So, here's the thing. I've been snorkeling before. I snorkeled in Fiji on our honeymoon, and it was pretty nice. But, we didn't go on any actual Snorkel Trips. On this trip, we splurged a little and spent an entire day on a boat out at the barrier reef and snorkeled until the sun started to go down. Belize's Barrier reef, is one of the largest Barrier Reefs in the entire world, and one of the best.
We started our day with some outdoor breakfast, even though it was only 8, it was already sunny and hot. We met some pretty cool people on the boat. There were 3 tour guides, all laid back and totally awesome, and about 19 snorkelers. At first, I was concerned that there were so many of us, but after the boat left the shore, we were allowed to spread out. Scott and I got the whole back of the boat to ourselves, while the rest lounged on the roof or in front. We chatted with a couple of people from San Francisco and London, early on in the trip. I love hearing about living in other places. It always gives me ideas for our future. :)
We had three stops on our tour. The first was a part of the reef, and we swam with some gorgeous fish. and were even lucky enough to swim with a Manatee!! This isn't guaranteed so it was such a treat. It was so peaceful, and just lazily swam right by us. I would say I was about 15 feet from it. That was soo incredible. I've always wanted to see one in the wild!! After our first stop, wee were fed lunch, and luckily Scott was able to take shade under the sails. Our priortiy was to keep him from getting burnt. Let's just say, we didn't succeed.
Before the trip, I spluged and bought myself a real underwater camera. I'm SOOO glad I did! It was totally worth it!! We went sailed on The Ragga King with Raggamuffin Tours. Enjoy!
Caye Caulker. About to set sail!
The Ragga Queen. Our sister boat.
Our little Caye! We stayed down the left (south) side of the island. The Split- the end of the island on the right, was created after a hurricane came through and split the island in half.
The split is the most popular place to swim...so clearly not our scene.
After lunch, we sailed to another spot and swam with Nurse Sharks, Giant Fish and Manta Rays. This was so awesome. We weren't allowed to touch the sharks, but we could pet the Rays. They were all so friendly. At times I was just swimming in a large school of fish and right under me would be a shark just chillin on the ocean floor. Sooo cool!!! Everyone REALLY enjoyed this part.
For the last leg of our journey, we ventured to Hol Chan (Which means Channel). It was a part of the Barrier Reef that boats pass through. The reef was huge here and the channel was very deep. The area is very protected and a Reserve Guard is always on his boat since it's such a popular place to come. Even though most people would never hurt the reef, there are still some people mean enough to cause harm. This was the point where the 3 guides all swam with us and took us into little tour groups to show us some types of fish and coral we might miss without a guided tour. They also wanted to keep us safe as to not go into the dangerous area. If you crossed over the reef, you might get caught in the current and the waves would wash you onto the very shallow parts of the coral, which could be fatal.
This was a very cool area. Scott swam through a small cave, we saw urchins, lots of coral, beautiful fish, and of course SEA TURTLES!!!! I was hoping soo much we could at least see one, and we got to see three! They were beautiful. I was in awe of each and every one that we came across. I was able to snap a few shots that I thought though turned out pretty well. I could have stayed and watched them for hours.
The captain showing us a Sea Urchin
At the end of the snorkeling, they served us drinks and Shrimp Ceviche and turned up the Reggae music. The Captain asked if it was my birthday, I told him it was our anniversary trip. He announced it to everyone as they cheered for us and they played a couple special songs in honor of our marriage. As we sailed home, we danced with each other and the sun set over the ocean. It was a perfect and completely awesome day.
This will go down in the memory books as one of the BEST. DAYS. EVER!!!
Lauren Marie
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