Raphael Kessler

I spent almost the whole time I was in Belize on the picturesque island of Caye Caulker. Essentially just a long narrow sand bar in the Caribbean the sunsets were often quite beautiful (photo below).

Belize is one of the few places left where one can see manatee in their natural environment. I was lucky to see this one (photo 1) up close and as my mask was on the boat it was possible to hang over the side of the boat with the mask on and see the manatee swimming and grazing underwater. I went snorkeling in a couple of shark-ray alleys. These are areas where the fisherman en route back to Cayes Caulker and Ambergris throw fish guts and other fish waste in to the water. The various fish particularly rays and sharks hang around the area and have become quite relaxed. This meant that we could snorkel up close to them and free dive and swim along with them a bit underwater. There were various types of rays and other fish, but the only sharks we saw were nursing sharks. As can be seen from the photos below the water was crystal clear.

When I went out to dive in the world famous Blue Hole dive site, we spent some of the surface interval on Half Moon Caye which is home to a colony of red chested boobies, called so because they are quite inquisitive making them easy prey. The birds inflate there chests like balloon and look quite bizarre when they do so (photos 1 - 3).