A week or so ago we went to Belize for a 3 1/2 day scuba trip. The trip was through Reef Conservational International, a non-profit organization based out in the Sapodilla cays. We have been signed up for this trip for months and were excited to blow bubbles again. The trip started with collectivo van ride to Puerto Barrios. Collectivo vans are 15 passenger vans that they regularly stuff over 30 passengers in; people are sitting on each other, standing hunched over, hanging out the door, and sometimes even sitting on the top luggage rack:
It's a cheap way to travel though. Luckily for us, it was a Sunday so the van wasn't too crowded and we each got our own seat. After checking out of Guatemala immigration, we bought tickets for the water ferry over to Belize's Punta Gorda. Calling it a ferry is a little grandiose, it's really just a launch with padded seats and a big motor. They also carry goods between Guatemala and Belize, making it one of the world's smallest international cargo ships:
An hour ride later, we got to Punta Gorda, found a taxi (not easy in a little town on a Sunday), and went out to our B&B for the night.
The next morning we went back into town where we met our group for the week. I felt a little old; except for one other woman in her 50's, the rest of the group were all 20 something's. As it turned out, our 30+ years of diving experience made up for their youth and vigor and we were able to keep up with the "kids" :-).
Reef CI is located on a tiny island on the outer barrier reef, about 25 miles from the mainland of Belize. The entire island is about the size of a football field. There are several buildings, a few sleeping huts, a dock, and lots of palm trees:
The accommodations are "rustic", but everything is provided and a nice taste of the islands.
After dropping our bags and a quick lunch, we headed out for the first of many dives. Here's Tom in his Zen diving mode:
The coral around the islands was very healthy but the fish population has been impacted by the invasion of the Lionfish.
Lionfish are strikingly beautiful but voracious eaters with no local predators, and strip the reef of juvenile native species of fish and crustaceans wherever they have spread. The Caribbean diving and marine scientific community is very concerned about their impact. Every dive we went on a couple of people would take down spear guns and "get" as many lionfish as they can, but I am afraid it's too little. We can only hope that some native species evolves (quickly) to realize how tasty these are and starts to control the population.
It was pretty much eat/sleep/dive for the 3 1/2 days! Reef CI does a lot of monitoring the reef for specific species that gauge the health of the reef. We learned about a few new species, like these Flamingo Tongues:
The plan is to cast off our dock lines tomorrow (Feb 4th) then leave the Rio on Thursday with the high tide. As it looks right now we'll probably have to be "tipped" to get over the bar. We're both very nervous about that, hopefully we'll be able to plow through the mud like we did when we got in, but this isn't as high a tide :-( Everyone on Thursday late afternoon cross your fingers for luck.
Cheers,
Carolynn & Tom
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