Belize

It's been awhile since I have recapped on our travels but honestly its been the last thing on my mind with how much fun we have been having. Plus we had a big secret to keep... The past several months we knew Jes, Carson's sister, was going to Tulum, Mexico for her 30th Birthday at the end of October. We always planned to surprise her there but knew we were pushing our luck with it being the middle of hurricane season. When we arrived to Belize our travels got delayed a week or two due to a hurricane that was heading our way. We thought we were going to have to turn around and head back to Guatemala. I was NOT happy about this but it is the safest hurricane hole in the Caribbean. Turned out the hurricane turned and started heading towards Rio Dulce! We still got some pretty narly gusts from the bands but nothing we couldn't handle and wait out in Belize. We were still on track to surprise Jes so I had to turn my Find Penguins tracker off that way she would believe the BS we were telling her when we would catch up on the phone. Fortunately, the trustworthy sister believed everything we told her and her trustworthy husband kept the secret safe until the surprise weekend came. I will write about this in my Mexico recap next. :)

So back to Belize. Once we left Guatemala and entered Belizean waters we were sailing almost every other day, exploring new anchorages a couple times a week, seeing new island towns and saying hi to our fish friends on the reefs. We were able to visit Placencia, South Water Caye, Caye Caulker, Turneff Atoll and San Pedro. It felt so good to go spearfishing again!!!

The towns in Belize were by far the coolest island towns we have ever been to. They are TRUE island towns and people. We loved how there wasn't any high rises (except for in San Pedro) or huge resorts. Everything was wooden shacks with bright tropical colors and the roads were just sand. The people had a lazy, laid-back mentality. When we would ask them if they were excited for their towns season to begin, they would respond with an absolutely not. Haha. All they wanted to do was chill, hangout and drink some Belikin beers. It's nice to be somewhere where time isn't always a priority. Us Americans are always in a rush trying to do the next best thing or make more money. We are so guilty of this. These people are just plain simple. Happy with what they have.

We were so impressed with the clarity of the water in Belize. We dove a few reefs, one that was just absolutely beautiful. The coolest part was being surrounded by huge tarpon and permit and everywhere you looked there seemed to be eagle rays sweeping the ocean floors. They were so curious and would stick around during our whole dive.

Turneff Atoll was the only place we slayed the spearfishing! When we started our dive there was nothing. It was pretty and clear but there wasn't much reef. Then all the sudden we start seeing conchs. Not just a few, there were hundreds!! We scooped up 12 to stock up our freezer then we took off to the ledge to see if we could find some fish. RIght away, Carson nailed a hogfish and within 5 mintues i shot two huge black grouper! Carson shot one too but the spear tip went in and out of the fish. Bummer but really we had plenty of fish to eat...

We were in heaven. Only an hour or two dive and we loaded up the freezer with fresh seafood! It took us hours to clean all the conch and fish but we weren't bothered by it. Sunset was beautiful, we were the only boat in the anchorage and life couldn't get much better. While we were cleaning and cooking fish, a boat came up behind our boat. We couldn't see who it was because it was pitch black. It was the park rangers informing us that there is a daily per person fee to be there and that the whole area is a protected park. Oops... we had no idea. There is absolutely no information online about rules and regulations in Belize waters. You don't even need a fishing permit there! We had all of our dive equipment laying out to dry, Carson was at the fish cleaning station. We were caught red handed. Fortunately, they never asked if we caught anything but we knew they knew. They saw all our stuff laying out on the boat. We got lucky!! They were coming back the next morning to collect the park fees so at the crack of dawn Carson jumped in the water to scatter the conchs away from under the boat that way they couldn't see the shells. No wonder why we had the best day diving. Those fish are never hunted!

Belize was amazing and we will definitely be back to have more time there. A few weeks was definitely not long enough.Read more