South Water Caye

Hey folks.

This weekend was incrdible! I feel like I am saying that alot, but it is true. Friday we left around 9 oclock on a interesting tour vehicle for South Water Caye. Tom and Susan, the two faculty members who are replacing Jay and Meg for the second half of the semester, came along too. This trip took us back through Belmopan and off to Dangriga. Along the way, we stopped at this downhill spot where "gravity is reversed". The driver threw the clutch into neutral and we started drifting up hill! There is much speculation to weather this actually occured or if it was an optical illusion. It will have to be tested again.

The rest of the ride was rainy and we were not sure if it would clear up for our boat ride out to South Water Caye. However, when we entered Dangriga it cleared up. We hopped on a boat (much better than the one out to Tobacco Caye) and skimmed over to the island. It was relatively small, but it was gorgeous. The accomdoations for the kids (us) was in the bunk room. Originally, it got randomly divided up between girls and guys, but Emily Falta and I switched by accident. Some of us lazed around for a while, due to an overcast, rainy sky, but others of us decided to go swimming. It was cold walking to the beach, but when we got in the water it was warm. Again, we were right next to the reef so we could snorkel a short distance and see the coral up close.

That night, we played a trivia game with Tom and Susan and afterward we played a group game of pictionary. It was incredibly funny as people tried guessing whe each person was trying to draw. However, the girls team won. It was alot of fun had all around. Sleeping was very hot that night and there were many bugs who caused me to itch. It was a rogh night sleep, but I was prepared in the morning.

After breakfast on Saturday, Phil, Emily Abbot and I went diving. It was Emily's first time since her training at UVM over a year ago. However she did great. Phil and I, having dove together before, were already well prepared. On the first dive we saw some amazing things. There were huge schools of fish, large manta rays and eagle rays, a moray eel, a turtle, and a bull shark! When we were swimming up to it, the bull shark looked like it was about to make the turtle its lunch! But as soon as it saw me and the dive master swimming at it fervrently, it swam away. We were the only two to catch a glimpse of him, but the turtle hung around in gratitude and showed off its 4 foot shell to us. That was probably my favorite dive this trip. Maybe of all time! The dive went along the side of a ridge (trick ridge). To the right there was a beautiful coral cliff, that dove down into oblivion. To the left was nothing but a deep blue ocean.

Our second dive was much like our first, except along the shelf of the ocean. We didnt see as many cool animals, but I felt very comfortable in the water.

After we returned and went to lunch, we went out snorkeling. It wasnt so great. The water was shallow, the waves were rough and there werent many fish. After that trip, we got to play beach volleyball! It was a majority of boys but some of the girls joined in the second game. It was pretty intense and after warming up the week before, I was the best player. I was throwing down blocks left and right and getting some fairly good kills! Plus I had a height advantage. My team won two streight then we tied after changing teams up. It was pretty evenly matched going into the third game, but when we got to 15 we didnt want to stop and just kept playing. All that was left was the boys after 7 streight games and we were sweaty. After one final game we took off for the dock and jumped in. That was a great way to finish off the day. A very refreshing occasion. After the swim, Susan and Tom taught us this card game called Golf. There were 8 of us and it turned out to be an incredibley fun game. We may have to try it back in the US.

That night we learned about the island. Jen, the person who owns IZE (the place we were staying) had alot of information to share about how to be sustainable on the island. The IZE program doesnt do much of its own research, but it educates students like us about the reef and runs mini projects in the area. It turns out the Smithsonian owns an island less than a mile south of us where they do experiments and the like. It was pretty cool hearing that I traveled all the way to Belize and the museum in my backyard was also down here studying.

That night, we opened up the doors and windows and got a much better breeze. I slept well and only got bit on my hand dangling over the edge of the top bunk. The Emily Abbot, who slept below me, was scared I would break the old bunk and fall through onto her. She is still alive so everything turned out ok.

In the morning, Jess got a rude awakening of sorts. The night before "the boys" put a tub of water above the door and left it adjar. When Jess wen to go to the bathroom it fell and hit her in the back, getting her fairly wet, but mostly annoyed. It woke everyone else up.

After breakfast, Jess, Jen, Tom, Jay and I went out fishing on th second trip. After a slow start catching sardines for bait, we cast out our lines (a small piece of ply wood with twine wrapped around it and a hook... not very much). The afternoon before, others had gone fishing without much success, but today, the ocean was bountiful. At the first spot, I pulled up maybe 10 fish, 4 of which were keepers. Other people had some luck, but the fish were too small. Jess caught the first one and I got a good picture of her. The second spot was much the same, but Jay caught an enormous makeral! After catching only 6-10 inch fish, this 2 and a half foot fish was monsterous! It was the catch of the day. Between Jay and I we had 15 keepers and over 30 fish total. Besides us, jess had a ton that she had caught (two contributed) and Wilford, the fisher who took us, had a good number. Tom and Jenn didnt do as well, but they still had fun.

After returning, Jess and I went on one last snorkel and had lunch (our fish!). After lunch, I found Lloyd hanging out around the bar. It was funny seeing him again just a week later from meeting him on Tobacco Caye. Of course, we had to play volleyball again before we left, so Lloyd joined in. Our team was Lloyd, Bitsy Dan and me and we dominated the otherside. After getting some poor sets to Lloyd, I finally placed it perfect and he had a great kill. It was very enjoyable. The second game, Emily Falta and Jess joined. This made the teams more even (because Jess is so good :) ). However, our team came from behind with the help of Lloyd and won it. We had one last swim, said goodbye to Lloyd and jumped on the boat.

For me, this weekend was very satisfying. Now, I have to get back to work on a presentation for my Business Law class tomorrow! It is the last class with Jay so it is a bitter sweet ending. I hope Tom and Susan are as much fun as Jay and Meg.

Hope you all have a good week! I will be doing the Belizean river race next week: the Ruta Maya! That will be yet another story in this saga of incredible weekends.

take care!

Colin