Continue reading »]]> Wednesday was a very slow day. All of us – me, the Hubby, Noelle and Dave – were feeling a bit ill from Tuesday night’s dinner. We think it was the slow-cooked black beans – they were undercooked and I found a couple of websites warning about the toxin phytohaemagglutinin that is found in some beans. Whatever it was, there was trouble in paradise, and we spent much of the day lounging about the house and teasing Noelle about poisoning us.

By late afternoon we were all feeling better and so we ventured out to The Split for some food and swimming. The Split is the north point of Caye Caulker, and the party destination for tourists and islanders alike. We grabbed some food and drinks from the Lazy Lizard Bar. I had the house special, a Lizard Juice. Don’t ask me what was in it – it was frozen and alcoholic and it turned my tongue bright green, so I hear.

The snorkeling at the Split was kind of magnificent. There is a bunch of concrete and wood in the water that the fish have turned into nursing grounds. There were the ever-present grunts, but also parrotfish, tang, wrasse and a myriad of other brightly-hued fish.

Never one to sit still for long, on the way back from The Split I signed up for a night snorkeling trip and Dave decided to join me. The sun sets early in Caye Caulker, at least relative to Minneapolis. The sun was hitting the horizon at about 6pm and it was dark by 7pm. We boarded the French Angel snorkel boat with our captain and guide, Ash, at about 6:15pm and took a five minute ride out to the barrier reef. We were snorkeling at Coral Gardens, which is part of the Caye Caulker Marine Reserve, and one of the sites that I had snorkeled last Saturday.

A snorkeler prepares to enter the water against a partially cloudy dusk sky.

I was a wee bit irrationally scared about snorkeling at night. The ocean is so big and it holds so many creatures that can move very quickly, and many of them have bigger and sharper teeth than I do. The idea of being underwater and unable to see outside a narrow beam of light was nervewracking. I was fairly certain we were going to wake the Kraken, but Dave assured me that the Kraken was on the other side of the reef “in the blue”. So no Kraken at least. Probably.

Ash gave each us extremely bright, waterproof flashlights and we entered the water. Due to the low lighting and the choppy surface (i.e., inability to hold the camera still), it was extremely hard to get in-focus photographs. And the videos are just meh. I do have a pretty good 20 seconds of a huge lobster scuttling across the sandy bottom between reefs, but I failed to turn the recorder off when I thought I did, so right now I’m stuck with 20 seconds of lobster and about 23 minutes and 40 seconds of a wild shakey cam of blackness punctuated by the occasional flash of light. So…that one will be waiting until I get it home and edited. But here are a couple of cool, vaguely spooky photos:

Our ghostly guide leads us forward across the sandy ocean floor toward the reef. You can see our flashlight beams at the bottom of the photo, and the underside of the ocean surface can be seen at the top because Ash is gesturing us forward with his flashlight above the water.

Three of our headlights focus on a small grouping of coral. We’re on the lookout for shrimp, lobsters, active spiny urchins, slumbering parrotfish, and the big prize: Octopus! 

It was freaky jumping into the water, especially since I had seen the giant (baby) tarpon that like to swim around under Dave and Noelle’s dock light at night. I had an aversion to turning on my flashlight for fear of attracting fish to us. And then I remembered that that’s kind of what we wanted. And we did! We had literally hundreds of tiny blue iridescent minnows (sardines?) circling around us. They were so thick it was hard to see through them at times!

We didn’t see any octopus that night, but we did see all of those other fish and crustaceans that we were looking for. It was amazing to watch the plant-like spiny urchin inch across the corals, and the beady eyes of lobsters glowed out at us from crevices in the coral. At one point we all turned out our flashlights and watched the reef explode in fireworks of bioluminescence. It wasn’t as bright as the photos I find online of “underwater bioluminescence” or “ocean bioluminescence” – as our eyes adjusted we began to see thousands of small flashes of light come into existence and quickly disperse in a never-ending riot. Near the coral heads, what looked like glowing strings of dim lights stretched from the coral to the surface of the water. It was awesome and disturbing to have that previously invisible world take shape all around us and then disappear again when we turned on our lights.

And then I noticed that I was freezing. I wasn’t skin cold, I was penetrated with coldness. But it was a good time to notice because the snorkel was over and it was time to head back. But getting out the water into the chilly wind was worse by multitudes.

It was an unforgettable experience, and now I think I’m ready to tackel the night scuba dive!

Continue reading »]]> Cross-Country Connections is a Biodork weekly blog entry dedicated to telling stories in pictures of three family members – me, my sister and Mom – living in very different locations across the country. Every week we choose a different theme and then take or contribute a personal photo that fits the theme. This week’s theme is Market.

This week Brianne is in Belize, not her usual city of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Also, Mom will not be participating this week.

From Erin in Takoma Park, Maryland:

Who needs a market, when I’ve got wild strawberries growing in my backyard?

From me in Caye Caulker, Belize:

There are three north-south streets on Caye Caulker: Front, Middle and Back Street. Front Street is party central – this is where all of the vendors lay out their wares in the hopes that happy tourists will purchase trinkets and souvenirs of their vacation. You will also find hotels, grocery stores and pedal carts with fresh fruits, baked goods and hot snacks.

]]> http://freethoughtblogs.com/biodork/2013/05/14/cross-country-connections-market/feed/ 0 http://freethoughtblogs.com/biodork/2013/05/12/belize-zoo-and-cave-tubing/ http://freethoughtblogs.com/biodork/2013/05/12/belize-zoo-and-cave-tubing/#comments Sun, 12 May 2013 23:46:57 +0000 Brianne Bilyeu http://freethoughtblogs.com/biodork/?p=10217

Continue reading »]]> Tuesday was our second day of exploring the mainland. The Hubby, Dave and I took the water taxi in to Belize City and then met up with Jason again to go to the Belize Zoo and cave tubing. The zoo was our first stop.

The Belize Zoo is unique in that all of the animals are native to Belize, and are not fit to live in the wild – they’ve either been injured or abandoned or raised in captivity. For example, some people think that ocelet kitties are cute and fun pets…and then the kitties turn into big cats and become more than they can handle. So it’s part refuge/part educational facility. The signs for the animals are all hand-painted and deliver messages to the public about the animals. They work to dispel myths (such as harpy eagles do NOT eat human babies) and raise awareness about the environment and human-wildlife-environment interactions.

The cages provided a photography challenge: the mesh was very large, so unless the animals were farther away I couldn’t do that cool depth of field trick to blur out the cage. The animal environments were also very much geared to the animals – lot of hidey places out the gaze of prying tourist eyes and their annoying cameras. But we managed to find a few of them.

The paths between animal enclosures were either fine gravel or concrete. All of the enclosures were separated by forest brush and trees.

One of the three harpy eagles in this massive enclosure. The sign next to the harpy eagles reads:

 It would NEVER happen / Never not maybe! /  A harpy eagle would never steal away a baby! / These mighty birds eat coatis with glee / A [unreadable - Kinkslou?], too, is on the harpy menu / But never ever the human species! (Harpies eagles are very rare. Respect them! Protect them!) UPDATE: Thanks to help in the comments from psweet and Noelle, the previously unreadable word is “Kinkajou”.

Sign reads:

…We crocs have a cerebellum! /  That’s the part of the brain / Where emotions do reign! / We crocs feel and have fears… / And cry real crocodile tears! / So treat us kind / in the wild! And in the zoo! / ‘Cause just like yourself… / Belize is our home too!

Crocodile with mouth open.

Jabiru Stork (Jabiru mycteria)

This darling is a Margay, or tiger cat (Tigrillo in Spanish) – Leopardus weidi

Sign reads:

I’m a white-lipped pecarry! & don’t pet me! / ’Cause can bite off your hand… / so easily!

A peccary foraging in the forest floor debris.  

Collared Aracari Toucan. Its sign read:

I’m a Collared Aracari Toucan / And beloved in Belize /  I can be yours forever… / If you don’t take away my trees!

These two keel-billed toucans were staring intently at a group of school children. 

Look – I found a jaguar!

A large iguana enjoys a lunch of fruits. I don’t know what kind of bird this is; it was a wild volunteer in an open-top cage designated for the tapir. But it was lovely! UPDATE:Thanks to psweet for identifying this bird as a Plain Chachalaca.

A tapir! This large enclosure housed many tapir and was called “Tapir Town”.

Another tapir happily and messily munches on sliced fruits.

Red Brocket Deer (Mazama americana) 

Monkey!

A very friendly parakeet.

That was our zoo visit. We bought some water and a few trinkets from the gift shop, and then we met Jason in the parking lot. He drove us to a nearby outfitter that sends visitors out into the jungle with guides to one of the many cave entrances. Our guide led us on a hot 20-minute, sweat and sunscreen in your eyes while you haul a heavy tube along hike, but we did get to cross a few rivers along the way, and the clear, cool, freshwater pool that we had a chance to swim in when we arrived made it all worth it.

The Hubby hiking across a river on the way to the cave.

The clear blue pool that we swam in before the start of tubing. I’m in the background about to dive into a 15-foot deep area of the river. 

Past the tubes in the center of the photo is the opening of the cave. 

The mouth of the cave from inside of the cave.

Here’s a short video of our entrance into the cave. The guide explains a bit of Mayan lore and I dorkily fiddle with my headlight at the end.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndw-IkLlpUU

A waterfall inside a cavernous opening within the cave. Me in my tube in front of a magical-feeling opening in the cave. The photo doesn’t do it justice. Brilliant sunlight streamed into the cave and the lush forest puntuated by earthen columns was visible beyond.

Leaving the cave – we ventured into Xibalba and left in one piece (well, three of us, so three pieces)!Me, happy to be out of the tube and swimming free in the water! 

Our host, Dave, floating down the river.

Thoughts on the cave tubing: We tubed at a time of the year when the water is very low and calm. It was so calm, in fact, that for the majority off the journey there was no current, which meant we had to awkwardly paddle ourselves through the cave with our arms. It was awe-inspiring to be in the massive, black cave but it was a bit sedate of an experience for me. I wasn’t expecting white water rapids or anything, but for my part I enjoyed the swimming much more than the tubing.

After tubing Jason drove us to a nearby restaurant called Amigos in La Democracia, where I had nachos and a purple gin and tonic. We got back to Belize City in time for a 4:30pm water taxi to Caye Caulker. Noelle, our other host, was waiting for us with yummy slow-cooked black beans, corn tortillas, sour cream, cheese, salsa and chips. It was so delicious! Unfortunately, the beans ended up giving us all food poisoning, but that’s a story for another blog.

Continue reading »]]> One of the goals of the trip was to visit some ruins. We had plenty of options: Altun-Ha, Caracol, Cerros, Xunantunich – and those are just a few of the ruins that are known in Belize.

We ended up visiting Lamanai, an archeological site in Orange Walk District (northern Belize) that was occupied between the 16th century BCE to 17th century CE, with its heyday occurring several hundred years before and after the start of the Common Era.

Our trip started with a 45 minute water taxi from Caye Caulker to Belize City with Dave and Noelle.

Once we were in Belize City we met up with Jason, a local guide that Dave and Noelle use for a lot of their business on the mainland. Jason loaded us into his car and drove us about an hour north to our tour with Reyes and Sons, which is located on the New River pretty close to one of John McAfee’s compounds (now that’s a juicy, odd story).

The river ride was my favorite part of the trip because I got to get my birding on, and the tour guide – who is a fisherman to supplement his income – was also big into the river life. We saw kingfishers, diving birds, little brown birds and so many different raptors. I’m going to save most of my birding photos for after the trip when I can do some photo-editing, but here are a few shots from the river that turned out pretty well straight “out of the box”. 

A juvenile night heron makes a daytime appearance.

A great blue heron takes flight above the lilies. 

A great black hawk at rest on a tree limb above the river. 

This is a banana orchid. If you look closely you can see tiny ants crawling all over the flowers. These stinging ants share a symbiotic relationship with the orchid. The ants protect the orchid from plant-eating creatures, while the orchid provides shelter and nectar for food.

Jesus Christ! No really, this is a Northern Jacana, a brown and yellow lilypad walker, which is also called a Jesus Christ bird because it appears to walk on water. 

A hawk rests on a post in front of a Mennonite community. The Mennonites have a well-documented history in Belize (here’s a short version by e-how). The more progressive sects use some mechanized farm equipment, which might explain why I saw two Mennonites boarding a … I shit you not…. a jetski. That’s right, I saw Mennonites on a jetski. I win all the things.A kingfisher perches on a tree branch. 

A river fisherman shows off his catch. 

A black-collared hawk in flight. 

Red wing blackbirds flitting among the tall grass and bushes. 

A crocodile! Lamanai is named from the Yucatec Maya word Lama’anayin, which means “submerged crocodile”.

Cormorants gathered on a rocky outcropping.

We arrived at a dock by the Lamanai archeological site. We walked past some gift shops and then started into the jungle where we saw MOAR wildlife!

Heliconiaceae, otherwise known as a lobster claw flower. Linneated woodpecker searching for grubs – mmmm, yummy!

A brown jay perched in a tree. 

Walking through the jungle toward the ruins.

We arrived at the first temple after about ten minutes of walking through the jungle. An interesting bit of information from our guide was that we had been walking through the city for most of the trek. In what seems to be a recurring theme, the people of Lamanai destroyed the environment in the name of progress. They eliminated the rainforest and built a city of concrete, which led to some pretty serious consequences such as extended droughts and elmination of the forest that had provided food and medicines. The rainforest that we were in was mostly new growth that appeared after Lamanai was abandoned. 

The Mask Temple 

The Hubby and I in front of the mask temple.

High Temple – the second of the temples we saw. Most of the group decided to climb up the temple stairs. That sounded way to much like work, so I volunteered to be the official ground-level photographer. The Hubby, however, was feeling adventurous. Seeing this photo – taken from the base of the temple – made me even happier with my decision to relax at the bottom.

The Hubby also took a video of the jungle and river from atop High Temple:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHn_–3PgIA

A kitchen that was used to prepare meals for the king, his dozens of wives, multitudes of children, servants, et cetera et cetera.

At the “kitchens” ruins our guide spoke a little about the ritual human sacrifices that were performed by the people of Lamanai. Sacrifice was considered an honor, and only the best offerings were given to the gods. In sports competitions, the winner was sacrificed and assured a great afterlife, while the loser was stuck here. The best of the king’s sons were often first to be sacrificed during ceremonies. Even the King himself was bled, sometimes to the point of death, for the sake of his people. The gorey details: the priests would take a string ray barb and pierce the king’s fleshy parts, including the tongue and penis, and then they’d take the damn thing and move it back and forth to increase blood flow. Yeeee-ouch!

Jaguar Temple 

One of the two jaguars constructed at the base of the temple. 

After seeing the Jaguar temple we walked back to the gift shops and covered pavillions and enjoyed a homemade lunch prepared by the mother of our guide!

Stew chicken, red beans and rice,a cabbage-based salad, a potato salad and freshly-cut pineapple.

The boat ride back was fairly quiet. We were all tired from the hike through the warm jungle forest and we didn’t stop to look at the wildlife on the return trip. I left Lamanai with the humbling reminder that this planet ain’t all about us. There were people and civilizations before us, and if we get our act together, there will be people and civilizations after us.

******************

A quick note: everything that I wrote about Lamani is second-hand information from the local guide of the ruins, recalled from memory. If anyone knows more about Lamanai or sees something that looks wrong, let me know in the comments!

Continue reading »]]> FINALLY!

I was able to slip into scuba gear on Sunday. Dave and I signed up for the “Esmerelda” tour off of Ambergris Caye. According to the divemaster, Esmerelda is unique for its coral formations and wildlife – there are a bunch of finger-like protrusions that we swam over. During our two dives we were at 70 and 60ft, respectively, but the crevices went down much deeper.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

I’m a novice recreational diver. Prior to Belize I had nine dives under my belt, and that includes the four certification dives that I took at Square Lake near Stillwater, Minnesota. I did four dives in Cozumel, which was similiar to the conditions I was expecting on Sunday, in terms of depth, visibility and temperature. And I most recently dove in the shallow, murkey, cold water of Rosario Beach in northern Washington State. That dive was in July of 2011, so it had been over a year since the last time I used scuba gear.

To prepare I reviewed my scuba textbook on the morning of the dive: buddy communication, basic breathing advice, air density at pressure, nitrogen narcosis and the bends, equipment, and dive tables. I looked up my old dives to remember how much weight to use on my belt. At 8:30am I gathered my c-card, fins, mask, snorkel and sunscreen, and Dave I rode down to Frenchie’s Dive Shop on Front Street.

We checked in with little fuss; Frenchie’s was thorough and professional in the information they gathered before assigning us gear. We put our BCDs and regulators on the tanks they gave us, tested the air flow and checked tank pressure. Then we boarded the boat and rode for 25 minutes out to the first dive site. About five minutes from our site, the boat stopped and the divemaster went over The Rules – descend with our buddy, meet at the bottom, then follow him. If you start to run low on air, ascend 10-15 feet, but stay with the group until the end of the tour if possible. Never go deeper or in front of him. Don’t touch nothin.

The dive staff helped us into our gear, then we did rolling entries into the water. I situated my mask and regulator, found my buddy and then we started down.

I have no photos for this trip. My underwater camera only has a depth of 23ft, and we were diving 70ft. I didn’t even bring it with. There was also no videographer/photographer with the dive staff, so no photos. Which is a shame because we saw some crazy awesome wildlife. As a concilation prize, I’ve linked to images from wikipedia or other sites that have pictures of the animals I saw.

One of the first things we saw as we descended were a bunch of very large nurse sharks. They were dark-colored and moved through the water with the slow grace that only a shark has. We were surrounded by fish of all sizes, shapes and colors. The reef rose up not too far from where we started. During the descent I felt a calm surround me and the magic of breathing underwater was as brilliant as I remembered from previous dives.

We had a small group – only eight of us altogether – and everyone was diving like the certified open water divers we were - everyone equalized well, there was no hyperventilators or trouble with buoyancy. There were also no braggerts or daredevils, which makes everything easy and happy.

We started by diving between two “fingers” of the reef. A morey eel came out to greet us, and not too long after we saw our first spotted eagle ray. We swam over a wall of the reef and saw a green turtle! We had nurse sharks with us at every turn, and saw huge parrotfish, angelfish and grouper. And then the gem of the dive: We saw Great A’Tuin.

Okay – it wasn’t A’Tuin (I didn’t see the elephants, that’s how I know), but it was the biggest damn loggerhead turtle that I have ever seen in my life. It was about the same length as me (I’m 5’7″) and its head was bigger than mine. I didn’t even spare us a glance as it glided by and over the reef. We continued on and when we ascended I still had 900 psi left in my tank – not bad for not having dove in over a year!

After the first dive we came into dock at San Pedro on Ambergris Caye, which is just north of Caye Caulker where we’ve been staying. Dave and I had some soda and juice at the Tacklebox bar while the dive staff switched in fresh tanks. After being on the surface for about 30 minutes, everyone lumbered back onto the boat and we rode about five minutes to our next site. It was pretty similar to the first, and not quite as good. We saw a couple more spotted eagle rays and the nurse sharks again, but I found the more interesting thing to be the landscape itself. We were stuck at 60ft for this dive, but the reef was much deeper than that, and I wanted to go down there! I wanted to explore the walls of the reef, and ever since I was a little tot swimming in the pool I’ve had a fascination with touching the bottom, which was not on the menu for this dive *pout*.

On the ride home we had a dolphin encounter! The captain spotted three dolphins and slowed the boat to a crawl. The dolphins started playing in front of the prow and jumping out of the water. Bonus!

I want more! I’ll have to check with Frenchie’s to see what other dives they have going out this week.

Continue reading »]]> Cross-Country Connections is a Biodork weekly blog entry dedicated to telling stories in pictures of three family members – me, my sister and Mom – living in very different locations across the country. Every week we choose a different theme and then take or contribute a personal photo that fits the theme. This week’s theme is Smile.

This week Brianne is in Belize, not her usual city of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

From me in Caye Caulker, Belize:

I’ve seen a few SpongeBob references here in Belize, and this is definitely the goofiest smile that I’ve seen on the island while I’ve been here.

From Erin in Takoma Park, Maryland:

A Jacob sheep, seen at this past weekend’s Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. This multi-horned beast is guaranteed to make you smile.

From Mom in Carbondale, Illinois:

Don at Brianne’s shower and wedding weekend.

Continue reading »]]> On Saturday I wasn’t quite scuba-diving ready; still a bit congested - but I was starting to salivate over the nearby barrier reef. From Dave and Noelle’s veranda you can see the waves breaking over the reef in the distance. I wanted to get into the water! So we decided to start slow – a snorkel one day and then a dive.

We ended up booking two tours on Friday night: a dive for Sunday (on the hope that I’d be well enough to go) and tickets for a Saturday 10:30am half-day snorkel trip to the Caye Caulker Marine Reserve from French Angel Expeditions. Our guide for the snorkel was Ash and he was pretty awesome.

French Angel Expeditions snorkel shop

We arrived at the shop at 9:45am, paid up and then walked a short distance from the shop to Ash’s boat on the east side of the island. He threw in a couple of stops that I wasn’t aware we would be doing. The first was to look for sea horses by one of the docks. We came up short there, but our next stop was more productive: tarpon!

A tarpon swoops above the surface. Tarpon are big game fish, but protected. No eating!

Our first snorkel stop was Coral Gardens. This was my favorite location because it was the deepest area – maybe 25 feet deep. We eventually moved into VERY shallow reef, which wasn’t as fun for me; the fish are smaller, the water is hotter and I become very self-concious about not letting my clumsy human body interact with the fragile coral. But we did see some pretty cool fish while we were at Coral Gardens and I had a chance to try out our new underwater camera! 

The Hubby puts on fins before jumping into the water. 

Grouper

Gray Angelfish 

This tour guide was gutsy. The wavey fish is a green morey eel and its nabbing fish that the guide has stuffed into a conch shell.  

Trunkfish

HUGE pufferfish! This guy was about half a foot across at the head and about a foot and a half long. 

Blue Tang 

Not sure…one to look up for later.

Our next stop was Shark & Ray Village. This was a no-fin swim. We got out of the boat into about four feet of water. French Angel had some chum and drew hordes of sting rays and nurse sharks to the boat. They would swim by us and their smooth skin would brush against our ankles and shins.

Doesn’t this just scream SWOOSH!? 

A nurse shark and several rays compete for chum. 

A big barracuda looks on from near by the ray and shark chumfest.

Our last snorkel stop was The Swash, a shallow area of reef formations that we were encouraged to explore. I found this area to be much too shallow for my taste, but I did see some fun stuff while we were there.

A handful of fish hide on one side of coral.

A mid-size barracuda, 

Coral just below the water surface. 

Our guide called this a sea egg anemone. It looks furry and was about the size of a small cantalope.

I haven’t found a name for this guy, but he sure was pretty! 

A different kind of trunkfish, maybe?

I took a short video of a parrotfish swimming over some coral. It’s shakey, but you get the idea and the audio sounds neat. In all of the excitement I only remembered to take this one! If we go snorkeling again, I’ll definitely remember to get more video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xntD0905J80

One sucky thing did happen while we were out. At one point during the dive I felt a hot sting on my chest, right under my left armpit. I pulled the suit away from my body and tried to rinse the area; I didn’t see anything and the skin wasn’t red. I finished the rest of the dive, but when I got out of the water it started to feel like I was getting bitten at random intervals at different spots all over my body, including under my fingernails, on my tongue and…well, let’s just say everywhere . It was the weirdest sensation and very uncomfortable. Noelle said it might be pika-pika, which people tend to complain a lot abouton the island. She said the sensation usually subsides after a night’s rest. I don’t know if it was really pika-pika, which is caused by the larvae of thimble jellyfish around here, because I never had a rash (which is typical).

I tried to nap, but then the pinches were all I could focus on. I walked the dogs with Noelle, and that was a little better, but every minute or so I’d be squirming in pain at the newest “bite”. Finally I decided the only solution was to get drunk and pass out. Noelle made me a big rum drink, then I made myself another, then we headed up the beach to drink at a fancy bar with wooden stools. Yeah, by that time its name was The Fancy Bar With Wooden Stools.

We came home later and I fell into a deep sleep; mission accomplished.The next morning my chest still stung at the site of what I think was the initial sting, but I wasn’t having the all-over biting sensation. Which was good, because as soon as I woke up I started packing for our scuba dive.

Continue reading »]]> I woke up on Friday feeling better – still with a head full of snot, but not tired, no joint weakness, and a normal appetite. Our hosts had to run into Belize City for the morning, so the Hubby and I decided to walk into town and explore the north end of the island. We walked up the front path that runs along the beach. There are a bunch of seaside resorts, rental homes and hostels that way and we eventually passed by the water taxis and popped up in “downtown” Caye Caulker. We saw a number of interests plants and animals along the way.

A plover strolls along the shore.

Nearly ripe sea grapes 

Big garobos 

Rickety dock is picturesque. 

Crab!

Great Blue Heron in the sea by the shore.

While we are in town, the Hubby stops to look at hand crafted Mayan calendars.

We stopped for breakfast at a place called Brisas del Mar. The hubby had some pancakes and eggs, and I had a spinach, onion and mushroom omelete. And we sat here while we ate:

Red wooden benches and umbrellas situated among palm trees by the Carribean Ocean.

We continued our way north until we hit “The Split”. The local storytelling goes that Hurricane Hattie ripped the island asunder in 1961, but most people will admit that the Split is mostly an effect of dredging. The Split allows boats to travel from the east and west sides of the island very easily.

 Le moi at the The Split

The Split is as far north as you can walk on Caye Caulker, so we turned around and meandered our way back south. Along the way we found more wildlife and interesting sights:

A hummingbird at rest on a power line! 

An orange finch-looking bird  who’s name I’ll figure out later.

Birds enjoying a nice meal of rotten fruit. 

Drinking is fun. 

Belizean Grumpy Cat City Council meeting notice affixed to a local grocery store. 

Sweet Dr. Seussian flower that that totally looks like one of those LED toys.

We got back to the cottage and met up with our hosts. The we took our bikes back into the village to run a few errands. Before coming home, the Hubby and I had lunch at Rainbow Bar and Grill, an outdoor restaurant that sits over the water. I tried grilled conch, which is in season right now. I didn’t really enjoy the texture, which is very tough, or the taste, which I found fishy. But I tried it.

Rainbow Bar and GrillGrilled conch with butter and garlic. Creamy cole slaw and a cone of rice and beans. 

The Hubby with his strawberry daiquiri. I had a pina colada AND a mojito. Because that’s how you know it’s a tropical paradise.

We got back home just in time for the start of the weekly “Jam”. Every Friday on Caye Caulker, people gather to listen to live music, dance, drink and hang out. I was feeling pretty worn out by this time, so I passed, but The Hubby and our host, Dave, went into town to take part in the jam. The Hubby brought back this photo:

People milling around at bar while the band plays.

As for me? I went snorkeling in the ocea in front of the cottage. It was a very productive swim – I saw a bunch of fish under the dock, and then I found three treasures in the grass: a puffer fish, a large orange starfish and THIS GUY:

This photo happens to be from Wikipedia, but this is EXACTLY what the yellow stingray that I saw looked like.

After swimming I came inside and hung out with Noelle. We chatted and played online and cooed over the dogs and chatted. The boys came home around 9pm and we ate black bean burgers that they had brought home from the sports bar. And then bed, glorious bed.

]]> http://freethoughtblogs.com/biodork/2013/05/05/exploring-caye-caulker/feed/ 3 http://freethoughtblogs.com/biodork/2013/05/04/the-pets-of-sunrise-beach/ http://freethoughtblogs.com/biodork/2013/05/04/the-pets-of-sunrise-beach/#comments Sat, 04 May 2013 13:14:54 +0000 Brianne Bilyeu http://freethoughtblogs.com/biodork/?p=10092

Continue reading »]]> While I was laying low yesterday I had plenty of company by way of the four animals who generously share their home with our hosts.

Beautiful Amber. Amber was adopted on Caye Caulker by Noelle. Amber was a stray dog who used to get into a lot of scrapes, sleep in drain holes and  have enough parasite problems for ten dogs. Now she’s the sweetest dog. A lot of the time she’s very somber and quiet, but she seems to be getting rowdier and more playful with every day.

Q is a 14-month old pitbull also adopted from Caye Caulker. Q has all of the energy one might expect from a 14-month old pit. She has huge dark pools for eyes and soft muzzle, and she’s not shy about letting you know that you should be paying attention to her before all others. 

Rudy – a bold and fearless Rotweiler in a little Pekingese body. Rudy travelled down to Caye Caulker with Noelle when they first moved here from Minnesota. Rudy seems to have adjusted well to the warmer climate. He is a fierce lizard hunter and loves to wrassle with the big dogs. The Split at Sunrise Beach: Snickett sprawled on the second floor with Noelle working in the kitchen on the first floor. Snickett is a classic cat – desperate to be pet and snuggled, but too proud to let you actually do it. A belly show-off.

Q relaxing in the bedroom air conditioning.

Amber and Rudy take a pause from tussling to pose for a photo.