2-19-2004 Thursday
Arrive at long last! Fly in to Ambergris Caye on Maya Island. Had my first Belikin at Jet's bar. Picked up at the dock by Hatcher from Belizean Shores and took the 10min ride North. The azure hues of the shallow water were absolutely breathtaking.

Got checked in, changed and settled. Meet that evening for a buffet dinner at Laguna Grill. Quite a selection, Favorite was conch on a stick. But then if you think about it, any meat on a stick is good for some reason.

Live music was on the agenda that night for Laguna grill. One fellow who is part of Belizean Shores and one of the members of Category X. Quite a selection. A few got up and sang. I almost did when they played Pink Floyd's “Wish you were here”. Graham Primo (sp) or “Primo” as he's called, also part of Belizean Shores did sing along with some Beatles tunes. He's an ex-pat who came to AC via Colorado, great guy. Kept smiling, talking about the weather saying, “you're gonna leave and I'll have to stay here with all this”. Later as we moved over to the bar we played “coaster football” across the bar with some other patrons. Sorry "bout that.

2-20-2004 Friday
Fishing at eight bells with Cap't Bicho. Talked to Hatcher, and he commented on our evening at Laguna Grill. I said “oh you heard about that”. “No I heard you” came the reply. Again, sorry "bout that. Eight of us had decided to venture to water. Bicho showed promptly with his son and Charlie in the other boat, and we were off to net sardines. We ended up on the southernmost tip of AC before we found a school of sufficient size to so us any good. This took about an hour and since I had arranged the trip, was getting uptight about what our other boat might be thinking. But hey, it was again, absolutely beautiful. Once we had our bait.

It was off to the reef. Bicho had to first find a couple of lobster traps in order to know his location, it was amazing, he slowed, circled, his son on the bow. Found the first one. Slowly, circling, “need to find the trap and I'll know where I'm at”, he said. “There!” and we were off to the spot. Who needs GPS?

We dropped anchor and immediately began to catch fish. Small yellow fin and grouper. Bicho asked “where do you want to go now?”. This struck me as funny, as here I was 1500 miles from home and he's asking me? It showed to me that he was/is an excellent host and guide. Always thinking of his visitors/guests, serving attitude, which is not only important for business, but for all of us as well.

We moved outside the reef, big waves. We would drift, move the boat, repeat. Oh let me rephrase that. We would drift, catch triggerfish after triggerfish, move the boat, repeat. We did this for about an hour. Never in my wildest dreams, nor on any fishing outing, have I EVER gotten tired of catching fish.

I got tired of catching fish.

We trolled for Barracuda for a while, no luck, then went to Sharks Bar for lunch, not bad. We finished they day snorkeling at Hol Chan. Neat, but the current was scary (see also Mikell's post). Bicho Jr. found a small conch shell and gave it to my wife. It was 3:00pm and we were done in, so we headed back to Belizean Shores. BTW, when you're on a dock, and it's the least bit windy, HANG ON TO YOUR MONEY! Needless to say we retrieved all the bills and paid Bicho with wet greenbacks.

Cleaned up and ready to party, we headed to town on the water taxi. Went to Fido's and immediately ran in to a boardie, Billb. Great guy. Come to think of it, I ran in to him and his pal Frank quite a few time at Fido's. I went for a walk and found Coconets. Went in to price pic xfers. Keep in mind the sign said OPEN.

Peter was there, feet up on the counter, Belikin at the ready, chatting with the new girl. Introduced myself, and asked the cost, the reply was, “$10.00 USD, disk supplied, but we're closed. Shared a laugh. Back to Fido's, found my wife being chatted up by AC's worst comic. She nearly slugged me. Later she had better conversation with Peter and Billb. Went to Jaguars Temple, exactly what I thought it'd be like. Back to Belizean Shores on the water taxi. Had a really great conversation with a young Rastafarian who was supervising new construction just South of Belizean Shores.

Who knows what tomorrow brings....