14th February - Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

This morning we awoke to a glorious day. We headed out the back of the hotel, right onto one of the best beaches in the world, Seven Mile Beach. Pristine white sand and turquoise water greeted us and all was good with the world after a crappy travel day yesterday. We pulled up a lounger and snorkeled and swam in the calm warm waters of the Carribean and lazed on the loungers on the beach. Bliss. Rain threatened, but never eventuated. We were suddenly very glad that our other hotel had been booked out!

After a couple of hours of lazing around we caught our shuttle out for our afternoon at Stingray Ally. Stingray Ally first started as fisherman used to used to park up in the smooth shallow waters and throw over the scraps of their days fishing and the stingrays soon got used to this and started coming and are still there for the benefit of tourists who feed them now.

We boarded our boat and headed out through the mangroves onto the water. After about twenty minutes we could see a blue turquoise colour in the distance. As we got closer, we realized that was actually the colour of the water and it was mesmorising. It was like the stuff you see in brochures but it was real. Visibility was amazing.
We hopped off the board and straight into the water. Our briefing told us to shuffle along the sand so we didn’t stand on any of the stingrays. Straight away they swarmed around us. They brushed and bumped against us. It was a little bit freaky to start with. We could touch the stingrays on their wings and they felt like rubbery slime.
We were told that because it was Valentines Day, if we kissed a stingray we would have seven years luck, so we gave it a shot. This stingray got double kisses!
We also got a backrub each with the stingray which felt strangely quite nice.
Dan held a small male stingray in the water.
Being out in the Caribbean, on a perfect day in crystal turquoise waters with stingrays is something we both will never forget. We hopped back on board to the boat to travel a short distance to some reefs to snorkel. Whilst the reef was fairly small, it held some beautiful fishes and we spent ages following brightly coloured schools of different fish around.
It was time to board the boat again and head back to shore, spotting the occasional iguana sunning themselves. We spent the afternoon snoozing on the loungers by the pool watching our first Grand Cayman sunset. As we were changing in our room for dinner, fireworks erupted and we thought can this day get any better?
We had some champagne to celebrate Valentines Day and ended one of our favourite days on this trip.

18th December – Caye Caulker, Belize

Finally the wind had died enough for us to get on sea and explore the reef. Our boat the Ragga Girl, motored out parallel to the reef toward the Ho Chim marine park. Our first stop, the coral garden, was to swim with corals and a number of fish. The water wasn’t too warm but comfortable. I was the first one in and horse-eye jack were everywhere. Imagine, a two foot long big eye trevally. Yep, and they were swarming around us. It was absolutely awesome. Towards the reef we saw an assortment of coral and fish. The highlight was a small 3 foot long barracuda patrolling the edge of the reef. This fish was fast.
Our second spot, shark and ray alley, was in the Marine Reserve. This area has been called a marine reserve for 22 years so the fish are more abundant and bigger. Tan was feeling a bit sea sick so she sat this one out. As soon as I got in there were more horse-eye jack and some moderate size black stingrays. I wasn’t too keen on getting up close and personal with these ones but the captain and crew lifted one out of the water and allowed people to pet it. Not really for me but seeing them swim around was pretty good. Okay, we have seen the sting rays but it was the sharks we were after. We followed our snorkeling guide towards the reef and immediately the group raced off chasing a shark. I was too slow and missed this one. Claudio and I were spewing. We swam around a bit more and then we saw a nurse shark hiding under an over hang. It was about 6 feet long and was cowering around our presence. Our guide swam down to greet it and it bolted away swimming in the open sea. We all of course followed suite, chasing it. On the way back the group spread out with Claudio and I on the eastern flank. I spotted another big shark in a cave. I pointed it out to Claudio and we watched it for about a minute before everyone else come over. Snorkelling with sharks isn’t that dangerous!!!

Our last spot was a natural break in the reef. After talking with Tan I convinced her she would feel better if she got in the water and swam around. She did and I was wrapped she could share this last snorkeling spot with me. We swam in open water for about 200m and hit the northern side of this natural channel. Here we saw some large schools of fish and four 4’ long silver tarpon. The channel is about 50m wide and 25m deep and it was so clear we could see the bottom.

As we were about to cross over to the southern side I pointed out a very well camouflaged stingray covered in sand on the bottom. It took about 30 seconds for Tan to see it and once she did, she could’ve walked on water. She gave Thorpie a run for his money over 50m as she reaced across the channel. I now know Tan doesn’t like swimming with stingrays!!

The other side was just as good and to cap it off a spotted eagle ray with it’s long tail was patrolling the channel. After the initial fright Tan was much calmer in the water and sucked it all in. Truly beautiful and watching a green turtle gracefully swimming, a huge black grouper and umpteen different types of schools of fish made it so worthwhile to come to Belize.

About 10m from the boat a girl called out “SHARK!”. A 5’ nurse shark had swam up and was resting in the shade of the underside of the boat. Tan had visions of JAWS and like three other girls raced to the ladder. The shark quietly swam off and Claudio, Sara and I slowly followed it until it swam out of view, two minutes later. Seeing sharks in the ocean is a calming experience for me, Tan begs to differ.

I hung out in the water waiting for the other groups to return. Tan and Claudio threw some small fish in the water and feed the horse-eye jack only a metre from my mask. That was pretty cool too.

We set sail, listened to tunes and made our way back to Caye Caulker. The ceviche is raw fish marinated in salsa and lime juice. Tan liked it!!

Mental note – dehydration, salt water, sun and too much over strong rum punch doesn’t agree with my system. A picture tells thousand words!!! After a few hours sleep I miraculously made it out of bed where Tan and I shared a pizza which hit the spot.