(Photo © John Geary)
Living the Life of Crusoe
We
spent our first day in Belize exploring Belize City, visiting the markets (which were not very
busy on a Sunday), recovering from a mild case of jet lag, and trying to adjust
to the humidity. Our adventure began in earnest the next day, as we flew down
the coast in a small Cessna, to a base camp at a little village named Placencia.
"Little" does not begin to paint a picture as to the true size of the
quaint gathering of huts; there was not even a dirt road through the village,
just a sidewalk whose base was made of conch shells.
We
spent a day there, doing some snorkelling and getting ready for our six-day
paddle out to the barrier reef. The Belizean reef is the second largest such
reef in the world, second only to Australia's Great Barrier Reef.
While
I had been anticipating the "jungle" portion of our adventure more
than the "reef" segment, the snorkelling experience changed my mind
very quickly. I had never snorkelled before, had never been near the ocean
before. We zoomed out by motorboat to a tiny mangrove island called Morris Cay
(pronounced "key"). When I first dove into the waters, I thought I was
in the middle of a Jacques Cousteau special - without the TV screen separating
me from the undersea world! The colors, the fish, the coral … it all took my
breath away, literally.
Justine, our trip leader, gave us the Reader's Digest version of sea kayak instruction so we'd be ready to paddle the following day.
There
was much more paddling and snorkelling to come during the next six days. The next day, in rather
high seas, we loaded up our tandem sea kayaks and paddled back out to Morris Cay
from Placencia. Given the waves and the wind that pushed in our faces most of
the day, we slept well that first night, despite the fact we were serenaded by
the sounds of hundreds of hermit crabs
shuffling along the ground outside our tent all night long.
The
next day the ocean was as calm as glass, which made for a nice paddle to a
beautiful coral island named Laughingbird Cay. If anything, it was almost too
hot, with no breeze to provide relief. There was a quick and easy remedy for
that, though. When we reached a point halfway between our previous camp and that
day's destination, right in the middle of 40 metre-deep Victoria Channel, we
just stopped paddling and jumped in the ocean to cool off.
We
only paddled for half a day, so we were able to set up camp quickly and get down
to some serious relaxicating. We split time between snorkelling, snoozing in our
hammocks, reading, snoozing in our hammocks, drinking homemade rum punch,
snoozing in our hammocks, eating freshly caught seafood, snoozing … well, you
get the picture. Robinson Crusoe certainly never had it this good, with or
without Friday!
The
next day found us paddling to a small group of islands called the Silk Cays,
located about an hour's paddle from the barrier reef. We stayed there for two
nights. The snorkelling was fantastic, better than it had been at either of the
other spots. I saw a school of nine reef squid, huge brain coral, as well as
numerous other fish and coral species. A couple of others in our group had
"close encounters of the barracuda kind" but the fish must have been
well-fed, as no one was chomped. Unfortunately (or is it fortunately?). I didn't
see one up close, but they look rather like northern pikes on steroids. During
our return trip from the Silk Cays, I did manage to spy one from our kayak,
along with a couple of nurse sharks swimming on the ocean bottom beneath us as
we paddled along.
After two nights on the Silk Cays, we began our journey back to our base camp at Placencia. We paddled to Laughingbird Cay, camped there one night, then paddled - and engaged in some impromptu kayak-sailing - all the way to Placencia the next day.
All too quickly, our time on the cays was over. Even a delicious dinner of conch and plantain stew on rice, several mugs of rum punch and generous portions of coconut pie could not quite erase the wistful feeling I had as I prepared to say "farewell" to the ocean and "hello" to the jungle.
Part II: Into the Land of the Maya