Trip Report To Ambergris Caye As It Happens 4/29-5/8

[erincherie]

Day three 5-1-16 continued
After much debate we decided on Caliente for supper. Andy wanted jerk at Robins but we weren't sure if they would be open since a lot of places are closed on Sunday's. We had the conch fritters and stuffed jalapeños for starters and I got the chicken nachos and Andy had the giant burrito. All was yummy and we waddled out since we were so stuffed. We walked down past the square to the end of the road and on the way back found a little shop packed with locals selling ice cream-Andys downfall Doesn't matter how full you are, there's always room for ice cream! We split a waffle cone with vanilla fudge and I was lucky to get any. He now wants to skip supper for the rest of the trip and just have ice cream and no more sharing. We each get our own from here on out. Only problem with that is he wouldn't fit in his wetsuit and I would have a pudge roll hanging out my bikini by the end of the trip. I may have to skip my nap and strap on my sneakers and go for a run tomorrow.

Weather looks like it will calm down tues/wed so aren't giving up on our blue hole and turneffe trips yet. I wanna do blue hole, just cause it's a bucket list item, but if I have to pick one or the other, I'm going with turneffe. Oh, and good news, Andy figured out which o rings on the camera housing are leaking, so he's gonna clean and grease them and give it another try. Cross your fingers and say a little prayer to Poseidon for us!

Day four 5-2-16
For the first time in forever I woke up before my alarm on a Monday morning and didn't care one bit. Put the coffee on and watched the sun rise over the Caribbean Sea from my balcony. Pure bliss! When Andy got up, he started cleaning all the itsy bitsy parts for the camera housing. Of course he dropped one and I spent the next hour crawling around trying to find it. I swept and moved furniture and got a dive light to check all the corners, nooks, and crannies. I finally noticed that the center pedestal for the kitchen table had a tiny bit of space between it and the floor, so I got a paper towel and slid it under the edge and out came several years worth of crumbs, sand and the missing part! I'm a genius! By then the boat was on its way, so hopefully Andy can get the housing put back together this afternoon and it won't leak.

Our first dive was at Tackle Box II and it was spectacular! Best one yet this trip. Vis was good and the current was a gentle ebb and flow. We saw a green sea Turtle asleep in a canyon and I guess our bubbles woke her up. She headed for the surface and swam right under me. There was a beautiful rough tailed stingray flying up from the deep along the canyon wall. It was one of the biggest rays I've seen. Saw a pretty anemone and a cute little spotted triangle fish, nurse sharks again and a really awesome squirrel fish. They are usually a pinky red, but this one was a bright orange red. The coloration was certainly different from the typical squirrel fish. Is this a different sub-species maybe? Anyone know? Sure wish I had a camera

After a nice surface interval at the Island Divers pier and some yummy pineapple and orange slices, the Second dive was at Paradise Canyons and it may have been even better than the first. There was a nice sized barracuda waiting for us at the bottom. I'm much more wary of barracuda than sharks and gave this one plenty of space especially since he wasn't scared of us and seemed in no hurry to leave. I found a couple nice lobsters hiding in the reef, we saw another barracuda in a hollow on a canyon wall, four reef sharks about 20 feet below us and a couple small free swimming squid…hope they didn't end up as lunch for some hungry stingray. A nice sized grouper shadowed us for a good part of the dive then the fun began. One of our shark friends flushed a HUGE lionfish out of its hiding spot and after an adrenaline filled chase, it and Rudy finally cornered it in a hollow coral outcropping and sharky had a delicious lionfish lunch. It was wild! I'm so glad the DM’s actively search out lionfish and are “teaching” the sharks what a yummy treat they are. Invasive species like these are bad news for native fish populations and disrupt the local underwater ecosystem.

Looks like we will be doing Blue Hole either tomorrow or Wednesday and weather cooperating maybe Turneffe the day after. Andy is currently napping and I'm sitting on my balcony railing with a cold Belikin looking at the view and watching some local kids play in the water. Doesn't get any better than this! Will post an update tomorrow. Stay wet and salty my friends!

 

[ScubaJill]

Thanks, Erin! This is great.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Have you been upstairs to watch the sunset?

So glad the weather is turning for you!

 

[erincherie]

Have you been upstairs to watch the sunset?

So glad the weather is turning for you!

Not yet Chilly. We haven't been at the condo for sunset yet, but I'll make a point to do that before we leave on Sunday. I'm sure it's spectacular!

 

[erincherie]

5-2-16 continued
We walked up to the square and of course I had to climb on the turtle and manatee for my obligatory goofy pics. They are in my Belize Facebook album. Had a quick turn on the swings and stopped by to dance with some teens playing guitar and singing. I may have turned the big 4-0 but I don't feel it and try not to act it. They say thinking and acting young is a key to staying that way, so hopefully it's true. I really wasn't hungry but Andy wanted Belizean food, so we stopped by El Fogon and split some conch fritters and the Creole Shrimp I offered to wash dishes in exchange for the recipe, but they weren't giving it up. I'm pretty sure I can replicate it at home. I'll have to drag out my old Paul Prudhomme creole cookbook and start working on it. I'm not sure if I liked the conch fritters there or at Caliente better. Both were great. The reggae keyboardist was there and while he doesn't have a great voice I got a tremendous kick out of Kenny Rogers and the Gatlin Bros performed in the style of Bob Marley. It was a hoot! We went by Mannely’s for our ice cream. No sharing this time! I had the coconut and Andy the ice cream pig had a double scoop, Chunky Monkey and Belizean Fudge. . Soooo good!

5-3-16
I woke up at 4:30 this morning thanks to a dog barking next door. I love animals, but want to murder this one. So far that is the only bad thing about this condo, there is a small apartment building next door and the dog likes to bark at night. I can take a nap this afternoon if I'm tired. The camera housing is back together so we will try it again today without the camera and if all goes well, we will have pictures again!
Thinking back to all the food I've been eating makes me realize I really need to go for a run. I've been seeing a lot of locals run on the beach so maybe I should give it a try….really don't like the ideas of sand in my sneakers though. Now where did I put my earbuds? Can't run without music. Maybe I'll look for them when I finish this cup of coffee.

I did find my sneakers and earbuds and went for a run. Our first dive for the day was at Sandy Point. I'm glad I had my light because I found a big crab in the first swim through and a nice lobster in the second. One of the ladies in our group brought a Hawaiian sling and she speared a lionfish for our shark puppy that followed us for the rest of the dive. Also saw a green sea turtle, a loggerhead, an eagle Ray, and the coolest, a free swimming green moray about 6 ft. Andy brought the camera housing on the first dive and repeatedly pushed all the buttons and we checked for leaks and moisture in the housing and it was DRY! YIPPY SKIPPY WE HAVE OUR CAMRA BACK! Only issue is when he was working on the camera, he tore the cable that controls the orientation of the LCD display and it is stuck upside down so it's going to be a little difficult to tell if things are framed correctly and in focus. I told him just to hold the whole housing upside down and we could flip the pictures later but he didn't think that was a good idea. Personally I think it's pretty damn logical, but I'm not gonna argue since he's the one taking the pictures.

I'm not sure where the 2nd dive was, but the water seemed a little cooler than the previous dives and the Vis wasn't quite as good. Must have been a current of some colder water flowing into that area. I'll find out the site name and update my post later. We speared a couple lionfish for the sharks, saw turtles, scorpionfish, and the most awesome ever, DOLPHINS!!! They showed up on our safety stop. We heard them first, then BOOM! They were there. They must have been swimming fast because it was like they appeared out of nowhere. There was a small pod of 6 with two of them a mom and juvie. They only hung out for a few seconds, but it was amazing! I'm not sure who was squealing louder, the divers or the Dolphins. It was an awesome experience. Andy only got a couple seconds on video,but I'll try to post the vid and link later.

After a shower and quick pb&j we headed out towards the Dive Bar on the north side of the island since we had heard they had a Turneffe trip going for Thursday. It was around 3 and rather hot so Andy decided to grab a cab to haul us to the bridge. We walked from there, but it was only about a quarter mile. We have decided to forego the golf cart except for maybe an afternoon to do some exploring. I had a couple cold Belikins and chatted with Adrian the bartender while Andy talked to Doug the owner about the Turneffe trip. Doug’s mini-me, Enzo showed up and me and him became great friends. He’s three and already knows more about he ocean than your average adult. We went “spearfishing” and shot a ton of lionfish, barracuda and grouper. Kid’s got a great imagination. He also brought me some sea snails and we watched them “race” across the bar. The Enzo snail, won, but I think someone cheated a little. My fish tacos were excellent and Andy had the fish and chips which may have been even better. They were fresh and light with a perfect crispy batter. The group we've been diving with showed up and we had a great time playing spike ball and hanging out until about 9. I was beat and went straight to bed after we got back to the condo. Rudy is picking us up at the dock at 9 and we are going on a lionfish roundup today and they are going to cook what we catch at the shop for lunch when we get back. I'm really excited to try lionfish for the first time. I've heard it's really good. Sorry this update is so long. Since we are going to Turneffe tomorrow I may not update until Friday but you will hear from me again! Stay wet and salty my friends!

 

[AWMIII]

I am so jealous. Tell Rudy and the gang that Bill will be down in a month top see them. Its been too long.

 

[erincherie]

Sorry for the delay in posting the rest of my report! Hopefully I'll have the underwater pictures posted by early next week. They will be in my Facebook 2016 album, but I'll let you know for sure when they are there. Link in a previous post, so just scroll up for it.

Day 6, 5-4-16 May The Fourth Be With You!
Neither of today's dives were that memorable, except that we saw the biggest nurse shark I've ever seen. She was at least 12 feet long and very wide. She was sleeping at the bottom of a canyon with her head tucked under the overhang on one side and her tail curled under the other. Andy swam down and got some pictures of her, but since there isn't anything to reference, you can't really tell her size. We saw another dolphin on the way back to the dock. He was by himself and stayed by the boat for a while, chasing bubbles while we motored in slow circles. We caught a bunch of lionfish, but Andy had a headache so we went straight back to the condo. We ended up renting a golf cart for the rest of the week, so got all our gear together and headed up to Dive Bar to drop it off for the Turneffe trip. We went exploring on the north side of the island for a while then headed back to town. We had Jambels Jerk Pit for supper. I liked the spicy shrimp and fresh tropical fruit selection better than the jerk, but it was all good. We stopped by Manellys for dessert and I had a pina colada waffle cone. It was yummy, but coconut is still my fave!

Day 7, 5-5-16 Turneffe
The ride out to Turneffe wasn't as long as I thought it would be. It took us a little over an hour. The first dive started out pretty good, but the wind was straight out of the north and kicked up a bunch of silt. The Vis dropped to almost nothing and we came up a little early. For the second dive, we moved over to the other side of the atoll to be protected from the wind and had a great dive, except the camera housing flooded. Where previously there were only a few water drops in the housing, this time it flooded and was half full of water, so looks like we will be buying a new camera. We had a yummy lunch of stew chicken, rice and beans, slaw and pico and a nice long surface interval before our third dive. All together we got 75 lionfish, which was a new record for the Seastar group! The trip back to Ambergris was fun with lots of Belikin, rum punch and stories all around. I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard. We went back to the condo for a quick shower then back to Dive Bar for a spectacular supper of lionfish ceviche, and also grilled, blackened and panko fried. It was all delicious! We made lots of friends this trip: Robbie and Tammy, Mike and Lisa, Mark and Julie and Rick and Becky. We all exchanged contact info and got invited to join some of them on a Roatan trip in November. I doubt we get to go as we are ramping up for some overdue and long awaited home renovations.

Day 8, 5-6-16
Dive One Cypress Gardens to Cypress Canyons and Dive Two at Tres Cocos. We saw a huge eagle Ray, a large turtle, a stingray in hiding in the sand, two lionfish & Andy made a shark friend. There was a five foot nurse shark that followed us the whole dive and while me and Adrian did our safety stop, Andy stayed down at about 40 feet and played with the shark. She just kept circling him and would let him rub her as she passed. That afternoon, we had a flat on the golf cart, but there weren't any punctures so it seemed to be a slow leak. We got it filled and it was okay the rest of the time. Then we had engine trouble. The cart kept skipping and backfiring while we were exploring on the south side of the island. We pulled in at Mata Rocks to let the cart cool off and ran into our Colorado friends that were staying there. Me and Andy both got a Dirty monkey at the bar. It was like a mudslide with banana. Delish! After that, we walked over to Rudy’s for ceviche at Island Divers pier and finished off the night with pizza at El Divino.

Day 9, 5-7-16
I woke up feeling horrible with yucky tummy. I chalked it up to much habanero’s in the ceviche and hot sauce I put on the pizza. After a couple trips to the bathroom and a couple Advil, I decided to put on my big girl panties and dive. It was our last dive day and I just knew if I sat out a pod of whale sharks would show up, or something as equally fantastic. I'm not sure where we dove, but no whale sharks, hammerheads or aliens showed up. There were Deep canyons, lots of little fish, some nurse sharks and we did see a huge blue parrotfish, a big porcupine puffer and a big crab under an overhang which was cool. I felt really bad by the time we got back to the condo and spent the rest of the day napping and watching tv.

Day 10, 5-8-16
Homeward bound! We stopped at the artisans market to pick up some treasures before heading to the airport. I got a couple awesome wooden bowls made by Allen. He was very nice and told us how they were made and even engraved the bottoms with Belize 2016, his signature and a beach scene on one and some eagle rays on another. He was very talented and if you get a chance, go by his booth. We also picked up a carved dolphin, a jade turtle and some kitschy bracelets from other vendors. After a long day of travel we made it home. We loved our time on Ambergris Caye and I'm already shopping for a condo. Probably just wishful thinking, but it never hurts to dream. Until next time, Stay wet and salty my friends!

 

[iamrushman]

thanks for sharing....