Belize Day Six: Manatee Farts

Today started being under-average and ended up being a blast.  There is only one town in all of Punta Gorda that serves breakfast on Sundays, so of course anyone wanting a breakfast out that day goes there.  We arrived early and appeared to be on time, but then this horrid group of drinkers from Nova Scotia, who are also in our hotel, showed up.  Apparently they had ordered the night before and so we waited over an hour after ordering for them to get their food before we did.  I was livid. 

But then when we all finished, we got on a boat.  There’s just no way you can be upset when you’re on a boat.  The wind rushing, the riding of the wave as you rush across the water, the sun, the great company.  It’s all good.  And Roberto really knows how to show a group a good time.  We pulled up to the only island for miles around with beautiful beach side cabanas and dropped Andy and the lunch makings off.  They would be waiting ready for us once we got hungry again, and I must say it would be nice not to have Andy’s scummy eyes looking at all of the female flesh in bikinis in our group.

Roberto then took us another twenty minutes out to a little island being guarded by a flock of pelicans rising from the water only to dive right back down violently for a fish.  Everyone dawned their snorkel gear and we jumped out as fast as we could.  The coral was gorgeous.  Purple fans waved with the current everywhere.  At first I had no partner, and was quite content being on my own, but finding cool things is my forte and eventually Seb caught on to the fact that hanging with me was far more interesting than his slower-paced fiancé.  She’s really wonderful and thank goodness not the very jealous type, but it is causing a bit of tension when egged on by our rotten apple of the group.  Thank you peanut gallery. 

Seb and I saw all sorts of cool things:  starfish, a huge lobster, half a dozen trumpet fish, the most stunning angel fish I’ve ever seen, some HUGE barracuda, a trigger fish.  It was really a great snorkel, but we all had to leave early because she who shall not be named was feeling sea sick and had to ruin all of our fun.  People like her should be eliminated. 

This woman is near to thirty, has two kids, thinks she knows EVERYTHING and gets overly offended when you question her, is loud, obnoxious, and when is not having fun comes up with some ailment to get out of the situation.  Needless to say she’s become the black sheep of the group and is regularly brushed away by everyone.  Even the faculty rants on and on about her, especially to me.  I love the group dynamic by the way.  There’s nothing you can do about a rotten apple but wait for it to rot to the point where you can just throw it away, but everyone is truly fantastic.  The professor is very relaxed, laid back, encouraging of the students, communicative with me, and makes us all feel like we’re on the same level.  She’s a beautiful soul and I feel truly blessed to get the opportunity to spend time with her and the freshly ripe students of the group.

Though we had to haul out early, we went back to the island where a delicious meal was already laid out for us.  Roberto had caught a Spanish mackerel and the girls had pulled up some conch, so those were bbq’ed and served as well.  De-licious!  We spent our time after lunch lounging about, exploring a wreck off the island, and checking out the accommodations.  Once we had tired of that, it was back on the boat and exploring the coast and inlets for manatees and crocodiles.  No luck, which is unfortunate because apparently you look for manatees because they let out really big fart bubbles.  I really wanted to see what that looked like. 

A long choppy but super fun boat ride brought us back to the wharf and dinner.  Once picked up by Andy, we were informed that the conch we had pulled off the sea floor was being prepared into civiche for us as a dinner appetizer.  Food doesn’t get any fresher than that.  At dinner I made it a point to ask Roberto about how Belizeans see Americans and other countries.  I feel that this is always a great discussion to have for people who have never traveled before, and those that have as well.  It had the desired effect.  Alli, our, baby deer of the group, was enthralled in the discussion.  And that is why I love doing what I do.  Seeing her mental transformation throughout this trip has been so rewarding.  Over and over again she continues to surprise me. 

After dinner Chrissie called a serious talk about finances.  This turned into more of a battle of words between her and our group’s bad apple while the rest of us sat off to the side having a much more positive discussion.  By the time it had finished, I had gotten everyone to agree on a final amount for Roberto’s tip and then Nyshele, Chrissie, Seb and I were off to the other side of town.  The girl’s got their hair wraps looked after by that crazy hippie lady while Seb and I went to Asha’s for a drumming performance.  That crazy hippie lady is from Canada, up and sold all of her things to travel through Central and South America selling hair wraps and teaching art classes.  Some people are crazy, and she is, but I also greatly admire her for her bravery.  It’s very impressive. 

This is the Snack Shack:  Way better than whatever we had for breakfast on this day, but unfortunately the SS is closed Sundays.  We went there every other day we could though.  Roberto owns it.

 

This is his youngest.

 

We had a boat full of company...

 ...and one of them was wearing a Denver jersey so I had to be a creeper and take a picture.

So I do transfix on some visual things, again, maybe in a creepy way, and Allie's hair was one of them.  It's a beautiful red, died black underneath, and the way it was blowing in the wind seemed straight out of a movie.  Just lovely.

Roberto caught us a Spanish mackerel for lunch that was full of eggs.

 

   
 

Searching for manatee farts...

This is a crocodile release area that was demolished by the local people after two children went missing and never found again.  Since then, people adamantly kill the crocodiles, pushing them very near the brink of extinction.