Paget's Belize Journal
The Preliminary Trip-
It Begins The Actual Stay-
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Dec 24, 1999 This is the LifeI know that Oregon and Massachusetts and many other spots also had good viewing for this beautiful, bright full moon and it sounds glorious, but it's hard to believe it could get any better than my experience here. We went out to Southwater Caye about 2:00 in the afternoon. Those of you who have been on the distribution list for a while may remember this is a tiny little caye(maybe 12 acres) also partially owned by Therese's family. The Pelican Beach facility there is called the Pelican's Pouch. This is where I went snorkeling the first time and where Dawn and I went snorkeling when she was here. And where they have the one-winged pelican that has to be hand-fed. This trip was also to include snorkeling, but from a "big boat." Friends of Tony & Therese, Hugh and Teresa, run a wonderful small hotel and restaurant in Belize City and also a dive service. Since Hugh has a big new boat and his financial partner and his wife were down from the states to check out his investment, this was a good chance to show it off. They motored down from Belize City (a two-hour trip) and met us there. (We went out to the caye with Ishmael, same as before). The boat is beautiful, can carry 60 diving tanks (so 30 divers on a one-day, two-tank trip) and has plenty of room for them to move around and fiddle with their gear, etc. But, because the boat is bigger, it can't go to the really shallow places where Ishmael can go, so I was a little more nervous. And I didn't do much snorkeling this time, kept swallowing water and snorting and it wasn't fun, so I decided to get out of the water and just sunbathe. The other 6 adults and 3 children had a good time though and saw an eagle ray that roamed around for quite a while so even Rebecca, the 6-yr-old, got to see it. I stayed onboard and drank lemonade and made sure the captain's mate (a young Belizean also named Tony) was doing everything just right. Then we went back to the dock and to the hotel for showers. Now this facility is a real island facility, composting toilets (but one in most rooms) and outdoor showers from the limited supply of water gathered by rooftop collectors. Since we were only staying over one night (and hence would have an opportunity for a real shower soon) we all showered just enough to get the salt off and called it good. Change into some tropical lounging clothes and back to the boat for cocktail hour, with shrimp and Chardonnay, watching the poorer tourists admiring us. Even though it's clearly a working boat, it was almost like being on a yacht. And as close as I'm likely to come so I enjoyed it immensely. THEN, we went to the spit on the south end of the island to finish our wine and watch the moon. Sunset here is about 6:00 pm so we were just in time for a glorious moonrise. I'm sure it was no brighter reflecting off the snow in the cold north than it was sparkling and shimmering down a beautiful fan of light on the water. With no ambient light from manmade sources, the light even seems to be a different color. And we had an incredible bonus light show. To the west behind the Maya Mountains there was a spectacular lightening storm over Guatemala with several low banks of clouds between us and the storm. So the flashes lighting up behind and between the clouds also provided a grand show of nature. It was a very odd feeling to look to the east and see that big, serene floating moon and then look to the west and see dramatic flashing and cracking and roiling clouds. And truly feel myself as a tiny person on a tiny island. Unfortunately, the beautiful storm dumped lots of water and caused some more problems for this part of the world, but we didn't know it then, so continued with our idyllic interlude. Eventually the staff came out to the spit and said if we didn't come to eat, we wouldn't get any dinner, so we ate quickly and went back out to watch for another few hours. A beautiful, peaceful, quiet (!) night, up early and back out to the spit to go wading, drink coffee and talk some business. Breakfast of toasted bagels, cream cheese and lox. Which, by the way, goes beautifully with fresh papaya and pineapple. Now I know they really only live like this occasionally and much of it was for the benefit of the financial partner, but wasn't I lucky to be included? If I can't be with my family for Christmas, this is surely the next best thing. Happy Holidays to all. |
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