Belize......

And so it came to pass that the crocs found themselves on an Island Paradise 30 miles off the coast of mainland Belize with a fishing rod and some dive gear....!!


Hello blogger friends and as you can see i've made to Central America..... and damn fine it is to. So after recovering from the trials and tribulations of Miami (well stomach bug and antibiotic poisoning) i've jetted down to sunny Belize which has been my home for the last week. Turneffe Flats...a fly fishing, diving and eco adveture resort according to the bumpf and it certainly covers all of those bases. Getting here was exceptionally easy (i even got upgraded by America Airlines for some unknown reason, think the crocs really do pull a few strings if you wear them in the right places!) and after hooking up with a couple of people on the plane that happened to be coming here aswell (hello Alaistair and Kim!) we were soon on our express jet boat with about 10 others making our way east to the resort. Turneffe Atoll, just as a bit of background, is the largest atoll in the Carribean and one of only 4 coral atolls in the Western Hemisphere. The reef here is the second largest in the world, just behind the Great Barrier Reef in Oz and that makes for amazing diving and funnily enough amazing fishing.


To say the resort is 5 star would probably be a slight understatement, you live in fantastic bungalows with en suite bathrooms, AC and you can even drink the water which i'm led to believe is rather unusual in this part of the world (something i'm not going to be trying on any other legs on the Central American tour!) The bungalows open right out on to the beach and reef and there is a huge coral/sand flat straight in front of that so you can flyfish until your arm falls off (i was stalking it only a few hours ago with a flytyer/fishing guide called Elvis, yes, he's alive and well and hiding in Belize!) The other key building is the main lodge where bizarrely they have internet access (on an island in the middle of the ocean? What is the world coming to?) which is where i'm currently typing away (Easter Saturday.... all the other guest left this morning and i'm the only one here, waiting for a boatful of Orvis anglers to arrive) Its also where the bar is (v important, it also has a seemly inexhaustible supply of Belikin, the local brew!) and where you have all your meals (which are hearty and excellent). It never ceases to amaze me that these incredible places exist in the remotest parts of the world, the logistics of running a resort like this must just be mind boggling.... as you can tell i'm a bit of a fan!


So arrived last Saturday, big old group of anglers, a few divers (well Kim and myself as i'm technically a diver and angler whilst i'm here) and a family group doing the whole eco tour thing (snorkeling, trekking round the islands and looking for saltwater crocs which rather worryingly are here in abundance) I have to admit the first night everyone turned in rather early as a) it had been a long day travelling and b) fisher people always want to get up v early doors to get the first fish, an accolade that went to Mika and Austen who had had 7 bonefish between them before breakfast....!!

My fishing guide for the week was a chap called Cap - a man of few words but actually a font of knowledge especially when it comes to fishing, diving, boats, basically anything to do with Turneffe and Belize. I knew we'd hit it off instantly as he is also a fellow crocs wearer - always a good sign!! We've had an awesome week fishing together, even though i know he thinks my casting and general fly fishing skills are well below par... which sadly they are! The fishing here really is superb, the main quarry being permit which is one of the hardest fish to catch on the fly. They're exceptionally rare (i believe this place has the largest population in the world), exceptionally skittish (a wrong cast and a school of 50 can vanish in a second) and exceptionally fussy (they feed almost exclusively on crabs which makes catching them a bit tough) I've hooked and lost 1 and now only have 3 more days left to try and catch one. Given that between 8 anglers last week only 3 were caught (and some of these guys can properly fish) you sort of get the picture..... The other two main targets are bonefish (fish that you stalk across the flats, i have had about 12 or so this week and catching them is always very exciting as they tear off across the flats at about a million miles an hour as soon as hooked) and tarpon (huge prehistoric looking fish that fight like hell, they've been responsible for 3 broken rods this week alone). If you're very lucky and pray to the fishing gods you can try for a Grand Slam which is a bonefish, permit and tarpon all in one day... the equivalent of a hole in one in golf i guess. They get about 20 grand slams a year here and Austen (a very experienced flyfishing chap from Cornwall) got one last Tuesday which meant we had a rather rocking night in the bar at his expense! Always nice!!


So the daily routine goes something like this, up at 6am - walk the flats looking for bones in front on the bungalows (and generally catch nothing), breccie, then out with Cap on his skiff around 7.30ish.... trawl around certain parts of the lagoon looking for permit, find them, cast twice and scare them off (trying to hide embarrassment due to poor casting ability and apologise profusely, the guides are all quite competitive and catching permit is the icing on the cake for them!) then stalk the flats for bones, catch a few, grab a bite of lunch around midday and then off to the deeper channels to try and find a tarpon. I'm still yet to see a tarpon but a few have been caught this week so i know that they are here and exist. You then fish til around 5, come back to the lodge, shower and then hit the bar for beers and fishy tales (the one that got away predominantly) before dinner at 7.30. After that everyones generally so knackered (a full day in the Belizian sun really does seem to take it out of you) that most people turn in and prepare for another day of fishing battles. The weather does seem to play a large part in your fishing success and unfortunately we had two very stormy days last week which resulted in the fish turning off completely (apparently fish don't seem to like bad weather either) - choppy seas, rain, wind, all the things you really don't want when out in a small boat trying to cast flies at fussy fish. Thankfully the suns come back out and the wind seems to be dropping so with a bit of luck my fishing results should improve!


The other main pastime here is diving. And of course the big thing to do when in Belize is dive the Blue Hole. Now the day i decided to do this was the day after the big storm... and the Blue Hole is on the adjacent reef system (Lighthouse Atoll) which unfortunately you have to cross 20 miles of open ocean to get to. Normally this is a fairly uneventful part of the trip (it should take about 45 mins) but after a storm, in huge swells and with a small dive boat.... not a good idea. I can only compare it to an hour and a half on a roller coaster (thats how long it took to get there) with the boat being buffeted around all over the place and slamming down on 10 foot waves every 30 seconds. We were soaked to the skin and i have to admit i was just a little bit scared (my seafaring skills being rather limited) but as the dive guide and captain of the boat promised, we got there in one piece. The Blue Hole itself is a huge collapsed cave that is very deep (its estimated at around 400-500 feet) You dive to about 40m where there are some huge stalactites and then amble back up the wall. So, i was rather nervous, soaked and about to embark on my deepest dive ever. It started ok, but as soon as we got to 40m i experienced for the first time proper narcosis (nitrogen at depth has the same effect on the body as sinking 4 shots of vodka, something that if you've been keeping up with the blog you know i've been doing quite a bit of recently!!) - Alex the dive master took a picture of me down there and i really do look as though i'm away with the fairies.... i'll post it on facebook when i get a sec. All very weird i can tell you. Thankfully we were only down there 7 minutes (that's all that the body will allow i'm told) and as soon as we were back at around 20m i was fine. But that's when the sharks appeared. Big ones and lots of them. We had been primed for this as Alex had said there was a good chance of seeing sharks and told us not to worry as the Blue Hole sharks are well fed and not a threat to humans. But when six of them appear out of nowhere, one being a 10ft bull shark, its still gives you a bit of a shock!! Again the piccies will be on facebook just as soon as i get to an internet cafe with a little more bandwidth than here. The sharks hung around for quite a while and bizarrely it was a bit of a shame to have to go back up to the surface, i guess its not often you get to dive with big but friendly sharks!!

Next stop was half moon Caye, a world heritage site that was just stunning. Proper Robinson Crusoe type stuff i can tell you. The island is protected because of the red footed boobies (no sniggering at the back...!) that live there, in fact this is one of their only nesting sites in the Carribean. You even have a bird viewing platform so that you can climb into the treetops to hang out with the birds. At this time of year its pretty cool as the boobies are all nesting and there were hundreds of big flat fluffy chicks sat in nests waiting to be fed, obviously resulting in lots of oooohhhs and aaahs from the assembled birdwatchers! The boobies actually have a pretty tough time as they share their home with fregate birds, huge black seafaring birds that you'd probably recognise from a David Attenbourough documentary or two. The fregate birds mob the boobies as they return with a belly full of fish for the youngsters and more often than not the boobies panic, spilling their entire fishing days contents in mid air that the fregates then gobble up. Tough life indeed if you then have to fly for several hours out to sea to find fish again.....

That's about it adventure wise so far. I could go on about the huge Friday night Cuba Libre session we had as all the other fishermen left today, but my mum already seems to think that i'm drinking myself to death on this trip so i wont give you the full details, but needless to say i didn't feel too crisp this morning (it was the only big drinking night we've had this week so i don't feel too bad about it i have to say.)

Next stop is Guatemala, i fly there on Wednesday after a day in Belize City (with a guide i hasten to add, Belize City is not the safest place in the world i'm told) I'm planning on going to Flores to see the Mayan ruins in Tikal and then onto Guatemala City before heading to Antigua where i set up camp with my Guatemalan family in an attempt to learn Spanish. Could be interesting as my extent of the Spanish language is "hello" and "two beers please"....!!! One thing i do know is there'll definitely be a tale or two...!!

So until next time, have fun out there and look forward to updating you soon....

B