We had “the day off” today from diving. We knew the forecast was for rain so we dove yesterday to “practice ” for tomorrow’s Lionfish Derby. We slept in and had a late breakfast with John and Susan at home. They call their beautiful home here ‘Sandcastle’. The name fits the architecture of the house with its tall, narrow towering main structure and the deck off the main flour with a twisted wood railing and fishing net to fit the island environment. Large, wide winding steps lead from the deck to the tiled area leading in one direction to the pool and in the other direction to our apartment. There is not another home on the island this uniquely beautiful, and the soft greens and browns they’ve chosen blend perfectly with the lush greenery of the landscape. I can’t imagine staying in a more lovely spot, especially when we also have wonderful hosts.

We took some time to ride around town on our bikes as we do everyday. I’m beginning to think more about the fact that we only have a few days left of this since golf carts are the preferred mode of transportation on the bigger island of Ambergris Caye. I love coming here and riding a bike everyday in a town that is friendly to both bikes and pedestrian traffic. With no hills here, the bikes are old style with no gears and high handlebars so that I don’t have to lean over and bear too much weight on my left arm.

In the afternoon John and Christian went to the village council for the meeting concerning the Lionfish Derby tomorrow. There are an unusually large number of rules for Belize, and they want to make sure we are compliant. They also learned a lot about lion fish, some we knew and some we didn’t. But the most important fact is still that they are invasive and harmful to the reef with no natural predators. They are efficient killers of small fish and multiply at an unbelievable rate. So events like this are held to raise awareness and try to get more people interested in hunting Lionfish (which has certainly worked for us).

All that was left to do was to prepare for the next day’s dives. We would leave at 6:30 in the morning so packing up our dive stuff the night before was helpful. Can’t wait till the Derby tomorrow!