Caye Caulker – 
We get going at 08:30 after packing our stuff and have – like yesterday – breakfast at the café “Brisas del Mar” (some awesome fried jacks). Our next stop: The divebase “French Angel Expedition”. We are 6 people in total. Marph, our captain, Dan, the instructor, Pete from Aspin (who is about to do one training unit for his AOWD-license), Caroline from Washington DC. , Verena and me.
At the divesite “Tres Cocos” we are on the lookout for some dolphins and… are in luck. We soon notice a group of them swimming quite close to us, so we ready our gear and get in the water. Diving with dolphins – Very cool . After doing some circles around us for quite some time, they eventually lose interest. As slowly we dive along the canyons of the reef, we get accompanied by some nurse sharks along the reef. That sure is some quite chill dive.
After we end our dive and get on the boat, we change our location to an area with a bit more shallow water for some relaxing snorkeling at the reef. We notice some canoes nearby with some folks snorkeling next to them, carrying harpoons – I wonder if this is Kate’s and Ben’s group.
The second divesite is named “Esmeralda”: At first Dan and Pete get to a sandy area to do some buoyancy training – we form our own group and check the nearby reef for marine life: We are lucky and soon notice see two not-so-shy moray eels. I got myself a camera stick, so I can get really close up to fish with my GoPro without scaring them away, but these moray eels are rather curious. We also get to see a few schools of moon fish, parrot fishs, some angelfishs and even a lobster. Somehow I’m getting hungry.
A few moments later Hector arrives, a rather strange old fellow and joins us – our chat starts to get funny-strange as he asks us some bizarre riddles. He mixes a bottle of “heaven juice” (rainwater) with half a bottle of rum and takes some serious glups: “This lasts half a day”. At some point I have to go to the loo and get inside the bar. On the way back I meet Pete: “Man, freakin Hector is sure a number“. Well, he sure is strange. “Crazy old man” or something like that. Being back at the table, everyone seems to be ready to pay and leave, as Dan is probably already waiting for us. Hector seems to have talked about his ex-wife and started to cry as soon as Pete and I were gone. It’s not always just roses in the Caribbean .We take a break at San Pedro for a quick snack. The prices are rather spicy here though. We find us a sports bar at the pier which seems to be alright though. From here, we can watch two fishermen standing in the water, gutting some fish they caught. The seagulls above fly in to get some scraps and from below two stingrays are swimming in between the fishermens legs to get also their share. In the meantime we get to know each other a bit better – Smalltalk.
On our way back to Caye Caulker we keep an eye out for manatees to have a brief stop to snorkel with them. No luck though. Along the way we see Carlos boat, with a group of snorklers also looking for manatees. “Found anything?” – “I found rum!” grins Carlos and raises a full bottle of Kuknat Rum :) . They hadn’t had any luck either. But the Kuknat Rum we drank yesterday when we were also snorkeling with Carlos was delicious… Maybe I will take a bottle with me.
Back in Caye Caulker, we drop off our clothes at the laundry service and put our names up for a dive at the Blue Hole on the 25th. We have dinner at Brisas del Mar directly at the beach unter some palm trees – romanic . Lobster, a few drinks and some nachos as an appetizer. Yummy! On our way back to the bungalow we have just one more drink at the bar “Calle del Sol”. Wow- now I feel really exhausted. Tomorrow we want to just have a slow, relaxed day…
15 comments
Wow that’s pretty awesome. I’m terrified of any type of fish which means I miss out on these amazing sites. Great post keep them coming xx
Ah, swimming with dolphins I think that’s more than cool But honestly, I would have probably freaked out if I see one of those moray eels
Damn, this is so cool. So many different water animals This summer i was on Malta and did some snorkeling but there was some nice fish, nothing like this. Enjoy.
Wow, I have to relive scuba diving through the lenses of great photographers like yourself. Unfortunately not being able to swim prevents me from experiencing this but the pictures here make me feel like I was there too. Thanks for sharing them.
You don’t have to be actually able to swim “like a pro” to learn to scuba dive. Basic swimming skills are mandatory, sure – but this can be easily learned
Your Photo’s are always great! You would love to dive South Africa and Mozambique we have so many awesome dive spots where sharks and dolphins are plenty… Rum too.. I always love reading your posts.
OHHHH YEEEES! Southern African countries are high on my bucketlist – I think there’s no other place where you can see this many whale sharks and great whites!
I’ve never scuba dived before, but this looks awesome!
I wish I was a better diver, but I suck! I really love being underwater and seeing the nature down there. Sounds like you had a great time, and a romantic dinner afterwards too!
Huh? why? It’s always training, training and more training to perfect your buoyancy skills. Check out the AOWD/speciality-courses by the dive centres. Some even offer classes just for buoyancy training.
Lucky that you guys got to see and swim with dolphins! Hope you’ll get to see some manatees next time you dive or snorkel again. Or if not: eat more lobsters, drink more rum, and go find Hector for weird small talks! haha…
Thanks! And just imagine: This was Verenas FIRST( ! ) dive in the ocean (all before were at lakes) – and she gets to see dolphins. Come on… how lucky can one be ?
Wow that’s an amazing experience to swim/dive with the dolphins and sharks too! Seeing this lovely creature has definitely completes your day. That’s looks so cool and fun!
That is so cool! There are dolphins near our place; they leap and play around usually in early morning. However, we’ve never seen one up close and underwater. Hopefully, when we scuba dive today, we can see one. We’ve unexpectedly seen a giant whale shark during a recent dive; we hope we could see a dolphin today.
OMG – this is my dream. I want to dive with the dolphins. Even though they may leave us after a few circles. I so envy you guys for having done this. Must find something like this in my part of the world.