Watery Demise

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Disaster struck yesterday!

We have been staying on the Island of Caye (prounounced "Key") Caulker since Sunday night on the recommendations of some friends and people we met in Belize City. It's a gorgeous little tropical paradise, complete with lizards, pretty little fish, Rastafarian drug dealers and brightly painted buildings in pink and green and blue. The ocean is painfully beautiful when the sun is shining, turquoise and tanzanite. The first day was walking along the beach, exploring the jungle, and finding friends among the tourists. We've met a young couple from New Zealand who tell us we have to come visit their family's winery (!) when we head towards Australia. We've also met several others we may meet up with again in San Ignacio or further down the road.

Yesterday, after I remembered to charge my camera, we got a snorkeling mask at Eya's suggestion. I laid on the beach while she played in the water near a bar called The Lazy Lizard, right by the split. At the end of the island is a channel about 100 feet across for boats to pass through, with a pretty strong current towards the mainland, and a broken-down concrete pier about 4 feet wide that's always covered with sunbathing tourists and the occasional boozy fisherman. One made several catches and fed them to the cormorants out of his hand. We didn't manage to snap any pictures of this, sadly.

After Eya was done swimming for a while, I grabbed my GoPro Hero HD 3 sports camera, complete with parachute cord wrst strap I fashioned on our last day in the states, and headed into the water. I chased fish. I snapped starfish. I took videos of my expeditions under broken portions of the dock crowded by fish taking shelter from the current. I even saw a Moray Eel!

I take a break and visit Eya, who had moved our things onto the conrete pier, chatted with a guy interested in the camera, then decided I wanted to see what the water was like on the other side of The Split. There is a forest of mangrove trees bordering the ocean there and I thought it would be a great place to take some excellent pictures. I swim out, letting the camera dangle on the wrst strap, when 30 feet out from the edge of the pier I feel the strap go slack as it rode up to my shoulder. I have a minor panic moment and reach back for the strap, which now sits, empty but still connected in a full circle. I look around wildly and then dive into the water, where visibility is about 7 feet due to the sand kicked up by the current. No crystal-clear water here, but still beautiful. The camera fell off in an area around 30 feet deep, too deep for me to stay underwater for more than a few seconds before returning to the surface.

After about 15 minutes of searching, and some help from a few other snorkelers, I called off the search. My fish-chasing days are far from over, but I won't be able to share the experience until I can get something shipped down from the states (with something a bit more reliable than a home-made parachute chord wrist strap).

The rest of the day was relaxing but uneventful. The male of the New Zealand couple, Matt, has played guitar for about 8 years, and brought along a ukulele for his journey, so I let him play on my backpacking guitar and he showed by some chords. He also explained chords and keys and scales in a new and more helpful way than I have heard before, so I'm going to spend some time reviewing my notes and see what I can glean. Lee, his girlfriend, braided Eya's hair and got hers done in return.

The night before had been karaoke at the local nightclub, and we had a great time there, so tonight we called it early after three drinks (for me) and headed home to catch some sleep. I'm very sorry not to have any photos to share, but hopefully Eya will get an entry up soon for everyone with her regular out-of-the-water camera.

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