Belize - Day 6: Sharks!

Today is our only excursion day for the island portion of our vacation -- we booked a 1pm snorkeling tour to see the Belizean reef and then a 6:30 Captain's Table dinner at our resort. But since everything was an afternoon event, the morning was spent lounging around. 

The snorkeling tour was with one other family -- foursome traveling from Switzerland, the two daughters were 23 and 26 though, but they seem to have an annual summer 3 week vacation tradition -- I could get behind that! We spent a good bit of the boat ride discussing their favorite travel locations, particularly for the "kids" -- top answers: Africa for the animals, Egypt nile cruise, and Iceland. 

The water in Belize is mostly notable for how ridiculously warm it is. Like it's almost TOO hot when you're wearing rashguards. The marine life at Hol Chan was as impressive as expected -- we saw turtles, sting rays, lots of barracuda, several sharks, and a high number of bigger fish schools. We had a guide with us which was nice because he would point out things that we might otherwise miss. He was an amazing free diver -- he could hold his breath and dive 10+ feet down going through caves and such. At one point he even went into a cave that was long enough that I actually had a couple moments of panic on what we would do if he didn't make it back up before he ran out of breath! The water visibility was pretty good -- I would say farther than Hawaii actually, which is notable because there was actually a good bit of sand swirling around. 

After the first Hol Chan stop, we headed to "Shark Alley" which seems entirely human-created. The number of boats parked in that area chumming for the sharks was considerable. Yet, even with the undeniably tourist-showiness, I have to admit it was still pretty cool to swim in such close quarters with some LARGE sharks. I could really see them up close -- to me, biggest realization was that Disney's Nemo sharks are actually a pretty accurate depiction of how they look! 😆 

I realized only after we pulled away that we should have taken some photos, even if from the boat so you could see the size of the sharks, but alas. Here's a photo of me thoroughly enjoying the post snorkel double chocolate cookies though!

We got back around 4, which gave us some time before dinner -- perfect for pool lounging. I used to like the Chan Chich pool better but today realized that by afternoon, our pool actually gets pretty good shade and it has these cool in water loungers! Reminded me of the lounge beds at the hot springs in Costa Rica, but the water/air here is nicer and interesting birds fly overhead more. 

Dinner tonight was a 6 course tasting carefully constructed to take us through the history of Belize, highlighting dishes from different ethnic groups/cultures. I won't do a good job remembering all of the descriptions given, but because we took a very small number of photos today, you're getting shots of all the food!

This was the second dish -- it's a chicken tamale again! Obviously no bones in this one, but actually pretty similar in taste and texture to the one we got at the roadside stand when we first landed in Belize.

This was my favorite dish of the evening -- stone crab and shrimp and fried plantains in a really tasty chive and cream soup. Maybe it's the fact that it has crab? Or that it was the first dish? But it was the one I enjoyed the most.

This was actually the last main dish: BBQ pork ribs. Very tender, easily fell off the bones, kind of an asian-influenced sweet/sour sauce. 

I think the fourth dish? A freshly caught ceviche dish with yucca chips and a sweet potato mash. Having now tried shrimp, beef, and fish ceviche here in Belize, I have decided I don't dislike ceviche, but also hard for me to get super excited about any ceviche dish. I liked the yucca chips more here.

I think this was the third dish -- a piece of battered fried fish on top and a rice croquette on the bottom. It was tasty, but not the most memorable for me. 

And to top it all off at the end -- a fruit (I think pineapple and key lime?) paleta (traditional Belizean popsicle dessert) coated in white chocolate. Because of the tartness of the lime, not my favorite dessert -- but glad I can now say I've tried a paleta.

Yes, those are leftover bug bites from the jungle on Ian's hand! 

And this ends our first full island day. I'm looking forward to exploring the city of San Pedro tomorrow! Shopping! (Ian is SO excited...).