January, 2015 | Erle Williams

Fishing in Belize

Posted on January 30, 2015 by Erle Williams-Postmaster Posted in Scuba Diving, Vacation Leave a comment

Another awesome day in Belize! Today we went out fishing with “Ash” (Shadrack Ash – co-owner of French Angel Expedition), his wife’s uncle Lahji Rosado Sr., Lahji rosado Jr. and his buddy Ezekiel Salam. On our way out we say a baby dolphin so we were hoping luck would be on our side. We started out spin-casting and Ezekiel was the first to bring in a fish which turned out to be the largest fish for the day. We fished in 4 – 5 different areas for spin casting where we caught a lot of snapper (Red, yellow fin and silk), grunts and more. We trolled for barracuda for a while but only a few nibbles. The spin casting was lots of fun with plenty of hits and action. We fed a couple small ones to the frigate birds. The first frigate bird was able to catch the fish out of mid air – very cool! There were a few seagulls hanging around from time to time also and unfortunately I caught one that I pulled into the boat so we could get the hook out of his tongue – stupid seagull! Definitely the first time I caught a seagull on a fishing rod!

Next on the agenda was lobster fishing! Definitely an adventure unto itself! We went to Ash’s licensed area where they have a lobster shade set up.

The lobster shades are large pieces of corrugated steel (which is frequently used for roofing) propped up with conch shells and larger posts fastened to the top. This structure creates a shaded area where the lobsters will gather as they prefer darker caves and holes. The fishermen then lift the shade and catch the lobsters.

Lobster shade up close. They use a fiberglass rod with a barbed hook on the end to snag the lobster in the abdomen between the tail and main body (hopefully). The lobster will then fold up making it easier to move them to the boat.

Lahji Sr. ready to enter the water while his son Lahji Jr. gets ready to drop anchor.

Lahji Sr, checking the lobster shade to ensure there are adequate size lobster before the rest of us get in the water.

Ezekiel Salam waiting patiently to get in the water.

Lahji Jr. and Ezekiel watch patiently for their turn to catch a lobster.

Ezekiel brings in a lobster

Ezekiel has another one!

Lahji Sr. tosses another one into the boat!

Our catch for the day!! What an awesome day fishing! We were fortunate enough to come home with a lot of fish and lobster!
Unbelizeable!!!
You better Belize it!!

Caye Caulker near the split

Posted on January 29, 2015 by Erle Williams-Postmaster Posted in Scuba Diving, Vacation Leave a comment

The split is a waterway that divides Caye Caulker in two. The Caye Caulker wiki explains that some claim that the Split was formed by hurricane Hattie in 1961 but in fact the Split was largely hand dredged after hurricane Hattie opened a passage a few inches deep. It is now twenty feed deep and has a dock/platform on the north and east side of the southern part of Caye Caulker for people to enjoy.

Approaching the split we spoke to local and asked what language the locals speak. Although English is well spoken by everyone on the island, we found the native language is Belizean Creole. Some describe it as Spanglish as it contains a lot of Spanish.

The lazy lizard on the edge of the split. Their t-shirt states its ‘A sunny place for shady people’

Behind the lazy lizard looking West.

Interesting boat parked at the split.

Hanging at the split

Even the pelicans like to hang out at the split

Fishing at the split

Western side across the split

Having a nap but still on guard protecting his beer coaster. Ah Belikin!

Along the streets of Caye Caulker a lots of small shops with interesting signs and colours!

Local Pop, Water and Beer delivery service.

Hol Chan (Narrow Channel) Dive

Posted on January 29, 2015 by Erle Williams-Postmaster Posted in Scuba Diving, Uncategorized, Vacation Leave a comment

We picked up our dive gear at French Angel Expedition where three other divers would join us, 1 from Poland, 1 from Seattle Washington and 1 from Michigan. The two guys from the United States were on their certification dive. They are very fortunate to get certified in such at such a great destination.

Getting our scuba gear on and ready to back roll off the side of the boat! Our boat captain Oliver (aka Jack sparrow) moves over for the shot.

First lion fish we’ve seen here and it’s a small one hiding for good reason. The locals are aggressively trying to keep this evasive species under control.

This large Grouper was hiding on top of a coral head. I purposely got too close to get him in the open.

Large barrel sponge. Not too many critters to be found inside these yet. It’s usually a good spot to find spider crabs and small shrimps.

Close to the end of the dive we swam through this cave with the crab guarding the passage. As we entered I was behind our dive master who went in first. Just as I was starting to enter a nurse shark got in front of me and then plopped itself on the bottom. I waited for the shark to move on but it didn’t want to move and there was not enough room in the cave to go above him. Hmm, what should I do? There are divers behind me and by now the dive master is probably starting to wonder where we are so I gently slapped the sharks tail to get him moving. At this point the shark decided he didn’t want to join us for the swim through and turned around so I backed out of his way and let him get out. Okay, that adventure is over now let’s carry on into the cave where the crab above was guarding the passage. As we swam over him he stretched out his claws and tried to pinch us, there was barely enough room above him to get by without getting pinched!! Very cool to see him in this environment!

Before this dive we asked about nudibranchs and flamingo tongues specifically as we saw plenty of coral that we know they like to be on. Our dive master said flamingo tongues and nudibranch’s were quite rare in the area. We found one! This picture is slightly out of focus but had to post it as they are so rare in the area.

It rained a little this morning but the sun is shining now! Time to get some local shopping in and take a few pictures of Caye Caulker!

Esmeralda Dive Site

Posted on January 27, 2015 by Erle Williams-Postmaster Posted in Scuba Diving, Vacation Leave a comment

We went on two great dives yesterday with Frenchies Diving. There were a total of four divers; Pat and I and a younger couple from Kelowna – go figure! Esmeralda’s dive site is about a 25 minute boat ride that took us just outside San Pedro Town on Ambergis Caye, Belize. We had a small pod of dolphins beside our boat just as we were starting our first dive. Unfortunately, they did not stay around to play but awesome to see them nonetheless. It was partly cloudy out so I didn’t get great shots but here are a few:

Nice lobster hiding in a crack on the way down. Pretty cool dive as the coral has formed canyons so our descent was similar to a wall dive.

Coral head

Nurse sharks. Quite a number of Nurse sharks followed us for parts of our dive. This dive site was close to another named Shark Alley where they chum to attract the sharks so I suspect these guys were expecting some free handouts.

Old crab crawling around the cracks in the rocks and coral.

Another Nurse shark that swam around near me. Not the greatest shot but I’m having to get re-acquainted with the camera again!

Cool coral formation with schools of fish hiding in and around the coral.

We saw three turtles on our two dives. This one came the closest and was swimming by. We saw another one that was feeding; very cool to watch them eat using their front fins like hands.

Moving Day and Friday Jammin!

Posted on January 24, 2015 by Erle Williams-Postmaster Posted in Scuba Diving, Vacation 3 Comments

Our landlords neighbors decided to start construction of their cabana and swimming pool early. Our landlords were promised the construction would not start until March. Well, they decided to start early and on top of that they figured starting at 7:00 AM would be even better. Not a good idea during the peak tourism season. Our landlord came over and offered us an upgrade to Canuck Enuff because of the disruptions. Canuck Enuff a beautiful home a few steps from the ocean. Wow! What a difference. We spend Thursday morning moving over and explored more of Caye Caulker to the North. Here are a few pictures of the new place.