Hip Hip Ho-Holiday!

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I know I've been publishing past adventures, but this one is actually current! Miss you all!
If you took New Years, Christmas, and the 4th of July and put them all in one month, you’d have September Celebrations in Belize! What a wonderful time to be home on the peninsula….it’s slow season so the faces are all familiar and our favorite restaurants take turns closing for weeks, BUT there are many holidays and things to celebrate! We’ve got St. George’s Caye Day, Independence Day, and our very own Placencia Assassins football team took the national championship last month! I just got back 30 days ago, but of course it feels like I never left….
My first order of business in Placencia was to get underwater, despite the recent news of terrible visibility due to an unusual algae bloom and the excessive river run-off of rainy season. I shared the small boat with a tiny group…ended up being two snorkelers, two “Discover Scuba” divers (not certified, but exposed to a condensed training and then allowed to dive in a relatively controlled environment), and a single tourist Paul and myself – the only divers! Now….when you get a chance to be the ONLY divers…what a treat! We really got to set a pace of exploration (instead of swim-along-as-much-reef-as-possible) and I was able to focus on the tiny macro-life of the sea. I saw multiple nudibranchs, arrow crabs, and so many fish smaller than my pinky nail that I would have never noticed before. Also, I find that days with bad visibility always tend to show innumerous schools of fish – and today was no exception! The schools were INCREDIBLE waterfalling over the side of the reef, swimming out in the deep blue, and even a school of southern sonnets that were darting and shimmering in a most random pattern.
I had two breathtaking moments that day ---- first I was fascinated by the school of sonnets, as their shimmer was unpredictable and their behavior appeared erratic…yet in sync with each other. As I’m 70 feet under, looking up at the top of the reef (at about 40 ft) and the school of sonnets, a large spotted eagle ray came gliding over the top of the reef, and over the top of me, and scooped down to swim alongside me…..slowly….usually the eagle rays just cruise by but this one sloooowed down to check me out. Then she went about 20 yards in front of me, turned around, and cruised by again. Sloooooow. Circled by one more time, right at my eye level, saying HELLO WANDKE! (I waved!) THEN about 5 minutes later, I noticed another school of fish acting erratic and about 3 seconds later this MASSIVE MANTA RAY comes cruising past!!!!! Now, mantas are quite unusual in Belize. I’ve only seen one in Belize before and that morning I was telling my dive buddy all about that unbelizeable manta encounter, so now I was BANGING the heck out of my tank, getting my buddy and divemaster’s attention … pointing, banging….with my jaw on the sea floor !!! This one was thicker than longer…he had a wingspan of (only) about 10 feet, but his body was over a foot thick and scarred with many battle wounds. SO COOL! After he cruised past, the three of us spent a minute making “aaaahhhahahahaha” sounds through our regulators and giving each other high fives. Aw yeah. That’s why we dive!!!
September 10th brought us the festive holiday of St. George’s Caye Day, which is a celebration of the English victory over the Spanish, who were trying to add Belize to their long list of Central and South American conquests, in 1798. What it represents today is also known as Belize National Day, a precursor to the Independence Celebrations later in the month! Also, this year the HUGE Placencia Peninsula Fishing Contest was held the weekend of the 10th – with a litany of bands, beers, and big barracudas!
The Village Council set up a few tents at the tip of the peninsula and Saturday started with a parade to the water tower and back. I donned my blue, red, and white and joined the parade when it went past my house at about noon. I think I’ve shared a Placencia parade with you before – it starts with our garbage truck (rinsed out and cleaned especially for the parades!) which happens to be the national colors of blue, red, and white. They fill the back of the truck with speakers at least four feet tall, a DJ, and the first kids that jump on board. Then the rest of the village follows behind dancing their asses off in the hot midday sun…usually for over two hours! It seems there is always a technical problem in the parade, and this one had the garbage truck running out of gas at the parade turn-around point….perpendicular in the road, blocking all traffic in both directions! Classic! But the people just kept dancing in the shade …. Or so I hear…I was standing at the end of Harbor Place with Jim and Jeff and a few others locals enjoying a cold beer and shade from the hot sun!
Finally the parade got restarted and headed back to the tip of the peninsula, where the fisherman soon arrived with their fish hauls. WOW! There were ten boats that had left at 5 in the morning, and by 3pm they all returned with massive wahoos, tuna, mackerel, barracuda, and more! The biggest fish weighed in at a surprising 40 lbs….he looked much, much bigger! As the fish were being weighed, the whispers of prices and how-to-grill permeated the crowd. A fishing village indeed!
Last weekend our friends with a beach property up north had a pig roast Independence Day party / victory party for the Placencia Assassins! The night before, Dave and I went to dinner at Turtle Inn (Francis Ford Coppola’s resort – ubernice and I enjoyed a delicious fish ravioli!!) the hosts of the party. Tom entered the scene slightly disheveled, clearly worked up, as he had just driven home over 60 miles with the aforementioned pig hog tied to the roof of his truck! Still alive! He picked it up at a farm down south, and had to wrestle it onto the car roof, then off the roof to tie it to a tree in his yard. He was so funny realizing his tasks for the following morning: “My alarm’s going to go off at 5am and I think, Oh great, have to go to work. Then I’ll think, Oh , no I don’t. But Oh sh%t. I have to go kill the pig.” HAhahaha. I love how close we are to our food here. In any case, he did a fabulous job! We arrived on the beach the next afternoon and Porky was roasting like a charm over a wood burning fire. I was honored to have one of the first crispy skin pieces as he was carved up….a fresh crunchy bacon chip! YUM!
During the week I’ve been working hard on my business plans and navigating my way through and international banking scheme, website design, international incorporation, and work permit requirements via locals, business owners, tour operators, and friends! Although the structure and ideas are ever-changing, the simple idea stays the same: I want to hook people up with volunteer projects in Belize. It’s been such a rewarding experience for me in so many ways; I need to share it all with as many people as possible! Of course I’d appreciate and take any advice from any of you as I embark on this new adventure. It’s humbling to be reminded again that there are entire topics, industries, projects, and endeavors that I know absolutely nothing about! And I’m starting at square one when talking business. I’m more of a robot-loving globetrotter. 

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Comments

[Sarah]

I miss Placencia!
I wish I was there with you Steph....Looks like a great time!