Jasmine's 2011 Trip: Swallow Caye, Goff's Caye, and Caye Cualker

I was picked up on the Belize Yacht Club pier by a speedboat heading south to Swallow Caye Wildlife Sanctuary. About 40 minutes into the trip we encountered another boat that reported there were manatee nearby. We got off the boat with our snorkel gear on and swam over and watched three West Indian Manatees munching on sea grass. Occasionally they would glide up to the ocean's surface to breathe. They even "kissed" once or twice. They were magnificent. We made sure to keep a distance so as to not spook them off. I brought a disposable waterproof camera with me, but probably won't be able to post them until I get back home.
Afterwards we headed to Goff's Caye. The tiny island used to be a popular day trip for tourists from cruise ships until about five years ago...because it is a great spot to see the reef that surrounds the area. The problem was, with up to seven hundred tourists arriving a day, the reef was damaged extensively, so park authorities stopped allowing the cruise ship tourists entry to the Caye. Today you can only visit via the local tour companies.
Once at Goff's Caye, the guides started preparing food, while the rest of us relaxed on the beach or snorkeled. After a while some of the guides joined us and we swam further out. I can't remember the names of all the fish and plants that they pointed out, but I clearly remember a huge barracuda. And lots of conch, all over the ocean floor. A little after we ate, headed north of Goff's Caye to visit an aquarium.
I think we were to visit a building on another island. The aquarium was actually a stretch of ocean that is known to have large quantities of stingrays and nurse sharks. On the way, we ran into two fishermen, and traded them two cold beers and bottles of water for a small bucket of fish. Once we arrived at the aquarium, the guides began to feed the sharks and stingrays. We got into the water and swam around them, touched them. Stingrays are smooth and slippery whereas the sharks felt like rough sandpaper. One of the guides would catch a stingray and let us hold her, and as long as we were feeding her she seemed ok with it. The shark not so much so.
Next, we headed to Caye Cualker, Amberis Caye's sister island. Caye Cualker is similar to what San Pedro was 20 years ago before all of the recent development. So quiet locals like to say it is a drinking village with a fishing problem! We just walked around town, (there's only two streets), looked at gift shops (not as expensive as San Pedro), and met at a bar at the north end of the southern portion of the island (Caye Cualker was divided into two islands back in the 60's by a hurricane, the northern island is privately owned).
We were back on San Pedro by 5:30. Although I was a little toasty by the end of the day, waterproof sunscreen seems to only work so well out here, it was a fantastic trip.

Stingray by the dock, while I was waiting to get picked up.

Distant showers

Eventually everything cleared up, at Swallow Caye Wildlife Reserve, the darker spots are sea grass.

Heading towards the manatees, I'll post the underwater pics later.

Goff's Caye

I also took a lot of pics of the reef at this point, I'll post them later as well.

Lunch. The guides at Sea-rious Adventures really went all out.

Rum punch time!

Can you spot the dolphins in the distance? They followed us but never came too close. This is also getting closer to the aquarium - I'll post the shark and stingray pics later.