It was a beautiful late June day when we landed in Belize in Central America. We descended the stairs out from the airplane onto the tarmac. Heat waves were dancing above the asphalt, creating mirages of puddles in the distance. We went inside the airport for a short wait before we transferred to an incredibly small puddle jumper to head for Ambergris Caye. We were in the airport long enough for a Belizian to cheerfully acost us, physically directing us to the airport exit where, "the hotel taxi would take us to a beautiful destination."
"Sorry, bub," someone replied and we wriggled away towards a sign a grizzled pilot was holding aloft that read, "Ambergris Caye." Ambergris Caye is one of a series of small islands referred to as "Cayes" (think Florida "Keys"). We clambered inside the aircraft and buckled flimsy seat belts. I wasn't feeling real secure when one side of the belt popped off from it's attachment to the seat. Our dive master, Jerry, helped me pop it back on the attachment. The five of us from Houston were crammed inside. Then the plane's propellers coughed to a start and the tiny plane lurched forward.
"Ah, this is the life," our dive master, Jerry said. "Check it out, we're so low you can see what the people are carrying in their hands. Look at the fish that guy just caught! Wow!"
“Travel is glamorous only in retrospect.”
Paul Theroux
Okay, I'm not a big fan of heights but I managed to gulp and peer out the tiny window. Sure enough, you could see two men in a fishing boat. One had just reeled in a huge fish, I'm not sure what it was but it was big enough that he was lucky to be able to reel it in. We saw another boat where a couple fishermen were tossing a net overboard. Best part was the water was so beautiful and clear. I couldn't wait to jump into the water and go diving -- especially with the incredible clarity of that water!
Shortly, we landed at Ambergris Caye and disembarked. There were few vehicles on the island, mainly bicycles and a few golf carts. We gathered our belongings and began to hike along the one major road in San Pedro along the outskirts to our tiny hotel. The building was a cheerful pink and aqua blue, and looked every bit the exotic island home away from home along the shoreline.
Later that evening after we had settled in, we hiked into San Pedro and walked out onto the dock where the dive company was located. Just off the dock in the crystal blue water swam a large sea turtle and occasionally a manta ray would glide by as a variety of fish swam by, some in small schools. The sandy bottom was littered with starfish and conch shells (most still with the conch living inside). The dive team had a grill set-up and told us they had prepared "grilled chicken" and fried conch. All the while Jerry kept whispering mysteriously to his best buddy and chuckling as the rest of us helped ourselves to the cook-out. There were sides of beans, rice and delicious exotic fruit. After everyone had eaten we were informed that we hadn't eaten grilled chicken, it was iguana. Oh well, if that was the truth, all I can say is that it tasted just like chicken and was good.
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