diving

To celebrate this Travel Tuesday I am attaching a video I created on my mac for my group of friends (and me) that went on a fabulous trip to Panama in December. See the scenery, the locals and underwater dive shots.

Turn on your sound, enjoy and hopefully be taken away to Panama! Happy Travel Tuesday!

Today’s Travel Tuesday photo takes me back to Belize… Caye Caulker to be exact. Here I happened upon some sort of unofficial cat hangout. Aside from the few cats you see in this shot, there were about 10 more lurking around. I love the one approaching the camera. The cats followed Caye (pronounced ‘key’) Caulker’s slogan of “go slow”. They, and everything else on this island off of mainland Belize-including me, operated on island time (read: slow motion).

Now is the perfect time to go to Caye Caulker as their Lobster Fest begins June 15th and runs through July. Lobster is abundant locally here so the prices are far less than you’d expect to pay.

If you need a place to stay, Amanda’s Place is one to look into. You will feel like you are staying at a friend’s house (a nice friend that is clean and considerate). The rooms are not too crowded nor too spacious and there is a pool just steps from your door.

Caye Caulker is 5 miles long and very pedestrian friendly–especially since there are no cars allowed and can only be reached by water taxi from Belize City or Ambergris Caye. It is situated 1 mile west of the 2nd largest reef in the World: the Belize Barrier Reef. Rent your diving or snorkeling gear at Frenchie’s- or even get certified here to scuba.

The reef is protected as a reserve and therefore is quite clean and full of colorful sea-life. While there, I swam with (and petted) Nurse sharks, friendly turtles and eagle rays.

Here is a pic of me with one of those friendly turtles.

Get there and be prepared to acclimate quick into relaxation mode!

Yes, that is a quote from yours truly when scuba diving in Panama last December– after I surfaced of course. Granted, it was a small fish–but wow–it was aggressive!

Thankfully, fish bites are rare when diving–even in the proximity of sharks believe it or not–and the beauty of what you see while underwater totally makes you forget about those tiny teeth marks in the soft flesh between your thumb and index finger.

Here are some of my favorite pictures that I snapped from recent dives (including the one of the biting fish shortly before the “incident”). Enjoy!!

parrot fish

barracuda!

sand dollar deep under the surface

This is the fish that bit me!

eagle ray

the author and a very cool turtle in Belize.