Excursion Number 1

I felt like today's full day excursion should have its own blog post. Unfortunately, I do not have any picutres because they are all on my camera and my camera photos go to my laptop that has not been staying connected to the internet very well, but I might try and add some photos in later.

Our excursion today consisted of a catamaran trip with two snorkel stops as well as a stop at Caye Cauker, another island in Belize. It was a very tiring yet fun day.

We met the boat drivers at 8 this morning to get whatever gear we needed. Some people had some but others did not. Then we walked over to the boat and got on. On the catamaran there were bean bags and raft type seats for us to relax on while the boat was driving. We drove about 35 to 45 minutes to our first stop at Hol Chan right outside the coral reef. It is broken into four zones. We were in the second zone and our second stop was also one of the zones. The dive master took a small group of us around and told us what we were seeing. I got a lot of cool pictures but my favorite thing I saw was the sea turtle! We saw two. The first one started swimming towards me so I started to back away and the dive master said it was fine but when the group of divers went out a few weekends ago, someone got bit by the sea turtle, which was why I backed away. I also saw lots of fish and really cool coral. There was a nurse shark as well some eagle rays which were also really cool!

Once we got back on the boat we drove off to the next stop, shark and ray alley. There are lots of sting rays and nurse sharks there. We weren't there as long because after the dive masters stop throwing fish in to feed the sharks, they start swimming away. There were tons of big fish and nurse sharks and the sting rays swam at the bottom near the ground. The nurse sharks swam right by me. It was really cool. I thought I would be scared but I was not at all.

After that we took a 45 minute boat ride to Caye Cauker. There was a big rain cloud so it rained pretty hard for about 10 minutes, but we were already wet so it didn't really matter. Then it was sunny the rest of the trip. Once there we had 2 hours to do whatever we want. I went to eat lunch with a few people and most of the tables had swings for seats. That was really cool. After lunch we walked around the island looking at the souvenir shops. We also went to the split, which is a a small area on the island where the island split into two different island. There is lots of very clear blue water to swim in and you can snorkel if you have your own gear and want to.

After that we headed back to the boat. We had an hour and 45 minute boat ride back to San Pedro. It was so relaxing on the water with the pillow chairs. A lot of people took naps the whole ride back. I think I may have fallen asleep but only for a few minutes. I just relaxed and watched the clear blue ocean. When we got back everyone was really tired. A bunch of us did our laundry to pack everything up for our inland trip Monday and just relaxed. It was definatly one of my favorite days so far!