Can’t stay away from Caulker

picuture at I and I Regee Bar- they have swings everywhere instead of chairs. It is a pretty cool idea.


We arrived back in Caye Caulker on my Birthday! Thank you everyone for your warm wishes. It took me an hour to get through my emails. I was feeling quite ill, probably from something this *&()#$ served me at one of the only open restaurants in Placentia. She tried to convince me she had brought me baked brie, but it was actually Babaganoush! Finally, she admitted her mistake after praveen couldn’t quite be convinced that baked brie is baked egg plant with almonds. I was going to let it slide.

Anyway we have grown quite fond of Caye Caulker. There are only 700 residents on the island and we seem to know all of them. Everyone was happy we were "home" and were saying hello and telling us that we would never leave. It is nice to know people. I guess that is the small town charm. I know at some point there would be plenty of people here I wouldn’t want to know and wouldn’t want to run into. I feel that way pretty much every time I go to Wal-Mart in Fulton. But for now, it’s great. There are only two cars on the island. Every one else either walks, rides a bike or rides around in a golf cart.

So we did it! We dove the Blue hole. We have tons of underwater pictures but we will have to wait to developed them until we return home. I feel so fortunate for seeing some of the great things we have seen. We have swam with dolphins, sharks, sting rays, manatees, tons of fish that I don’t even know, big groupers, yellow tails snappers, sergeant majors, turtles, lobsters, and the list goes on and on.

So the Big Blue Hole, well it is just that a big ass blue hole. It is something like 1,000 feet in diameter. Getting there is hell. It’s about 1.5 hours of boating thought waves upto 10 ft high. You feel like you are on a roller costar and you’re not sure if the driver is licensed. The waves are big and I was sure despite the Dramamine, I would be sick before we arrived. If I wasn’t, I thought Praveen would be, but we managed to keep our stomachs inside our bodies.

We got in the water and everyone began descending downward. The blue hole has a white sandy rim about 40 feet deep from the surface. We descended to this white bottom. From there, you basically leap or float off the edge over the blue hole, this very dark, a little scary, bottomless pit of water, where you know there are sharks. About 100 feet down I started feeling fucked up. I knew I was 'narced'. I think I told you about nitrogen narcosis or in diving parlance, 'narced'. I looked around I couldn’t see Praveen anywhere. The water was cold and some what dark. There were no fish to be seen just these big stalagmites. I looked down at my gauge and I couldn’t tell what depth I was at. I knew then I was really messed up. What was the conversion again? I keep thinking to convert meters I needed to multiply by 10. We stopped our descent at 145 feet. Knowing I was going to do something stupid, I closely followed the dive master. I tried to think positively about the whereabouts of my husband. We had a long discussion about the importance of staying together. I could have waited for him but I would have risked losing my group and any chance I had for being saved should I start doing cartwheels or freaking out and going up to fast. I tried to remember all the things I learned about staying calm while being out of my head back in my high school and college days. I took deep breaths trying to remember to breathe in and breathe out. I pushed Praveen’s safety out of my mind knowing that there was an instructor following behind and he likely waited and was with him. I also reminded myself he was a man and didn’t need me to take care of him. I wished that I could talk to someone and communicate that I really wanted to know where my husband was, but there was no way to do that. I should have told the instructor I was feeling narcosis. I could have done this with underwater signs that they teach in the certification classes. I didn’t but I think he knew. I tried to just breathe deep and relax. The cure is to ascend, but I didn’t have a buddy to ascend with and then I would miss the dive. I thought back to all the times I have been able to handle situations while out of my head and I knew I would be fine. Getting narced is like being drunk. At 150 feet, the effect is the equivalent of three martinis on an empty stomach. Unfortunately all the time I have had building up my tolerance to alcohol didn't help with nitrogen. We were in a big group, too big, and I was trying not to kick the girl behind me even though it is her responsibility not follow too close. I finally turned around and I saw Praveen and I instantly felt like my bad trip just got better. I think that was about 5 minutes of hell. I looked around and saw a big black grouper. It was probably about three feet long maybe four. It is hard to tell because things are 33% larger underwater. It swam close enough to reach out and touch if you wanted.

Then the sharks came. I remember thinking I was glad to be high because I wasn’t the slightest bit worried. I didn’t however swim close to them. I think they may have been feeding them on top because as we swam up they all seemed to follow. I think they were about 15 or 20 feet long. So that was it. All the hype about the big blue hole- we had finally experienced it for ourselves.. We had finally done it! I guess there is not many places that you get to swim with sharks or fish that big and that is the fun of it. Also there is some pretty interesting history. The blue hole is 400 feet deep. It used to be a cave that was above land. It is believed that there was ice on top of the cave that melted in and finally crushed the top. Some of the stalagmites are said to be 150 feet long. It is interesting swimming through them and around them. I think if we had more experience diving I would have enjoyed it more, but I am still glad we did it and we came out safe and sound.

The two following dives were really nice. We dove a coral wall face called Half-moon wall and Long Caye. Long Caye, our last dive was my all time favorite. It was absolutely amazing. The colors, the fish and the visibility were perfect. What a nice way to end a perfect vacation!

Sailing down South

We swam with dolphins the other day. In between our dives at St. Georges Key, we suddenly we saw some dolphins splashing in the distance. The captain headed full speed towards them and we dove in the water and chased them around. It was really cool.

We took the sailing trip down south. It was pretty fun. I fried my buns the first day and I couldn’t sit down for the following three days with out having a towel under my ass. It was a pretty bad burn. I snorkeled the following days in a long sleeved shirt and pants.

When I first saw the boat I nearly backed out. I had pictured hammocks, chairs, shady spots, and well, a large open area to rest and be comfortable. The boat was about thirty feel long and very small. There were no chairs and no hammocks. The toilet had no door, no tp and all of the luggage was in the same very small space. We managed to use mats around the top and the side and some how make ourselves quite confortable.

Highlights:
Praveen catching a big read snapper, which was quite tasty.
Getting a guided tour around the corals with a guy who as 35 years of experience on the water. I learned about sea cucumbers, I got to hold two kinds of sea urchin, which I wanted to eat but didn’t know how.
Watched the boat captain hunt for lobsters.
Sitting in the sun reading another book
Relaxing
Listening to the ocean.
Cuddling up with praveen.



The first night we slept on Rendezvous Key. It is a very small island. It was about 70 feet long and 30 feet wide. There is nothing on it except a handful of coconut trees and sand, oh and tons of crabs, but not the good eating kind. They are these little cockroach like creatures that you have to worry about stepping on. We snorkeled for a bit then ate the dinner that we caught earlier in the day- Snapper and Barracuda. It was delicious!!!


The Barracudas are quite scary. They have these big teeth. I didn’t like being too close when they were being pulled into the boat. I did catch one though on the second day. Harry, the captain, talked me into trying its eye ball after it was cooked. I have to say, it was gross. It felt like thick paste. It tasted fishy but not too fishy. After I sucked and chewed the nasty paste off I was left with this hard marble, which I swallowed. After I swallowed it Harry told me that most people spit it out.

We caught some Conch and pulled it out of the shell and made ceviche. I liked it best just raw right out of the shell. It was sweet and delicious.

That night it stormed pretty badly. There was a bit of lightning that was frightening because we were on this little island in the middle of the ocean. We were obviously one of the higher points in a sea of nothingness. Praveen counted the time between lighting and thunder. The closest was one mile away! I slept poorly. I was in some pretty serious pain, my sun burn was so bad. Half the night I held the tent away from me with my feet because the wind was blowing the walls right over me, smothering me.

Around 4.30 I woke up and waited for it to start getting light. I didn’t want to go outside and risk stepping on the sea cockroaches (crabs). Finally around 5.15 We got up and watched the sun come up.

We were able to have one gallon of water to wash up with. It was a little slice of heaven. I have never been so excited about a gallon of water in my life.

The next day we sailed to Tobacco Key. We stopped and snorkeled around a bit. Caught some more fish and relaxed. When we got to the island Praveen smoked his Cuban cigar and read his Bill Clinton book. The island was pretty much shut down but when we arrived the opened the bar on the beach and we started a little party with the locals. We ate lobster we caught that day. It was to die for. Harry and Charlie (the captains) turned out to be pretty good chefs.

The Island was about five times the size of Rendezvous Key and had showers and bathrooms. I was finally able to attend to that BM that needed to move through my system. The showers were not fancy, but they were wonderful, despite their simplicity.

The sleep that night was wonderful. We were very lucky our tent held up. Somehow one of the poles split in the storm the previous night and we had to pull duct tape off various objects, reuse it and tape our pole together. The wind was quite and the rain was light. My sunburn was finally subsiding!

The trip was restful, peaceful and very beautiful.

The next morning we woke up and came back to the place we can’t seem to escape. Caye Caulker.

diving

Sept 19th

Diving….

Thrashing waves.
Head bobbing
Scared.
Breathe.
Breathe.
Anxiety.
Breathe.
Go Down.
Equalize.
Go slowly.
Not sinking.
Equalize.
Still at the top.
Everyone is leaving.
Relax.
Breathe
Equalize.
Keep breathing.
Relax.
Sinking.
Slowly going.
Fish.
Corals.
Breathing.
Deep long breaths of air.
Equalize.
Beautiful colors.
Beautiful sand.
Clear water.
Breathe.
Underwater turtles.
Fish schools of them.
Sergeant majors swimming all around.
Flipping turning.
Every where you see
Peace.
Fun.
Weightless

Sept 14th, Still in Caye Caulker

Sorry no pictures yet, but check back in about four days, I will try and get some up when we get back on land.

Well it is official we are certifiably addicted to diving. It is good though, that it seems we have a similar appetite for adventures. With diving though, I really think we may have a problem. We had decided to book a three day sailing/snorkeling trip to the south of Belize. We have vacillated on the plan for many days due to various factors, primarily fear of sea sickness. The lack of showers was another concern for me. Being in the sea all day for three days with no shower sounds down right nasty, but supposedly one night there will be a real shower and the other night a bag or a bucket with fresh water. That will work, I think. I went and bought and extra tub of wet wipes, which I think will come in handy for the quick wipe down. We dove St. Georges Caye today and we said it was our last dive. We are now certified to dive to 60 feet unsupervised.

There is an area here called the Blue Hole which is 140 feet and you swim with sharks and other cool stuff. It is one of the top ten dive sites in the world. We never had any intention of diving there. The blue hole is this natural wonder where it is an endless hole. There are several things that could be a bit frightening. Firstly, vertigo, after about 100 feet you loose the top from the bottom. Secondly, narcosis, which is your body absorbing too much nitrogen, you and you get to feeling intoxicated and do something stupid, and really that is about it. There are loads of other things that could go wrong but none that we haven’t trained on. We will also be with a guide who will be monitoring everyone really closely.

Oh, so the crazy part is, we are traveling all the way BACK to Caye Caulker to dive the Blue Hole before we go home. This is going to be a bit out of the way and also means that we have to give up all of our plans for traveling in and around Belize. Honestly, it is an easy choice. It is rather and inefficient way to travel, but totally island style, I suppose. We are flying by the seat of our pants. We were under the impression that you needed a special certification but you really don’t you only need to be going with a specially trained diver if you don’t have it. The dive companies here are supper professional. I have felt really safe in their care every dive.

As Praveen and I listened to this girl talk about her experience there we just knew we could not leave Belize with out going to see this place for ourselves. So I can’t wait. There will be a load of relaxing and snorkeling between now and then though. We are off on a three day trip to see five islands. We’ll be fishing for our dinner and cooking it on the beach then camping out. The good thing is if we don’t catch anything then we can eat what the professionals catch. Several of the islands are surrounded by atolls, which is a reef surrounding the entire island. There will be no shortage of food or rum on this trip. Next time I post I will have seen the great Blue Hole………………….:)

Caye Caulker, Belize

Sept 12th

We arrived in Belize four lovely days ago. Upon checking the weather before leaving I didn’t think we would be staying for long. According to the report there would be thundershowers everyday for ten solid days. After those ten days they didn’t have a report, but I had a feeling it wasn’t good. The flight was not great. I usually travel with two litres of water and the recent regulations say you can’t have any on board! I managed to smuggle 12oz or so on board, but thank god since the first leg was 6hrs and American Airlines ran out of water an hour into the flight. What bull @#$%! At least if they aren’t going to let you take water they could provide you with some, or hell sell you some!

Anyway in effort to distract myself from dehydration, I threw myself in to BG's copy of “Kite Runner.” What a fast read. I nearly finished it on the way over. Now I am left with nothing to read!

We arrived in Belize City the next day at around 11 am. It was humid and hot, but otherwise dry. We headed straight for Caye Caulker, an island about a 45 minute ferry ride way. The sleepy little island has about 700 inhabitants, who are all quite friendly. There are no cars on the island, which i like. Several people have golf carts. Belize was once occupied by none other than the English, so everyone here speaks English quite well. All the signs and everything are in English, at least so far. The island is a small one. In certain parts you can see the ocean on either side of you. This means I could actually watch the sun rise in the morning and then go to the same place in the evening and watch it set.

We spoiled ourselves the first few days and checked into a nice hotel. I wanted a hotel with a pool so I could practice my swimming for my dive test so we got one. The pool area was gorgeous, from the pool there was a lovely view of the beach. The water tasted like human sweat. I am guessing they don’t change it very often. Praveen says I should think of it as salt water (like the sea) and not sweet. I am pretty sure it is sweat though. Oh and it is only about 10 feet across-- So much for swimming laps.

That night we went out and had a few drinks. The island is very laid back. There are signs everywhere that say “No shoes, No Shirt, No shit, No problem.” The food is surprisingly good. It is a mix of Creole style and Mexican. They have a lot of red beans and rice, stewed chicken, burritos, seafood, oh…and LOBSTER, tons of it. I have had lobster almost everyday. It is the only thing here that is significantly cheaper than back home. You can have a lobster omelet, lobster curry, lobster sandwich (kind of like a crab cake) and then in variety of ways whole, garlic, spicy, I don’t know what else…..the lobsters here don’t have claws though! At first I thought the rainbow restaurant was ripping me off. “Where are my claws?”, I asked the waiter when he brought me my plate. Anyway, it is not as sweet as a Maine lobster and it is a hair over cooked, but it is good. I have a favorite restaurant here too called Syds. I want to eat there every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner but praveen is trying to talk me into trying more of the random mediocre places. Syds, is pretty cheap and DELICIOUS!!!

Oh, so after a night of drinking we showed up to our dive class a few hours late. Luckily we were the only ones in it and that day we only had to watch some DVDs and read a shit load of material. For the last four days we've done nothing but read, eat, sleep and breathe diving. I have learned and seen so much! Today we did our dive down to 60 ft (the last one for the certification) and we took a camera with us. I am hoping we got some good pictures but I will not be able to develop and post them until we are back home.

The first day we got in the water I experienced claustrophobia for the first time ever. I was supposed to be going down to the bottom of about 10 feet to practice pulling a regulator (a breathing tube) in and out of my mouth without drowning and some other exercises, but I couldn’t make myself sink. Everything was closing in on me and I felt trapped and I wanted out!!! I was thinking, about how I’d just have to sit on the beach and drink 'panty rippers' while Praveen got certified. What a shame! I knew there was a whole new world of experiences waiting for me and there was no way in hell I was going to be able to do this! Then I managed to breathe a little deeper and calm myself down. It is pretty interesting that you can remove your mask under water, put it back on and get the water out, all while still under water.

The training they give you for a certification is very thorough. We also learned how to use each others' back-up regulators in case one of us runs low on air and or runs out. There were some very scary moments when both of us wondered what the hell we were doing out there.

Yesterday the water was extremely choppy. Everyone was sea sick, some more than others. Getting into the water and waiting to go down was the worst part. Once we finally got underwater it was great.

I like how peaceful it is underwater. You feel a sense of weightlessness like never before. I kind of felt like an astronaut. The views are spectacular. Today we saw some green eel, a big turtle, a bunch of yellowtail and some nurse sharks. There was a bunch of other stuff too that I didn’t know what was. I will have to start studying up on all these fish and coral.

Praveen snorkeled down and got me a conch but since there was still a live conch (the animal that lives in a conch shell!) inside we were not allowed to take it home and kill it. Too bad it would look really pretty in my garden or somewhere.

So now, it is time to have a drink. We have had to study and be up every day at 7.30 am. Also they say that drugs and alcohol increase your chances of experiencing some of the illnesses brought on by diving, honestly I don’t remember which of the three sicknesses it is right now. So I will maybe find you at the bottom of my tequila shot…..until next time………ruth