The morning was cool but bright. Belize has seen an unusual number of cool days so far this month but we weren’t gonna let that stop us. We put on long sleeves and headed for the dive shop. Bert, Zach, and Mike were all there getting ready for the day. We waited on the dock and Susan and I used the time wisely, we talked and talked.

We were finally ready to go (on Belize time of course) and we headed out to our spot for the day. Today’s dive was about an hour away and we passed several small, beautiful islands (called cayes here) on the way. When we arrived we stopped inside the reef to prepare for the dive. Our divemaster today was Bert, the owner of the shop. We were looking for Lion Fish again today, and John, Susan, Christian, and I were joined by John’s friend Lincoln and Jane (visiting from England). Once we were ready, the boat made its way carefully over, around, and through the reef. Waves breaking on the reef can be huge and it takes a skilled captain to maneuver from one side of the reef to the other. We reached the other side and started rolling in two by two. Bert, John, Lincoln and Christian all had spears and Susan and I were the spotters and videographers (Jane was along for the ride to watch and to see the marine life and coral). By the time Christian and I descended Lincoln had his first Lion Fish! This was going to be a good dive. We saw more Lion Fish than I had ever seen in one location. The guys were having a ball. It was a good thing Bert had brought the zookeeper, which is like a large tube of PVC pipe to store the lion fish in a way that the poisonous spines won’t touch anyone. Along with the lion fish we saw turtles, lobster, eels and even a few types of colorful fish I can’t remember seeing before. What we did not see was sharks, except one sleeping in an indention in the coral.

The first dive yielded around 12 fish and after the dive Mike promptly began to clean and filet them for ceviche. (After least after he cut up the fresh fruit for us to snack on). I don’t usually love ceviche, especially with raw fish, but this is honestly some of the best stuff I’ve ever had. Of course, unlike ceviche in a restaurant this is made up of about 90% fish and the lime, tomatoes, peppers, and spices only make it better. Lion Fish turns out to be a very mild white fish. Even raw I couldn’t taste any hint of the fishy flavor of stronger fish.

After a long surface interval we were ready for the second dive. We repeated the process and were soon underwater in a slightly different location. This dive turned out to be even more thrilling than the first. There were Lion Fish everywhere, so many that Bert even had to use the extension on the zookeeper. Bert fed a few lion fish to eels and even woke the sleeping shark to feed him one. The local divers are trying to get the eels and sharks to hunt the Lion Fish themselves in order to reduce the population, which has worked well so far in areas frequently hunted (and that’s why the sharks took our fish the other day). Christian found one fish in a small hiding place under a rock that a sea turtle was also using. When he shot the fish the turtle didn’t waste any time getting out of there. It’s amazing how fast seemingly docile marine animals can be when they want to.

By the time we came up from the second dive we were all excited about all we’d seen. Even Bert was excited about having been able to feed the eels, and he’s done thousands of dives here. We all talked over each in our excitement and the chatter didn’t die down for quite a while and probably only because it’s hard to talk over the wind with the boat moving rapidly back toward Caye Caulker.

On our return to the dock, we couldn’t miss a chance to get a picture with our catch (even Susan and I got in on the fun as the official spotters). Bert cut the poisonous spines off the fish and we took some home for dinner. Lincoln offered to go the fishing boats on the west side to get some fresh lobster and Susan and I planned the side dishes. When we returned home the guys cleaned and filleted the fish. Carol, who rents a cottage on the property, brought fresh baked bread from the Italian restaurant and we had a feast. More importantly than the food, we had so much fun laughing and talking for hours. It really was the perfect end to a perfect day.

But I think I say that everyday here….