Don't Stop Belizing: Snorkeling!

Fresh coconut!

Saturday was our first excursion and it consisted of hanging out on a boat all day, visiting Caye Caulker, and snorkeling shark and ray alley. It was my first experience snorkeling and I was soooo excited! We woke up early and got breakfast as a group and then headed off to the dock to wait for the boat, Seaduced, to come pick us up. The boat was a large catamaran with bean bags and a trampoline to lay on! Our guides for the day were super friendly and provided us with free drinks, homemade chips and salsa, and fresh fruit. We took about a 45 minute trip to our first dive area and then all got prepared to snorkel. This area was by far my favorite since I got to see numerous sea turtles!!!! All of us have been so curious about the reef since it is a huge part of the tourism here so we were really excited to be snorkeling at the reef. Unfortunately I could not get my underwater camera to work until after the snorkeling was almost done. One of the guides helped me fixed it and even took me back to see a turtle so I could take pictures with it! This turtle had a part of his arm missing, because apparently when he was a baby he was bitten by a shark. Some of the fish we saw were butterfly fish, needlenose fish and hawk fish. Our guide also went down into the water and pulled out an eel which was tucked away in the reef. It was really neat to see our guide interact and touch the fish and other animals around us. Our next stop was at shark and ray alley. As we arrived, the guides threw chum in the water to attract all of the sharks and rays and we dove in with them! It was extremely scary but really neat at the same time. I saw more rays than nurse sharks and some of us even got to pet them.
After our snorkeling adventures we took the boat over to another island called Caye Caulker. This island was what I imagine San Pedro looked like about 10 years ago. There was a lot less traffic and seemed to have more locals. We found this really cute little art store which sold awesome little prints for a really good price. I got some really beautiful prints of things that have stood out to me so far on my trip here. One of them is an underwater seen with a huge sea turtle in it to remind me of my snorkeling adventures. Another is of a school bus with a bunch of Belizean children running around which made me think of my times here in the high school so far. The last one was a picture of the shoreline and a little village which really sums up my view of San Pedro. It is gorgeous with bold colors with a laid back feel. We spent a total of two hours on the island just exploring and getting lunch. The ride back to San Pedro on the boat was a long one and many of us fell asleep.
We arrived back to San Pedro around 5 p.m. and had to hurry to get ready to go to the Miss Isla Bonita pageant. It is a pageant that the primary school here holds each year to raise money. The winner of the pageant receives free tuition for a year at the primary school. Many of the schools here are private but you must pay for school even in the public schools. Many of the students have to pay for uniforms, textbooks and even sometimes their desks. This pageant was really exciting and upbeat. The little girls seemed so happy to be participating and I could tell that a lot of time was put into planning the event. Each of the prospective Queens had a tent at the event so if you wanted to vote for them, you had to purchase food or some other prize in order to cast your vote. At the end of each hour, they would turn in their money and the totals for each contestant would be calculated. After 3 hours at this event and a long day on the boat, we were all exhausted and headed home for bed.