Last Day, Last Thoughts

Friday was our last full day in Belize and we booked a half day of snorkeling to the popular Hol Chan marine reserve and Shark Ray alley. We originally booked with the same company that took us fishing and we were out on the dock at 8am waiting for our ride when Yolanda came over from the office and told us that they had "a problem with the boat" but we would still be going out, it would just be about an hour delayed.
OK, we're already on the dock, it's a nice morning so we'll hang out and wait. Yolanda stays and talks for a while (about 45 minutes) and then tells us the boat should be here shortly. About half an hour later a boat shows up but they are not with our tour company but I do know that they worked closely with the other company and they are acting like they are our boat so we join their tour. There are already 8 people and we are the last to join so not bad - 10 people.
Of course, that is just our boat and when we get to Hol Chan we see several other boats and they all have way more then 10 people. I am immediately put off by this but we get our gear on and get in the water at which point my camera dies. I'm a bit bummed because it is our only snorkel trip for the whole vaca so I would have really like to have some pics - Oh well, I will just enjoy the view.
Our guide gets in and all 10 of us are trying to follow him while not smacking each other with our fins but honestly, there are just too many people both in our group and overall to avoid smacking or being smacked with fins. That and the fact that our guide seems to be on a speed tour really did not make for the best trip but we did get to see a few neat things and when we got to Shark Ray alley, it was less crowded and we got  to swim with some pretty big nurse sharks. Overall I would not do this snorkel trip again.

The remainder of Friday we hung out around our rental and as usual we discussed our trip, where we went, what we liked, could we live here, etc. and here is a summary of what we discussed.
Overall we liked Belize. We visited Corozal in the northern mainland area because it is a more affordable area but felt that overall it was much dirtier than we would prefer for a place to live. Don't get me wrong, I do not mind poor and I do not expect a place where I can live cheaper to not have some challenges but in this area people went down to the water area, partied hard and just left their trash every where all over the ground. Now, they did seem to have public works come around and clean up the next day but when you watch a stray dog picking at a dirty diaper because someone couldn't throw it in the several trash cans that are around - that's not a place we would prefer to be. However, the people in this area were some of the nicest, most helpful people we've met in any of our travels.

As for the island of Ambergris Caye, we stayed south of town which is a little quieter and definitely more our speed as opposed to being in town where things are much busier. We really like the island but overall it is definitely a little more expensive that I would have preferred. Also, everyone kept telling us that it was the slow season but I thought there were "quite a few people" there and wondered how busy it really gets during the busy season and if we would really be able to handle that even if we did not choose to live "in town".
This and the fact that there are only a few actual walk in beaches that do have sea grass everywhere makes it a little less like the "beach" atmosphere that we prefer.
Again, we knew all this before the trip but seeing and experiencing things is different than reading about them and that after all is why we go and check all these places out.

So we will be plotting out our next adventure/survey trip and see where that brings us next.

Until then, here are a few funny things that stand out about this trip that I've not mentioned before:

There are many sugar came fields and we saw that they seem to frequently burn the fields and we asked 3 different people and got these 3 different responses:

1. They burn some of the crops to create the brown sugar (sounds reasonable)
2. They burn all of the crops to get rid of the snakes because the men have to harvest the cane by hand (this was a little more convincing)
3. They burn the fields after the cane is harvested to make the soil rich so they can grow more sugar cane (I think this guy was just telling us gringos something)

Remember the picture of the iguana in the gutter?

Well, I did not have my camera with me but a couple days later we saw an iguana at least 3 times bigger crawl up into that space behind right behind this guy, right up into the roof!!!! I wonder if they hear him roaming around up there at night...LOL

If we decide to move anywhere where the primary mode of transport is a golf cart, I am going to have to up my insurance to cover road burn from when I keep falling off...LOL

Well, gotta go start planning......

Now This is a Good Fishing Day

If any of you have read some of my other trip blogs or if I talked to you about our trips you probably know that we don't have a lot of luck when we pay for fishing while traveling. While we may have caught things here and there, we rarely have caught more than one fish or had a trip that we would really call successful. Many a captain has tried really hard for us, some even staying out longer than the time we booked but we had pretty much determined that we are jinxed when it comes to paying for fishing on vacation and after our last trip we have sworn to not do that again.

Fast forward to this trip.....even before we leave for Belize, Dave is asking me about fishing...where can we fish...what can we catch.....Now he's not necessarily asking about paid fishing but he wants to know if there are places to fish from the shore, etc. I find a web site that tells him everything about fishing in Belize especially on the island we are on right now and tell him - here, see for yourself. He reads through it, finds out a bit of info and is good to go.

Once we actually get here is a different story. Dave has this idea of befriending a local, having them take him fishing and tell him all of their secrets. He finds a little bit of this in Corozal when he goes out with Nathaniel but that is from the shoreline and he wanted a bit more so we book our river fishing trip which I wrote about in a previous post:A Tale of Two Ruins

Now on the island, his fishing itch gets stronger and he talks with everyone he can about fishing....where do you catch big fish....what do you catch...what do you use to catch them with....and on and on.....
Now, people are very nice here and they give him information, maybe holding back just a little but for fishing from shore, it does not seem like there is much to it. Many locals will have some way to catch sardines because live bait is better, a good throw net and good technique is all you need once you can find some of the sardines in shore. If you can't catch them, you can buy frozen sardines and cut them up but the bait doesn't stay on as well and many fish just peck at it to get it off the hook.
With no net to catch them, Dave tries to find locals catching some so he can buy a few but every time he goes to the shore either no one is there catching them or there are no sardines around to catch. He finally resorts to buying the frozen ones but he doesn't have much luck with them. He catches a few very small fish from shore but not enough or big enough to brag about.


We agree that we will do a half day of reef fishing because normally you will catch something.
Dave and I are pretty cheap when it comes to bigger expenses such as fishing on vacation. I think it is hard for us to wrap our heads around paying for something that we get to do "for free" back home. Of course free is after we've bought the boat, the truck to pull the boat, all of the equipment needed to catch fish and even then we only fish lakes and rivers which also keeps expenses down.
So when we go to places that seem to have a lot of options, I try to compare and then book something that I am comfortable paying for (usually middle of the road as far as cost goes). On the island, most places are pretty close in price and for half a day of reef fishing it is $250 - not too bad.
Our captain and guide for the morning is Gavino and he picks us up at he end of our dock at 8:00 am and we're off, but first we have to catch our bait. There are no sardines around our area so we go down to Caye Caulker where Gavino says there is always some bait and he's not wrong. It takes a few passes  and we have to follow the diving pelicans but with
Dave driving the boat and Gavino throwing the net, we soon have a cooler full of bait and so we head to the reefs.

There is a learning curve in this type of fishing versus the bass fishing we do at home. For bass fishing, you have to set the hook hard to make sure the fish won't come off. For reef fishing you have to be a little more gentle in how you do it because it just pulls the hook out of the fishes mouth....Good to know but we still have a hard time not setting the hook so the first couple of hits we get we lose those fish and our bait.
Gavino keeps reminding us and finally I get a hit in which I actual land the fish is it a nice Spanish Mackerel.
Dave hooks onto something that seems really big that gives him an awesome fight but once it gets to the boat Gavino says "Ugh - a shit fish, you don't want to catch those". He explains that these fish are not good to eat and usually they just peck at your sardines. He calls them Bermuda Chubs and while he isn't thrilled because we won't be keeping it, Dave said that it put up a really good fight.
We are slowly trolling while Dave and I are holding our poles and our baits are trailing farther behind, if we let our bait get too close to the boat we will just keep catching these Chubs because they are all hanging out right at the back of the boat while we troll...so weird.
For the next 1/2 an hour or so I catch 2 more mackerel while Dave also catches 2 mackerel plus a nice little jack. It's the not size of the ones we got in the river which are a red flesh fish but a smaller white flesh version that Gavino says is nice left whole and pan fried.
All of a sudden, the bite just quits, I mean not even a nibble. We troll a bit more but the bite is definitely off right now.

Gavino says we are going to go out to the deep reefs and just drop off the side for a while - he's the boss!!!
He rigs our lines with plenty of weight and a nice fresh, lively sardine on the end and tells us to slowly let our line out until it hits the bottom and slacks and then immediately reel up a little so that you are just on the bottom. He keeps an eye on me and helps me determine when I hit bottom and tells me to keep it just above bottom now. Then I feel it - I have snagged the reef - I tell Gavino and he says "No Mum, you have a fish reel, reel, reel.....". I will admit that I am not as strong as I once was but I cannot reel this damn pole for the life of me so Gavino helps me out and gets this fish out of the reef, then he gives me the pole, coaches me along and I land the biggest damn snapper I've ever seen.
Once we get the fish on board, he gets me some new bait and we're off to try again. This time, while my bait is going down, something takes it. Again, Gavino - "Mum you have a fish on there, lock the reel and start reeling". Again he gets it started but hands me the rod so I can fight yet another big fish. About half way through I am already spent so I ask Dave if he wants some of this action and he comes over and reels a bit and then just like that, the fish is off. Damn.
We head to another spot on the reefs which is even deeper and try again. This is where Dave catches my dinner, a Red Snapper - this is what I was looking for - a perfectly sized red snapper that I am going to have grilled to perfection and just enjoy!!!

Dave fighting a big fish

Dave also hooks onto what appears to be another big fish but he loses that one too - it seems this one may have brought him into the reef because his whole line is cut. He was trying to be a little careful and not man handle the fish too much because Gavino told him that was why mine got off but I guess he may have gone too far the other way because now Gavino is telling him, you always have to keep the tension on and keep that fish pointing upwards because once he gets sideways or gets to point down, it's all over. Live and learn. I almost feel bad that I had absolutely no technique, game plan or strategy in catching my fish and I just crossed my fingers (well, not literally because that would have made it even harder to reel)!





Overall I'd say this was our most successful (paid) fishing day ever. Back at the dock, Gavino cleans all the fish we caught. We kept the whole red snapper which I will have grilled up for me and we took half of the large snapper to give to the people we are renting from and we let Gavino have the rest - 5 mackerel, 1 jack and half of the big snapper including the head for fish soup!!! Everyone wins today - well, except for my knees - the boat doesn't really have any seat on the back except for the side of the boat and you can't really sit while reeling in some of these fish. that along with the height of the boat being just above my knees and me not having the best balance and the boat moving with the waves - the only way to keep myself stable (and it didn't work all the time) was to try to lock my knees against the boat - of course they only just kept banging on the side of the boat. So today I have nice matching knee bruises - small price to pay for a good day!!!