Snorkel Sunday

Who is this guy?  Oh that is Bill ready to dive right in.

A few weeks ago we had been snorkeling north down by Boca del Rio bridge and saw some really cool fish, so Sunday we decided to go back again. Boy am I glad we did.  We saw some much bigger fish and way cooler ones this time. I have got to get a book on fish of Belize.  I want to know what all of these underwater beauties are. If any one knows of a good fish book let me know.

After some research on the Internet, the fish that I did find that we saw were the yellowfin grouper (Bill described it as looking like a giraffe), bonefish, lots of horse eye jack, and a barracuda.  There were several really small brightly colored fish we saw as well that I have not been able to idenitfy.  There was this one fish that I saw and I can't find anything on it.  I have seen them several times before swimming very close to the top of the surface.  It is very long and skinny and has a long skinny pointed nose.  Here is a picture of it below.  Does anyone know what kind of fish this is?

Can you see him there?  Look closely, do you know what kind of fish this is?

Bill said I am a kid magnet.  For some strange reason the kids here all gravitate to me.  While out snorkeling I all of a sudden had three cute little boys as new best friends.  They would swim right along with me.  They didn't have any snorkel gear but would dive right under the water and come up telling me to come look at the fish they spotted. 

Look at these handsome guys.  They told me they were visiting the island from Orange Walk which is on the mainland.  They invited me to come back at 7:00pm to go fishing with them.

They were real hams for the camera too.

These ladies had their very own swim up bar going on here.  Pouring first some kind of alcohol into the glasses.

That is boxed milk she is pouring here into her glass.

This guy had the food in an ice chest on the golf cart here.  They came prepared.

I thought I would go closer and check out what kind of drink they were making and this lovely young lady posed for me.  They were drinking Brandy and milk. 

What a view!!!

This was the catch of the day.  Bill had spotted this under the water while snorkeling but he couldn't get down enough to pick it up.  So I went down and bought it up.   It was $5.00BZ or $2.50US.  What a lucky catch. 

After we finished snorkeling we loaded up our bikes and headed back south.  On the way home I spotted some more of my little friends.  We chatted for a few minutes and they were wanting what I thought was some kind of drink.  I asked them where you could get these drinks and they said Ritchie's which is a grocery store that I shop sometimes.  So we headed over to Ritchie's so I could buy them this drink.  They went straight to the cooler and got what they wanted.  It was not a drink, it was more like a frozen Popsicle. 

Alex wanted a blue one and Michelle wanted pink.  They were happy.

Arellie, Alex and Michelle.

A Day of Snorkeling off the Beach on Ambergris Caye

I brought back our snorkel gear this time from the states, so yesterday Bill got all of our gear out and gave it a good cleaning.  We had not used it since we were in Belize in 2010.  We decided to just bike down the beach until we found a good place to get in and just snorkel right off the beach.  The water was so warm yesterday that it felt like bath water.  We saw black grouper, bone fish, horse eye jacks and a few other species I am not sure what they were.  I am going to have to study up on my kinds of fish.  Belize having over 400 species of fish, that could take a while.

Horse Eye Jack

We have snorkeled several times at Hol Chan and Shark Ray Alley, but there are so many other places in the Caye's to snorkel or dive as well.  I really want to go snorkel Mexico Rocks which is located about 4.5 nautical miles north of San Pedro and the Coral Gardens located near Caye Caulker.  Mexico Rocks is known for having shallow, crystal clear waters with an abundance of sea life to see.

Where we snorkeled off the beach.

The water close to shore was so warm.

It is just beautiful in this area.

Belize has the Second Largest Barrier Reef in the World

One of the main reasons we chose to retire to Belize was the great Barrier Reef. We love being near the water and being able to snorkel. Belize has the second largest Barrier Reef in the world, making it a sanctuary to a wide variety of marine wildlife and plants.

The reef is home to over 70 hard coral species, 36 soft coral species and 500 species of fish. Today only about 10 percent of the species have been discovered in the reef, while the other 90 percent is still being researched.

The Belize Barrier Reef is a series of coral reefs straddling the coast of Belize. The reef is an approximately 186 mile long section of the 560 mile long Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System. It is Belize's top tourist destination popular for scuba diving and snorkeling.

Reef Etiquette

• Never take anything living or dead out of the water.
• Do not touch or handle marine life unless you are with a knowledgeable guide.
• Never feed marine life.
• Never touch corals. 
• Do not chase or try to ride any marine life.
• Look, enjoy, but don't touch.

Photo of the Week - Snorkeling with Nurse Sharks in Belize

Nurse Sharks

One of the highlights of our last trip to Belize has to be the day we went snorkeling with the nurse sharks and string rays in "Shark Ray Alley" off the island of Ambergris Caye.  Getting to Shark Ray Alley is only a short boat ride from the island and you won't have a problem finding a guide on the island to take you there. 

Nurse Sharks are considered mainly non-aggressive but they have very powerful suckers rather than teeth, kind of like a catfish.  If they latch on to you it can be bad.

It can feel a bit intimidating sitting on the side of a boat about to jump in with these sharks, but it is well worth it.