtle grass spot of choice. Lucky for us, the manatee was indeed hanging out in this spot. We swam near him and he really didn't look too bothered for us. I, on the other hand, would not enjoy an audience when I am just trying to eat. But, the friendly and accommodating manatee swam around for a couple of minutes, gave us good views of him from all angles and then swam off. Very cool. we snorkeled around for a few minutes more and saw about a dozen squid and a variety of reef fish.

Our next snorkeling spot was shark/ray alley. It is in the Hol Chan marine reserve, so the area has been protected from fishing for about thirty years. However, there has been no regulation on how many boats can go to the area each day and about feeding the animals, so there is definitely some room for improvement from the conservation side. Even before our guide threw in some bait, the nurse sharks and rays appeared by the boat, ready for their snack. It was cool to see, but not being fans of the way the area was maintained, it was bitter-sweet. Our third stop was spectacular from a reef and fish perspective. We saw lots of turtles, more nurse sharks (very tame, harmless sharks), we saw big groupers, snappers, barracuda, triggerfish, parrotfish, and even a moray eel. There were large schools of all kinds of fish which was great to see. It was however, very crowded which was a little concerning.

We had dinner for the second night at Frann's Grill. It is, in our opinion, the best food on the island (of the few places we've sampled). Frann is a nice island lady who runs the place. It is a little hut on the beach, and every evening at 6:30pm, she puts out two picnic tables, and lights up the charcoal grill. The first night, when deciding whether or not to eat there, I said to Larry "smells good" and Frann replied, "it tastes even better." and she was indeed correct.



Today is our last full day on the island. We took out one of Chocolate's kayaks for the morning and went around the island. We both feel very attached to our friend Chocolate. He's been our companion all week as we come and go from our room. He has had quite an impact on us.

Caye Caulker as a place is an interesting place. The population is about 1300 people, but only 700 are considered locals (by the locals). It is a poor island for the most part, but it is also this big tourist stop (especially on the backpacker circuit). Almost every building is trying to sell something. Most restaurants seem like they are somebody's house with a sign out front that they will make food for you as well, or sell you juice, or rent a kayak, or a golf cart, etc. There are three Internet shops on this tiny island, and for a fairly low tech feel, almost every store has a computer sales system. There are a lot of kids on the island, and as more than one person has said, it must be a great place for kids. Kids come and go when they want as there is no traffic or harm for them to get into. They ride their bikes (sometime two to a bike) to and from school and home for lunch. With such a small population, everyone knows everything about everybody, so crime is not an issue and kids can roam the island with little care.

All in all, Caye Caulker was a great first stop. We slept a lot, played in the sun, and are starting to get into the travel mode. We have packed and repacked our things, done laundry in the sink, and are starting to get into some kind of routines. We are excited and ready for the next part of our venture.



NEXT STOPS:

Here is our current travel agenda in two parts- the next few weeks and then a general outline of the trip as a whole....

LITTLE PICTURE
Next week we go to a little island off of Punta Gorda, Belize. We are going to be doing marine
conservation diving for a week through an organization called Reef Conservation International (Reef CI). Larry found out about this place from some friends in the Seychelles. We are on the island Mon-Fri diving and counting fish. It is a remote island (no TV, Internet, phones, etc). We will be spending a couple of nights before and after in a house in Punta Gorda owned and operated by Reef CI.

Next, we fly via Miami to Lima, Peru. We are one day in Lima and then fly to Cusco. We are joining a GAP (Great Adventure People) program and will do the Lars trek and visit Maccu Pichu. We have a few more days in Cusco and then we will spend about a week in Manu National Park which is near the headwaters of the Amazon. Then we do a short trip out and back to Easter Island before we head south to visit the Patagonia region.

BIG PICTURE (all dates and locations subject to change, but probably not by much)
Oct 5-16 Torres del Paine, Patagonia, Chile
Oct 16-23 Bariloche, Argentina
Oct 24-27 San Francisco, CA
Oct 28- Nov 4 Patagonia region, El Chalten, El Calafate
Nov 4-6 Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina
Nov 6-17 Boat trip to Antarctica
Nov 17-28 Buenos Aires and Iguazu Falls
Nov 28-Dec 3 Paris and London
Dec 4-7 Nairobi, Kenya
Dec 8- Jan 4 GVI project Ziwa Rhino Reservation in Uganda
Jan 4-9 Gorilla Camp, Bwindi, Uganda
Jan 10-20 Arusha, Tanzania and climb Kilimanjaro
Jan 21-28 Tanzania Safari
Jan 29-Feb 3 Zanzibar, Tanzania
Feb 5-22 GAP tour Ethiopia
Feb 24-March 28 India
March 29-April 4 Maldives
April 6-April 15 Bhutan
April 16-May 7 Nepal
May 8-May 12 Hong Kong
May 12-25 China
May 25-June 14 Mongolia
June 15-July 16 Australia
July 16-August 8 New Zealand

So, pick a spot and come join us! We'd love to see you on the road. D&L

NOTE:
A little shout out to the DANA. DANA is a word processor mini device that runs on AA batteries. This way, we can write at our leisure and just use the internet cafe's to post our blog when we can...