Hello all, Charles here. Sorry for the lack of blog activity on my part. I wrote one a couple of days ago and lost it right before posting! Here goes…
The field work ended a couple of weeks ago due to the rainy season finally arriving. I was really lucky that it held off this long. The resulted in the Challilo dam spilling over and quite a lot of flooding. I was not even able to access the Chiquibul Forest due to the main bridge being underwater. The real problem then became road conditions back in the Chiquibul; just a sloppy mess. We could not even come close to reaching the interior rivers…bummer. However, I think I have a decent handle on the logistics for next year. Check out the photo above of the Guacamallo Bridge to the Chiquibul; the water was still spilling onto the bridge when we crossed to pick up the kayaks.
The rest of our time in Belize was spent finishing up Kristi’s project and packing up to head back home. I was finally able to get to the coast! We visited Hopkins, Seine Bight and Placencia before heading out to Caye Caulker for a nice weekend. In Hopkins, Ernie and I fell into deep discussions with the locals about the properties of bitters from the various areas and even local establishments. Various herbs, mainly contribo and anise, are soaked in rum and usually drank straight or with ice. However, in Hopkins one place mixes it with fresh coconut water….mmmm. A little dangerous though.
After Hopkins, Ernesto dropped us off in Belize City and we headed out to Caye Caulker for a bit of relaxation and diving. I’m glad we chose to dive on Saturday because a tropical wave moved in bringing rain the rest of the weekend. Our dive trip took us out to Lighthouse Reef Atoll, the farthest reef in Belize, approximately 71 miles out from Caye Caulker (a 2 hour boat ride). What a ride, passing Turneffe atoll and heading out further. Flying fish, frigate birds…
At lighthouse atoll we had three dives Blue Hole, Halfmoon Caye Wall (with a lunch stop on Halfmoon Caye), and The Aquarium. The Blue Hole dive was an eerie experience, descending 130 of the 410 feet needed to reach the bottom of this collapsed cavern. As we dropped into the hole, a number of psychological stresses alarmed our survival instincts. First, we were descending into a dark hole, crossing a sediment inversion reducing visibility. In addition, the temperature began to drop. And worst of all, the pressure at that depth compresses the oxygen molecules in the air tank, making it much more difficult to breathe and causing us to gasp for air. This all lasted for about fifteen or twenty long seconds. Our breathing relaxed and we passed below the inversion and visibility increased revealing massive stalactites and columns along the edge of the 1000 foot wide chasm. The silence and seemingly endless darkness below us was both eerie and
peaceful…strange. Our eight minute time limit at that depth was over quickly and we needed to begin our ascension, lest we get a little nitrogen narcosis. Near the top we had nice looks at a nurse shark and reef sharks…cool! The next two dives were relaxing wall dives. 
Lunch on Halfmoon was topped off with visiting an observation deck in the middle of a large breeding colony of Red-footed Boobies (no lame jokes please!) and Magnificent Frigatebirds. When walking up to the deck, you definitely didn't want to have your mouth open while looking up. Watch out for guano! We had an excellent look at the largest sea turtle I had personally seen. It passed us and gracefully moved on, gliding over the sandy bottom between reef patches.
We headed back to San Ignacio on Monday, taking water taxi and riding two buses for about 3 hours before arriving home. It was time to pull everything out and sort what was staying and what was going…whew. We had our final farewells with our friends and family (the Garcia's above; clockwise from upper left: Selena and Nicole, Erin and Zahir, and Ernesto and Elenita) left yesterday to begin our trip back to the states. I can’t wait to go back up into the highlands of Guatemala and into Mexico. We’re going to head through the Sierra Madre de Chiapas and back down to the Pacific coast for a while and then through the Sierra Madre Occidentals before heading up the Chihuahuan Desert and back into New Mexico. Should be fun and scenic. Wish us luck!
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