Started the day with a healthy breakfast of fruit and muesli, smoothie and coffee – preparation for an active day ahead. Today was all about what’s under the water – snorkelling on the reef.
This is the second longest living reef after the Great Barrier Reef. It runs 560 miles from Cancun to Honduras, including the whole length of Belize. Charles Darwin called it the most remarkable site in the West Indies and it was also a favourite of Jacques Cousteau.
We spent the day with StressLess tours. Captain Keith runs everything, assisted by Dylan and Gazza. It’s a 30 minute speed boat ride out to the first site. The sky is blue, the sun is shining, the sea is a rich turquoise blue. On the horizon, there is a white line of waves from the Caribbean breaking on the edge of the reef.
All the sites we visit are in the Hol Chan Marine reserve, this is an area set up to protect the marine life and environment. There are reserve staff on the water monitoring what is happening, our guides ensure that everything is done correctly; when a single piece of rubbish blows overboard they dive in to retrieve it.
The water is warm and shallow; no need for our Cornwall wetsuits here. Under the surface there are fish of every colour everywhere as well as corals of many shapes and sizes.
The second site is known as Shark and Ray alley – for good reason. When we anchor there are dark shades in the water below, these are Nurse sharks, harmless to us, they live in a diet of shrimps, shellfish and occasionally coral. Sting Rays glide along the bottom.
The third site is a channel through the reef which lets a strong current through, it’s about 15m deep in the middle. Different varieties of fish and coral live here.
The final site is a barge that sank in the sixties and has now been totally claimed by the reef, inhabited by fish and coral.
We return to the dock through the Split, a gap right through the island created by a large hurricane in 1961 that killed 100s and flattened Belize City. The gap was bridged by a causeway until another hurricane tore it away, it’s currently under repair.
We ended another fine day with a rum punch and a plate of pasta made by an Italian from Verona. His restaurant is closed on Thursdays and Fridays. When we asked him why, he told us he plays in a band on these nights and doesn’t trust anyone else to make the pasta and run the place.
It all continues to look amazing. I realised reading this that I knew nothing at all about Belize until this morning – including where it was. Glad to see a picture of one of you finally making it onto the showreel – will we get both of you on Christmas Day?