Now because I am saved I believe Jesus is with me everyday when I dive, but today there was an Israeli man who joined our dive group who looks so much like depictions of Jesus that the guys in the dive shop started calling him that right away. But I’ll get to that in a minute.

We woke up to blue skies and almost no wind- perfect day for diving. The air still had a chill. Temperatures in the low to mid 60’s at night is unusually cold for Belize, and every morning we see the locals wrapped up like Mississippians in a snow flurry. We dressed and headed for the dive shop. John stopped at the taco stand for his breakfast burrito before we rode the last block to the dive shop and put our bikes in the “parking lot” behind the shop. We talked to Bert, the dive shop owner, and the Ricardo and Mike for a few minutes and then headed to the dock. The crew made their way to the boat with all the gear and we were set. Diving with us today was a friendly 30-something software engineer from South Carolina who is in Belize traveling alone and a man from Israel who had thickly accented English and brown sun-streaked hair a little past his shoulders worn in a dreadlock like style (but really it was more just matted hair than dreadlocks). He looked to be somewhere in his 30’s but it was hard to tell with his dark, sun weathered skin and scruffy beard. He wore a jacket made of material we would associate with a Mexican blanket along with loose pants and no shoes.

As we left the pier Jesus (his real name was something that began with Al-ba???- Jesus was definitely easier to pronounce for us and he didn’t seem to mind the nickname), anyway, he tried on his wetsuit and was unhappy with the fit. Now to the eyes of everyone onboard it looked to fit perfectly but he insisted he wanted a bigger one and that the captain should turn around and go get one. This was only his first decidedly un-Jesus-like demand. The dive crew was irritated and asked if Jesus just wanted to walk on the water to go back and get it (that was a pretty good one), but it did not break awkward atmosphere that had enveloped the boat. So we docked and Mike ran (literally RAN) quickly back to the shop to get another wetsuit. After he was back onboard Bert wanted him to try it on, which Jesus did not want to do. After a little arguing, Jesus relented and tried it on, saying it was fine with a bit more passive attitude after the disruption he had caused. He explained that he’d had a terrible dive accident in the pasta involving a tight wetsuit. We all looked at each other, no one had ever heard of a wetsuit causing a dive accident, but he didn’t seem to want to explain further so we left it at that and rode in silence.

The water was smooth today and a magnificent turquoise blue color. We approached the
larger island of Ambergris Caye where we would stop to get the air tanks refilled. After the tanks had been replaced we dressed for the first dive. The spot on the reef we would be visiting today was called Esmerelda. Once we were dressed we made our way through the reef (the reef is even closer to the island here) and somehow the captain found the spot he was looking for. They use a navigation system but they also seem to know by sight when they’re at exactly the right spot, but one patch of gorgeous water looks exactly like the next to me.

We descended into deep canyons of coral and the first thing I noticed were the numerous sharks swimming around. They’re all nurse sharks, which are considered by some to be the puppy dogs of the sea, not afraid of humans but not harmful to us either. In this dive spot, the sharks seem to have learned that divers sometimes kill lion fish which they then want to steal and eat so they follow us wherever we go. If we stop to look into an opening in the coral the sharks immediately also try to look into that opening, they appear to be very smart. We saw several large eels, huge lobster, and an enormous variety of brightly colored fish. Our group was even lucky enough to spot cuddle fish (very rare here) and 2 huge majestic spotted eagle rays passing through. What we had trouble spotting was lion fish though. Christian found a small one and speared it. Four sharks immediately surrounded him and ate the lion fish right off the spear. When he found a second lion fish hiding in a crevice, he got his spear ready for a shot. When the sharks saw him do this they tried to bump him aside to get to the lion fish first. Unfortunately their large snouts can’t get deep enough into the crevice to get him, Christian pushed a huge shark out of the way but the lion fish had retreated deeply into the crevice and he was no longer able to see him. All this may sound like a fish story but luckily I got it on video and I can’t wait to go through the videos and pick out the exciting parts. The second dive was similar to the first and each dive lasted nearly an hour, so by the time we were done we were all exhausted but excited by all we’d seen.

We returned to San Pedro on Ambergris Caye for lunch. Jesus was looking for a place to smoke (smoke what we didn’t ask) so he didn’t join us for lunch. The day had turned warm and sunny with almost no wind. We sat at an outside table on a quaint street in town and I had a delicious lunch of freshly caught grilled snapper and Christian had the traditional stew chicken dish (they don’t say stewed like we would- it’s stew chicken). We returned to the boat for the ride over the incredibly calm water back to Caye Caulker. It had been an exciting dive day.

When we returned to the island and stopped by the fruit stand to get several liter bottles of freshly squeezed juices (orange, pineapple and grapefruit) Christian and I decided to rent a kayak with the few hours of remaining daylight we had. John opted out of this particular adventure, so after we returned to our apartment to put our dive things away we hurried back to town.

We rented a clear bottom kayak for an hour and paddled through the split and around the backside of the island. The sun was sinking low in the sky and there are great sunset views from the backside. There’s also a small inlet where the tarpon are giant and are accustomed to being fed so they swam right up to the kayak where we could see them through the clear water. Back around the split and onto the reef side of the island I spotted a large eagle ray jump out of the water and there were also groups of giant shells on the sand below (like the ones we see in Florida gift shops). A large orange sea star we spotted just before returning made the trip complete. We returned to get John for dinner and then Christian and I went to the wine bar for some great live music.

I’m not sure if we can top this perfect day, but we’re gonna have fun trying!