The Reef Roamer

Dear Reader,

As avid scuba divers, John and I are always looking for new beautiful reefs to dive, but the one we keep going back to again and again is Belize in Central America. I believe we have now dived in Belize on 11 different vacations because it has all of the best of everything. We always to go the large island (or Caye) called Ambergris Caye which is just an hour ferry ride from Belize City on the coast or a 15 minute airplane ride.

Ambergris Caye is directly on the world's second largest barrier reef. The reef in Australia is the largest. For non-divers this might not mean much but it is gorgeous to dive on. There are so many beautiful dive sites loaded with colorful Caribbean Reef Fish, stunningly colorful corals, lobsters, crabs, sharks, sting rays, Giant Moray Eels, that you can dive the same sites again and again and never get bored.

The beauty of being directly on the reef is the short boat ride. Even though I've been diving on 100s of boats, it is still easy to get sea sick when preparing your gear in choppy water. The boat rides from the shore to the reef on Ambergris Caye is usually only 5 minutes and most of the time pretty smooth. This means you are in the water before you have a chance to get sick.

Besides the scuba diving, Ambergris Caye has many other delightful aspects. There is one small town, San Pedro, which is probably now about 5,000 in population. It was only 2,000 when we first went there but it seems to have grown a bit. The most noticeable thing is they have started paving the roads. They used to be all sand and would get terrible pot holes when it rains but now there are two paved roads into and through the town and a couple of side streets are paved as well. Progress can be good though the sand roads are easier on your feet. But I digress, the town itself is blessed with not only a myriad of dive shops to choose from but also dozens of wonderful bars and restaurants serving fresh fish and seafood and tropical drinks and beers all reasonably priced. Actually there's only one beer, Belikin, the beer of Belize but it's cheap.

The beaches are also nice and there is a huge range of accomodations from basic hostel pensions to 5 star luxury hotels and condos both moderate and expensive depending on not so much the view, most of of them have ocean views, but instead whether or not there is a bar and a swimming pool. A lot of them have both.

There are two kinds of diving to do on Ambergris Caye. The usual diving is right on the nearby reef in various spots which, like I said, is a short boat ride. The other is a longer trip, usually all day long, to a part of the reef which is much farther away or to the Great Blue Hole which was discovered by Jacques Cousteau.

Everyone who dives in Belize ends up diving the Blue Hole at some point. We've done it four times now. It's fascinating because it was once a giant cavern and the ceiling collapsed. This left just a ring visible from the air because the reef around it is quite shallow but inside it is 400 feet deep. This is a deep dive and any diver attempting this should be at least certified as a deep diver if not advanced. The dive is only 8-15 minutes long and goes to 150 feet, sometimes more. Inside there are giant stalagtites hanging suspended from what is left of the ceiling though it is usually dark down there and impossible to see the top of it from depth.

It was on our first dive trip to the Blue Hole that my story of the Reef Roamer recollects. We booked the trip through our dive shop Amigos del Mar, which we have been going to for 10 years now. In those days the trip used to be overnight because the boats were slower. I know that sounds archaic but we aren't that old! The Reef Roamer was our boat, a triple decker speed boat with a kitchen, head and crew quarters below, dive deck above and a recreation room with tables and couches above that. The captain was one deck higher which makes it a pretty tall speed boat.

It was a beautiful ride along the great barrier reef past islands such as the neighboring Caye Caulker, Goff Caye in the calm waters. Eventually we traversed beautiful passes between mangrove islands and then out to the open sea. Divers tend to be a little crazy and most of us were crowded up on the bow of the boat right in front of the cockpit window bouncing along our drinks (non-alcholic) spraying each other. It was a wonderful day.

There was a terrific cook on board named Richard. He was happily working away in the kitchen most of the time when he wasn't serving us snacks. What cracked John up about Richard was that everytime anyone would use the head, which was right next to the kitchen, Richard would start singing at the top of his lungs. He wasn't a very good singer but he was loud. It was pretty funny.

Richard also talked a lot. We told him stories of our bad luck on other dive trips and how we had to be rescued by the Bahamian Coast Guard on a live aboard dive boat once and had been on another dive boat that sunk. He didn't like the idea of having people on his boat with bad luck and said we were cursed. He liked to joke around with us about it. Right before John smacked his head really hard on the doorway Richard yelled "Watch Your Head". Then he laughed and told us a story of a funny little bar in San Pedro which is called Watch Your Head and has a doorway that's only 4 feet high. John would never make it through that door! John then told him how he had banged his head inside a cave just the day before diving. Richard said "See what I mean?". The banter went like that the entire trip.

We had also been warned not to put our hands on the orange painted rungs on the dive ladder when climbing aboard the Reef Roamer. After one of our dives Richard was assisting the crew in taking our gear as we climbed aboard and John put his hand right on the forbidden rung. Immediately the ladder smacked into the back of the boat from a wave and smashed his fingers. It was awful and I could tell he was in a lot of pain but fortunately had no broken bones. Richard liked to laugh over that one again and again until he got John to laughing about it as well. He started calling us bad luck but for some reason kept hanging around us.

When we approached the Blue Hole a great dolphin appeared next to the boat leaping along side of us and the across the bow and on the other side. She escorted us to the buoy leaping playfully all around. Apparently she had lost her mate some time before and was all alone so she always greeted the dive boats and provided an escort. I believe her name was Rita.

We dove immediately straight down inside the hole dropping to 150 feet as fast as possible in order to enjoy our bottom time as much as possible. Afterward we did a safety stop at 30 feet where a few spare tanks were waiting for anyone short on air. A safety stop is to help the nitrogen bubbles escape from your blood vessels so you don't get the bends. One that deep is usually required after a deep dive since most safety stops are at 10-15 feet at the most. Rita was waiting for us at the safety stop! It was awesome. She swam right up to me and came between my legs and right up my entire body to my face. I held out my hands and felt her soft underside as she passed smoothly up and up. It was like velvet and with a wink and a nod she moved on and attacked John. Not really but she did hit him pretty hard. Rita liked to play.

After the dive we went to Long Island Caye for the night. This Caye is really cool because it is the natrual habitat of the blue footed booby bird. I kid you not. There are hundreds of them walking around the island. We docked at the pier and took a hike to see the booby birds nesting in the tree tops. The government built a giant viewing platform about three stories high from which to look down at the nests. It was very cool. We were looking at a forest of some sort of deciduous broad leafy trees with giant nests each with a huge white bird with big blue feet sitting in them. I've never seen anything like it.

After the hike we had a very nice barbeque on the beach with fresh grouper and rice and beans, a typical Belizian meal. We got hot and played in the water for a while after lunch and Rita showed up. She liked to play keep away with a lifesaver only she liked to win. John didn't realize that so he held up the lifesaver for Rita to jump through but afterwards she wanted her prize, the lifesaver, which John held on to so she hit him right in the face hard enough to knock off his mask. I remember it really hurt his nose. Rita was one big strong dolphin.

At night we had dinner and beers and then most people knocked off early. Some decided to sleep on the beach in hammocks to keep away from the bugs but I preferred to stay on the water even farther from the bugs. We put our sleeping bags out on the bow because there were too many people crowded into the rec room and it seemed too hot. This didn't last long though because suddenly the sky opened up and it started pouring rain. The wind was whipping up too and we saw those hammocks spinning like windmills! So we raced inside and squeezed in with the rest of the crowd and went to sleep.

Of course in the middle of the night I had to use the restroom. When in dock, you aren't supposed to use the head. You have to use one of the two out houses on the pier. These were interesting because when you did your business in the toilet it went directly into the ocean. I tried not to think about it and just hoped no one could hear me. But what was amazing was the sky. There were billions of stars looming directly in front of me so bright that it was almost blinding. They were also huge and the whole display around me had a dizzying effect. I started to stagger around the deck from it. I have never seen stars anywhere like that, not even in the mountains. It was as if they were raining down upon earth (or the ocean) all around us.

They next day we had two more dives in the area. The first was Lighthouse Reef, which is right off Lighthouse Caye, where we spent the night. The second was a wall dive called Turneff. It was stunning. A wall dive is where there is a drop off in from the bottom that goes in a pretty straight line like a shelf and is much deeper than is safe to dive. So you can go down to a safe depth and then swim along side it looking in all the nooks and crannies at all the beautiful fish and critters and corals. It's really nice.

On the way back to Ambergris Caye we hit a storm which brought some pretty big waves. We were rocking all over the place and the captain had to really put the pedal to the metal to hit the waves with enough speed so we were also slapping down pretty hard. I had taken my Dramamine that morning as a precaution and was glad I did. Other than John and one other female diver, everyone else was sick. So we sat in the rec room watching the rain and getting hungry just as Richard appeared with a fresh conch ceviche he had just made. One of the crew had caught it before we left and it was delicious. And there was plenty of it since we were the only two eating it! If you've never had ceviche I think of it as a typically coastal or island Mexican dish made of raw fish, conch or shrimp, or even scallops marinated in lime juice, diced tomatoes, onions and hot peppers. In Belize they also add cucumber and carrots. It's very refreshing and ususally eaten with tortilla chips.

We broke down only about 1/2 hour away from Ambergris Caye and had to call for help. This used to be a common occurrence on dive boats in Belize and Honduras. We've been on many that haven't made it back to shore and had to be towed. This time I think we just needed some replacement part which was brought to us and once the repairs were made we were on our way. We only had a delay of a couple of hours but who cares? We didn't have a plane to catch or any appointments to keep and they serve dinner in San Pedro late enough not to worry about that.

When we returned we said our goodbyes to the crew and to Richard and went back to our room to clean up. We were starving and it was dinner time already.

A few years later when we were watching football in a bar in San Pedro Richard walked in. I couldn't believe he remembered us but he did. We told him how much we liked his cooking and he advised he had a job at one of the local restaurants so we promised to visit him. He noticed we were wearing our Reef Roamer t-shirts and then told us that we were on Reef Roamer's last voyage. There was a really big storm and she sunk. No one was injured but it was really sad. I really liked that boat. Then Richard remembered that we were bad luck and said as soon as he found out he should have jumped overboard right then and there! In our defense, we weren't on board when the Reef Roamer did sink and I don't see how we could have possibly caused it to happen from such a distance. Richard just gave me the look, the sly eye knowing look and said the next time we go on a day trip to let him know in advance so he won't be on board. He was just kidding, of course. But maybe not. As they say in Belize, "You Better Belize It". I'm not really sure what that means.

Good Evening for now,